For the 720 players who returned to the Rio poker tables on Friday it has been a long, strange, trip filled with ups and downs, frustration and exuberance, but through it all they persevered, surviving three full days of play in the biggest poker tournament in the world the 2012 World Series of Poker Main Event. For 54 of those players their long-run would still end in disappointment as only 666 players (on Friday the 13th of all days) would make the money.

The money bubble burst fairly early on during Day 4 of the WSOP Main Event (as was expected) and once players had locked-up something for their 30+ hours of play, the action once again picked-up with players falling left and right up until the closing bell. By the end of the night only 278 players remain in contention for the 2012 WSOP Main Event title, and at the front of the pack is Lock Poker Pro Paul “PaulGees” Volpe, sitting on an impressive 2.7 million chips heading into Day 5.

A total of six players crossed the 2-million-chip mark at the end of Day 4, including the chip-leader entering Day 4 Dave D’Alesandro, as well as Eric Buchman, Kyle Bowker, Elisabeth Hille, and Erik Hellman. A slew of other big name players were able to bag-up over 1,000,000 chips, including Leo Wolpert, Vanessa Selbst, Erik Cajelais, Mads Andersen, 2010 November Niner Joseph Cheong, Day 2 chip-leader Gaelle Baumann, Player of the Year contender David “ODB” Baker, Andrew “luckychewy” Lichtenberger, John Phan, and Isaac Baron.

Lurking farther down the leader-board are names like Gavin Smith, Amnon Filippi, JP Kelly, Scott Montgomery, Chance Kornuth, Jason Somerville, Matt Marafioti, Marcel Luske, actor Kevin Pollack, Taylor Paur, Dan Shak, Amit Makhija, Sorel Mizzi, 2011 November Niner Sam Holden, Perry Green, John Juanda, Alessio Isaia, Freddy Deeb, and perhaps the biggest name still in the tourney, Daniel Negreanu.

Here is a look at the Top 10 chip-counts heading into Day 5 of the 2012 WSOP Main Event:

1. Paul Volpe — 2,750,000

2. Erik Hellman — 2,216,000

3. Dave D’Alesandro — 2,093,000

4. Kyle Bowker — 2,081,000

5. Eric Buchman — 2,076,000

6. Elisabeth Hille — 2,014,000

7. Andras Koroknai — 1,971,000

8. Amit Zulkowitz — 1,961,000

9. Eric Legoff — 1,947,000

10. Nicco Maag — 1,899,000

Last year 378 players survived Day 4 of the WSOP and well over half the field was eliminated on Day 5 (142 survived the day, or about 38%), so if the 2012 WSOP holds form, Day 5 will likely see the field slashed to around 100 players.

Tags: Amnon Filippi, Dan Shak, Daniel Negreanu, Eric Buchman, Erik Cajelais, Freddy Deeb, John Juanda, John Phan, Jp Kelly, Kevin Pollack, kyle bowker, Makhija, Marcel Luske, Paul Volpe, Poker Tables, Sorel Mizzi, Ups And Downs, Vanessa Selbst, World Series of Poker, World Series of Poker Main Event

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