Obrestad falls late as WSOPE Main Event hits final 25 on Day 4

Unfortunately, it was the first table to break, and the two didn’t even get to play the first level together.

Josh Arieh started the day with a stack of 2.4 million and accumulated chips early.

Then disaster struck when he played a monster pot with aces against the queens of Sondre Stormyr. 

The flop and turn were clean for Arieh, but a queen dropped on the river to give Stormyr a full double to 3.5 million. 

If Arieh had held, he would have taken a share of the chip lead with a stack of 6 million, but he took the beat like a champ.

The players went on the first break of the day, and it gave him 15 minutes to clear his head.

End of Level 23 – 67 players remaining

•  6th: Chris ‘Big Huni’ Hunichen – 4.6M (115bb)
• 9th: Shiina Okamoto – 3.8M (95bb)
• 20th: Josh Arieh – 2.6M (66bb)
• 28th: Steven Jones – 2.2M (56bb)
• 65th: Annette Obrestad – 645K (16bb)

Josh Arieh lost a huge pot with aces but took it in his stride.

Lennart Hennig

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Level 24: Rollercoaster for Obrestad

The second level of the day belonged to the women. 

Okamoto grew her stack from 3.8M to 5.5M and moved into the top six stacks. 

Obrestad had fallen as low as 12 bigs before staging a comeback and ending the level with close to 1.5M (22bb).

Things got spicy early on for Obrestad.  

She picked up kings, limped in the small blind after the table folded to her, and flopped a set. In the big blind, Giovanni Zanette had a huge stack of over 7 million and flopped a flush draw.

• Obrestad:
• Zanette:  
• Flop:  

Obrestad checked, and Zanette put out a bet of 60K, which she called. 

The turn gave Zanette his flush. He bet 100K, and Obrestad called. 

“Oh well, good run, Annette,” James Dempsey said on commentary. 

However, with the and the higher flush draw, Obrestad still had 34% equity – and she got there on the river. 

The action went check-check, and Obrestad’s stack moved above seven figures.

Obrestad’s rollercoaster continued. She got short again but doubled with against Safwane Bahri’s to end the level with 29 big blinds.

Life was a rollercoaster for Annette Obrestad on Day 4 of the WSOPE Main Event.

End of Level 24 – 50 players remaining

• 6th: Shiina Okamoto – 5.5M (109bb)
• 10th: Chris ‘Big Huni’ Hunichen – 4.6M (92bb)
• 27th: Josh Arieh – 2.6M (52bb)
• 33rd: Steven Jones – 2.2M (44bb)
• 40th: Annette Obrestad – 1.5M (29bb)

Level 25: Arieh eliminated 

Josh Arieh was eliminated in Level 25.

First he got lucky after Werner Lootsma flopped a set of threes before the turn and river came running queens to match the one on the flop – and give the pot to Arieh and his pocket tens.

Then he ran into Obrestad. He open-jammed from the small blind, and she woke up with . She had to sweat through an all-heart flop but the turn and river were clean, and Arieh was left with 895K.

He lost the rest with vs. shortly after. 

We also got the first stack to go north of eight figures. Hengtao Zhu was the new chip leader with 12.5 million after eliminating Johan Espholm in a huge pot. 

End of Level 25 – 42 players remaining 

• 21st: Annette Obrestad – 3.5M (58bb)
• 23rd: Shiina Okamoto – 3.4M (57bb)
• 25th: Steven Jones – 3M (50bb)
• 26th: Chris ‘Big Huni’ Hunichen – 2.8M (47bb)
• Eliminated 44th: Josh Arieh (€35,000)

Hengtao Zhu was running hot and just "too f***ing good" for Big Huni.

Level 26: Big Huni finds a big pair

Big Huni found aces at exactly the right time, and they held against the queens of Marc-David Delimal. That saw him get a full double-up worth 6.2 million. 

He also tangled with the chip leader Hengtao Zhu late on in the level but came up short. 

Zhu put out a bet of 1.5 million on the river with the board reading . Huni tanked but eventually folded, shaking his head and saying, “You’re too f****ng good.” 

By the end of the level he'd moved up to seventh.

End of Level 26 – 37 players remaining 

• 7th: Chris ‘Big Huni’ Hunichen – 5.8M (72bb)
• 9th: Steven Jones – 5.1M (64bb)
• 10th: Shiina Okamoto – 5.1M (63bb)
• 21st: Annette Obrestad – 3.2M (40bb)
• Eliminated 44th: Josh Arieh (€35,000)

Chris 'Big Huni' Hunichen found a big pair and doubled with his aces.

Level 27: Okamoto and Obrestad bust

You’re never safe in a no-limit hold’em tourney. And we lost both Okamoto and Obrestad in quick succession early on in Level 27. 

First, Okamoto ran aces into quads. All the money went in on the river, and Vasileios Panagiotidis had on the board.

Obrestad had dropped to just over 500K when she went for a double-up with . 

Sondre Stormyr, who cracked Arieh's aces earlier, had and flopped a jack to send Obrestad to the rail in 35th for €40,000.

End of Level 27 – 32 players remaining 

• 7th: Chris ‘Big Huni’ Hunichen – 6.5M (65bb)
• 14th: Steven Jones – 5.3M (53bb) 
• Eliminated 35th: Annette Obrestad (€40,000)
• Eliminated 37th: Shiina Okamoto (€40,000)
• Eliminated 44th: Josh Arieh (€35,000)

Level 28: Huni, Jones end in top 10

We lost seven more players in the final level of the night – but our last two horses made it to the end, and both bagged top 10 stacks with 25 players remaining. 

Zhu held on to the chip lead and ended the day with a stack of 16.4 million. He was followed by UK player Brandon Sheils with 15.9 million.

All players are now guaranteed €50,000 with €2 million up top. 

Steven Jones missed out on a huge prize in the latest series of Squid Game. Now he's looking for the €2 million payout in the 2026 WSOPE Main Event.

End of Day 4 top 10 stacks 

1. Hengtao Zhu (Finland) – 16.4M (136bb)
2. Brandon Sheils (UK) – 15.9M (132bb)
3. Rokas Asipauskas (Lithuania) – 12.1M (100bb)
4. Akihiro Konishi (Japan) – 9.5M (79bb)
5. Vasileios Panagiotidis (Greece) – 9.3M (77bb)
6. Peter Koevesdi (Germany) – 8.1M (67bb)
7. Marius Kudzmanas (Lithuania) – 6.6M (54bb)
8. Joona Nyholm (Finland) – 6.4M (53bb)
9. Chris 'Big Huni' Hunichen (US) – 6.3M (52bb)
10. Steven Jones (US) – 6M (49bb)

Day 5 starts at 12pm local time on Thursday and will play six levels, with blinds starting at 80K/160K/160K. Watch all the action from Day 4 below. 

^{Images courtesy of WSOP – Miguel Cortes, Lennart Hennig.}