A powerful desert storm caused repeated power outages at Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino on Day 5 of the 2018 WSOP Main Event and organizers eventually called it a day 83 minutes earlier than originally scheduled.

That left 109 players in contention for the most coveted poker title in the world; the final hands of the day were played in darkness. The remaining contenders are set to return at the host casino today at 11 am to continue their fight for the World Championship title, the first-place prize of $8.8 million, and the champion’s gold bracelet.

Michael Dyer from Houston bagged the largest stack last night, good for 12.18 million. The player has thus secured a very comfortable entry into Day 6 of play, particularly given the fact that he is well ahead of Brian Yoon who put in his bag the second largest stack of Day 5 worth 8.395 million.

Asked about how his day went, Dyer said that the early stages of action were pretty swingy for him, but things improved significantly when he took his seat at the feature table. The player literally skyrocketed during the later stages of the day. A key hand helped him a lot to cement his chip lead.

In an all-in confrontation against former November Niner Cliff Josephy, Dyer almost got busted. The player shoved to see his opponent table pocket kings. Everything ran Josephy’s way until the river card appeared on the board to secure the Day 5 chip leader with a massive pot.

Minkin, who ran pretty well on Day 4, kept some of her momentum on Day 5. The poker pro is looking to improve his 2015 run in the Main Event when she finished in 29th place. Of her performance on Day 5, Minkin said that she was running really well early on to accumulate nearly 5 million in chips. However, she then slid to eventually put just 1.205 million in her bag.

Joe Cada, the 2009 Main Event champ, remained the only former winner of the tournament still in contention to repeat the feat. Unlike Minkin, Cada had a slow and bumpy start to the day, but gained some momentum in the second half of action to eventually bag just under 3 million in chips.

Benjamin Pollak, another notable in contention, will try to become one of a handful of players to have secured final table spots in back-to-back World Championships. The Frenchman finished third in last year’s edition of the Main Event, good for his career’s largest payout of $3.5 million.

As mentioned above, Main Event action is set to resume today with 109 survivors from the previous day. Players will play between 5 and 6 levels before bagging up for Day 7, during which the official final table of 9 is expected to be reached. Each of the 109 hopefuls still in contention is guaranteed a minimum cash of $57,010.

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