With just 19 players remaining, blondeite and Grand Prix winner Roland De Wolfe (Rolandinho) is currently placed 2nd and sitting pretty (chip-wise) with an impressive 3,325,000.Leading the way with a stonking 4,235,000 is Las Vegaser (is that the correct term??) James Van Alstyne, who has seen off an unsurprisingly strong field that included the likes of Erick Lindgren, Johnny Chan, Chip Jett, Phil Hellmuth, Jennifer Harman, and the legendary Doyle Brunson… all of whom sneaked into the money.
Whilst all these big names have since bitten the dust, Roland still has some mighty fine competition to contend with; WPT winner Annand Ramdin, high-roller Patrik Antonius Men ‘The Master’ Nguyen, and Brit Surinder Sunar… although the latter three are all struggling with less than 500,000 in chips.
With Ross Boatman taking home $102,520 for his 20th place finish, the prizes have reached that magic six figure sum, and players such as Roland will be licking their lips, intently praying for a humongous payday.
Although Roland has been running well throughout, other blondeites weren’t as fortunate. Rob Yong, Ben Grundy, Brian Wilson, and Dave Colclough all bit the dust earlier on in the comp, with the latter running kings into aces, and then a set into a bigger set. Let’s hope Roland doesn’t have similar disagreements with the poker gods.
The current chip counts moving into Day 5 are as follows:
James Van Alstyne -- 4,235,000
Roland De Wolfe -- 3,325,000
Carlos Zambrano -- 2,985,000
Annand ‘Victor’ Ramdin -- 2,685,000
Joe Bartholdi -- 2,350,000
Paul Wasicka -- 2,245,000
Erica Schoenberg -- 1,735,000
Simon Moussa -- 1,695,000
Vanessa Rousso -- 1,575,000
Cliff Josephy -- 1,255,000
David Matthew -- 1,200,000
Espen Saltnes -- 1,130,000
Claus Nielson -- 940,000
Gary Maresh -- 905,000
Valentino Morella -- 525,000
Chad Brown -- 485,000
Patrik Antonius -- 450,000
Men Nguyen -- 375,000
Surinder Sunar -- 120,000
Play will continue until they reach a final table of 6 lucky players. Out of 605 players, Roland has done remarkably. Let’s hope he takes a big slice out of that $14,671,250 cake of a prize pool. Good luck.
