Warren Zackey has a mountain of chips heading into Day 6 of the 2009 World Series of Poker Main Event.

Day 5 at the 2009 World Series of Poker Main Event could be renamed “Moving Day”.

The day started with 407 players with an average stack of 473,000 (or nearly 60 big blinds each) but in only three two-hour levels 222 players were sent to the rail leaving only 185 to return for Day 6 on Monday. Leading the way is South African Warren Zackey with 4,977,000 but he’s hardly running away with it at this point. His plan for Day 6 is to not get overly active and only play strong hands.

“I got trip queens, player pushed all-in, I called. I flopped a straight with my kings and doubled up again. I had aces, got re-raised so I shoved and I then I knocked two people out,” said Zackey, who is part of the South African poker boom having been swept up in the rising popularity of the game after Raymond Rahme made the 2007 Main Event final table.

Zackey’s closest competitor is Kaspar Cordes. The Danish-born poker pro finished the day with 4,295,000 and is the only other player to finish above the 4,000,000 chip mark. Bernhard Perner (3,220,000), Darvin Moon (3,218,000) and 2007 WSOP Player of the Year Tom Schneider (3,168,000) round out the top five.

And while all of those players took advantage of a wild day to increase their chip stack there were two high profile players in the room who weren’t quite as fortunate. Bertrand Grospellier and Ludovic Lacay, who had been a big part of the story the last two days, each finished the day with only a moderate increase over their starting stack.

Grospellier, seated at the ESPN feature table for the entire day, finished with 1,400,000, 147,000 more than he started the day with. Lacay had some swings during the day but eventually wound up with 1,685,000 an uptick of 77,000.

Phil Ivey also had an up and down day but the double bracelet winner still managed to finish with 1,380,000 and he told ESPN cameras at the end of the night that he was looking forward to Day 6.

The day started with three former Main Event winners but only reigning champ Peter Eastgate and 2005 champ Joe Hachem made it through the day as Dan Harrington wa eliminated during the second level of the day. Eastgate has a strong shot at another title run after bagging up 927,000 chips at the end of the night while Hachem has 540,000. Harrington’s co-author on his popular poker books, Bill Robertie, was also eliminated during the day.

Eastgate isn’t the only charter member of the November Nine to still be in contention for a return trip. Dennis Phillips played at Table 4 for the better part of the day and survived what may have been the most volatile table in the room. Phillips, who still has his day job, isn’t surprised to see two final tablists still in this deep.

“Oh, absolutely the experience has helped us. We’ve been through it before,” said Phillips who finished with  It’s the little things – not worrying about the TV cameras, all the people running around, the crowd right up close to you on the rail. All these little things.”

The rapid pace of eliminations meant one player had their Main Event dream snuffed out every 1 minute 36 seconds. If that pace continues on Monday play will wrap up midway through the second level. Day 6 will get underway at Noon PT and BluffMagazine has all your live updates and chip counts as play continues. Players will continue to play on Day 6 until only 63 players remain.

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