WSOP Main Event Day 6: One-percenters heading toward final

Among the world’s motorcycle riders, there is a subculture of outlaw bikers like Hell’s Angels, Mongols, and such who consider themselves to be one-percenters, aka, the one percent of bikers who don’t answer to the man.

Here at the WSOP, we have our own version of the one-percenters. They are the people–the one percent of the 2010 starting field–who will be coming back for Day 7. In a Main Event that started with 7,319 players, we are down to 78, or almost 1.1% percent. That’s close enough for us. Plus, in our version, we’re less like to have a knife fight.

On Day 6, some 12 hours defined by a marked shift in the Main Event atmosphere, there emerged a new leader among the field of outlaws. While we’re waiting for the official counts to come in, it appears Theo Jorgensen is leading the field as Day 6 comes to a close.

Not too far behind and in serious contention is a wide swath of PokerStars players, qualifiers, and Pros. Among the remaining players, the PokerStars flag is flying above nearly half the seats. We’re keeping an eye on all of them, of course, but the keenest of all is on some of the top dogs like Jonathan Driscoll, Matt Affleck, and Edward Ochana, all of whom are working with stacks around 6 million, and near the top ten mark on the leaderboard.

PokerStars is still well-represented as well by two Team Pros. Johnny Lodden (who had a horrible day that involved running queens into kings, but still provided us with some great Scandi action) finished slightly below average, but with enough chips to do some damage. Meanwhile, William Thorson put on an exhibition today that has him near the leaders with more than six million chips.

As long as the two pros have known each other, they have never cashed in the same live tournament. Now, they are both headed to Day 7 of the WSOP as the only Team PokerStars left in Day 6 (that’s one better than last year when Team Pro Dennis Phillips was the only one from the stable to make it to Day 7).

Those men lead a still strong battalion of PokerStars players and qualifiers who all hope to spend tomorrow making it to the final 27. It could be a Team PokerStars Pro, it could be a player like John Robert Bellande, or it could be one of the new guys of poker we have spent our day telling you about.

By the time players have made it this far, they no longer have to worry about making the money. In fact, instead of a sense of accomplishment for earning tens of thousands of dollars, busting out now is something akin to disappoint. Instead of “I won money” it is a feeling of “I lost the WSOP.” That happened to more than 120 people today.

This was a day with a ton of promise, and it could’ve ended with a ton of other great stories. We were forced to write, however, about the elimination of Gualter Salles and Breeze Zuckerman. At one point on Wednesday, Salles had been reduced to a single ante before rallying back to finish near one million chips. Today, he lost a good number of chips after getting trapped in the middle of two players and having to lay down a big hand. After that, he had to take it to the house after losing a kicker battle with Adam Levy. Zuckerman, meanwhile, was the last woman to be eliminated from the 2010 WSOP. She lost most of her chips on Day 6 after having her kings cracked all-in pre-flop versus Adam Levy’s jacks.

Also on the chopping block today was UK team PokerStars Pro JP Kelly, who lost a simple race (tens versus ace-jack) against Theo Jorgensen. No word on whether Kelly will hop the first plane home to catch Day 1B of the UKIPT (but we’re betting not).