Andrew Esposito Leads the Final 19 Players After Day 4 of the $3,500 Main Event
Another five levels have been completed in the $3,500 Main Event at the 2023 Wynn Millions and Day 4 has drawn to a close. The field of 1,314 entries has been brought down to just 19 players advancing to Day 5 tomorrow at 12 p.m. noon local time.
After the dust settled on an action-packed day, it was young hot-shot Andrew Esposito who finished atop the leaderboard with a healthy stack of 5,715,000. Esposito entered the day with a below-average stack and was down to just 250,000 chips at one point, but wrestled his way back into contention for the title. A large portion of his chips came at the hands of Calvin Anderson when Esposito semi-bluffed the turn with just a straight draw but caught Anderson bluffing as well.
Esposito went on to stack up over 100 big blinds at the time while Anderson was left reeling and eventually bowed out in 21st place. The young kid from Texas will be looking to record his largest career tournament score and his first in the six-figure mark when the action gets back underway. Esposito currently has just over $137,000 in earnings over his brief poker career.
He will have some stiff competition when the cards go in the air for Day 5 as he will be joined by the likes of Zachary Donovan as the other big stack. Donovan bagged up an impressive stack of 4,320,000 chips after consistently climbing up the ranks throughout the day. Amateur player and all-around fun guy, Cliff Ziff, will enter the day in third place with 3,825,000 after finishing off Anderson at the end of Day 4 by misreading his hand.
Some other notables to keep an eye on as the action unfolds en route to making the final table include Kristen Deardorff (3,510,000) as the lone female left in the tournament. Joseph Sabe (3,435,00), Michael Dyer (2,635,000), Michael Rossitto (1,900,000), and Yuval Bronshtein (850,000) all still have some work to do but are very much live in the competition.
Day 5 Seat Draw
| Table | Seat | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Ronald Sullivan | United States | 1,860,000 | 31 |
| 1 | 2 | Vlastimil Pustina | Czechia | 2,385,000 | 40 |
| 1 | 4 | Joseph Sabe | Lebanon | 3,435,000 | 57 |
| 1 | 5 | Zhigang Yang | Canada | 3,055,000 | 51 |
| 1 | 6 | Michael Dyer | United States | 2,635,000 | 44 |
| 1 | 8 | Zachary Donovan | United States | 4,320,000 | 72 |
| 1 | 9 | Michael Rossitto | United States | 1,900,000 | 32 |
| 2 | 1 | Michael Stembera | United States | 1,530,000 | 26 |
| 2 | 2 | Pedro Ingles | Spain | 3,730,000 | 62 |
| 2 | 4 | Cliff Ziff | United States | 3,825,000 | 64 |
| 2 | 5 | Andrew Esposito | United States | 5,715,000 | 95 |
| 2 | 6 | Jacob Powers | United States | 1,880,000 | 31 |
| 2 | 8 | Yuval Bronshtein | Israel | 850,000 | 14 |
| 3 | 1 | Orestis Kanakopoulos | Greece | 3,050,000 | 51 |
| 3 | 2 | Kharlin Sued | United States | 2,500,000 | 42 |
| 3 | 3 | Qing Liu | United States | 1,060,000 | 18 |
| 3 | 4 | Mark Zajdner | Canada | 2,675,000 | 45 |
| 3 | 5 | Kristen Deardorff | United States | 3,510,000 | 59 |
| 3 | 8 | Alex Condon | United States | 2,700,000 | 45 |
The day began with 52 players returning to their seats, each having guaranteed themselves $17,292. Some of the first few notables to hit the rail included Markus Gonsalves, Max Kingstone, and Paul Snead. After the first break, Alan Sternberg, Alex Foxen, and Frank Stepuchin were also forced to the payout desk. Justin Liberto, Gal Yifrach, Jake Schwartz, and Mitchell Halverson were among the victims as the day progressed.
The chip lead for the majority of the day belonged to Sabe who quickly amassed a stack of over 5,000,000 chips. Sabe seemed to put it in cruise control until the last level of the night when he publicly announced that "he was going to win this tournament. Mark my words." He appeared to jinx himself, however, as he went on to lose nearly half of his stack in the final 60 minutes of the day.
The only other person to grab a sniff at the lead throughout the day was Anderson who entered the day as the chip leader. Anderson continuously put his opponents in tough situations, which in turn led to a rollercoaster of a ride for the poker pro. Anderson peaked at around 4,500,000 at one point early on, but it all came crashing down in the final level. On his last hand of the tournament, Anderson moved all in with ace-king and Ziff looked him up from the big blind with what he thought was pocket sixes. It turned out to be eight-six offsuit but it didn't matter as Ziff spiked two pair to eliminate Anderson in the last few hands of the night.
The final 19 players will be returning to the felt at 12 p.m. noon local time with the blinds resuming on level 25 at 30,000/60,000 and a 60,000 big blind ante. The scheduled plan was to play to the final nine players, but if they reach that mark too quickly, the day may be extended at the tournament director's discretion. Each player has already secured at least $32,510 but they will all have their sights set on the larger portion of the $4,171,950 prize pool.
Remaining Payouts
| Place | Prize | Place | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $654,637 | 10-11 | $57,702 |
| 2 | $430,752 | 12-13 | $49,615 |
| 3 | $294,540 | 14-15 | $42,994 |
| 4 | $208,598 | 16-17 | $37,321 |
| 5 | $154,279 | 18-19 | $32,510 |
| 6 | $120,361 | ||
| 7 | $96,706 | ||
| 8 | $80,310 | ||
| 9 | $67,765 |
The PokerNews live reporting team will be back on the tournament floor to bring you all of the live updates en route to reaching the final table on Day 5.