Joao Vieira Leads the Final Six in Event #70: $5,000 No-Limit Hold'em 6-Handed
The final table of Event #70: $5,000 No-Limit Hold'em 6-Handed has been set after seven and a half hours of action at the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino.
Portugal's Joao Vieira (7,635,000) will return as the chip leader for the second day in a row after he continued his momentum, with the UK's Jamie O'Connor (5,190,000), and USA's Olivier Busquet (4,050,000), completing the top three counts.
2009 WSOP Main Event champion Joe Cada (3,105,000) will look to claim his fifth WSOP bracelet and once again put his name among a very select few, while Day 1 chip leader Barry Hutter (1,265,000) has the chance to win his second bracelet four years after his first.
The line-up is completed by Frenchman Pierre Calamusa (2,700,000) who will be making his first WSOP final table appearance when the action resumes on Thursday, July 4 at Noon with a first-place prize worth $758,011 up for grabs.
Action of the Day
When the returning 28 players took their seats in the Miranda room, the action got off to a super fast start with eight players departing in the opening 60-minutes.
Gustavo Mastelotto, Turbo Phong Nguyen, Dong Chen, Fernando Vianadacosta, David Cabrera, Richard Lowe, Marton Czuczor and WSOP bracelet winner Joey Couden all saw their day in Event #70 come to an early finish.
2017 Event #45 $5,000 No Limit Hold'em champion Christopher Brammer was next to depart after running pocket deuces into pocket sevens, with Jake Daniels following the Brit to the rail soon after.
Alexandros Theologis (18th - $34,422), Ryan Jones (17th - $34,422), Richard Sheils (16th - $34,422), Steven Sarmiento (15th - $34,422), Ivan Galinec (14th - $34,422), and Bartlomiej Machon (13th - $34,422) hit to the rail to pave the way for the final two tables.
Galinec's departure was cruel with the Croatian losing a three million chip pot with pocket aces after Barry Hutter hit a set on the river with pocket tens, and Galinec was unable to spin up his short stack from there.
Chris Hunichen (12th - $44,771) lost a classic coin flip with ace-king against pocket queens to exit before Shahar Levi
(11th - $44,771) amazingly saw his pocket kings cracked by Olivier Buquet's quad jacks.
Fabiano Kovalski (10th - $59,338) and Patrick Tardif (9th - $59,338) was next to go, with the popular Canadian Twitch streamer Tardif losing a four-bet shove with pocket fives against pocket queens.
The action then slowed down entirely, and the next levels saw chips move back and forth between the final eight with no eliminations.
When the action resumed after the dinner break Ankush Mandavia (8th-$80,109) was at the forefront of the action. The WSOP bracelet winner hit a runner-runner flush to survive when at risk, before losing a massive pot against Joao Vieira who was in the tank for over seven minutes but ultimately made the correct call holding pocket kings on an ace-high board.
The players then joined together on a single table for the first time, and it was Jamie O'Connor's time for the limelight. The Brit cracked kings with pocket sixes after hitting a set on the flop to survive and then sealed a place in the final six when Timothy Cramer (7th - $80,109) ran his ace-king into O'Connor's pocket kings and found no help from the board.
Join us back here on PokerNews at noon on Thursday, July 4 for continued coverage as the final six take center stage to battle for the WSOP gold bracelet under the lights of the CBS Live Stream.
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