2015 WSOP - Neuville leads final 69 players after Day 5

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Day 5 of the 2015 World Series of Poker was moving day and with just two days separating nine of the 69 remaining players with a date with the November Nine. The possibilities of what this final table could look like are coming into focus.

While a lot of attention was paid to 94-year-old Bill Wachter’s run into the money, a 72-year-old with a considerable poker pedigree has quietly taken over the top spot in the tournament as hopes of over $7.6 million and the bracelet become realer to all left alive in the chase. Pierre Neuville of Belgium bagged 7.1 million in chips at the end of the night Sunday, thanks to a steady climb throughout the day that’s been continuous since the early stages of the tournament.

“It’s been, really, magic,” said Neuville, “It’s absolutely fantastic. With tactics, I would say, I set up to play almost [all smallball], never put my tournament at risk, never pushed any hand [and never] been in a flip the whole tournament. I think I’m one of the best [and] I am not modest about my game postflop, because all of the young ones try to raise, three-bet, four-bet for all of it. I won most of my hands postflop without taking risks, but of course the luck was there.”

Neuville began playing poker in Brussels in 1957, but spent decades away from the game due to contractual obligations relating to his role as an executive with board game titan Hasbro in Europe. Upon his return to poker in January 2008, Neuville finished 18th in the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure main event. Since then he’s finished second twice on the EPT and runner-up again in the $5,000 six-max no-limit hold ’em event at the 2014 WSOP. Even for someone with these kinds of results, Neuville was elated with the opportunity that he has in this tournament.

“I’ve never [even] had a dream that I would be chipleader in the main event,” said Neuville. “I think it’s outside a reasonable expectation, so now I will have to wake up tomorrow morning and set up a realistic new way of playing this tournament. I probably don’t really realize it right now.”

The 68 hopefuls trailing Neuville include a number of players who are compelling possibilities for the November Nine, including a gentleman you might know by the name of Daniel Negreanu.

The poker icon spent much of the day with 21-year-old Fedor Holz two seats to his left on the main stage, and Negreanu let Holz and others largely dictate the pace while he sat back patiently.

“I didn't have many hands, basically, and they weren't going to let me run over the table because they were doing it,” said Negreanu. “So I went to plan B and went back to doing what I do, which is wait for the right situations and chip away when I can.”

It worked out quite well for Negreanu, who finished Day 5 in 22nd with 3.6 million in chips. Holz will have some more work to do as he’ll start Day 6 in 44th.

Holz has all the potential in the world, a circumstance Negreanu understands all too well. This is his second-best WSOP main event run already, with only an 11th place finish in the 2001 WSOP Main Event left to beat. At that point Negreanu had just one bracelet rather than six, and he was ill-equipped to finish the tournament out, in his estimation. 14 years later, it’s a much different situation.

“Back in 2001, I wasn't ready to win anyway,” said Negreanu. “I was chipleader with 12 left and made a play that I would never play the same way today - I played it like a young kid. This one is different too because back then we weren't talking about 6,000 player fields - this is big. The main event has gotten cooler to me every year in terms of wanting to win it."

Matt Jarvis, the only remaining November Niner with hopes of a repeat journey, will start Day 6 in seventh place. Brian Hastings, who’s seemingly been at or near the top of the chip counts almost every night he’s played, ended Day 5 in the top 10 yet again. Other notables to look out for include bracelet-winner Max Steinberg, early chipleader Joe McKeehen, Steve Gross, Toby Lewis (33rd), Justin Bonomo, Upeshka De Silva and Max Greenwood.

Day 5 meant the end of the road for some 168 players, including French actor Patrick Bruel, the first player to go out on Sunday. He was joined in demise by Men Nguyen (211th), Vivek Rajkumar (197th), Christian Harder (196th), Ryan D’Angelo (188th), Dan O’Brien (186th), Anton Makiievskyi (183rd), Antonio Esfaniari (168th), John Racener (162nd), Matt Glantz (146th), Jared Jaffee (137th), Jim Bechtel (121st), Vitaly Lunkin (119th), Jake Cody (113th), Brandon Adams (95th), Matt Waxman and, finally, Danny Fuhs (70th) to end the night.

Action resumes at 12 p.m. PT Monday at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino, with ESPN cameras rolling for future broadcast.

Top 5 Chip Counts

1. Pierre Neuville (7.1 million in chips)
2. David Stefanski (6.4 million)
3. Thomas Paul (6.1 million)
4. David Peters (6.1 million)
5. Mozheng Guan (6.0 million)

Small Blinds: The Amazon Room was briefly graced by the presence of soccer royalty as Brazilian superstar Neymar came by to check up on his friend Felipe Ramos, who’d eventually finish 136th. Just a few hours later, Neymar ran into another sporting legend currently spending time in Las Vegas - Michael Jordan. … Kelly Minkin of Tucson, Arizona is the last woman standing in the main event, and she’ll start Day 6 in the middle of the pack … With Jim Bechtel’s exit in 121st, there were no previous WSOP main event champions left standing in the field … There are eight WSOP bracelet winners left in the field after Day 5, and only two of them have multiple wins: Negreanu (6) and Hastings (3). The others are Jarvis, Steinberg, Gross, Bonomo, Greenwood and De Silva, with Hastings and De Silva standing as the last two 2015 winners standing.