It was all-in preflop between Brian Borne and Dustin Nelson.
"I'm ahead," said Borne, tabling . Nelson showed and was flipping for his tournament life.
The flop came giving Nelson the lead. In a peculiar sight, both players got to their feet to sweat the turn and river. The board ran out and Nelson doubled through his opponent.
Picking up the action on a board of Jason Gooch was in the big blind and he checked over to Daniel Merrilees who put out a bet of 150,000. Gooch called and it was on to the river.
The river was the and Gooch checked again. Merrilees decided to fire again and he put out a bet of 335,000, almost enough to put Gooch all in. Gooch thought momentarily then released his hand and that allowed Merrilees to rake in the early pot.
Shankar Pillai was under the gun and barreled down a board of against Samuel Touil in the cutoff. The bets were 50,000, then 130,000, then 300,000. Touil called the first two but then cut out a raise to 780,000 and slid it in on the river. Pillai thought a little awhile and then mucked.
The field in the 2018 World Series of Poker Main Event is drawing closer and closer to crowning its new champion, as just 310 players are left standing after Day 4. Cards for Day 5 will be in the air at 11 a.m. local time, which each player already secured a fantastic payday of $37,705.
Leading the way in search of poker's most coveted prize is Barry Hutter, who bagged the overnight chip lead with 5,597,000. Hot on Hutter's heels are Alexander Haro (5,031,000), Brian Altman (4,861,000) and Andres Jeckeln (4,506,000).
Kelly Minkin sits in sixth place with 3,459,000 in chips. Minkin made a name for herself when she ran deep in the 2015 WSOP Main Event, eventually bowing out in 29th place for $211,821. Another deep run looms as Minkin finds herself in prime position to possibly top her previous best.
Other notables that return on Day 5 include Brian Yoon (3,228,000), James Obst (2,560,000), Shaun Deeb (2,175,000), Cliff Josephy (1,985,000), Antonio Esfandiari (1,260,000), Paul Volpe (1,070,000) and Chris Moorman (907,000).
Day 5 will feature 5.5 levels of play, with play wrapping up around 12:30 a.m. The dinner break is around 4:25 p.m.
Level
Duration
Small Blind
Big Blind
Ante
21
60 minutes
10,000
20,000
3,000
20 minutes break
22
120 minutes
12,000
24,000
4,000
60 minutes break
23
120 minutes
15,000
30,000
5,000
20 minutes break
24
120 minutes
20,000
40,000
5,000
20 minutes break
25
120 minutes
25,000
50,000
5,000
20 minutes break
26
120 minutes
30,000
60,000
10,000
PokerNews has an all-star team on the floor to cover this event wire-to-wire, so be sure to be glued to your screen for updates. On top of that, both ESPN2 and PokerGO will live stream this event.