Survivor’s Jean-Robert Bellande makes Day 4 of WSOP 2019 Main Event

Officially reaching the minimum cash payout at the 2019 World Series of Poker $10,000 Main Event, Survivor’s Jean-Robert Bellande is in good shape.

If Survivor is the crown jewel of reality TV competitions in North America, the World Series of Poker is a veritable Super Bowl for the poker world. Ever since Chris Moneymaker won the event in 2003, thousands each year enter into the $10,000-entry tournament hoping to outwit, outplay and outlast the competition en route to the multi-million paycheck at the end.

Because you have to be so lucky to make it far in any given year in a sea of thousands (8,569 entered this year, with only 1,286 getting the minimum cash of $15,000), most active poker pros will try their luck. This includes poker pros who played on reality TV shows such as Survivor’s Jean-Robert Bellande and Garrett Adelstein, in addition to Big Brother Canada’s Kevin Martin and Arlie Shaban.

While BBCAN’s participants didn’t make it past Day 2, and Garrett Adelstein didn’t make it past Day 3, one player has made the money. I’m happy to report that Jean-Robert Bellande has made it through to Day 4 of the WSOP 2019 Main Event after surpassing the money bubble.

Not only is Jean-Robert Bellande in the money, but he also has a significant chip stack. With 1,126,000 chips, he’s in 41st place out of 1,286 remaining. He still has a long way to go to reach the final table of nine, where each of those players will receive at least $1 million. That’s Sole Survivor kind of money, ranging from $1M for 9th place all the way to $10M for first.

Though he had a rough go of things in Survivor China, Jean-Robert Bellande’s poker play has been elevated in the past few years. He won a WSOP bracelet last year for the first time in his career and has accumulated close to $3M playing poker tournaments (let alone cash games) lifetime. Here’s hoping he can become the Sole Survivor at the WSOP 2019 Main Event!