Daily Updates from the 2023 WSOP – June 9
Bulgaria bagged its first bracelet on Friday in Vegas when Valentino Konakchiev won Event #19 for more than $400k while the unprecedented Badugi event played down to the final three players. The third of four starting days for the massive Gladiator ran on Friday with the final shot coming on Saturday in Day 1d. And after his friend Isaac Haxton won a bracelet in the $25k High Roller recently, Justin Bonomo is leading the way after Day 1 of the $50k High Roller.
Event #19: $2,500 Freezeout No-Limit Hold'em
There were 1,137 entries in Event #19: $2,500 Freezeout No-Limit Hold'em, putting $2,534,275 into the prize pool. That was split 171 ways with the lion's share, $435,924, going to the newly minted bracelet winner Valentino Konakchiev from Bulgaria. That marks the eastern European country's first bit of hardware so far this year, and brings the total number of countries with a bracelet to six this year, including the 13 bracelets won by US players so far this year. No other country has yet won more than a single bracelet.
Konakchiev had a solid rail behind him to help celebrate the win, and he had to make it through some pretty serious challengers to take down the bracelet. When it got to heads-up, he was facing down bracelet winner Andres Kron from Argentina. In addition to Korn, there were two other bracelet winners at the final table, triple-crown winner Niall "Firaldo" Farrell and Alexandre Reard while the full field for the event included big names like 16-time bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth, Kathy Liebert, Erik Seidel, Justin Bonomo, and Humberto Brenes among others.
The win almost equaled Konakchiev's total lifetime earnings before this event. With the $435k from this game, he is now sitting less than $15k away from $1 million in lifetime earnings. This was his first bracelet in 16 cashes on the WSOP and it dwarfs his previous best WSOP score of about $31k in 2017.
Event #18: $300 Gladiators of Poker No-limit Hold'em
The Coliseum is filling up with Gladiators as three of four starting flights are now in the books and there are more than 14,000 total entries in the game now. Day 1c saw another 6,110 entries swell the prize pool up over the $3 million guarantee with the total prizes now sitting at about $3.6 million and there is still one more starting flight to play on Saturday before the final field is set.
Richard Gao from the United States leads the way from Day 1c with 3.105 million while Peter Lee is right behind him with 3.1 million. They are the only stacks of 3 million or more but there are six other stacks in the 2 million range.
With another full starting flight to play, this event promises to be truly massive, and may well be the first field this series over 20,000. Day 1d is expected to be the biggest flight and it doesn't even need to match Day 1c to crack 20k runners. While the numbers on this one are still a bit lower than the final figures for Event #3, which ended at 18,188 entries, it's a virtual lock that this will become the biggest game in the 2023 WSOP so far sometime on Saturday.
Event #20: $1,500 Badugi
They didn't quite make it down to the bracelet in the first-ever Badugi tournament at WSOP. The $1,500 game still has three players left with chips. Yingui Li of China has the biggest stack at 4.9 million, but there's not a lot of space between him and the third-place stack of Day 2 chip leader Serhii Popovych with 3.35 million. Michael Rodrigues of Portugal sits between them with 4.6 million to start the final day of play.
Among the players who went deep in this one and bagged a final table finish were Matt Vengrin and Danny Tang. Tang actually asked for, and got, an extended dinner break at one point so he could rush over and reg the $50k High Roller. Vengrin took 4th place for just under $41k while Tang ended in 5th for a bit more than half the money he needed to enter the $50k.
Event #21: $1,000 Pot-Limit Omaha 8-Handed
Canadians are #1 and #3 going into the final day of play in the $1k PLO game. Stephen Nahm leads the way with just shy of 10 million chips, and is a clear leader over second-place Ronald Keijzer of the Netherlands with just under 6 million. Thomas Taylor, who is surely on Canada's "Best without a Bracelet" list, sits third with 5.34 million. The Day 3 field will also include Mike Gorodinsky, who surely knows his four-card poker with his two bracelets coming in the Dealers Choice and O8/Stud8 mixes.
Players who cashed out on Day 2 included Canada's Ryan Smith, who won two Rings in a single Circuit event in Calgary in 2022, in 15th for $12,643, Mike Dentale and Ido Aboudi ($10,277 each), and Dario Sammartino and Eli Elezra for $6,986 each. Max Pescatori, Day 1 chip leader Suk Bang, David Williams, Mathyeu Provost, and Brady O'hara also picked up cash from the cage as they exited Day 2 play.
Event #22: $10,000 Limit Hold'em Championship
There were 134 entries to Start Day 2 of the Limit Hold'em Championship. They played into the money with seven players already collecting some cash including Koray Aldemir, Paul Volpe, and Mori Eskandani. 2015 Main Event Champ Joe McKeehan is top dog going into the final day of play as he starts play with 1,445,000. Josh Arieh is the only other player with over a million, starting the final day with 1.17 million. Nick Schulman is sitting third with just over 900k, and he's looking for his second bracelet this year after winning the Seven Card Stud earlier last week.
Other big names still alive and kicking in the final 14 of the Limit Championship are Kevin Song, Nick Pupillo, Daniel Idema, and Ronnie Bardah.
Final 14 Stacks for Day 3 of $10k Limit Hold'em Championship
| Place | Player | Chips |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Joe McKeehen | 1,445,000 |
| 2 | Josh Arieh | 1,170,000 |
| 3 | Nick Schulman | 905,000 |
| 4 | Yong Wang | 700,000 |
| 5 | Kevin Song | 685,000 |
| 6 | Nick Pupillo | 620,000 |
| 7 | Daniel Idema | 600,000 |
| 8 | Joseph Beasy | 515,000 |
| 9 | Ronnie Bardah | 475,000 |
| 10 | Ben Yu | 420,000 |
| 11 | Motoyoshi Okamura | 385,000 |
| 12 | Louis Hillman | 255,000 |
| 13 | Nozomu Shimizu | 255,000 |
| 14 | Robert Como | 250,000 |
Event #23: $50,000 High Roller No-Limit Hold'em
There were 111 entries on Day 1 for the $50k High Roller game, but with entries open until the start of Day 2, the $5.3 million prize pool isn't quite set in stone yet. There are still 48 players left in the game and Justin Bonomo is the only player with more than 2 million chips at the end of the opening day. There are a slew of players in the 1 million range, including Talal Shakerchi in 2nd as well as Chris Brewer, Sam Sovrel, Chance Kornuth, Alex Foxen, Leon Sturm, and Jeremy Ausmus -- and that's just the top-eight stacks with more than a million.
Among the other players still alive to start Day 2 is Danny Tang, who jumped into this one while he was still alive at the final table of the Badugi event, as well as Isaac Haxton, Espen Jorstad, Seth Davies, Michael Moncek, John "Johnny World" Hennigan, Artur Martirosian, and Dan Smith, to name but a few.
Event #24: $1,500 Razz
It seems to be a year of record fields at the 2023 WSOP as the $1,500 Razz event also set a new record with 556 players in the game by the time entries closed. No previous edition of the $1,500 Razz has even cracked 500, so the increase this year is substantial.
There is $742,260 to play for and 84 players will split that up at the end of the game with the winner pocketing more than $150k. Maksim Pisarenko starts Day 2 with the biggest stack at 251.5k, but Vasilis Lazarou and Yuval Bronshtein are also both over 200k. Jeff Madsen, Michael Moncek, and David "ODB" Baker are among the other big stacks in this one at the end of Day 1.
Upcoming Events on June 7
Event #18: $300 Gladiators of Poker No-limit Hold'em - Flight D
- Start: 10 am
- Late Entry: 11 Levels
- Start Stack: 30,000
- Reentries: 2/Flight
Event #25: $10,000 Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better Championship
- Start: 2 pm
- Late Entry: Start of Day 2
- Start Stack: 60,000
- Reentries: 0
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