July 12, 2019 (Las Vegas) - The World Series of Poker main event is one step closer to the pinnacle of poker, the main event final table. Day 6 is in the books and Nicholas Marchington leads the final 35 as they take their next steps onto poker’s biggest stage.
Timothy Su started the day with a huge lead and ended up bagging the third biggest stack heading into Day 7. He’s looking to add to his $2,467 in career winnings. Su works as a software engineer, one of 15 people at a startup software company in Boston. He started playing poker with his college roommate and decided last year to come play some WSOP events for the first time. He did not cash, playing a handful of smaller events.
He hasn’t allowed himself to get too excited up to this point in the tournament. He says he got off to a good start and bagged the chip lead in his Day 2 flight. He had one simple strategy -- survive.
“I just kind of like took it day by day, hour by hour. Just make it to next break and then just play the best poker I can play. It’s kind of surreal.”
With Su holding the lead coming into the day, he is no longer under the radar. Most players at this stage of the main event don’t have that luxury, but it is a little different when you bag more chips on Day 5 than some players had at the final table of last year’s event.
“It’s different, but it’s a lot of fun. It’s nice to just be able to be myself. I’m just here to have fun as a recreational and play some poker,” he said.
So far, his plans haven’t changed regarding poker, but he’s definitely interested in playing more. How much, or whether a career change will be in order is yet to be seen.
“For the immediate future probably not, because I’ve already promised my boss i’ll be back at work next week,” he said.
He’s had a great time so far. He said he was content with his effort coming back from dinner break earlier today, now that he’s bagged for Day 6 he will be even more happy with whatever his finish is.
“I’m always just prepared for the worst, and the worst is, for lack of better terminology, the worst is pretty damn f****** good. It’s already exceeded expectations so even if it ends now it’ll be a little bit of disappointment, but I can’t be that upset about how this run has already gone.
“I’m having a lot of fun and this has been a really awesome experience. I probably do want to play more poker in the future because everybody’s so friendly and it’s a great community.”
He decided to play some casual tournaments in Reno, NV and found himself winning $1,540 in two tournaments in October. His third recorded tournament cash was earlier this summer in the Colossus. He won $927 for his 814th place finish.
He might have imagined that would be the extent of his fun this WSOP, but when you bring a big lead into Day 6 of the biggest poker tournament in the world.
“I definitely got very lucky, had many one times to make my way here, but I think that applies to pretty much everybody that’s still in the event. You know sometimes the cards just fall your way. I was talking to some friends regarding last year’s main event and my stack is larger than some that were at the final table, so that’s incredible.”
Su’s biggest move of the day came late when he eliminated Sam Greenwood. Greenwood had aces against Su’s suited connectors. Su shoved on the turn with a paired board and Greenwood called his remaining stack. Su hit a straight on the river to break 40-million chips and cement his chip lead with a little more than an hour to go.
Greenwood finished in 45th place for his best-ever finish in the main event. Alex Foxen (40th), Chris Hunichen (54th), Jake Schindler (67th) were also eliminated on Day 5.
Before Hunichen hit the rail, he took Antonio Esfandiari with him. Esfandiari got fives in against eights and was already heading to the rail before Hunichen flopped a set. This was Esfandiari’s second best finish in the main event. He finished 24th in 2009.
Daniel Hachem ran into Robert Heidorn’s queens and was eliminated in 79th place. He took home $98,120.
Some of the louder rails are starting to form as the players get ever closer to poker’s biggest stage. Garry Gates, who might be a familiar name to those who have been coming to the WSOP for any time. Gates spent some time working in poker media before becoming a player liaison. Today he bagged 25,025,000 and enjoyed a day where he was in the spotlight with several of his colleagues cheering him on both at the Rio and on social media.
The final 35 players will return to play Day 7 and will continue play until the final table is determined.
Here are the top ten chip stacks heading into Day 7: (Click here for the complete list of chip counts):
1) Nicholas Marchington - 39,800,000
2) Hossein Ensan - 34,500,000
3) Timothy Su - 34,350,000
4) Milos Skrbic - 31,450,000
5) Henry Lu - 25,525,000
6) Garry Gates - 25,025,000
7) Duey Duong - 21,650,000
8) Warwick Mirzikinian - 20,700,000
9) Dario Sammartino - 19,850,000
10) Kevin Maahs - 19,550,000
Live Updates from Day 6