Cliff Josephy Headlines Final 27 In 2016 World Series of Poker Main EventJames Obst, Kenny Hallaert and Tom Marchese Among Remaining Players With A Shot At The Bracelet and $8 Million Top Prize |
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Cliff Josephy is a two-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner with over $2.6 million in lifetime live tournament earnings and untold more in online winnings were he was one of the top players with the well known handle of “JohnnyBax”. Although he is an incredibly accomplished poker pro, his best prior finish in the World Series of Poker $10,000 no-limit hold’em main event was when he finished 386th for $28,950. Now he is one of the top three stacks in the 2016 WSOP world championship with only 27 players remaining.
“It feels unbelievable. Nothing could feel better except making the final nine and what comes after that,” said Josephy. “This is the goal. I’ve reached the goal and everything has just gone perfectly so far.”
Josephy has had a healthy stack the last few days but was not one of the chip leaders until the end of day 6. He finished day 4 in 84th place out of 251 remaining players. Out of the 80 that ended day 5 he was in 22nd place. When the final 27 were set at the conclusion of day 6 he was in third place with 23,860,000.
“Things just all went my way today,” said Josephy. “I didn’t play any big pots that went against me. The biggest pot I could have lost was my pocket kings vs. pocket aces for four million.”
Early on Josephy did run his K
K
into Dietrich Fast’s AA
preflop and was in bad shape for a large chunk of stack. The board ran out K657
3 to give Josephy a set and send Fast to the rail.
While Josephy did bag one of the largest stacks, the outright chip leader is Czech poker pro Vojtech Ruzicka with 26,415,000. Second in chips is New Jersey native Michael Ruane with 24,565,000.
Joining Josephy, Ruzicka and Ruane in the battle to make the November Nine tomorrow will be several seasoned poker pros including James Obst (19,560,000), eight-time WSOP Circuit ring winner Valentin Vornicu (17,450,000), Kenny Hallaert (15,465,000), 2010 Card Player Player of the Year Thomas Marchese (15,420,000), Jared Bleznick (8,300,000), Griffen Benger (6,530,000) and 2009 WSOP main event third-place finisher Antoine Saout (5,525,000).
Plenty of notables hit the rail on day 6 including bracelet winner Michael Banducci (69th – $96,787), 2016 WPT L.A. Poker Classic winner Dietrich Fast (55th – $116,963), 2013 WSOP $111,111 One Drop High Roller winner Tony Gregg (50th – $142,447), nine-time WSOP final tablist Chris Klodnicki (45th – $174,826), Jason Les (40th – $174,826), Max Silver (33rd – $216,211) and two-time bracelet winner Paul Volpe (29th – $216,211).
Another big name to bust today was 2014 Card Player Player of the Year award winner Daniel Colman, who was among the chip leaders on day 4 and five, but faltered a bit on day 6.
In the end Colman got all-in on a J723 turn, check-raising Fernando Pons’ bet of 350,000 to 3,600,000. Pons called with the AJ for top pair with the ace kicker. Colman also had a pair of jacks with J9 but his inferior kicker put him in bad shape heading into the river. The Q sealed the deal, sending Colman to the rail in 31st place for $216,211. The 26-year-old poker pro now has more than $25.5 million in lifetime live tournament earnings, good for fourth-place spot on the all-time money list.
With the elimination of Elliott Peterman (28th – $216,211) play was halted for the night, as the final 27 bagged up their chips knowing that they are guaranteed at least $269,430 and are in with a chance for much more.
There was a complete redraw at the end of the day, mixing up the tables for the day that will decide this year’s WSOP main event final table. Play resumes at noon local time tomorrow and continues until the 2016 November Nine is decided.
Here is a look at the chip counts of the remaining players:
| Rank | Player | Chip Count |
| 1 | Vojtech Ruzicka | 26,415,000 |
| 2 | Michael Ruane | 24,565,000 |
| 3 | Cliff Josephy | 23,860,000 |
| 4 | James Obst | 19,560,000 |
| 5 | Myung Mike Shin | 19,345,000 |
| 6 | Valentin Vornicu | 17,450,000 |
| 7 | Fernando Pons | 17,270,000 |
| 8 | Thomas Miller | 17,185,000 |
| 9 | Kenny Hallaert | 15,465,000 |
| 10 | Tom Marchese | 15,420,000 |
| 11 | Matthew Moss | 15,250,000 |
| 12 | Kakwan Lau | 15,110,000 |
| 13 | Jerry Wong | 12,975,000 |
| 14 | Joshua Weiss | 11,580,000 |
| 15 | Michael Niwinski | 10,660,000 |
| 16 | Andrew Christoforou | 9,450,000 |
| 17 | Gordon Vayo | 8,795,000 |
| 18 | Jared Bleznick | 8,300,000 |
| 19 | Adam Krach | 7,540,000 |
| 20 | Griffen Benger | 6,530,000 |
| 21 | Christopher Kusha | 6,530,000 |
| 22 | William Kassouf | 6,095,000 |
| 23 | John Cynn | 5,760,000 |
| 24 | Antoine Saout | 5,525,000 |
| 25 | Qui Nguyen | 4,790,000 |
| 26 | Jeff Hakim | 4,375,000 |
| 27 | Phillip Postma | 2,225,000 |
For more coverage from the summer series, visit the 2016 WSOP landing page complete with a full schedule, news, player interviews and event recaps.
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