Stephen Song leads after Day 5 of the 2024 World Series of Poker Main Event

Of the record participation of 10,112 participants in 2024, only 160 players remain. World Series of Poker $10,000 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em Main Event following the conclusion of Day 5. In just six days, one of them will lift the championship bracelet and head to the cash desk for $10,000,000 in prize money.

The chip leader before day 6 is bracelet winner and 2022 WPT Prime Championship Winner Stephen Song with 12,310,000. Song (pictured above) won a sizable pot late in the day with pocket aces against the pocket jacks of Aneris Adomkevicius, who moved all-in on the river and finished in 165th place.

Song has $6,537,714 in tournament winnings, including nearly $1.6 million in WSOP Events. The winner of the 2019 $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em Bracelet event achieved his best run in the Main Event to date, finishing 83rd out of 6,650 entrants in 2021.

The only other player to finish the night above the 10 million chip mark was Carlos Caldas with 12,110,000. Other top stacks include Diogo Coelho (9,950,000), Yegor Moroz (9,470,000) and Manuel Machado (8,830,000).

Several big names are in the top 50 heading into Day 6, including online tournament poker legend Niklas ‘Lena900’ Astedt (7,900,000), bracelet winner Alex Keating (13th), six-time bracelet winner Brian Rast (6,325,000), WPT the champions Veerab Zakarian (6,115,000) and Iaron Lightbourne (5,905,000), Ren Lin (5,660,000) and the four-time bracelet winner Kristen Foxen (5,400,000).

Full chip counts for those entering Day 6 can be found here.

Day 5 began with 464 participants remaining. Among the 304 players eliminated by the end of the day were players such as Maria Ho (445th), five-time bracelet winner Adam Friedman (416th), eleven-time bracelet winner Phil Ivey (340th), two-time WPT Master and Card player Columnist Jonathan Little (316th), bracelet winner Nacho Barbero (301st), three-time bracelet winner Chris Vitch (268th), two-time bracelet winner David Prociak (225th), youngest winner of the Independence Day Celebration bracelet event Francis Anderson (226th), two-time bracelet winner Boris Kolev (218th), 2022 Wynn Millions Champion Tony Sinishtaj (204th), three-time bracelet winner David “Bakes” Baker (184th) and two-time bracelet winner Jesse Lonis (176th).

Adrian Mateos, four-time bracelet winner, began the day in second chip position, but two tough hands in quick succession caused him to fall in the rankings on the fifth day. He
held KK on a Q42 Board in a 4-bet pot. His opponent, two-time WSOP Circuit Ring winner Will Berry put 425,000 into the pot of 1,360,000 with AA. Mateos called and the 10 rolled off the deck on the turn. Bet bet 1,300,000 into the 2,210,000 pot and Mateos folded, leaving 3,400,000.

Not long after, Mateos opened AA for a 60,000 min-raise from the lojack and was called by Lingkun Lu in the small blind with 5.4Adrian Garcia then raised to 325,000 with A in the big blind.K. Mateos 4-bet to 750,000 and Lu moved out of the way. Garcia 5-bet shoved for 2,925,000 and Mateos called. The board was 1098th93 and Garcia made a backdoor flush, leaving Mateos short. He ended up in 317th place and winning $45,000. Watch a clip of this brutal second hand from PokerGO’s Below you will find exclusive coverage of the main event:

All against ACE!

The action continues on day 5 of the @WSOP Main event.

: https://t.co/nGgEBVjzC9 pic.twitter.com/GiZ3x7XLH4

— PokerGO (@PokerGO) July 11, 2024

The final 160 players return for Day 6 at noon on Friday, July 12, with blinds ranging from 40,000-80,000 and an ante of 80,000 big blinds for Level 26. The average stack of 3,792,000 equates to 47.4 big blinds when the cards come back in the air. All remaining players have secured at least $70,000 for their efforts. The first six-figure payout days start at seat 125.

Here’s a look at the top ten chip stacks heading into Day 6:

Remaining payments in 2024 WSOP Main event:

Visit the Card Player 2024 World Series of Poker page for schedules, news, interviews and the latest event results. WSOP Reporting sponsored by Global Poker.