Day Four of the 2013 World Series of Poker Main Event has finally come to a close.
By day's end, the chip lead belonged to Jon Lane, from Menasha, WI. He made his move late in the day and closed out the session with 2,839,000 in chips. Lane took the chip lead after the dinner break when he called Nikolas Immekus' all-in holding A-K to Immekus's A-4. This was yet another chip lead change in what's been a volatile leaderboard from the start. Maxx Coleman started the day as chip leader. He slid down a bit, but still remains in respectable shape, currently ranked in 68th place.
Defending World Champion Greg Merson also survived the day. Merson has 635,000 in chips, which currently puts him in the middle of the pack. It also ranks him ahead of the only other past Main Event winner in the field, Carlos Mortensen, who has 302,000. He hopes to make the best run for a reigning champion since Peter Eastgate won in 2008, and then finished in the top 100 the following year.
Aside from Merson, three other players who made last year's October Nine started the day. Russell Thomas and Rob Salaburu both made the money, but failed to survive the day, while Steve Gee bagged up 466,000. He managed to do this even after spending the later stage of the day on the feature table with none other than Merson.
Also of note is the 2007 WSOP Europe Main Event Champion Annette Obrestad and her steady climb up the leaderboard. The poker player from Norway hasn't been drawing a lot of attention at this series. However, her move into 55th place by day's end is certain to make her one of the faces to watch as we head into Day Five. Both Obrestad and Jackie Glazier bagged up million-chip stacks and will be back in action on Saturday.
Another interesting factoid comes from two brothers who both cashed in the Main Event. Jose Manuel 'Nadalon' Nadal and Santiago 'Sampri' Nadal are professional poker-playing brothers from Mexico. Santiago was eliminated, but Jose is still alive and in good shape in chips.
Some of the players whose Main Event runs wrapped during the latter half of Day 3 include bracelet winner Simon Charette (358th), Allen Cunningham (331st), Matt Marafioti (326th), Russell Thomas (306th), Melanie Weisner (301st), Bertrand Grospellier (295th), and Marcel Luske (261st).
Even with many big names still alive, the top of the leaderboard is packed with fresh faces. Here's the top official ten chip counts at the conclusion of action on Day Four:
1. Jon Lane - 2,839,000 2. Sami Rustom - 2,485,000 3. Grayson Ramage - 2,438,000 4. Victor Cianelli - 2,197,000 5. Seaver Kyaw - 2,060,000 6. Yann Dion - 2,025,000 7. Vincent Robert - 1,976,000 8. Robert Sichelstiel - 1,910,000 9. Ami Alibay - 1,890,000 10. Brett Richey - 1,817,000A full list of chip counts is available on WSOP.com.