Adam Walton leads the final nine players in the World Series of Poker Main Event.
The professional poker player residing in Henderson made a late surge during Day 8 of the $10,000 buy-in No-limit Hold’em World Championship on Friday at Horseshoe Las Vegas and bagged 143.8 million chips when action was halted.
He will have a commanding chip lead over Steven Jones (90.3 million), a real estate broker from Scottsdale, Arizona, when the final table begins at 1:30 p.m. Sunday at the Horseshoe.
The plan is to play down to four players Sunday and crown the champion Monday. All the remaining players are guaranteed $900,000 but have their eyes on the $12.1 million prize for the winner.
“It feels like a dream. It doesn’t feel real,” Walton said. “It’s been super fun, an amazing experience. It hasn’t really sunk in yet.”
Walton, who was supported by a vocal rail, won a handful of key pots and used his big chip stack to apply pressure to his opponents. He has almost $1 million in career live tournament earnings, including a 42nd-place finish in the 2021 Main Event.
Walton’s biggest career cash came in December when he finished second in the World Poker Tour World Championship at Wynn Las Vegas for $283,072.
Daniel Weinman of Atlanta was in third place with 81.7 million chips and rocketed up the chip counts thanks to one of the most entertaining pots of the tournament. Weinman was all-in against two players holding the worst hand but made a set of jacks on the turn to come from behind and win the hand.
The final table will have a decidedly European flavor with six of the nine players from overseas. Juan Maceiras of Spain, who entered the day with the chip lead, fell to fifth.
Daniel Holzner, an apple farmer from Italy whose girlfriend, friends and family bought him into the Main Event as a 30th birthday present, hit a three-outer against Maceiras early in 10-handed play and reached the final table eighth in chips.
Toby Lewis, a Las Vegas resident originally from England, is the most accomplished player at the final table with more than $8.2 million in career earnings and three online WSOP Circuit rings, which are awarded for tournament wins.
Lewis recovered from being shown a bluff on Day 5 and made a big laydown during Day 7 to help him arrive at this point. He will have the short stack after being near the leaders most of the day.
Here is the full final table
(chip stack order)
— Adam Walton, 143,800,000
— Steven Jones, 90,300,000
— Daniel Weinman, 81,700,000
— Jan-Peter Jachtmann, 74,600,000
— Juan Maceiras, 68,000,000
— Ruslan Prydryk, 50,700,000
— Dean Hutchison, 41,700,000
— Daniel Holzner, 31,900,000
— Toby Lewis, 19,800,000
Contact David Schoen at [email protected] or 702-387-5203. Follow @DavidSchoenLVRJ on Twitter.
