Day 5 of the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event is when things get serious. It is when players go from aiming to jump up the pay ladder to aiming for a seat at the final table. It is when new poker stars emerge and the known pros are put to the ultimate test.
There are just 282 players who made Day 5 of this year's Main Event and they will be the focus of two hours of brand new ESPN coverage Tuesday night from 8-10pm ET. Leading the pack at the start of the action will be Paul Volpe, an East Coast poker pro who ended Day 4 with the chip lead. The race for the chip lead will be hotly contested though with a number of notables making their way to the top of the counts, including Vanessa Selbst, Erik Cajelais, bracelet winner Leo Wolpert, and a man who knows what it takes to make the Main Event final table, Eric Buchman.
While that crew vies for big stacks, other notable pros just vie to survive another orbit. Daniel Negreanu, John Juanda, and Freddy Deeb are just some of the players struggling to chip up on Day 5 that will be featured on tonight's broadcast. Hollywood actor Kevin Pollak survived to Day 5 as well, but he has to contend with Negreanu at the feature table, which is no easy feat.
The secondary table will once again feature Jason Somerville, who spent much of Day 5 tangling with Circuit ring winner, the super aggressive AJ Jejelowo. Also seated at the secondary table is relative unknown pro Jesse Sylvia, who isn't afraid to tangle with his established tablemates in the quest to chip up and get one step closer to the elusive October Nine.
Sylvia, European female phenoms Gaelle Baumann and Elisabeth Hill, and Greg Merson are just some of the up and comers that made a name for themselves on the Main Event stage this year. They will all be in action at the start of Day 5, but you will have to tune in to ESPN tonight in order to see which of the up and comers and big names will still be in the hunt come next week's episodes.
And don't forget that two new hours of WSOP on ESPN means a new chance to Watch and Win your seat into the 2013 WSOP Main Event. Be sure to tune in to get the code word to input on the WSOP free play site. Complete rules and regulations for the Watch and Win contest are available on WSOP.com.
Here is a glimpse at what to expect from tonight's coverage: