Day 4 of the $10,000 buy-in World Series of Poker Main Event concluded Friday night local time in Las Vegas with three more former main event champions eliminated. Carlos Mortensen, Joe Cada and Scotty Nguyen all busted out, Nguyen surprisingly early in the day.
Day 4 started with 1,084 players all in the money, creating a festive air to the occasion, but over the course of the day 787 fell, leaving just 297 survivors going through to Day 5 on Saturday.
All are guaranteed a cash of at least $35,267…more if they can stay in the game.
When the chips were bagged at the end of Day 4 play it was Argentinian online and live tourney player Damian Salas who had the biggest stack at 4,67 million, chased by Frenchman Sebastian Comel (4,198,000) and Belgian ace Kenny Hallaert (4,145,000).
Touching many hearts during Day 4 was Kenneth “K.L.” Cleeton, a 27-year-old quadriplegic who suffers from spinal muscular atrophy and, along with two others, was sponsored for this year’s main event by a very generous Daniel Negreanu.
This remarkable young man not only survives his crippling illness, but completed a college degree, became a successful online poker player and started his own successful advertising business.
Cleeton was the subject of countless good wishes from other competitors and will go through to Day 5 action and the prospect of larger rewards.
Mickey Craft arrived late for Day 4 after a night of celebration but quickly made up for it with some big scores in a peaks-and-valleys performance that generated plenty of railbird interest.
He ended up on the TV feature table with a final chip stack of 2.4 million – twice his starting stack at the beginning of the day – and goes through to Day 5.
Other familiar names with big stacks going through to Day 5 included Charlie Carrel, Antoine Saout and Kathy Liebert.