button in SafariElite Eight Survive Day 4 of $1,500 Monster Stack; $1.3M Awaits the Champion
After four days of action inside Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas, just eight players remain in contention in Event #18: $1,500 Monster Stack. The day began with 80 hopefuls returning to battle for a share of the eight-figure prize pool, but only a handful survived the gruelling grind to reach the official final table.
At said table, it will be Kevin Eyster who returns with the chip lead, having bagged up an extremely impressive 126,700,000 chips. This nine-figure stack equates to more than one-fifth of the chips left in play, and will convert to over 52 big blinds when Day 5 commences.
His compatriots Salvatore Dicarlo and Matthew Miller are on the podium alongside him, with 103,200,000 and 98,500,000 chips respectively, the latter bolstered by a massive double elimination going his way towards the very end of the night.
In fact, short stack Nikolaos Angelou will be the only returner not flying the red, white, and blue, as the Greek national bagged up 31,600,000 at the end of the night.
Final Table Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kevin Eyster | United States | 126,700,000 | 52 |
| 2 | Salvatore Dicarlo | United States | 103,200,000 | 43 |
| 3 | Matthew Miller | United States | 98,500,000 | 41 |
| 4 | Pierce Mckellar | United States | 72,600,000 | 30 |
| 5 | John Ripnick | United States | 54,600,000 | 22 |
| 6 | Richard Alsup | United States | 52,300,000 | 21 |
| 7 | Aaron Massey | United States | 38,300,000 | 15 |
| 8 | Nikolaos Angelou | Greece | 31,600,000 | 13 |
The tournament attracted a staggering 11,933 entries, shattering last year's field of 9,920 and generating an enormous prize pool of $15,841,047. Each of the five remaining players has locked up at least $190,000, but their sights are firmly set on the coveted WSOP gold bracelet and the $1,302,125 first-place prize.
Remaining Payouts
| Place | Prize |
|---|---|
| 1 | $1,302,125 |
| 2 | $900,000 |
| 3 | $700,000 |
| 4 | $520,000 |
| 5 | $400,000 |
| 6 | $305,000 |
| 7 | $240,000 |
| 8 | $190,000 |
Plenty of big names sat down for the fourth day of action, including 2025 WSOP Main Event Runner-Up and $25k Fantasy player John Wasnock. He managed to find a double up through Aaron Massey during the second level of the day, but was unable to gain much more traction as he finished in 47th place.
Three-time bracelet winner David Peters had also bagged up a quiet Day 3, but ended up bowing out in 65th place, as the high roller veteran will have to wait for another event to earn bracelet number four.
Martin Zamani followed a strong showing in Day 3 with a solid start to Day 4, aided by a timely pickup of pocket aces when Scott Manzi shoved at the wrong time. However, Zamani would hit a roadblock when hepaid off a big river bet by Massey that cut his stack down. That would be the beginning of the end for the four-time bracelet winner as he finished in 36th place.
Day 3 chip leader Valentin Vornicu was also on a roll to start the day. The 14-time WSOP ring winner pushed his stack to as high as nearly 60 million at his peak before he began to fall down the chip counts. Vornicu lost a pivotal hand when he ran into the trap of Joao Simao, which saw him lose his status as the chip leader.
Shortly after, he ran into a dominating hand to leave the tournament in 20th place. It wouldn't be too long before Simao himself hit the rail, finding himself in a set-under-set cooler.
Other notables to be eliminated on Day 4 include Gabriel Andrade (64th), Ralph Perry (52nd), Thomas Cazayous (49th), Jeremy Eyer (45th), Jonas Lauck (39th), Scott Eskenazi (38th), and Alan Percal (33rd).
Play is set to resume at Level 41, with blinds at 1,200,000/2,400,000, including a big blind ante. Cards will be in the air at 3:30 p.m. local time, with all action live-streamed. All updates will be in line with the streamed footage, which will be on an approximate two-and-a-half-hour delay. Make sure to check back regularly as a winner is set to be crowned during the fifth day of action!