$585 Satellite Grinds Past 4 AM — 14 Left Fighting for Landmark Seats

At 4:36 AM at the Horseshoe, Marcelo Giordano Mendes was still alive in a $585 satellite — a Brazilian grinder with one WSOP Circuit ring and five career final tables trying to satellite his way into the Landmark.

Fourteen players remain across two tables. The field has collapsed to the point where every pot reshapes the bubble math.

The Résumés at the Table

Mendes has $284,354 in lifetime tournament cashes — not the kind of player you'd expect to find satelliting at $585. But this is how the Landmark works. The buy-in on that event is steep enough that even proven circuit grinders take the cheaper door.

He's not the deepest résumé still in, either. Richard Kellett, a British pro with $485,199 in career earnings and 11 final tables, is also fighting for a seat. Matthew Cosentino — six final tables, $392,581 lifetime — rounds out a surprisingly credentialed two-table lineup for a mega satellite at this hour.

Then there's Dean Sanderson, an American with $105,730 in cashes, and Hong Yi Sun from Australia, whose $2,000 in recorded earnings makes him the table's clear underdog on paper.

Why This One's Worth Watching

Five named players with a combined $1.27 million in lifetime earnings, all sweating a $585 flip for a Landmark entry past 4 AM. That's the satellite game at the WSOP in a single frame — stacked fields compressed into buy-ins that look small until you realize what's on the other side.

The two-table redraw is where these things get real. Fourteen to seats is a brutal stretch, and at least a few of these players have been at it for twelve-plus hours.

Stream is live now from the Horseshoe.