Hand #47: Michael Dyer raised it up to 1,600,000 in the cutoff and John Cynn called in the small blind. Lynskey moved all in for 11,525,000 out of the big blind and Dyer asked for a count. Dyer folded, Cynn gave it some thought and called.
Alex Lynskey:
John Cynn:
Lynskey's rail started shouting for a six and the flop came to give Cynn a gutshot along with his two over cards. The shouting continued to the turn, giving Cynn even more outs to deal the final blow to Lynskey.
With one card to come, the rails went silent for just a moment, and the river sent Lynskey to the rail in seventh place for $1,500,000. Lynskey didn't win a single hand on the day, however, the seven-figure payday will surely ease the pain.
The action for the day will continue until the end of the current level or the next elimination takes place, whichever of the two comes first.
Hand #37: Artem Metalidi shoved all in for 6,225,000 in early position and the action folded around to Aram Zobian who re-shipped all in from the small blind. Michael Dyer folded his big blind and the cards went on their backs.
Artem Metalidi:
Aram Zobian:
The flop came giving Metalidi a set of fives and Zobian a flush draw. The turn brought the and Metalidi would need to dodge a diamond to stay alive. The river was the and Zobian made his flush to eliminate Metalidi in eighth place.
Hand #16: Antoine Labat raised it up to 1,200,000 on the button and Artem Metalidi shoved all in for 10,300,000 in the small blind. Labat quickly called for his remaining 6,450,000 and the cards were tabled.
Artem Metalidi:
Antoine Labat:
The flop came and Metalidi took the lead with a set of queens. The turn was the and Labat was left drawing to one of two remaining kings in the deck. The river was the and Metalidi improved to a full house to eliminate Labat in ninth place.
The 2018 World Series of Poker Main Event is ready for the final table! After seven full days of playing, only nine players from the second-largest field of 7,874 are left standing. Each of them can already call themselves a millionaire, as the 9th place is already worth $1,000,000. There will be no days off for the final nine; they'll all return to the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino at 5:30 p.m. to continue their quest for the most coveted WSOP Gold bracelet, as well as the life-changing first place prize of $8,800,000.
The nine remaining players return to action today at 5:30 p.m. local time to commence the final table. When play gets under way, the clock will have 1 hour, 23 minutes and 57 seconds left in Level 36, with blinds at 300,000/600,000 and a running ante of 100,000. Play is scheduled to continue until six players remain, with Friday reserved for playing down from six to three. On Saturday, the three remaining players will play down to the eventual champion.
There is 1:23:57 remaining in Level 36 (300,000/600,000, with a 100,000-ante).
2018 WSOP Main Event Final Table Payout
Position
Prize
1
$8,800,000
2
$5,000,000
3
$3,750,000
4
$2,825,000
5
$2,150,000
6
$1,800,000
7
$1,500,000
8
$1,250,000
9
$1,000,000
Player
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5
Day 6
Day 7
Artem Metalidi
102,700
119,700
66,000
1,518,000
6,525,000
30,845,000
15,475,000
John Cynn
133,000
138,900
709,000
1,931,000
5,155,000
14,750,000
37,075,000
Alex Lynskey
67,100
270,500
211,000
1,635,000
3,655,000
22,045,000
25,925,000
Tony Miles
72,800
123,800
790,000
2,358,000
5,600,000
14,945,000
42,750,000
Nicolas Manion
11,500
66,800
-
1,051,000
1,395,000
17,630,000
112,775,000
Aram Zobian
171,000
436,800
770,000
2,464,000
5,450,000
41,585,000
18,875,000
Michael Dyer
74,600
502,400
693,000
1,767,000
12,180,000
26,515,000
109,175,000
Joe Cada
16,500
93,800
211,000
559,000
2,965,000
8,850,000
23,675,000
Antoine Labat
168,500
218,000
185,000
1,359,000
2,015,000
28,445,000
8,050,000
* End-of-day chip counts as reported by official WSOP list ** Nicolas Manion's Day 3 count was not reported on the official list
How to follow the action
PokerNews will be your one-stop shop for hand-for-hand coverage of the final table, so stick glued to your screen to not miss any of the action. We'll bring details of all the hands, live and without delay as play unfolds.
ESPN will bring you live coverage of all three days of the final table. The live World Series of Poker broadcast will begin on Thursday, July 12 at 6 p.m. ET. Hole cards will be shown and action will be broadcasted with a 30-minute security delay.
PokerGO live streaming is available in non-ESPN or non-ESPN affiliate regions.
Artem Metalidi has become the second player from the Ukraine to reach the final table of the World Series of Poker Main Event, following in the footsteps of Anton Makiievskyi, who finished in eighth in 2011 for $1,010,015.
Metalidi started playing poker around 2011 when he found a poker strategy forum where they gave away $50 for players to get started. He used that to spin it up playing cash and tournaments. Now, he already has more than $2.1 million in career earnings, not including the $1 million he has locked up in the Main Event. What is even more remarkable about the deep run of Metalidi, is the fact that he started Day 3 with just 11 big blinds (66,000) and cruised from there all the way to the final table.
“It's been a new experience for me, I am not really intimidated and just play this like any other tournament,” he said after making the 2018 WSOP final table. “I don't like to think about the payouts and stuff, and just try my best.”
With plenty of deep runs in other events, Metalidi was well-prepared for the things to come. However, his WSOP final table run in Las Vegas still stands out on his poker resume.
“It is special because it is such a big field and it is so tough to get through, and I actually never made it past Day 2 in the previous years,” he revealed. “This year I realized how fantastic this tournament really is because there are so many good spots where you can gain chips and don't have to risk too much.”
Metalidi, who was a part of Team Ukraine in the 2015 Global Poker Masters, started Day 7 second in chips but it wasn't exactly a smooth run to the final nine as he suffered early setbacks and even dropped to the bottom of the counts when eighteen players remained.
“It was not really difficult,” he said. “It was disappointing to lose a lot of chips early and get stuck with a medium stack on the bubble of the final table, so I had to play kind of passively and tried to get through some pay jumps.”
He continued: “I came in with a really good stack and I had big expectations, but I lost some pots along the way and was kind of getting a bit short, but knowing how this tournament plays, it’s still a really good stack. People have been busting pretty quick so... let the fun begin!”
Before his deep run, Metalidi had $2,131,437 in live tournament earnings, which put him seventh on Ukraine’s all-time money list. With a win, he would surpass Eugene Katchalov atop his country’s all-time money list. With $1 million locked up, Metalidi has nearly tripled his best prior cash of $350,806 for finishing second in the 2012 WSOP Event #23: $3,000 NLHE 6-Handed.
HOW HE GOT HERE
Day
End-of-Day Chip Count
Rank
1b
102,700
298/1,794
2ab
119,700
603/1,131
3
66,000
1,073/1,182
4
1,518,000
100/310
5
6,525,000
10/109
6
30,845,000
2/26
7
15,475,000
8/9
KEY HAND
One hand that helped get Metalidi to the final table, was knocking out Omaha’s Ryan Phan in 11th place.
It happened when Metalidi limped with jacks from the hijack and Phan moved all in for his last twelve bigs on the button. Both blinds folded and Metalidi called. The jacks held and Metalidi chipped up to 21.4 million, which was enough to get him in the top nine.
On Day 6, Metalidi chipped up when got kings against ace-king, which put him on the right track.
“After that, I was unstoppable. Everything was going my way," he said. “I played a lot of tournaments to prepare for the Main. I wanted to test some strategies and test some things I was not confident in, so I tried to grind a lot. That was my preparation."
WHAT TO WATCH FOR
Metalidi enters the final table as the second shortest stack with 26 big blinds. The good news is that it’s twice as much as the short-stacked Antoine Labat, on whom he has position.
His stack could also do some damage to the two players on his immediate left – John Cynn and Alex Lynskey.
While John Cynn might not have the distinction of final tabling the WSOP Main Event twice, he has pulled off an amazing feat in poker by finishing in 11th in 2016 and bettering that finish with a final table appearance just two years later.
Cynn’s 2016 Main Event run fell short when his stack dwindled to under ten big blinds and he got it in with queen-ten, running into (eventual runner-up) Gordon Vayo's ace-king in the big blind and failing to catch up.
That bittersweet run earned Cynn $650,000 — his previous best score being just under $20,000 for a 59th-place finish in the 2015 Millionaire Maker.
In the two years since his 2016 Main Event run, Cynn has added $200,000 in tournament winnings to his credit and he shared with PokerNews during a break that he’s happy to be back under the lights of the Thunderdome. His experience this time around has been a bit different, having been here before.
“I’m definitely more comfortable than before, which is nice. It could be either because it’s my second time, or because I have a bigger stack.
“Both experiences were incredible, but [I'm] definitely having a lot of fun this time.”
Cynn’s Main Event trajectory has seen him chip up substantially on every day of the tournament besides a stagnant Day 2, as you can see below.
HOW HE GOT HERE
Day
End-of-Day Chip Count
Rank
1c
133,000
215/3,480
2c
138,900
700/1,655
3
709,000
121/1,182
4
1,931,000
58/310
5
5,155,000
26/109
6
14,750,000
13/26
7
37,075,000
4/9
KEY HAND
On Day 6 with blinds at 100K/200K/30K ante, Cynn was sitting with just over 4 million chips on the button and saw a very active Nirath Rean open to 450,000 under the gun before Daniel Tang flat-called. Cynn shipped with ace-jack and Rean tank re-shoved.
Once Tang folded, Cynn said, “this is really bad for me,” but was relieved to see he was flipping against pocket nines. The ace came right in the window, though the three-heart flop gave his opponent a flush draw, and Cynn told the table, “I’m very nervous right now.”
He followed up with, “I’ve never run this good in flips in tournament, anything. It’s insane how good I’m running. So I can’t complain no matter what happens.”
A clean runout followed and Cynn scored a big double up that got him going. He would end the day right in the middle of the pack with 14,750,000. By the second break on Day 7, Cynn had more than doubled what he started the day with, sitting at 32,200,000 and we asked how he got all those chips.
“By getting really lucky, I mean, this has been easily the best seven-day stretch of cards I’ve had in my whole entire life. And for that to come during the Main Event is like unreal.”
At the end of the night, he really only recalled one major hand that propelled him on Day 7, and he wasn’t involved in many big confrontations throughout the day.
"I picked up pocket sevens against pocket fives early on and that gave me a stack to work with. From there, I was just able to play my game and kind of coasted the rest of the way."
Coasting in the Main Event: every poker player’s dream.
WHAT TO WATCH FOR
When asked how it feels to make the final table after getting so close in 2016, Cynn responded:
"Honestly, I don't even know what to say. It's pretty surreal. It hasn't really hit me yet."
For Cynn, after losing a chunk of his stack in the final level of the day, he was ready to burst that final table bubble that eluded him last time, and move on to Day 8.
"I'm happy the bubble popped when it did. It wasn't a great level for me so now I will have some time to rest."
In one of the biggest moments of his career, Cynn will be sure to do everything possible to give him the best chance, and he knows this final table will be no cake walk.
"Ya, we'll probably be reviewing some stuff tonight. Everyone is at the final table for a reason. They all have their strengths so of course you're going to need a little luck."
Already having outdone his previous best 11th-place finish in the Main, Cynn is surely looking to capture his first WSOP gold. And the $8.8 million would be nice too.
Those words haven’t echoed at the Amazon Room's ESPN Main Event Final Table Stage since Joe Hachem took down the World Series of Poker Main Event back in 2005. On the final table of the 2018 WSOP Main Event, they may be heard against as Alex Lynskey has become the first Australian to make it to the final nine since Hachem.
Prior to his deep run, Lynskey had $1,769,666 in live tournament earnings, including a prior best of $426,663 for finishing second to Joseph Rojas in the 2017 WSOP Event #23: $2,620 Marathon. Other highlights on his poker resumé include a fourth place in the 2016 Aussie Millions for $311,530, winning the 2016 Australasian Poker Challenge Sydney for $165,308, and placing sixth in the 2015 World Poker Tour Choctaw for $135,504.
“[I'm] mostly relieved, I’m absolutely exhausted,” Lynskey said after making the final table. “I’d like a day off, but it is what it is. It was a bad last level, but I’m still sitting alright.”
Lynskey had quite the rail cheering him on including girlfriend and fellow poker player Angelina Rich. In 2015, Lynskey and Rich rented an RV and traveled across the United States, which is when he final tabled the aforementioned WPT event.
HOW HE GOT HERE
Day
End-of-Day Chip Count
Rank
1c
67,100
1,482/3,470
2c
270,500
135/1,655
3
211,000
674/1,182
4
1,635,000
86/310
5
3,655,000
46/109
6
22,045,000
5/26
KEY HAND
Early on Day 7, Lynskey dispatched Eric Frohlich in a cooler hand. Lynskey four-bet with kings and Froelich, who had queens, five-bet all in. Lynskey called and held as the board ran out nine high.
In another hand, which was blind on blind, Michael Dyer limped the small blind, and Lynskey checked his option. Lynskey called a bet on the ten-high flop and then another when a king appeared on the turn. Dyer fired a third barrel on the jack river, and Lynskey called with ten-eight for a pair of tens. It was good as he’d picked off Dyer’s bluff with four-three.
WHAT TO WATCH FOR
Lynskey is one of the more experienced players remaining as he has some final tables under his belt. He’s got the short stacks to his right and bigger stacks to his left, so his position isn’t the greatest. However, with a 43-big-blind stack expect him to play patient and pick his spots carefully.
An avid dancer and Seattle Seahawks fan, Tony Miles brought his infectious enthusiasm all the way from Jacksonville, Florida. He's been playing tournaments since August 2011 and had two modest scores this summer in The Colossus (for $2,358) and the Millionaire Maker (for $4,038). His career tournaments earnings will change dramatically now that Miles is guaranteed at least $1,000,000 for making the final table, which he'll enter with the third-biggest stack.
"I got off to a pretty slow start," Miles said on Day 1. "But, as players know, this tournament is a marathon, not a sprint, and I'm not worried at all.”
Indeed, Miles had little reason to be worried. He consistently built his stack during the tournament and, along the way, has had a supportive rail that cheered him on.
“It's critical, in life and at the poker table, that people are there to pick you up when you fall down," Miles said. "Those are the most important people in the world to me. My mom, my dad, my brother, and all of my closest friends are here. Everybody that I love is here.”
Miles's rail closely watched the action on the outer tables. When Miles sat down in the Thunderdome, you'd better believe that they made a ruckus.
Coming into the unofficial final table last in chips, Miles never lost his composure and doubled up twice.
“There was never a rush," he said. "I take one hand at a time and do my best to stay at an elite level. I think that this final table is one of the toughest final tables that has ever been composed. There are a ton of sickos. It's going to be really competitive and really fun to watch."
HOW HE GOT HERE
Day
Enbd-of-Day Chip Count
Rank
1c
72,800
1,258/3,470
2c
123,800
955/1655
3
790,000
700/1,182
4
2,358,000
183/310
5
5,600,000
68/109
6
14,945,000
12/26
KEY HAND
On Day 4, Miles competed on the ESPN Feature Table alongside David Kitai, a Belgian pro and a tough competitor.
Kitai raised to 35,000 under the gun. Miles three-bet to 115,000, Kitai shoved all-in for about 350,000, and Miles snap-called with two aces. Kitai's two queens couldn't catch up, and the bracelet winner from Belgium was eliminated. In the meantime, Miles bagged Day 4 with 2.358,000 in chips and kept up the pace all the way to the final table.
WHAT TO WATCH FOR
The plan for tonight and tomorrow, Miles said, is to sleep well, meditate, eat healthy, and come to Day 8 focused and ready to execute.
In previous days, Miles has been sporting a Seattle Seahawks jersey. There may be a wardrobe surprise in store for the final table.
“You're gonna see [the jersey of] an athlete that I respect on the field and off the field," Miles said. "I'm not sure which one it will be—and I am not going to reveal that at this time—but I'm really big on promoting athletes who are really good people off the field.”
Manion may be a small-stakes grinder per usual, but hey — so was Ryan Riess.
Manion has mostly built up his tournament chops playing smaller online events, but has very little live tournament experience and only a few small results on Hendon Mob. After bagging the ninth biggest stack of the remaining 26 players on Day 6, he told PokerNews:
“Recently I’ve just been doing really well, playing well, and running even better. And that’s what’s been going on in the Main Event. So it’s been great.”
Manion’s first WSOP event ever, he wouldn’t normally have made the trip out to Vegas from Michigan, but his friend made him an offer he couldn’t refuse.
“I had a buddy that was out here from Muskegon, [Michigan,] and a couple months ago he asked me if I wanted to play two $2,175 mega satellites that he would put me in. I played both of them, qualified out of both, and he said, ‘let’s play this,’ because I told him I was playing really well.”
The first day of the tournament was going smooth and he was building, but then he flopped the nut straight with jack-ten on seven-eight-nine, and got in stacks with an opponent who held top two with nine-eight. A nine on the turn left Manion down to 20,000 and he ended the day very short.
He didn’t let that stop him though, and Manion would spend the next four days of the tournament grinding a small to medium stack. Never with a big stack until the middle of Day 6, Manion didn’t really feel the full effects of the pressure of going deep in the Main Event. At the end of Day 6, he told PokerNews:
“The craziest thing about this tournament is [that] I really haven’t had many chips to have to have big decisions. So it’s either, I’m going with my hand or I’m not. And now that I’ve got chips, I’m a little bit more nervous, but I think I’m playing well so it kind of cancels that out.”
HOW HE GOT HERE
Day
End-of-Day Chip Count
Rank
1c
11,500
3,361/3,470
2c
66,800
1,267/1,655
3
-
-/1,182
4
1,051,000
152/310
5
1,395,000
95/109
6
17,630,000
9/26
7
112,775,000
1/9
* Day 3's count missing on official chip count list
KEY HANDS
Manion started Day 6 as one of the shorter stacks of the final 109 players with 23 big blinds and was just bleeding chips, getting no hands to work with. But that all changed in the second level of the day:
“I think blinds were 40K/80K and I had 650,000 and had pocket sevens vs. ace-king and rivered a seven. And a guy said he folded a seven, so that was pretty good too.”
Manion proceeded to chip up from there for the remaining few levels of the day, and made a huge laydown with pocket kings preflop at the very end of the night to preserve his stack and finish the day ninth in chips.
Manion opened to 500,000 with blinds at 100K/200K/30K and Alex Lynskey three-bet to 1.5 million. After Barry Hutter moved in for his last 580,000, Manion four-bet to 5 million. Lynskey moved in the rest and the decision was for a large chunk of Manion’s remaining stack. Manion filled us in on his thought process just after the hand.
“I’ve shown nothing but nut hands today, and he shoved all in for 16 million. To me, that’s just one hand and one hand only, so I’m not going to put my tournament life on kings when I’m 99 percent sure he has aces.”
On Day 7, Manion chipped up early and stayed near the top of the counts all day. Then, a privotal hand went down after the final ten took their seats at the unofficial Main Event final table.
In the hand, Manion looked down at pocket aces under the gun and raised to 1.5 million at 300K/600K/100K. Antoine Labat flat-called in middle position and Yueqi Zhu moved all in for 24.7 million from the hijack. The action folded around back to Manion:
“So I try to tank a little bit and make it look like I don’t have a huge monster, but I eventually shove and seat nine [Labat] tank-calls and they both have pocket kings. And somehow, this is real life.
“When I got both calls, I flipped over my hand and I didn’t even stay to see what they had. I went straight to my rail and looked up at the T.V. and they had set up pocket kings and my aces. So the only way to lose the hand is a flush and luckily the turn card did not put a flush draw on the board, so it was all over.”
With Zhu as the shortest of the three, he was eliminated in the hand and Labat was knocked down to short-stack status, while Manion took over the chip lead long-held by Michael Dyer.
WHAT TO WATCH FOR
Though Manion is not accustomed to playing for such high-stakes, he’s keeping his cool and says that being chip leader won’t change up his game.
“That will not affect my play at all. I’m still gonna stick to my game plan of playing the hands that I’m dealt and trying to just chip up and win the pots that I’m entering.”
As a mostly $1/2 casino and home game player, Manion doesn’t have any aspirations of straying from his lifestyle back home in Michigan, where he also enjoys hanging out with his dogs at the beach near his home.
“This is great, but I mean, I will not change what I’m doing. I’m not gonna go play big tournaments and blow my bankroll. I’m gonna play with all my friends just like before and enjoy life now.”
Some of those buddies will undoubtedly be cheering Manion on, railside, just as they did when he charged into chip leader status in that fateful, final hand on Day 7.
Aram Zobian is enjoying every minute of the Main Event. The Cranston, Rhode Island-native and dolphin-lover had $110,903 in lifetime tournament earnings prior to this tournament, including a $47,000 score in Mashantucket, Connecticut.
Zobian's journey to the final table began with a hot streak before Day 6's dinner break.
"Do you have it?" Antoine Labat asked Zobian during a hand on Day 6.
"I always have it," Zobian replied.
Shortly after that, Zobian won a big three-way pot besting Jeff Trudeau and online legend Henrik Hecklen with flopped trips holding ace-king.
“I can't even comprehend how good I'm running right now," Zobian said on Day 6. "Definitely blessed. Never ran this good in a tournament, not even close. Hopefully, that'll be true for tomorrow as well."
Zobian ended Day 6 by bagging up an impressive 41,585,000.
On Day 7, as he approached the final table, Zobian added: "This gives me a lot of confidence in life moving forward. There have been many times in my live tournament career when I've thought about quitting and playing primarily cash games. So this validates that I do well in this format."
HOW HE GOT HERE
Day
End-of-Day Chip Count
Rank
1b
171,000
33/3470
2ab
436,800
24/2786
3
770,000
95/1,182
4
2,464,000
27/310
5
5,450,000
22/109
6
41,585,000
1/26
7
18,875,000
7/9
KEY HAND
On Day 6, with the board reading , four-time WSOP Circuit Event ring winner Jeff Trudeau check-raised all-in. Zobian tanked and folded . Trudeau showed a pair of fives for an audacious bluff. Instead of getting rattled or going on tilt, Zobian composed himself and forced himself to focus.
"It sounds weird, but I kind of enjoyed getting bluffed on TV," Zobian said. "I had the guy that much on tilt that he tried to spew his chips to me. Kudos to him, because he ended up getting a fold, but his play was pretty ridiculous, from a theory standpoint."
WHAT TO EXPECT
As Zobian looks ahead to the final table, he's still processing the incredible aces versus kings versus kings hand that rocked the Thunderdome and burst the bubble. "The last hand leaves one guy short," Zobian said, "so it definitely affects my strategy."
For the time being, Zobian plans to celebrate with his friends, prepare for Day 8, and take things from there. "Making the final table hasn't quite registered," he said. "But I feel fine. I feel all right."
to give Cynn a gutshot along with his two over cards. The shouting continued to the 
turn, giving Cynn even more outs to deal the final blow to Lynskey.
river sent Lynskey to the rail in seventh place for $1,500,000. Lynskey didn't win a single hand on the day, however, the seven-figure payday will surely ease the pain.
giving Metalidi a set of fives and Zobian a flush draw. The turn brought the 
and Metalidi would need to dodge a diamond to stay alive. The river was the 
and Zobian made his flush to eliminate Metalidi in eighth place.
and Metalidi took the lead with a set of queens. The turn was the 
and Labat was left drawing to one of two remaining kings in the deck. The river was the 
and Metalidi improved to a full house to eliminate Labat in ninth place.
. Trudeau showed a pair of fives for an audacious bluff. Instead of getting rattled or going on tilt, Zobian composed himself and forced himself to focus.