John O'Shea Surges to Lead in WPT World Championship

Published on April 22nd, 2010 9:32 pm EST

Day 5 of the WPT World Championship only lasted 4 1/2 hours, but John O'Shea was able to make the most of that time and finish the day as the tournament chip leader.

John O'Shea will need to fend off some of poker's top tournament players if he wants to take down the WPT World Championship.

Scotty Nguyen, who is fifth on the all-time tournament money list with over $11 million in total earnings, finished Day 5 second in chips and will be looking for his second WPT title.

18 players were alive at the start of Day 5, but only 10 managed to make it through to the end of the day.

One of the most surprising eliminations on Day 5 was Faraz "The-Toilet 0" Jaka, who entered Day 5 with the chip lead.

Jaka was sent to the rail by David Williams in 14th place after calling David's massive all-in river bet with the board reading Ad-10h-9c-Jc-7s. Jaka showed Ad-As for top set, but Williams triumphantly turned over his Ks-Qh for a turned Broadway straight and raked in the massive 4 million+ chip pot. Jaka, who looked as though he was going to cruise through to Saturday's final table, ended up exiting the tournament in a disappointing 14th place.

All 10 remaining players in the event are guaranteed at least $56,439 for making it this far. The eventual winner of the event will receive $1,530,537, while the runner-up will take home $1,034,715.

Here are the chip stacks heading into Day 6 on Friday:

John O'Shea - 3,174,000
Scotty Nguyen - 2,637,000
David Benyamine - 2,561,000
David Williams - 2,549,000
Billy Baxter - 2,429,000
Eric Baldwin - 2,130,000
Cliff "JohnnyBax" Josephy - 1,269,000
Shawn Buchanan - 1,087,000
Nikolay Evdakov - 922,000
Phil Hellmuth - 839,000

There is obviously an incredible collection of poker talent still alive in this event, which will make the final two days of play very entertaining to follow.

Notes:

Both Phil Hellmuth ($11,173,270 in lifetime earnings) and Scotty Nguyen ($11,164,857 in lifetime earnings) would move to second on the all-time money list with a victory in this event.

Phil Hellmuth will be looking for his first ever WPT title in this event.

Nikolay Evdakov holds the record for most in-the-money finishes at the World Series of Poker in a single year (10).

Billy Baxter is a member of the Poker Hall of Fame (2006) and is also looking for his first WPT title. Baxter has a total of 7 WSOP bracelets

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Day 6 will get under way on Friday afternoon (local time), where the remaining 10 players will play down to Saturday's six-handed final table.


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Filed Under: Tournament Results