2015 WSOP - Kearney leads the final 27 players after Day 6

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The 2015 World Series of Poker Main Event reached the final 27 players early Tuesday morning with the world’s most famous player still in contention. Daniel Negreanu ended the day ninth in chips with 8.4 million, but Thomas Kearney leads the field after ending the day with 14.4 million.

Negreanu and Max Steinberg are the only two remaining bracelet winners, but the duo enters the final day with different perspectives. Steinberg, who won his seat playing daily fantasy, will enter the final day of play this month with 3.2 million. Joe McKeehen, Justin “Stealthmuk” Schwartz, Anton Morgenstern and Fedor Holz also highlight the returning field.

“The (November) Nine has no relevancy to me. The 'One' does, so I'm focusing on the one,” Negreanu said. “Maybe some people are focusing on the Nine, I'm doing everything I need to do to get to the one spot.”

“Insane, absolutely insane,” said Kearney of bagging the lead at the end of Day 6. “I’ve had a lot of close calls that have just really made me want it and it came together today. I’ve been pretty patient with my spots and on the right end of coolers.”

Kearney is a 29-year-old Las Vegas resident who plays online as “butters.”

“From here on out it’s almost like a freeroll,” he said. “If I crush and win it, that’s amazing. If I don’t, I make more money with every single pay jump, so I hope for the best obviously.”

Kearney edged out Mozheng “Matt” Guan at the end of the night for the lead. Guan bagged up 14.23 million.

“I don’t play a lot of tournaments – maybe two a year. This is something I didn’t expect to happen but I’m happy to be here," he said. "My goal is to make the final table. You have to chip up to do that so I’m not going to sit on my stack and cruise into the final table.

“I think I made a lot of mistakes today – I could have done a lot better,” Guan said. “I barely got any sleep last night. I had to take a nap at the dinner break.”

Negreanu spent the whole day on the ESPN feature table and earned a key pot near the end of the day to build his stack. Negreanu opened from under the gun, Wasim Ahmar moved all-in and Negreanu called holding 8-8. Ahmar tabled 2-2 and Ahmar was eliminated as the board ran Ah-5d-4h-Ac-9c.

Kelly Minkin was the only woman returning on Day 6 and nearly survived the day. She fell short, busting in 29th place after she went to flop of 10s-10h-6h. Federico Butteroni led out, Minkin shoved and Butteroni called holding Qc-10d. Minkin had kicker problems holding 10c-4h and needed to hit a four to stay alive. A queen came on the turn and ended Minkin’s run.



Andrew Moreno was the last player eliminated on Day 6 and the clock paused at 37:36 with his elimination. Holz, the 2015 WCOOP main event champion, opened the action. Moreno three-bet all-in from the small blind and McKeehen moved in over the top from the big blind. Moreno tabled Ad-10s and McKeehen had him out-kicked with Ah-Qs. A queen fell on the flop and Moreno’s tournament was over.

The pay jumps at this stage of the tournament influenced the action at the feature table with a $50,753 difference between 28th and 27th place. There were 30 players remaining when James Magner was in the big blind for 120,000. Thomas Cannuli opened to 300,000, action folded around to Magner he folded pocket queens face up.

Six bracelet winners were eliminated during play: Justin Bonomo (65th), Matt Jarvis (51st), Brian Hastings (49th), Steve Gross (47th), Max Greenwood (42nd) and Upeska De Silva (36th). Greenwood moved all-in with pocket jacks, Patrick Chan called with aces and flopped a set. Jarvis also met his end holding a premium pair, queens, but ran into Bob Buckenmayer’s K-K and the board ran eight-high.

The "Summer of Hastings" ended in a particularly brutal exit. After being one of the chip leaders since Day 1, Hastings got into a preflop showdown with John Hinds. Both players had 5 million-plus chip stacks and it was a tough K-K versus A-A confrontation. The board ran all rags, and Hastings’ November Nine dreams were over.

Top Five Chip Counts
1. Thomas Kearney (14.4 million in chips)
2. Mozheng Guan (14.2 million)
3. Erasmus Morfe (12.0 million)
4. Joseph McKeehen (11.9 million)
5. Mario Sequeira (11.6 million)

Small Blinds: Phil Hellmuth was at the Rio again supporting fellow Wisconsin native Mark Kroon. … There were 13 countries represented at the start of play and only seven remain: U.S., Germany, Israel, Canada, Italy, Belgium and Great Britain. … Buckenmayer was eliminated in 39th place. He's cashed three out of the past four years in the main event. (17th place in 2012, 166th in 2013).