WPT World Championship: Benny Glaser Leads The Final 37 Players

Just 37 players are left from the record-setting field of 2,960 entries made in the 2022 World Poker Tour World Championship at Wynn Las Vegas after the completion of day 4. The remaining contenders have all locked up at least $99,600 for making it this far, but surely have their eyes on the title and the top prize of $4,136,000.

The chip leader heading into day 5 is four-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner Benny Glaser with 28,800,000. The British poker pro (pictured above) has nearly $3.7 million in recorded tournament earnings to his name, and is well positioned to add to that number in a major way in the final stages of the largest WPT main tour main event ever held.

Glaser came into day 4 with the lead, but was heading in the wrong direction during the early levels of the day. He looked to be falling even further down the leaderboard when his pocket queens ran into the pocket kings of three-time bracelet winner Kristen Foxen, but Glaser spiked a set and held from there to eliminate Foxen in 97th place.

Glaser later won a huge pot with a full house against the king-high flush of Daniel Sepiol that saw him regain the chip lead later in the day. From there, his stack’s upward trajectory continued for the rest of the night.

Not far behind Glaser is Krasimir Yankov with 26,100,000. The Bulgarian won a huge three-way all-in with pocket aces facing both pocket kings and pocket queens that helped propel him toward the top of the counts.

AA vs KK vs QQ

Watch this insane 3-way all in on our feature table with less than 70 remaining in the $10,400 #WPTWorldChampionship WynnPoker</a> <a href=”https://twitter.com/WynnLasVegas?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>WynnLasVegas!

– Tune in NOW: https://t.co/cmPhU7rBJ3 pic.twitter.com/02PHFQPsEj

— World Poker Tour (@WPT) December 18, 2022

Other notables who bagged up top-ten stacks include Jean-Claude Moussa (14,475,000), bracelet winner Igor Kurganov (11,300,000), Andrew Ostapchenko (11,000,000), and WPT ambassador Brad Owen (9,750,000), and bracelet winner Bryce Yockey (9,675,000). Owen, a popular poker vlogger with nearly 650,000 subscribers on YouTube, has already secured the largest live tournament score of his career by surviving to day 5.

Other highly-accomplished players among the final 37 include bracelet winner Jason Gooch (8,925,000), two-time bracelet winner Drew O’Connell (8,825,000), bracelet winner Frank Funaro (8,125,000), WSOP Circuit Choctaw main event winner Nate Kogel (7,800,000), 2019 Wynn Winter Classic main event winner Michael Rocco (7,750,000), 2022 Wynn Millions runner-up Isaac Kempton (6,925,000), bracelet winner Jean Gaspard (5,200,000), 2012 River Poker Series main event winner Aaron Massey (2,550,000), and seven-time WPT final-tablist Garrett Greer (2,125,000).

Daniel NegreanuThere are two players still in the field with previous wins in WPT main events: Soheb Porbanderwala (6,350,000) and Daniel Negreanu, (7,525,000) who is a two-time winner on the tour.

Negreanu is a six-time bracelet winner has more than $49 million in career tournament earnings. Negreanu has $5,797,250 in cashes from WPT main tour events, the second-most behind only Carlos Mortensen ($6,738,670). Negreanu would overtake Mortensen for the top spot by making the official final table tomorrow, as he trails by $941,420 and the top six will all cash for at least $1,001,050.

LoriAnn Persinger won her way into this tournament via a social media contest held by WPT ambassador Andrew Neeme. Now the Navy veteran, former poker media member, and multi-time gameshow winner sits with 5,125,000 in chips heading into day 5. Even if she were to be the first to fall when play resumes, she would secure her largest live tournament cash ever.

“It’s just been amazing,” Persinger told Card Player in a video interview midway through the day. “As I told my husband, this is one of the few times in life you actually want a pink slip because they give you a pink slip at the end of the day when you bag. When I came in, my goal originally was just to make it to day two and then you just take it one day at a time.”

Check out the full video interview below:

Day 4 began with 128 players remaining, which means that 91 players were eliminated over the course of the six 90-minute levels that were played. Among those sent to the rail outside of the top 100 were WPT champion Justin Young (124th), bracelet winner Chris Lee (120th), four-time bracelet winner Michael Gathy (118th), WPT champion Mike Del Vecchio (114th), and WPT winner Markus Gonsalves (113th).

Those who were knocked out inside the top 100 included high-stakes tournament crusher Cary Katz (100th), WPT champion and bracelet winner Anthony Gregg (94th), WPT winner Scott Margereson (87th), four-time bracelet winner Jeff Madsen (79th), 2021 WSOP Europe main event runner-up Johan ‘YoH ViraL’ Guilbert (75th), 2015 WPT Championship winner Asher Conniff (73rd), bracelet winner and WPT champion Pat Lyons (71st), two-time WPT champion James Carroll (69th), bracelet winner Steve Gross (61st), actress Arden Cho (55th), 2021 WPT Venetian third-place finishers Kyna England (54th), and two-time bracelet winner Andrey Lyubovetskiy (53rd).

Lynn GilmartinLongtime WPT anchor Lynn Gilmartin’s run in this event concluded in 91st place when her K-J suited failed to overcome the A-Q of David ‘ODB’ Baker. A queen high flop extended Baker’s lead in the hand, and blanks on the turn and river sent Gilmartin to the rail with $36,500, which blew away her previous largest score of $6,832 earned as the winner of the 2015 European Poker Tour Barcelona €220 ladies event.

Day 5 will begin at noon local time, with blinds of 100,000-200,000 with a big blind ante of 200,000 for level 27. Play is scheduled to continue until the official six-handed WPT final table is set.

Here is a look at the chip counts heading into day 5:

Rank Player Chip Count
1 Benny Glaser 28,800,000
2 Krasimir Yankov 26,100,000
3 Alexander Farahi 15,450,000
4 Jean-Claude Moussa 14,475,000
5 Igor Kurganov 11,300,000
6 Thomas Zanot 11,275,000
7 Andrew Ostapchenko 11,000,000
8 Brad Owen 9,750,000
9 Bryce Yockey 9,675,000
10 Juan Orellana 9,375,000
11 Jason Gooch 8,925,000
12 Drew O’Connell 8,825,000
13 Colton Blomberg 8,650,000
14 Frank Funaro 8,125,000
15 Alberto Meran 7,875,000
16 Nate Kogel 7,800,000
17 Michael Rocco 7,750,000
18 Daniel Negreanu 7,525,000
19 Nissim Vaknin 6,950,000
20 Isaac Kempton 6,925,000
21 Corey Paggeot 6,525,000
22 Soheb Porbandarwala 6,350,000
23 Wojtek Barzantny 5,925,000
24 Chris Limo 5,650,000
25 Brendan Shiller 5,325,000
26 Jean Gaspard 5,200,000
27 LoriAnn Persinger 5,125,000
28 Adrian Sorel State 4,000,000
29 Lucas Foster 3,925,000
30 Eliot Hudon 3,600,000
31 Stephen Kehoe 3,125,000
32 Adam Adler 3,100,000
33 Rami Owera 3,000,000
34 Aaron Massey 2,550,000
35 Garrett Greer 2,125,000
36 Kharlin Sued 2,000,000
37 Philip Peterson 725,000