Daily Updates from the 2023 WSOP – June 7
There was just a single bracelet awarded on Wednesday at the WSOP as the Seven Card Stud Championship finished action with Brian Yoon winning his fifth bracelet. The $25k High Roller played down well into the money with just the final 13 players left in the game fighting for the $1,698,215 top prize while the first-ever Badugi tournament at WSOP kicked off with a huge field of more than 500 entries.
Event #14: $10,000 Seven Card Stud Championship
Brian Yoon picked up his fifth bracelet on Wednesday, becoming one of just 33 players to win five or more bracelets, putting him in a pretty rarified group. This marks Yoon's second bracelet in a game other than hold'em after winning his fourth last year in a deuce-to-seven game. Yoon said he'd been working on his stud game recently, and it shows.
Among the 111 entries, Yoon had to battle the likes of Chad Eveslage, who is red-hot right now after winning not one, but two, Dealers Choice bracelets so far this year. Eveslage wasn't able to add a stud bracelet to his haul, falling just shy of the final table in 12th, but adding more points to his Player of the Year leading stats., In addition to Eveslage, Yoon was up against players like David "Bakes" Baker, Alex Livingston, Ben Diebold, and runner-up Dan Shak.
Yoon now has just shy of $6 million in total tournament winnings according to Hendon Mob, with almost $3.5 million of that coming from WSOP events. This marks his 54th WSOP cash, in addition to 8 cashes on the Circuit.
Event #15: $1,500 6-Handed No-Limit Hold’em
Sarah Herzali has a huge lead going into Day 3 of Event #15. She bagged 12.8 million at the end of Day 2, almost 5 million more than the second-place stack of Rafael Reis. There are just 15 players left in the game for the final day of play, and someone will have a bracelet on their wrist before they finish playing on Day 3.
Herzali won't have an easy time of it as she faces several bracelet winners in the final 15 including John Monnette, Upeshka De Silva, and Ian Matakis with eight bracelets between them. Day 3 action resumes at noon local time.
Event #16: $25,000 High Roller No-Limit Hold’em 8-Handed
They are down to just 13 players left in the High Roller game with Roman Hrabec of the Czech Republic leading the way. He is the only player with more than 6 million chips, while Frank Funaro is second with just over 5 million. As one might expect, the final field for this $25k game reads a bit like a who's-who of poker with Joao Vieira, Brian Rast, Isaac Haxton, Darren Elias, and Kristin Foxen among the players looking for glory on Day 3.
Full Day 3 Chip Counts from $25k High Roller
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Roman Hrabec | Czech Republic | 6,050,000 | 60 |
| 2 | Frank Funaro | United States | 5,065,000 | 50 |
| 3 | Aleksejs Ponakovs | Latvia | 4,470,000 | 44 |
| 4 | Joao Vieira | Portugal | 4,090,000 | 40 |
| 5 | Brian Rast | United States | 3,965,000 | 39 |
| 6 | Isaac Haxton | United States | 3,820,000 | 38 |
| 7 | Taylor Von Kriegenbergh | United States | 3,280,000 | 32 |
| 8 | Darren Elias | United States | 2,790,000 | 27 |
| 9 | Lewis Spencer | United Kingdom | 2,705,000 | 27 |
| 10 | Kristen Foxen | Canada | 2,675,000 | 26 |
| 11 | Jorge Consiglieri | United States | 2,650,000 | 26 |
| 12 | Michael Jozoff | United States | 2,085,000 | 20 |
| 13 | Ryan O'Donnell | United Kingdom | 1,570,000 | 15 |
Event #17: $1,500 Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better
It is a battle of the Kyle's at the top of the counts in Event #17 with Kyle Burnside just edging out Kyle Cartwright for the chip lead to start Day 3. They are the only players to start Day 3 with more than 2 million chips, but several of the remaining 33 are coming into the day with 1 million or more. Among the other notables in the final day of play are bracelet winner James Obst, as well as Ryan Scully with a top-ten stack, Ben Vidal, and "Crazy" Mike Thorpe.
Event #18: $300 Gladiators of Poker No-limit Hold'em
The $300 Gladiators of Poker got underway with its first Day 1 on Wednesday, and there were almost 4,000 entries for the game on the opening day. That puts close to $1 million into the prize pool already for this bargain-basement bracelet. They played a total of 22 levels on Day 1a with just 129 players left in the field at the end of the night.
Patrick White leads the Day 1a counts with just over 3.4 million, but Canada's Daniel Negreanu is currently 4th on the list with 2.25 million. While this one is a bit below Negreanu's typical buy-in range these days, by this point the top of his mind is likely his 7th bracelet with little consideration for other factors.
With nearly 4,000 entries on Day 1a and three more starting days to go, this event is on par to be a huge field that could easily cap 20,000 runners before the dust settles.
Event #19: $2,500 Freezeout No-Limit Hold'em
There were 1,139 entries on Day 1 of Event #19 for a prize pool of more than $2.5 million. Austria's Dinseh Alt is the big leader after the opening day as the only player with more than a million chips. He ended the day with 1,212,000 compared to just 797k for second-place Byung Eun Shin of South Korea.
Jared Jaffee, Adrian Mateos, and Taylor Paur are among the other names to grace the top-ten list after the first day. Among the smaller bags at the end of the night are a few that could be dangerous, including triple crown winner Niall "Firaldo" Farrell, Maurice Hawkins, Matt Stout, and Alexandre Reard.
Event #20: $1,500 Badugi
Likely no one knew what to expect when the first-ever Badugi bracelet was put on this year's schedule but what happened was one of the biggest mixed-game turnouts of the whole series with 516 entries when registration closed. That put $688,860 into the prize pool with 78 players sharing in the money.
There is really no history on this event or format, so it's hard to pick favorites based on past performances. Of the 183 players still left in action, William Toh has the best shot at the top prize with the chip lead of almost 240k, but there are two other players with 200k+ in their bags to start Day 2. British pro Adam Owen was among the top-ten stacks to end the day, and last year's PoY winner Daniel Zack bagged a short stack as well as six-time bracelet winner Brian Hastings. The final 183 players return to the felt for four-card lowball fun at 1 pm on Thursday.
Upcoming Events on June 7
Event #18: $300 Gladiators of Poker No-limit Hold'em - Flight B
- Start: 10 am
- Late Entry: 11 Levels
- Start Stack: 30,000
- Reentries: 2/Flight
Event #21: $1,000 Pot-Limit Omaha 8-Handed
- Start: 12 noon
- Late Entry: 9 Levels
- Start Stack: 20,000
- Reentries: 2
Event #22: $10,000 Limit Hold'em Championship
- Start: 2 pm
- Late Entry: Start of Day 2
- Start Stack: 60000
- Reentries: 0
