We are now approaching the business end of the 2012 WSOP Main Event as the 27 players remaining from Day 6's play will return later today and play down to the final table - this years "October 9" (doesn't quite roll off the tongue as well as "November Nine" but with the final table scheduled for October 28 it is more accurate this year!). Currently leading the way with more than a 3 million chip lead is Canadian Marc Ladouceur with over twice the average chip count, holding 15,875,000. Ladouceur is looking to become the 2nd French-Canadian in three years to win the Main Event after his close friend Jonathan Duhamel won the Bracelet in 2010.
Coming into Day 6 the chip leader was Kyle Keranen with around 7 million chips. Keranen faded fast however and eventually bowed out of the event in 38th place after shoving his last 1.5 million chips with 8 4 off suit only to run into Jeremy Ausmus's pocket Aces. Aces were also at the heart of the reason Keranen came to be relatively short stacked in the first place as his AA lost a monster 5 million chip pot to Robert Corcione when Corcione's QQ flopped a set earlier in the day. Day 3 chip leader Dave D'Alesandro also busted out yesterday.
It was also a bad day for most of the name players left in the field as Gavin Smith busted out early doors and was followed not too long after by Erik Cajelais, Isaac Baron, Kyle Bowker, Eric Buchman, Vanessa Selbst, Jason Sommerville, David ODB Baker, the last remaining 2011 November Niner Sam Holden, Leo Wolpert and Amnon Filipi.
We still have a couple of bracelet winners in the field however as Greg Merson who won event 57 ($10k NLHE Six Handed) for over $1.1 million currently sits in 12th place with over 7.4 million chips while Steven Gee, winner of a $1k NLHE bracelet in 2010 is in 22nd with 4.8 million.
We also have two women left in the field, both intent on becoming just the second woman to reach the final table of the Main Event. Day 2 chip leader Gaelle Baumann put in a solid performance yesterday winning and losing some big seven figure pots but holding her nerve to finish the day with over 5.5 million chips, while Norway's Elisabeth Hille (who only managed to drum up the money to enter after her boyfriend Harald Olsen cashed for over $20k in event 59) had a stellar day, ended in 5th place with over 9.7 million chips.
With prize money of over $294k guaranteed for all the remaining players we really are reaching the pay off zone with prize money going up to $369k at 198 players, $465k at 15 players, $590k at 12 players and the final table payout (9th place) starts at over $750k.
Come back tomorrow to find out the names of a brand new WSOP Main Event Final Table.