CHIP CHATS: TALES OF THE TOP 27
People may say they play poker for the money and the bracelet, but when you break down the day to day of a poker tournament, really only one thing matters: chips. So, we have decided to take a look at each day of this year's Main Event strictly by the counts to see what history has taught us, what the future may hold, and how this year's event stacks up. Since we always tell you the top ten counts, let's have a glance at the top ten stack stories from Day 6 of the 2013 WSOP Main Event:

1. Let’s Get to Know Anton Morgenstern


One of the most exciting parts of this stage of the Main Event is seeing which previously unknown players surges from the pack to take the chip lead and make a name for themselves. Yesterday, that unknown was Anton Morgenstern, a German poker player who spent the latter half of his evening destroying his table to push past 20 million chips. He ended with 21,955,000 chips, which put him over 7 million chips ahead of the player second in chips, Sylvain Loosli. To put that in contrast, the differential between Morgenstern and Loosli is larger than all but eight of the remaining chip counts in this event.

How exactly did Morgenstern get to this point though? Let’s take a look at how he ended each day so far this Main Event:
Day 1A – 76,750
Day 2AB – 65,200
Day 3 – 534,500
Day 4 – 400,000
Day 5 – 3,810,000

2. The Tale of Two Types of Bracelet Winners

Yesterday, we observed that the bracelet winners left in the field were all huddled in the bottom half of the counts. Today, the five bracelet winners left in the field are grouped into two distinct categories: the haves and have nots. After being near the bottom of the counts, Amir Lehavot, Carlos Mortensen, and JC Tran all managed to chip up into the top half of the counts with above average stacks. Tran and Mortensen ended in the top ten, while Lehavot is just outside that group in 11th place with 7,385,000.

On the other side of the spectrum, Rep Porter and Steve Gee are two of the shortest stacks left in the field, coming in with 23 big blinds and 27 big blinds respectively. It is a familiar place for Gee though. Last year, he came in 22nd of 27 and ended up making it to the final table. He wasn’t even the shortest starting stack in the field to make the final table either. That honor belongs to Andras Koroknai,

3. Top Ten on the Mend

The Day 4 chip leaders had a disastrous Day 5, with eight of ten busting before the end of the day. The other two, Yann Dion and start of day chip leader Sami Rustom, both joined them on the rail yesterday. The Day 5 start of day big stacks had a much more productive day at the tables with seven of ten surviving the day. Three maintained position in the top ten, while the other four are back in the middle of the pack, but still in the running for the final table.

4. An International Affair

With 27 players left, we still have runners from 11 different countries across four continents represented in the Main Event. The Americans lead the way with 11 contenders, followed by France and Canada, each of which has three representatives in the field. Last year, we saw an overwhelmingly American final table, with Andras Koroknai the lone European in the mix. However, it is looking like this year’s final table will bear more of a resemblance to that of 2011 where players from seven different countries comprised the November Nine.

5. From 22 to 58

The final 27 cover a range of ages,but there are two things missing from this line-up: First, there are no 21 year olds in the field, so no one has a chance to best Joe Cada as the youngest Main Event winner in WSOP history. Second, we have no player over the age of 60. Much like last year, Steve Gee is the oldest player in the field at 58 years old. There are three players in their 40s, Rep Porter, Carlos Mortensen, and Fabian Ortiz, but the rest of the field are in their 20s and 30s, bringing the average age of players remaining in at 31.4 years old. The youngest player left? Your current chip leader, Anton Morgenstern, who is just 22 years old.

6. Whose Got the Chips?

It is not surprising that Table 444 is starting at the feature table today. The table boasts chip leader Anton Morgenstern as well as 42.5% of the chips in play. Four of the top five stacks are assigned to that table, giving them almost 81 million of the 190,560,000 chips in play to work with. Table 443, on the other hand, is full of short stacks. The biggest stack on the table belongs to James Alexander, who starts the day seventh in chips. The stacks on 443 combine to just shy of 47 million, representing roughly 24.5% of the chips in play.

7. Clement Tripodi Looks to Join Lamb and Cada

The Day 1B chip leader, Clement Tripodi, is still alive in the Main Event and looks to join Joe Cada and Ben Lamb on the list of Day 1 chip leaders that have made the final table. Meanwhile, Maxx Coleman has bucked the trend of Day 3 chip leaders flaming out early by advancing to the final 27. If he wants to make the final table though, he will need to do some work, as he begins 20th in the counts with 3,830,000.

8. How Short Is Short?

David Benefield is the short stack heading into today with 1,840,000. With blinds starting at 60,000/120,000, that gives him just over 15 big blinds to work with. Jorn Walthaus is in a similar boat with 1.9 million. However, two-thirds of the players left in the field are not exactly low on chips. The top 18 all have more than 5 million, which means the majority of players will begin action with more than 42 big blinds.

9. What Should They Be Aiming For?

We all know that an average stack doesn’t guarantee much of anything in this tournament, but to give you an idea of how many chips one needs to make the final table, consider this: Average stack at the final table is just over 21 million chips. Last year’s similarly sized field had an average stack of 22 million chips at the final table. Four came in above average, while five came in under with Ausmus bringing in 9.8 million chips as the short stack.

10. November Nine Prognosticating

Last year, three of the top ten advanced into the November, with the two big stacks, Marc Andre Ladouceur and Daniel Strelitz, exiting short of the final table. The next two biggest stacks, Rob Salaburu and Russell Thomas, made it through to the fall, with Jeremy Ausmus, who began the day tenth in chips last year, also surviving.