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 4 of the 2013 WSOP Main Event:
1. If You’re Looking for the Action Table…1With 27 tables to start the day, there should theoretically be, on average, around 7.05 million chips on each table. With major chip disparities between the big stacks and short stacks though, some tables have way more chips on them than others. For example, Table 433, which features two top ten chip stacks in Sami Rustom and Kevin Williams, has the most chips of anyone with 11,897,000. Just one table over at 432 though, there are just 4,079,000 chips on the table and only one stack over a million chips, that of Annette Obrestad.2. Age is Just a NumberToday’s top ten is decidedly older than yesterday’s big stacks with the average age coming in at 34.2 years old. In fact, for once, the majority of the players are not in their 20s. Six of the ten are over the age of 30 and the youngest is 24 year old Seaver Kyaw.3. Welcome to the Party, CanadaIt only took seven days of play, but we finally have some Canadians with big stacks. Two French Canadians, Yann Dion and Ami Alibay finished Day 4 in the top ten counts. They are two of 11 Canadians left in the field. 4. Checking on the Chip LeadersSince we have been playing the Main Event for a week now, seems just as good a time as any to check in on our chip leaders of yore and see how they fared. Day 1A chip leader Evan Panesis failed to make the money, while Day 1B chip leader Clenet Tripodi is one of the bigger stacks in the field with 1,808,000. Day 1C and Day 2C chip leader Mark Kroon lost a big pot on Day 3 and grinded his way into Day 4 before busting in 458th place. Day 2A chip leader Nick Schwarmann lost a big pot to Grayson Ramage yesterday, but managed to survive to Day 5 with a slightly below average 654,000. Day 3 leader Maxx Coleman made it through the day as well, ending with 1,005,000.5. A Walk Down Memory LaneTo those worried that reigning World Champ Greg Merson doesn’t have enough chips to work with in his 635,000-chip stack, consider this: this time last year, he had 376,000 chips and ranked 203rd out of the 282 Day 4 survivors. Last year’s ninth place finisher, Steve Gee, is also alive and kicking. This time last year, Gee was sitting on 890,000 chips. This time around, he is taking 466,000 into Day 5.6. Start Your Final Table PrognosticatingA glance back through the past five years of chip counts reveals that each year, one player from the top ten stacks at the end of Day 4 ended up final tabling the Main Event. Last year, it was Andras Koroknai. The year before, it was the eventual winner, Pius Heinz. Matthew Jarvis, James Akenhead, and Chino Rheem all also bagged up big stacks Day 4, while the rest of their final tablemates still had plenty of chipping up to do.7. The Remarkably Consistent Women of the Main EventWe’re down to six women in the WSOP Main Event, including bracelet winner Annette Obrestad and Australian pro Jackie Glazier. Women make up 2.5% of the remaining field compared to 4.7% of the total entries in this year’s Main Event. In a surprising display of consistency, the 2.4% of the field that is female also possess 2.2% of the total chips in play. Glazier and Obrestad are each over a million chips, Beverly Lange began with 752,000, Kima Kimura began with 374,000, and short stacks Estelle Denis and Kristy Gazes began with 327,000 and 290,000 respectively.8. Putting Mortensen’s Stack in ComparisonCarlos Mortensen joins Greg Merson as the only previous Main Event winner still in the field. He ended the day with a below average 302,000. Were it 2001, the year Mortensen won the Main Event, that stack, which ranks him 137th in this field, would’ve represented 49% of the total chips in play. Mortensen’s winning year, there were 615 players, each of which began with just 10,000 chips.9. Still One Starting Stack in the Field
Hard to believe that with blinds at 8,000/16,000 to begin Day 5 there is still a player returning with less than starting stack, but such is the case for Zhiwei Zhou, who bagged up just 19,000 last night according to the chip slips.
10. What to ExpectJust yesterday, it was a big deal to have a million chips. Over the course of today, it will become more unusual to not have seven figures in your stack. Last year, of the 97 players who bagged up chips at the end of Day 5, 75 had more than a million chips, meaning just 22.6% ended in six-figure territory.