Day 5 of the 2011 World Series of Poker Main Event saw 378 players return to the Amazon Room at the Rio with intentions of either chipping up or going home. Manoj Viswanathan started the day as the chip leader, but by the end of the day, David Bach had jumped to the top spot. In addition, we found out who the contenders for "Last Woman Standing" will be for this year. Finally, we said goodbye to one of poker’s favorite players, and we’re finally starting to get an idea of what the final three days of action may look like.
David Bach rode several big pots on Day 4 to move over the 1 million mark and continued the same trend on Day 5 to take the chip lead. Bach moved into the chip lead after eliminating Scott Augustine. Augustine was all-in with 
and Bach called with 
. A queen on the flop gave Bach the lead in the hand and eventually the lead in the tournament at 2.72 million. He moved up to around the 3 million mark after busting Matthew Goldman. Goldman flipped for his tournament life with 
against Bach’s pocket threes, and Bach’s threes held. Bach jumped over 4 million after getting very lucky against Max Heinzelmann. After Heinzelmann raised to 40,000 preflop, Bach three-bet to 120,000. Heinzelmann moved all-in for 800,000 and Bach snap-called with 
. He found himself crushed behind the 
of Heinzelmann. Bach had just two outs until the flop fell 
, giving him a flush draw and giving Heinzelmann a huge sweat to contend with. The turn was red, but it was the 
and Heinzelmann was close to moving above average in chips again. As is the case so many times in the Main Event, the river was cruel and brought the 
to complete Bach’s flush and send Heinzelmann staggering to the rail. Bach moved up to 4.7 million in chips after that pot. His official count at the end of Day 5 was 4,706,000 and he will take that stack into battle on Day 6.
Two other players are right on Bach’s coat tails. Pius Heinz finished the day with 4,699,000, followed by Kyle Johnson with 4,654,000. Heinz moved up to 3.77 million on the day after knocking out Jon Friedberg, who shoved at the turn on a board of 
and was called by Heinz. Heinz had pocket queens for a set and Friedberg was drawing dead with . Heinz continued to chip up through the rest of the day to finish just 7,000 behind Bach. Johnson has very quietly worked his way up the leaderboard over the last couple of days. He started Day 5 with 1.76 million and continued to fly under the radar as he worked his way up to third in chips on Saturday. He will no longer be under the radar now as everyone will be watching whether Johnson will be able to continue to contend for the chip lead.
Two of the featured players on Day 5 were Daniel Negreanu and Jean-Robert Bellande. Negreanu had a roller coaster Day 4 and had to battle back from under 100,000 twice. He started Day 5 with 619,000 on the same table as Bellande but it appeared that he used up his "run good" the day before, and he could never win a pot. His frustration at this year’s WSOP was summed up in his final hand. He was all-in preflop for his final 95,000 with pocket tens against the 
of Rupert Elder. The flop 
missed both players, but the turn brought the to put Negreanu behind. Negreanu then mentioned how that was the story of his WSOP, get it in as a 2:1 favorite and still lose. He failed to hit his ten on the river, bringing an end to Negreanu’s WSOP.
Jean-Robert Bellande couldn’t do much better than tread water on the day. He started the day with 1.134 million and finished with 1.23 million. While that is technically below the chip average of 1.4 million, a mere double-up puts him in the top 20 in chips.
Manoj Viswanathan learned how quickly things can go from the penthouse to the outhouse in Texas hold’em. He started the day as the overall chip leader with 2.11 million and soon found himself slipping down to around 1 million. He spiraled down to 550,000 before making a bit of a rebound back over 1 million. Viswanathan then called an all-in from Ray Henson with 
. Henson held and the flop fell 
. Neither player improved and Viswanathan was knocked back down to 775,000. Later, with just 600,000 left in his stack, Viswanathan moved all-in preflop with pocket queens. David Barter woke up with pocket aces and made the call. The board ran out nine-high and Viswanathan was eliminated. In one of the more refreshing interviews of the Series, Viswanathan told Kara Scott on the live coverage on ESPN 2 that he "just played bad" and offered no excuses other than that. He did say he learned a lot and will be back next year.
Only three women remain in the Main Event field. Claudia Crawford, with 1.88 million, is the current leader among the remaining women. Earlier in Day 5, she soared to 2.5 million in chips after busting Matt "AllInAt420" Stout. On a flop of 
, Stout bet 51,000 and Crawford made the call. On the turn , Stout checked and Crawford bet for 90,000. Stout made the call and the 
hit the river. Stout shoved and Crawford insta-called and showed for a set of eights. Stout showed only 
and was eliminated. Erika Moutinho was known until the Main Event as being David Sands’ better half. However, in the Main Event she has proven herself quite the player. She finished Day 5 with 878,000 and while that is below average, she still has enough chips to be a factor. Amanda Musumeci, is the short stack among the ladies. After starting Day 5 with over 1 million in chips, she had a bit of a roller coaster day. At one point, she moved up to 1.4 million but from that point lost close to half of her stack to finish the day. She will go into Day 6 with 738,000 in chips, about half the average stack.
Phil Collins and Ben Lamb finished fourth and fifth respectively and were the only other players to finish the day above 4 million chips. Collins finished with 4.1 million and Lamb with 4.03 million. Sebastian Ruthenberg, Lars Bonding, and Bryan Devonshire all round out the top 10 in chips on Day 5. Sam Barnhart is still alive and very strong in chips with 3.06 million. JP Kelly, Fred Berger, and Tony Hachem are all over 2 million. Joseph Cheong’s bid for his second straight November Nine appearance is still alive as he finished with 1.98 million on the day. David Sands, Minh Nguyen, Sami Kelopuro, Ray Henson, Eli Elezra, author Mitchell Cogert, and Erick Lindgren are all still alive in the field.
On Tap
Only 142 players remain in the Main Event. Those players will return on Sunday to play five levels. During that time, the field is expected to shrink by about half as players try and chip up to make their final assault on the November Nine final table.
Podcast
The main topic of discussion this week on the PokerNews Podcast was obviously the 2011 WSOP Main Event. They went over the big names, the massive field sizes, the chip leaders, and all the important news from the event. Annie Duke did stop by to discuss the Epic Poker League and the crew had a little fun with both Kristy Arnett’s "Halloween dress" and the Paul Pierce video.
Check out what you may have missed this week by accessing our archives.
Video of the Day
Phil Collins was the first player on Saturday to move over the 3 million chip mark in route to finishing the day fourth in chips. Kristy Arnett caught up with Collins during the dinner break to find out about his day and what is up with his karate chops at the table.
The Main Event may be winding down, but we are ramping up. Follow PokerNews on Facebook and Twitter.
