There are fewer than 50 players left in contention for the biggest Main Event prize ever going into Day 7 play and Joshua Payne has a big lead after six days of play. The last two women standing left the field on Day 6 with France’s Estelle Cohuet finishing in 68th for $130k. Nicholas “Dirty Diaper” Rigby also found the felt on Day 6 while Alec Torelli is in the top ten looking for his first bracelet. Elsewhere in the series, Josh Arieh bagged his 6th bracelet and cemented his eventual inclusion in the Hall of Fame while Samuel Bernabeu increased his biggest score ten-fold with his first bracelet.

Event #76: $10,000 MAIN EVENT No-Limit Hold’em World Championship

The Main Event is getting down to the business end of the game now with just 49 players left in action after six days of play. Joshua Payne is the big stack going into Day 7 with almost 48 million in his bag. Spain’s Juan Maceiras Lapido is nipping at his heels with 40.5 million but they are the only two players to bag up more than 100 big blinds for when action restarts in Level 31 with blinds at 125k/250k/250k with the 3rd place stack of Daniel Weinman at just 24.375 million. Positions four through seven on the top ten have in the 20 million range.

One of the stacks in the 20-mil range for Day 7 belongs to the founder of Conscious Poker, Alec Torelli. Torelli is still looking for his first bracelet in five WSOP cashes, with his closest effort coming with a runner-up finish in the 2008 Heads-up Championship where he lost out to Kenny Tran. Daniel Scroggins. who claimed he was wearing a watch worth $150k, and Nicholas Gerrity were among the other names to grab a top ten stack after Day 6.

Daniel Vampan, Toby Lewis, Jose Aguilera, Jack O’Neill, Alexander Villa, Day 4 chip leader Ryan Tosoc, Circuit ring leader Maurice Hawkins, Raj Vohra, Japanese vlogger Masato Yokosawa, and Pavel Dyachenko are among the other players still alive in the final 48 players of the biggest Main Event ever.

Top Ten Stacks After Six Days of Play in the 2023 Main Event

Place	Player	Home	Chips	Big Blinds for Lvl 31
1	Joshua Payne	United States	47.95m	192
2	Juan Maceiras Lapido	Spain	40.5m	162
3	Daniel Weinman	United States	24.375m	98
4	Richard Ryder	United States	22.65m	91
5	Tim Van Loo	Austria	21.7m	87
6	Alec Torelli	United States	21.075m	84
7	Daniel Scroggins	United States	20.8m	83
8	Pierpaola Lamanna	Italy	18.875m	76
9	Nicholas Gerrity	United States	18.075m	72
10	Ryan Tamanini	United States	17.325m	69

Day 5 Leader Among Players to Fall on Day 6

Day 6 is when things start getting really serious in the Main Event. Players hit the six-figure payouts during Day 6 play this year, and as is often the case, a lot of big names fell by the wayside during the day. Perhaps the biggest fall from grace on Day 6 came from the start of day chip leader Zachary Hall. He came into the day with more than 4 million more than anyone else in his bag, but had a pretty brutal day, eventually falling to the new chip leader Joshua Payne before the end of Day 6 play.

Among the other players to fall on Wednesday was the last woman standing, Estelle Cohuet from France. She was actually joined by India’s Nikita Luther as the last two women left in the game and both managed to pocket top-100 scores. Luther, who picked up her only bracelet in 2018 in the Team Event, just slid into the two-digit finishes with 96th place for $78,900 while Cohuet managed 68th for $130,300 in what she said was her first Main Event.

Day 7 will be significantly quieter as well after Nicholas “Dirty Diaper” Rigby saw his Main Event run come to an end on Day 6 for the second time. It actually ended in a pretty standard race spot for him when he got his pocket jacks in against the big slick for Diego D’Aquilio. The classic flip looked to be going the way of the Diaper when he flopped a set of jacks, but it’s never easy in poker, and D’Aquilio flopped a gutshot to Broadway at the same time. Rigby survived the turn, but the Dirty Diaper was headed to the cage when the queen hit the river. Rigby pocketed $67,700 for 131st place this year.

Among the other players to hit the rail on Day 6 for a cashout were John Racener, Tony Dunst, John Duthie, Ludovic Geilich, Nate Silver, Karim Chatur, Patrick “Egption” Tardif, Christian Harder, Allen Shen, and Roman Hrabec.

Busted the Main Event but have my High Noons still… 👷🏻‍♂️ @highnoonsunsips @stoolpresidente #WSOPMainEvent pic.twitter.com/RgLIhRf7rg

— Rigby (@GTO_Diaper) July 13, 2023

Day 7 action gets underway at noon on Thursday with another five levels on the schedule. As always, PokerGO will be providing wall-to-wall coverage of the Main Event on all their media channels today.

Event #79: $2,500 No-Limit Hold’em

Samuel Bernabeu took down his first bracelet in the $3.500 NLHE game, and in the process bagged his biggest score by far. Going into this event, he had just $11k in live cashes according to Hendon Mob, though he also had a slew of results from the 2021 online edition of WSOP on GGPoker. Prior to this win, his biggest previous live score was just over $4k for 111th place in the 2019 6-Handed (Event #31), but even compared to his GGPoker results on Hendon, the latest score is more than ten times his previous best according to the live poker tracker.

Bernabeu had to make his way through 2,068 original entries to secure the biggest share of the $4,601,300 prize pool. That share ended up at $682,432 while runner-up James Anderson, who fell just short of his second bracelet, made $421,761. Seth Davies, who led the counts after both Day 1 and Day 2, couldn’t keep up the momentum for the final day of play and had to settle for 4th place and $230,772. Among the other players to pocket cash from this one were Ramon Fernandez, Nick Palma, Galen Hall, Vincent Lam, Thomas Taylor, and Ben Keeline, as well as Irish poker author Dara O’Kearney and his fellow Irishman Marc Macdonnell.

Event #80: $25,000 High Roller H.O.R.S.E.

Josh Arieh bagged his second bracelet of the year and his sixth overall after taking down the $25k HORSE game. He was up against 112 of the best players in the game and he bested them all to take down his $711,313 share of the $2,632,000 total prize pool. The money is no doubt great for Arieh, but it seems likely the real prize for him in this one was the coveted sixth Gold Bracelet, tying him with his friend and rival Shaun Deeb.

The two have such a friendly rivalry going that after Arieh won his first this year, and fifth overall, Deeb vowed to get his sixth before Arieh. Sure enough, a few days later Deeb was holding his sixth, one ahead of his buddy again. It is unclear if Deeb made a similar promise after this one, but players in the remaining events should be on notice that Deeb might well have extra incentive for another one now to stay ahead of his buddy.

Among the names that Arieh had to navigate through in this one were some of the best in the mixed-game world. Joao Vieira, Mike Matusow, John Hennigan, Johannes Becker, Scott Seiver, Hal Rotholz, Ray Dehkharghani, Michael Moncek, and Matt Grapenthien were among the big names to cash out in this one, but the win brings Arieh’s total earnings to more than $12 million now.

When asked about the Hall of Fame after the win, the ever-humble Arieh was thoughtful about it, suggesting that players like Brian Rast were far better positioned than he might be this year. “This year belongs to Rast, he’s an absolute crusher and he did what he had to do,” Arieh said after the win, but it seems a lock that Arieh is destined for the Hall eventually.

Event #81: $600 Ultra Stack – No-limit Hold’em – Flight B

After more than 3.000 entries on Day 1a, the second starting flight of the Ultra Stack saw 4,116 entries for a total of 7,207 across both starting days. That put $3,675,570 into the prize pool but the details of how it will be split are yet to be published. It’s worth noting that this was a Day 1 cash event, so some of the total prize pool has already been paid out to players cashing late on one of the Day 1s.

Rassoul Malboubi is one of two players with more than 3 million chips to start Day 2 on Thursday with fellow American Leonard Clementi as the other. Six more players have at least 2 million in their bag to start the day with 555 players returning.

The action for Day 2 gets going at 10 am on Thursday and there are 17 levels on the schedule before they bag up for the final day of play on Friday.

Event #82: $3,000 6-Handed Pot-Limit Omaha

Dustin Goldklang is the top dog in the 6-Handed PLO game after the second day of play. He was the only player with more than 4 million in his bag. but Connor Drinan bagged 3.275 million for second place. Matthew Parry and Brandon Shack-Harris are among the other players with a top-ten bag after two days of four-card poker.

There were 1,013 entries for the $3k 6-handed PLO game putting the prizes at $2,704,710. The winner can expect to pocket $480,122 as one of 152 paid players, and there are just 35 players left in the game for Day 3. Among the other players still alive on Day 3 are current PoY leader Ian Matakis and Kane Kalas, while some of the players to pocket cash on Day 2 were Mike Gorodinsky, Sammy Farha, Dylan Weisman, Joe Serock, Matt Vengrin, Daniel Negreanu, Noah Bronstein, Felipe Ramos, Ryan D’Angelo, and Chino Rheem.

Cards go in the air for Day 3 at 1 pm on Thursday and the expectation is to play down to a winner before they end the day.

Event #83: $1,500 Short Deck No-Limit Hold’em

There were 363 entries for the Short Deck game putting the total prizes at $484,605. A total of 55 players will take home some piece of that prize pool, but most of the spots are already spoken for with just nine players returning for Day 2 play. Among the players to pocket some cash from this one were Dario Sammartino, Anson Tsang, Patrick Leonard, Roland Israelashvili, Alex Epstein, Nick Marchington, and Martin Zamani.

David Prociak leads the way into Day 2 with just over 2 million in his bag while second-place Robert James of the UK has 1.622 million to start Day 2. Ryan Laplante is among the other players who will return to the felt for the final day at noon on Thursday.

Event #84: $50,000 HIGH ROLLER No-Limit Hold’em

There were 137 entries on Day 1 of the $50k game. That is significantly ahead of last year’s number and entries are still open in this one until the start of Day 2, so it looks certain to hit big numbers. Yang Wang from China is the chip leader after the opening day, but Fedor Holz isn’t too far behind him. Wang has just over 2 million to start the day while Holz couldn’t be closer to 2 million without hitting it. Stefan Schillhabel, Vlad Darie, Dylan Linde, Jake Schindler, and 2022 Main Event winner Espen Jorstad are just a few of the high-profile names still looking for glory in this nosebleed game.

There are still 44 players left alive for Day 2, plus however many new entries they get before cards go in the air at 1 pm on Thursday.

Upcoming Events on July 13

Event #76: $10,000 MAIN EVENT No-Limit Hold’em World Championship – Day 7

• Start: 12 noon
• Entries: 10,043
• Prizes: $93,399,900
• Remaining: 49
• Next Prize: $188,400

Event #85: $1,500 SHOOTOUT No-Limit Hold’em

• Start: 10 am
• Late Entry: 3 Levels (or Sellout)
• Start Stack: 25,000
• Reentries: 0
• Note: 2,000 player max

Event #86: $1,979 Poker Hall of Fame Bounty No-Limit Hold’em

• Start: 12 Noon
• Late Entry: 9 Levels
• Start Stack: 30,000
• Reentries: Unlimited

Event #87: $2,500 Mixed

• Start: 2 pm
• Late Entry: 8 Levels
• Start Stack: 35,000
• Reentries: 1
• Games: Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo 8 or Better

There are fewer than 150 players left in contention for the biggest Main Event prize ever going into Day 6 play and Zachary Hall has a big lead on Bryan Obregon. There are no more former champions left in the field now, meaning this Main bracelet will go onto a new wrist for sure when its finally decided. Elsewhere in the series, Shawn Daniels had an emotional bracelet win in the Lucky 7’s game while Seth Davies bagged the lead for the second day in a row in Event #79 and the big HORSE race rounds the final bend into the winner’s stretch with Joao Vieira in the pole position.

Event #76: $10,000 MAIN EVENT No-Limit Hold’em World Championship

There are just 149 players left alive in the Main Event after five days of poker action and Zachary Hall is the player with the biggest bag at the end of Day 5. He bagged up 16.31 million, about 4 million ahead of second-place Bryan Obregon with 12,295 million. Liran Betito and Andrew Hulme will both play stacks in the 11 million range to start Day 6 while Joshua Payne rounds out the top five with just shy of 10 million.

Tony Dunst and Jack O’Neill are also in the top-ten to start Day 6 while Raj Vohra, Day 4 chip leader Ryan Tosoc, Gabi Livshitz, Ludovic Geilich, Alec Torelli, Nate Silver, Patrick “Egption” Tardif, John Duthie, Roman Hrabec, and Karim Chatur were among the players to bag smaller stacks after five days of poker. Among the players to cash out for a prize on Day 5 were Day 3 top-tenners Jerry “Pei” Li and Nicholas Lee, Matt Salsberg, Davidi Kitai, Michael Duek, Nick Marchington, Chris Hak, Jesse Lonis, Faraz Jaka, Kyle Cartwright, Jeff Gross, Jessica Vierling, Jason Somerville, Chance Kornuth, Amanda Botfeld, Joe Hachem, Chris Moneymaker, Dario Sammartino, and Jason Koon.

It turns out that chip leader Hall has a history with a big name in the game right now. While Hall was grinding away in the Main, Ethan “Rampage” Yau took to Twitter to talk about how Hall was the one to take a young Yau under his wing to show him the ropes in $1/$3 cash games.

Top Ten Stacks After Five Days of Play in the 2023 Main Event

Place	Player	Home	Chips	Big Blinds
1	Zachary Hall	United States	16.31m	204
2	Bryan Obregon	United States	12.295m	154
3	Liran Betito	Israel	11.14m	139
4	Andrew Hulme	United Kingdom	11.065m	138
5	Joshua Payne	United States	9.85m	123
6	Anirban Das	India	9.23m	115
7	Tony Dunst	United States	8.285m	104
8	Glenn Fishbein	United States	8.265m	103
9	Jonathan Therme	France	7.9m	99
10	Jack O’Neill	United Kingdom	7.735m	97

Big Cashes but No Repeat Winner

Day 5 action is always fascinating as players are already deep into the money of this biggest-ever Main Event, but because of the way MTT payout structures work, the payouts are still relatively small compared to the monster prizes at the end of the game. Players who survived Day 5 are now guaranteed at least $67,700, while players who hit the cage during Day 5 earned between $37,500 and $67,700 when they collected their money.

One of the big developments on Day 5 was the elimination of the final few former Main Event champions, meaning the winner of this record-setting game will be a fresh face for WSOP Main glory. Chris Moneymaker and Joe Hachem were the final two Main Event champs left in the field this year, but they both met their end on Day 5. The accountant-turned-Champion Moneymaker, whose 2003 ME win was a big part of lighting the fuse on the poker boom of the early 2000s, ran into kings to end his run this year while Hachem, the Australian winner from 2005, hit the rail to a rivered flush.

Jason Koon and Chris Brewer were also among the big names to hit the rail on Day 5, both of whom ended the day early in the opening level of play. Brewer was flipped out the Main by big slick over jacks while Koon was in good with kings over tens, but lost out when his opponent went to Broadway on the river.

This is the most ridiculous hand you will see this @WSOP, and it's not even close.

Pour one out for Bill Klein and Stuart Taylor after this ridiculous runout. pic.twitter.com/EK17VoMXp1

— PokerGO (@PokerGO) July 11, 2023

There were a few monster hands that caused players to hit the cage for a payout. Bill Klein and Stuart Taylor will be having nightmares about this runout as Broadway was a popular river destination during Day 5. Ryan Brown was the player with tickets to a big show in this hand but it was a rollercoaster to get there. With Taylor and Klein all in and Taylor’s aces and Klein’s kings crushing the ace-queen squeeze from Brown, Klein spiked his two outer on the flop only to watch Brown go running to Broadway for the whole pot. Taylor could only watch in stunned horror as his aces went down in flames, while Klein may need some heart conditioning after the shock of spiking his king only to see it drowned on the river.

In another fascinating spot from the feature table, Nicholas “Dirty Diaper” Rigby set a trap for Chance Kornuth that the triple-bracelet winner stepped right into. Rigby four-bet shoved about 100 big blinds over a three-bet from Kornuth, and given Rigby’s reputation and range, Kornuth put in the call with big slick. In this case however, Rigby was using his reputation to his advantage, tabling the pocket rockets to have Kornuth crushed and there were no Broadway tickets for Kornuth on this one and he hit the cage for $44,700 in 302nd place.

The other fun story from this Main so far comes from the Botfeld family. Poker writer Amanda Botfeld famously came 3rd in the 2021 team event with her father David, and both players cashed in this year’s record-breaking Main Event. The elder Botfeld cashed out on Day 4 for a second-tier min-cash of $17,500 while Amanda took 341st place on Day 5 for $44,700.

Day 6 action kicks off at noon on Wednesday, and as always this week, PokerGO has wall-to-wall coverage of the Main on its various media channels.

Event #77: $777 Lucky 7’s No-Limit Hold’em

Shawn Daniels had an emotional win after making it through 7,300 runners to take down the Lucky 7s bracelet. This was his first bracelet and biggest win on the live felt, with the $777,777 top prize a bit bigger than his previous lifetime earnings from the beautiful game, but his victory was somewhat bittersweet. “I recently lost my fiancé so it’s been a tough summer,” he confessed. “I just wish she was here to celebrate it also. But it is what it is, it’s nice to get it done.”

The emotional toll on Daniels was easy to see after the event as he crouched down, head in hands, taking in the moment consumed with what were no doubt deeply conflicted emotions. He admitted to running well, something that nearly every poker winner has to acknowledge, as he rivered a few three-outers through the event to stay alive or build his stack and with only about 100 big blinds in play for the final day, the impact of a few spots is magnified and Daniels was able to come through for the win.

Prior to this win, he had just over $700k in recorded cashes from live poker, so along with his first bracelet, he basically doubled his earnings in a few days here. The $777,777 was the biggest share of a prize pool that ended up just shy of $5 million and Daniels defeated Julien Montois from France for the title, sending Montois home with the $400,777 consolation prize.

Event #79: $2,500 No-Limit Hold’em

There are just 24 players left in the game for the start of Day 3 of the $2,500 NLHE bracelet event and for the second day in a row, Seth Davies has the most chips to start the day. Davies bagged up a lead of 1.113 million after Day 1, and after Day 2 he increased that chip-leading bag to 9.425 million. Not only is he the only player with 9 million or more, second-place Justin Kindred is almost 3.5 million back with 6 million even to start Day 3. Rui Ferreira is also among the top ten stacks after two days of play while Galen Hall also managed to find a bag at the end of the night.

There were 2,068 entries for this one, putting the prizes at $4,601,300. Most of the 311 paid spots have already been claimed for this one, with names like David Peters, Brian Yoon, Koray Aldemir, Calvin Anderson, Barbara Enright, and Lara Eisenberg all being sent to the cage during Day 2 play.

Day 3 for this one kicks off at 11 am with action in Level 28. This should be the final day of play for this one, but many of the events this year have required an extra day to finish them out, so don’t be surprised to see a Day 4 in this one with 3-5 players returning tomorrow.

Event #80: $25,000 High Roller H.O.R.S.E.

There are 15 players left in the big HORSE race now after two days of play, and Portugal’s Joao Vieira is on the lead mount rounding the final bend and heading for the finish line. He bagged up 2.595 million after two days of play, with Yingui Li and Day 2 chip leader Josh Arieh rounding out the top three stacks of more than 2 million. “Johnny World” Hennigan and Hal Rotholz sit fourth and fith respectively, but they are all amongst some of the best mixed game players on the planet with players like Matt Grapenthien, Brian Hastings, Johannes Becker, Michael Moncek, Ray Dehkharghani, and Scott Seiver all still alive and looking to overtake the leader in the final stretch.

Day 3 action resumes at 2 pm with play in Level 21. The game is expected to crown a champion by the end of the day, but an extra day may well be required.

Event #81: $600 Ultra Stack – No-limit Hold’em – Flight A

There were more than 3,000 entries for the opening flight of the Ultra Stack and Matthew Land was the biggest of three players to bag more than 2 million. Jiawei Mao and Christina Gollins are the other double millionaires to emerge from Day 1a. There is still one more starting flight for this one, but at the moment, the prizes are already at $1,576,410 from the Day 1a entries, so with 1b expected to be bigger, this one could easily see $4 million or more in prizes before the dust settles.

Day 2 of this game is scheduled for Thursday with Day 1b running Wednesday starting at 10 am.

Event #82: $3,000 6-Handed Pot-Limit Omaha

There were just over 1,000 entries for the $3k 6-handed PLO game putting the prizes at $2,704,710. The winner can expect to pocket $480,122 as one of 152 paid players, and Tyler Gaston is the player with the best shot at that top prize after the first day. He was the only player with more than 500k in his bag to end the day but Ian Matakis, who is having a stellar summer with some 18 cashes already in the series for the Player of the Year lead, just missed with 500k mark with 490.5k for second place. Dylan Weisman also bagged a top ten stack in this one, while Tamon Nakamura, Brandon Shack-Harris, Shaun Deeb, Joe Serock, Chino Rheem, Ryan D’Angelo, Mike Gorodinsky, Michael Duek, and Thomas Taylor all bagged top 100 stacks after the opening day.

There are still 238 players in action chasing the 152 paid spots with Day 2 action starting at 1 pm. There are ten levels on the schedule for Day 2 with Thursday’s Day 3 set to be the final day of play.

Upcoming Events on July 12

Event #76: $10,000 MAIN EVENT No-Limit Hold’em World Championship – Day 6

• Start: 12 noon
• Entries: 10,043
• Prizes: $93,399,900
• Remaining: 149
• Next Prize: $67,700

Event #81: $600 Ultra Stack – No-limit Hold’em – Flight B

• Start: 10 am
• Late Entry: 12 Levels
• Start Stack: 60,000
• Reentries: 2 per Flight

Event #83: $1,500 Short Deck No-Limit Hold’em

• Start: 12 Noon
• Late Entry: 9 Levels
• Start Stack: 25,000
• Reentries: 2

Event #84: $50,000 HIGH ROLLER No-Limit Hold’em

• Start: 2 pm
• Late Entry: Start of Day 2
• Start Stack: 300,000
• Reentries: 1

They are in the money of the biggest Main Event in history after four days of play. Ryan Tosoc is one of three players with more than 5 million, but there are still more than 400 players in the mix looking to take the biggest ME prize record away from Jamie Gold. There are another five levels of play on the schedule for today, and as always there is wall-to-wall coverage of Day 5 Main Event action on PokerGO today. Meanwhile, the Lucky 7’s game is down to the final five, Event #79 returns for Day 2 with players in the money, and the big HORSE game saw almost 100 entries on Day 1.

Event #76: $10,000 MAIN EVENT No-Limit Hold’em World Championship

The biggest Main Event and biggest live poker game ever is now in the money with just 441 players left alive. The players came back for Day 4 just eleven players off the money but it took a bit of time for the bubble to burst. There were almost two hours of play before Jeppe Bisgaard, Yueqi Wang, and Peter Nigh split the bottom two payouts as the bubble spots.

Ryan Tosoc bagged the chip lead after four days of play and is one of three players with 5 million or more in their bag with 20 levels in the books. Mitchell Halverson and Aditya Systla are the other 5 million plus players, while Scott Berko and Bradley Moskowitz round out the top five stacks with more than 4 million each. The rest of the top ten all have more than 3.7 million.

Tosoc already has one bracelet, won in 2018 in the $1,000 NLHE Championship online and he has close to $5 million in total wins according to Hendon Mob, with about $1 million of that coming on WSOP felt. He already has a couple of seven-figure scores in the mid-2010s and will be looking to add a third in a few days when the biggest Main Event ever plays down to a final table with 8 of 9 players set to pocket $1 million or more.

Top Ten Stacks After Four Days of Play in the 2023 Main Event

Place	Player	Home	Chips	Big Blinds
1	Ryan Tosoc	United States	5.12m	205
2	Mitchell Halverson	United States	5.1m	204
3	Aditya Systla	India	5.075m	203
4	Scott Berko	United Kingdom	4.7m	188
5	Bradley Moskowitz	United States	4.145m	166
6	Juan Maceiras Lapido	Spain	3.985m	159
7	Jon Cohen	United States	3.815m	153
8	Gabi Livshitz	Israel	3.8m	152
9	John Racener	United States	3.71m	148
10	Quan Zhou	China	3.705m	148

Two Hour Bubble

Day 4 action came back with players just eleven spots away from the $15k min-cash and, as expected, the early action was pretty fierce. The small stacks weren’t scared to get their chips in, but for the first hour and a half or so, all that happened were short stack doubles. Nearly two hours into the hand-for-hand portion of the game, the bubble finally burst with three different players busting on the same hand. That meant Jeppe Bisgaard, Yueqi Wang, and Peter Nigh would split the bottom two prizes, worth $30k total, between them for $10k a piece, and then play a flip to see who would pocket the 2024 Main Event seat, promised to the bubble player in this year’s event. Bisgard won the flip and will be playing the 2024 Main for free.

Once the bubble burst it was a rush to the payout desk, including a few players who just barely slid into the money. One player, Xiangchen Gao from China, was very short and expected to be forced all-in from the big blind shortly after the day began. In what may be one of the most unusual moves of any game, Gao passed out a letter to tablemates to start the day pleading for a walk in his first big blind, citing his desire to use the prize money for a honeymoon with his girlfriend. Gao did manage to survive the bubble and pocket a $15k min-cash in 1,350th place, though he was forced to play his small stack during the 100-odd minutes of bubble play.

Another great story from Day 4 came courtesy of Cody Daniels. The terminally ill player collapsed on their way back from a break during Day 3 play, but after some time with WSOP medical staff they were cleared to return to play and finished out Day 3 to bag a stack on the bubble of this massive game. While they were short coming into Day 4, they weren’t among the shortest and managed to survive through the bubble and ladder up to a $30k cash in 635th place later in the day. Once the bubble burst, Daniels got quite emotional at the table and was interviewed by PokerGO. They doubled up post-bubble before going on to the 635th place finish and getting a round of applause from the table as they headed to the payout desk.

Among the big names to fall on Day 4 with money in hand were Steven Wang, who cashed from just a single 1k chip on the bubble, as well as Allen Kessler, 2009 WSOP Main Event champion Joe Cada, Joshua Faris, Farah Galfond, and “Boston” Rob Mariano. 2006 Champ Jamie Gold was looking to win another $12 million score, but he had to settle for $17.5k for 1,082nd this year. Johnny Chan and Scott Blumstein were among the other former ME winners who busted on Day 4 while Nicholas “Dirty Diaper” Rigby, Chance Kornuth (who started the day in the lead), Christian Harder, Nick Guagenti, Nate Silver, Jerry “Pei” Li, Roman Hrabec, John Duthie, and Kyle Cartwright were among the players to bag top-100 stacks on Day 4.

Day 5 action kicks off at noon on Tuesday, and there are another five levels of play on the schedule.

Event #77: $777 Lucky 7’s No-Limit Hold’em

Anthony Scarborough is leading the final five players in the Lucky 7’s game with an astonishing 140 million in his bag. That is essentially double the second-place stack of Julien Montois with 70.7 million. Shawn Daniels is the next biggest with just shy of 50 million while Istvan Briski and Charles La Boissonniere will be playing shorter stacks on the final day.

Thomas Blanton, Day 1a chip leader, was among the players to cash out on Day 2, and joining him at the payout desk were players like Jerry Yang, Renan Bruschi, Travis Macmillan, Weston Pring, and Alex Livingston. The final day of action for the Lucky 7’s game goes at 1 pm with the final five players out of 7,300 runners competing for the biggest share ($777,777) of the $4,991,448 prize pool.

Event #79: $2,500 No-Limit Hold’em

Seth Davies is the leader after the opening day of play in Event #79. He was one of two players with more than a million in his bag with Spain’s Ramon Fernandez bagging the other seven-figure stack after Day 1. There are 310 players left in the game from the starting field of 2,068 and they bagged up for Day 1 just after the money bubble burst. Brady Osterman was the min-cash spot late on Day 1 in 311th place, but the rest of the payouts are yet to come on Day 2 and 3 with all players eyeing the $682,436 top prize.

Among the other players returning with chips for Day 2 looking for a piece of the $4,601,300 prize pool are Galen Hall, Alex Greenblatt, Renan Bruschi, Levi Berger, Marc Macdonnell, Matt Wilkins, Thomas Taylor, Ben Keeline, and Shawn Buchanan while some of the players who failed to find a bag in this one included Scotty Nguyen, Blair Hinkle, Erick Lindgren, Jonathan Little, Sergio Agüero, rapper Hoodie Allen, Ryan Depaulo, and PokerStars Ambassador Benjamin Spragg.

The final 310 players are back at the felt at 10 am on Tuesday with ten levels on the schedule for Day 2.

Event #80: $25,000 High Roller H.O.R.S.E.

Josh Arieh is riding the Clydesdale after the opening day of play in the $25k HORSE with a leading stack of 621.5k. He is the only player with more than 600k, but three others, including Nacho Barbero, bagged up 500k or more. The remaining players in the star-studded top ten list all have between 400k and 500k and basically reads like a who’s-who of poker.

Place	Player	Home	Stack
1	Josh Arieh	United States	621.5k
2	Motoyoshi Okamura	Japan	565k
3	Yehuda Buchalter	United States	511k
4	Nacho Barbero	Argentina	504k
5	Hal Rotholz	United States	478k
6	Matt Glantz	United States	463k
7	Andres Korn	United States	461k
8	Max Hoffman	United States	451k
9	Michael Noori	United States	445k
10	Michael Moncek	United States	415k

There were 98 entries on Day 1 of the $25k HORSE game but the field is not yet set as entries for this game are open until the beginning of Day 2. At the moment, there is just over $2.3 million in the prize pool, but that will grow with the new entries at the beginning of the second day. Play kicks off at 1 pm on Tuesday, and the field will be set when cards go in the air today.

Upcoming Events on July 11

Event #76: $10,000 MAIN EVENT No-Limit Hold’em World Championship – Day 5

• Start: 12 noon
• Entries: 10,043
• Prizes: $93,399,900
• Remaining: 441
• Next Prize: $37,500

Event #81: $600 Ultra Stack – No-limit Hold’em – Flight A

• Start: 10 am
• Late Entry: 12 Levels
• Start Stack: 60,000
• Reentries: 2 per Flight

Event #82: $3,000 6-Handed Pot-Limit Omaha

• Start: 2 pm
• Late Entry: 8 Levels
• Start Stack: 40,000
• Reentries: 2

Online Event #17: $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em 6-Max Championship

• Start: 3:30 pm

They are just 10 players away from the money in the Main Event as Day 4 looms on Monday. 1,517 players return to fight for 1,507 paid spots, so early action will likely be crazy. Antonio Mallol Heredia leads the way, but Chance Kornuth, Jerry (Pei) Li, Nicholas “Dirty Diaper” Rigby, and Nicholas Lee will be breathing down their neck during Monday’s action. Meanwhile, Thomas Skaggs added a PLO Bracelet to his PLO Ring in Event #78, and all the Day 1 flights are complete for the Lucky 7’s game with Stepan Vinokurov leading 317 returning players and action expected to play deep into the money on Day 2.

Event #76: $10,000 MAIN EVENT No-Limit Hold’em World Championship – Flight 2d

It’s bubble time in the Main Event after three full days of poker action spread over seven calendar days as the record field of 10,043 has been whittled down to just 1,517 players left alive. With 1,507 paid places on the board, that means Day 4 will begin on the bubble with just 10 players to go before they are all in the money.

There will be ten players who go home unhappy in the early hours of Day 4, but after that, everyone who survives the opening orbits of Monday’s action will be guaranteed at least $15,000 for the first 250 or so exits at the bottom of the list. Antonio Mallol Heredia is the player with the biggest bag at the end of Day 3 with 1.899 million in his bag. Triple bracelet winner Chance Kornuth is sitting second in chips after the third day of play, about 10k behind the leader. Canada’s Jerry “Pei” Li is looking to add a second bracelet to his jewelry collection with the 4th place stack after Day 3.

Among the other players to bag a top ten stack for Day 4 was Nicholas “Dirty Diaper” Rigby, who was the player who sent 17-time bracelet and US/Intl Main winner Phil Hellmuth to the rail on Day 2d, though it wasn’t with his signature trey-deuce offsuit. However, one of the other top ten stacks, Canada’s Nicholas Lee, served the diaper right back to Rigby during Day 3 play for a nice pot for the Canadian. Lee bagged up the 8th place stack after Day 3, while Rigby sits at #5 on the list.

Place	Player	Home	Stack	Big Blinds
1	Antonio Mallol Heredia	United States	1.899m	237
2	Chance Kornuth	United States	1.887m	236
3	Liran Betito	Israel	1.775m	222
4	Jerry (Pei) Li	Canada	1.742m	218
5	Nicholas Rigby	United States	1.719m	215
6	Pavel Dyachenko	Canada	1.706m	213
7	Michael Duek	United States	1.678m	210
8	Nicholas Lee	Canada	1.639m	205
9	Mason Vieth	United States	1.602m	200
10	Michael Monroig	United States	1.552m	194

Big Bags and Busts

Day 3 of the Main Event is where a lot of dreams end up dead on the river of a bad runout, and high-stakes cash crusher Tom Dwan was one such player. He had around 200k on the feature table during Day 3 play and was mixing it up quite a bit. He took a couple of decent pots in signature Dwan style but ultimately ran into it when he turned a pair with the second-nut flush draw and check-shoved against Brian Atchison’s aces. Atchison almost beat him into the pot with the snap call, and the river bricked for Dwan to send him to the rail about halfway through Day 3.

Among the players to bag chips for Day 4 were Christopher Brewer, Shota Nakanishi, Faraz Jaka, Andrew Baker, Senthuran Vijayaratnam, Yuri Dzivielevski, Maurice Hawkins, Nick Marchington, Jason Somerville, Gabi Livshitz, Maher Al Mouselly, 2003 Main winner and father of the poker boom Chris Moneymaker, Regan Duong, Nick Guagenti, Matthew Gillingham, and Alex Foxen. They all bagged stacks going into Day 4 while among the players to be felted before the end of Day 3 were Billy Baxter, Juha Helppi, Ryan Depaulo, Matt Stout, Sam Chartier, Martin Jacobson, Bruno Fitoussi, Hayley Hanna, and Tony Gregg.

Drama on Day 3

Day 3 had some excitement in it part way through the day when the clock was paused so staff could deal with a “medical emergency.” The pause was fairly short-lived as the emergency ended up being relatively minor in the grand scheme of things.

As Cody Daniels was rushing back to their seat after a break, they began to collapse in the crowd. Another player was nearby and caught Daniels before they hit the ground, and staff was immediately alerted to the medical situation. Daniels is terminally ill, but enjoying some Main Event action this year, and it turned out they’d just over-exerted themselves trying to get back to their seat before the break ended. The situation ended up being fairly minor and Daniels recovered quickly and was able to resume play and finish out the day, bagging up 299k for Day 4, which should be plenty of chips to make a run into the money.

While Daniels medical incident provided a bit of drama off the felt, there was plenty of action on the felt as well. Among the big hands of the night was a big one between two Nicks. Nicholas Lee, who barely missed out on his first Circuit Ring in Calgary recently, was in a pot with Nicholas “Dirty Diaper” Rigby. Rigby opened to 10k from the middle and Lee defended his big blind. They both checked the jack-four-five flop and Lee check-called for 20k on the turned nine. The river deuce brought three hearts to the board and both players checked it to showdown, where Lee took down the pot with the trey-deuce offsuit, Rigby’s signature “Dirty Diaper” hand.

Day 4 of the Main Event kicks off on Monday at noon, and they’ll play five more levels on Day 4. Expect the bubble to burst pretty early in the day today with the field now only 10 players off the money spots but by the end of the day, the remaining players will all have cashed the biggest live poker game ever.

Event #77: $777 Lucky 7’s No-Limit Hold’em – Flight b

The Day 1 flights for the Lucky 7’s game are now in the books with 7,300 entries recorded over three starting days. That puts the prizes at this one at just shy of $5 million, but the prizes are still being confirmed by WSOP staff. Day 1c accounted for nearly half the total entries for this game with 3,444 on the third starting day alone.

Morgan Petro bagged the big stack on Day 1c with 3.1 million, but that was only the second biggest stack overall behind Day 1b leader Stepan Vinokurov with 3.315 million. Shawn Daniels, David Peters, and Charles La Boissonniere round out the top five stacks going into Monday’s Day 2. Among the other players who bagged big for Day 2 were Day 1a leader Thomas Blanton, Alex Livingston, Weston Pring, Eric Afriat, Ben Keeline, and Chad Eveslage (who bagged two Dealers Choice bracelets early in this series), all with top-100 stacks for Monday’s action.

Day 2 gets underway at 10 am on Monday with levels increasing to 40 minutes in length for the rest of the game.

Event #78: $1,500 BOUNTY Pot-Limit Omaha

Thomas Skaggs made his way through the 1,214 entries in Event #78: $1,500 BOUNTY Pot-Limit Omaha to pick up his first bracelet on Sunday, adding to the Ring he won at Horseshoe Indiana earlier this year. That ring was in a PLO format game as well, so it seems clear that Skaggs will be a force to be reckoned with in the four-card poker world. He pocketed $171,742 for the win, the biggest share of a $1,620,690 prize pool. Runner-up David Hu also pocketed a bit more than $100k for his finish.

Skaggs was pretty ecstatic about the win, though he was also about two hours away from a return flight home to Glendale, Kentucky. Skaggs had a goal of winning either a bracelet or a ring this year, and he was delighted to have managed to win one of each already. He also complimented Hu on a strong heads-up performance as Hu forced him to come back from a deficit several times before finally taking it down.

Noah Schwartz was among the other players to cash this one, and joining him at the cage were Ryan Coon, Jeff Madsen, Daniel Negreanu, Kevin MacPhee, and Nacho Barbero.

Upcoming Events on July 10

Event #76: $10,000 MAIN EVENT No-Limit Hold’em World Championship – Day 4

• Start: 12 noon
• Entries: 10,043
• Prizes: $93,399,900
• Remaining: 1,517
• Paid: 1,507

Event #77: $777 Lucky 7’s No-Limit Hold’em – Day 2

• Start: 10 am
• Entries: 7,300
• Remaining: 317
• Prizes: $1,005,127

Event #79: $2,500 No-Limit Hold’em

• Start: 10 am
• Late Entry: 12 Levels
• Start Stack: 35,000
• Reentries: 1

Event #80: $25,000 High Roller H.O.R.S.E.

• Start: 2 pm
• Late Entry: Start of Day 2
• Start Stack: 150,000
• Reentries: 1

This was officially the biggest prize pool ever in live poker as of Day 2abc, but Day 2d blew the doors off the record. Around 500 new entries were recorded on 2d bringing the final total in the Main Event this year to more than 10k entries for almost $94 million in prizes. All the Day 2s are now complete and the remaining field combines for the first time on Sunday for the beginning of the long slog to the money and final table. Maurice Hawkins and Nicholas “Dirty Diaper” Rigby have the top two stacks for Day 3, while the leader from Day 2abc comes in third with the biggest stack of less than 900k. Meanwhile, Day 1b of the Lucky 7’s added more than 2,300 entries to the total in that one with one more starting flight to play and the PLO Bounty game is down to the final 15 players with Satar Al-Sadoun leading.

Event #76: $10,000 MAIN EVENT No-Limit Hold’em World Championship – Flight 2d

The Day 2 flights for the Main Event are now complete, and the record-smashing field is now set. There were 10,043 entries by the time entries closed on Day 2d, putting the final number some 1,200 players above the previous field-size record set in 2006. The final prize total for the massive game came in at $93,399,900 with a top prize of $12.1 million. That’s $100k more than Jamie Gold’s previous record win worth $12 million, despite an extra $13 million in the prize pool with the difference down to changes in payout structures since 2006.

No one was quite able to manage to bag up a million chips in the Main Event yet, but two players from Day 2d came very close. Chip leader Maurice Hawkins and second-stack Nicholas “Dirty Diaper” Rigby are the only players in the 900k range with four other players coming back to Day 3 with between 800k and 900k, including the Day 2abc leader Christopher Brammer with 879k. Julio Belluscio and Nick Marchington are among the other players with top ten stacks for Day 3, and joining them with slightly smaller stacks are players like Jason Mercier, Ebony Kenney, Patrik Antonius, Ronnie Bardah, Shota Nakanishi, Kathy Liebert, Billy Baxter (who was heads-up in the seniors event), Doug Polk, EPY founder John Duthie, Regan Duong, Christine Do, Giuseppe “Joseph” Galluzzo, Victor Ramdin, Alex Foxen, David Vedral, Faraz Jaka, and 10-time bracelet winner Johnny Chan.

According to the WSOP website, the remaining players coming back for Day 3 will be 3,538, so there are still more than 2,000 players to get through before money starts being awarded.

Place	Player	Chips	Big Blinds (Lvl 11)
1	Maurice Hawkins	941k	376
2	Nicholas Rigby	921.5k	369
3	Christopher Brammer	879k	352
4	Jeffrey Shapiro	878k	351
5	Julio Belluscio	825.5k	330
6	Beqir Salihu	801k	320
7	John Sofillas	780k	312
8	Nick Marchington	716k	286
9	Heitor Saraiva	665.5k	266
10	Jacob Mitich	660k	264

Biggest Prize Pool Ever

MAIN EVENT PAYOUTS:

Players: 10,043 (New WSOP Main Event Record!)
Prize pool: $93,399,900
Places paid: 1,507

1st: $12,100,000
2nd: $6,500,000
3rd: $4,000,000
4th: $3,000,000
5th: $2,400,000
6th: $1,850,000
7th: $1,425,000
8th: $1,125,000
9th: $900,000

— WSOP – World Series of Poker (@WSOP) July 9, 2023

Everyone knew by late on the day Friday that this was going to be the biggest live poker game ever with more than 9,500 entries by the time things shut down on Day 2abc. There was some talk of possibly cracking 10,000 with new entries on Day 2d, but the truth is most observers thought that was a bit optimistic and that the numbers would settle in just below the five-figure mark.

When the dust finally settled on entries for Day 2d, however, and the Herculean task of counting all the money was complete, the 2023 Main Event blew all expectations out of the water with 10,043 entries and prizes of nearly $94 million.

Big Names in Action for Day 2d

There are still a lot of legends left in the game competing for the record prizes. Previous Main Event winners who advanced from Day 2abc, Jamie Gold, Damian Salas, Joe McKeehen, Martin Jacobson, Ryan Riess, Joe Cada, and Tom McEvoy, will be joining players like 2018 Champ John Cynn in the Day 3 action.

There are a lot of other big names still left in the game including Jason Mercier, who picked up his sixth bracelet earlier this series in the single-draw deuce game. While Ebony Kenney is still looking for her first WSOP hardware, she is one of the players who could break out at any time and will be playing a bit more than 150k on Day 3. Maria Konnikova, Kathy Liebert, and Canada’s Christine Do are among the other women with Day 3 bags.

Day 3 action kicks off on Sunday at noon with the full remaining field combining for the first time, but there is still a lot of poker left to play before a Main Event Champion is crowned in this record-smashing year.

Event #77: $777 Lucky 7’s No-Limit Hold’em – Flight b

There are now more than 3,800 entries in the Lucky 7’s game after two starting flights, with the third and final Day 1 set to run on Sunday starting at 10 am. Day 1b saw 2,386 entries for a bit more than $1.6 million for 2b alone, putting the total field so far at 3,856 with almost $2.64 million in prizes.

Stepan Vinokurov has the chip lead after Day 2b as the only player with more than 3 million chips, but David Peters isn’t too far behind at 2.775 million for second place. Two Canadians, Charles La Boissonniere (3rd) and Alex Livingston (5th) and a Greek, Alexandros Dranovitsas (4th), round out the top five stacks from the second starting day. The final starting flight for the Lucky 7’s will likely be the biggest yet, and could easily see the field push to 6k entries.

Event #78: $1,500 BOUNTY Pot-Limit Omaha

There are just 15 players left in the PLO Bounty game with action going into Day 3. Satar Al-Sadoun has the big stack by quite a margin with 4.8 million in his bag compared to just 3.53 million for second-place Thomas Skaggs. David Hu also has a bit more than 3 million for third place to start Day 3.

Other notables with stacks for what should be the final day of play include Noah Schwartz (1.1m), Jeff Madsen (945k), and Ryan Coon (2.035m), while a few of the players to hit the cage for cash during Saturday’s action were Daniel Negreanu, Amnon Filippi, David “ODB” Baker and Farid Jattin. Day 3 should play down to a winner starting at 2 pm on Sunday.

Upcoming Events on July 9

Event #76: $10,000 MAIN EVENT No-Limit Hold’em World Championship – Day 3

• Start: 12 noon
• Entries: 10,043
• Prizes: $93,399,900
• Remaining: 3,538

Event #77: $777 Lucky 7’s No-Limit Hold’em – Flight C

• Start: 10 am
• Late Entry: 12 Levels
• Start Stack: 40,000
• Reentries: Unlimited

Online Event #16: $600 Online Deepstack Championship

• Start: 4:30 pm

The biggest Main Event ever got a bit bigger on Day 2abc with entries still open for two levels on Day 2. They got nearly 200 extra entries on the first Day 2, pushing the total field over 9,500 now with a few hours on Saturday’s Day 2d still left to enter. Christopher Brammer parlayed his second-place Day 1c stack into the lead after Day 2abc while defending champ Espen Jorstad hit the rail in a bit of a cooler. Julio Belluscio, Nick Marchington, and Finnish crusher Patrik Antonius all bagged top-ten stacks in 2abc, and there are several Main Event champs still in the field including the winner of the previous biggest Main, Jamie Gold. Meanwhile, other action started to get underway again as the crush from the Main Event is beginning to die down, with Lucky 7’s and the PLO Bounty game starting on Friday. Lucky 7’s plays two more starting days this weekend, while the PLO Bounty is already in the money.

Event #76: $10,000 MAIN EVENT No-Limit Hold’em World Championship – Flight 2abc

The Main Event is now into Day 2 territory with the first of two Day 2s playing out on Friday. They got a few more entries in the first couple of levels of the day, bringing the total field up to more than 9,500 now with the entries finally closing on the biggest Main Event field ever at the end of Level 7 during Saturday’s Day 2d.

Organizers are now looking at the possibility of more than 10k entries for this one, though to be fair, 500 extra entries on the final day seems optimistic even given the big numbers so far. That said, no doubt there are players in Canada and the US, or elsewhere even, who have seen the huge numbers watching from afar and booked last-minute flights to Vegas to get a piece of the record pie, so Day 2d could see a run on entries in the early hours of the day.

Christopher Brammer was second in chips to start the day which saw about 3,900 players coming back, bagging the chip lead at the end of Day 2abc. He was just a hair behind the Day 1a leading stack of Israel’s Yehuda Dayan to start Day 2abc, but Brammer had the better Day 2. Dayan is still alive but was basically treading water for the day, finishing a bit lower than he started the day while Brammer shot up the counts to bag 879k at the end of the day.

Among the other players with big bags at the end of the first Day 2 were Julio Belluscio, Nick Marchington, and Finnish crusher Patrik Antonius who bagged 2nd, 5th, and 9th place stacks respectively. Ronnie Bardah and Shota Nakanishi are among the other players to bag half a million or more after Day 2abc. Doug Polk, who bagged the 4th biggest stack on Day 1a, didn’t quite manage the half-mil but bagged a respectable 433k to end the day.

Place	Player	Home	Chips
1	Christopher Brammer	United Kingdom	879k
2	Julio Belluscio	Argentina	825.5k
3	Beqir Salihu	United States	801k
4	John Sofillas	United States	780k
5	Nick Marchington	United Kingdom	716k
6	Heitor Saraiva	United States	665.5k
7	Sachin Joshi	United Kingdom	635.5k
8	Andrew Hulme	United Kingdom	610k
9	Patrik Antonius	Finland	584.5k
10	Nikita Luther	India	572.5k

No Back-to-Back This Year

Day 2 of the Main Event is when dreams start to form for a few players as they build their stack toward the later days of the biggest game in poker, but for a lot more people, Day 2 is where the Main Event dream dies, and defending champ Espen Jorstad was one such player on Friday’s Day 2abc. His loss will be softened somewhat by the glow that is no doubt still present from last year, but he was surely hoping for a deeper run this year. At least Jorstad can console himself with the fact that he went out on a cooler when the money went in on the flop after he flopped a set of sixes but Julian Aguirre flopped a straight. Jorstad couldn’t find a boat by the river and drowned his back-to-back chance.

A few other players who were in action on Day 2 but failed to advance included Cedrric Trevino, Jack Sinclair, Garett Maybery, Felipe Ketzer, Martin Finger, Paulina Loeliger, and recent Canada Day bracelet winner David Guay. Daniel Negreanu had a short stack to start the day and wasn’t able to spin it up and joining him on the Day 2 rail were players like Adrian Mateos, Alex Keating, Jamie Kerstetter, Jeremy Ausmus, and 2004 Main Event champion Greg Raymer. In total, there were 1,880 bags recorded at the end of the night from about 3,900 players who started the day.

Main Event Winners Advance

While the defending champion is already on the rail in this record-breaking Main Event, there are still a bunch of other players who have a shot at repeating their previous Main Event wins. Not least among them is Jamie Gold, winner of the 2006 Main Event, which was the previous record holder for biggest live game ever. Gold bagged up 248k for Day 3 while a few other past winners who still have chips include Damian Salas, Joe McKeehen, Martin Jacobson, Ryan Riess, Joe Cada, and Tom McEvoy, though McEvoy is starting the day with just 20k. One former champion who will be looking for his third title starting on Day 3 is OG legend Johnny Chan.

Chan famously won two straight in the late 80s before losing heads up in his attempt at three to the then-young upstart Phil Hellmuth in 1989. Chan went on to win a total of 10 bracelets so far, and he was already sniffing at #11 earlier in the series with a run to the final two tables of the Big O game. Chan is looking hot this year, and winning his third Main Event title nearly 4 decades after his second would be the story of the decade for sure.

For his part, the man who stopped Chan’s run for three back in the 80s has famously gone on to be the winningest player in WSOP history with an astonishing 17 bracelets, winning at least two bracelets in each of the last four decades after his first in ’89. While he only has one Vegas Main title on his resume, the Poker Brat is the only player in history to win both the Vegas and the International versions of the Main, and while he wasn’t in action on Day 2abc, he will be for Day 2d and will join the rest of the field for Day 3 if he manages to make it through.

There are still a few hours left for players to get into the biggest live poker tournament ever. While there have been games with bigger fields – in fact, this series has seen a field of more than 23,000 and others between 10k and 20k entries. However, the biggest ever prize pool for a live poker game was the 2006 Main Event at just over $80 million, and with the prize pool in this one now over $90 million, it is already the richest pot ever for live tournament poker.

Event #77: $777 Lucky 7’s No-Limit Hold’em – Flight A

With the Main Event into Day 2 action, the final few events in this series are starting to run once again with Lucky 7’s among the first to start up again. The opening flight for this low-cost bracelet saw 1,470 entries play down into the Day 1a money with just 64 players left with bags for Monday’s Day 2.

Thomas Blanton is one of two players to bag more than 2 million chips, but the other double millionaire remains anonymous as they are reported as “Did Not Report”. Kevin Song, Max Steinberg, and Christian Pham are among the bracelet winners still in the action after Day 1a. There are still two more shots for players to bag a Day 2 stack, and players who busted 1a, either in the money or not, are eligible to try again on later starting flights. Day 1a qualifiers return to the felt Monday for Day 2, while Day 1b kicks off at 10 am on Saturday.

Event #78: $1,500 BOUNTY Pot-Limit Omaha

The other game to kick off on Friday was Event #78: $1,500 BOUNTY Pot-Limit Omaha. There were 1,214 entries by the time registration shut down and just 140 players left with chips at the end of it all. There is a total of $1,620,690 to play for in this one, with 183 players sharing in the money and the earliest cashers already have money in their pockets.

Julian Segura was the min-casher for this one, pocketing $1,501 and he was joined at the cage by Roland Israelashvili, Daniel Tafur, Erik Seidel, Felipe Ramos, 2019 PoY winner Robert Campbell, Andy Black, and Kane Kalas before they bagged at the end of Day 1. Casey Wassell was one of three players with 600k or more as he bagged the lead with almost 700k. Among the other bags at the end of Day 1 were Dylan Smith, Scott Dulaney, David “ODB” Baker, Frédéric Normand, Daniel Negreanu, and Noah Schwartz.

Day 2 action for Event #78 kicks off at 2 pm on Saturday, and they’ll all be looking for chips to take down the $171,742 top prize.

Upcoming Events on July 8

Event #76: $10,000 MAIN EVENT No-Limit Hold’em World Championship – Day 2d

• Start: 12 noon
• Late Entry: 7 Levels
• Start Stack: 60,000
• Reentries: 0

Event #77: $777 Lucky 7’s No-Limit Hold’em – Flight B

• Start: 10 am
• Late Entry: 12 Levels
• Start Stack: 40,000
• Reentries: Unlimited

Online Event #15: No-Limit Hold’em Championship

• Start: 3:30 pm

It’s officially the biggest live poker game ever, and it wasn’t even close. The field is now more than 500 entries higher than the 2006 record field and it’s still growing until Saturday. The Ringmaster and his lion made their entrance on Day 1d, but only Ringmaster Hellmuth found a bag as the lion Cates was relegated to the rail. Nicolas ‘Dirty Diaper’ Rigby is the Day 2 chip leader, bagging more than 400k on 1d while the Hachems found father and son bags and Brittney Stout went on the run of her life. Finally, another record was set on Thursday when Gene Calden became the oldest player to ever compete in the Main Event at 100 years old.

Event #76: $10,000 MAIN EVENT No-Limit Hold’em World Championship – Flight D

The opening flights of the Main Event are now complete and it’s a doozy this year. With entries remaining open until Day 2, the field still isn’t set for the 2023 Main Event, but it’s already the biggest live poker game ever. Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas were bursting at the seams on Thursday’s Day 1d with more than 4,100 entries for the final flight. Added to the early starting flights, that means there are now 9,337 entries and counting for the 2023 Main Event, blowing the 2006 record of 8,773 out of the water. While the total prizes are yet to be posted, the numbers so far should put the total well in excess of $80 million so no matter how you slice this pie, it’s the biggest live poker game ever.

Nicolas ‘Dirty Diaper’ Rigby is the Day 2 chip leader now after bagging the biggest stack of Day 1d. He was the only player from any of the starting flights to bag more than 400k so he’ll be the clear leader going into the second day of play. Brittney Stout had a stellar 1d, amassing a huge stack early in the day with more than 200k already in Level 3. She ultimately bagged the second-best 1d stack with 375.5k which puts her in 4th place for the combined Day 2 standings. She was so excited about her run she took to social media with a series of tweets detailing her day.

https://twitter.com/britstoutpoker/status/1677182682294255617?s=20

With so many chips in play on Day 1d, it’s hardly a surprise that most of the top ten list comes from the final starting day. In fact, the Day 1b chip leader, Jean-Pierre van der Spuy with 287k, doesn’t even make the list. Chris Hunichen, sitting in 4th place after 1d and 7th overall, will be a dangerous Day 2 player with that many chips, and while he’s not quite in the top-ten, heads-up beast Doug Polk bagged the 4th-best stack on Day 1a and is coming to Day 2abc with almost 300k himself.

Player	Starting Flight	Chips
Nicholas Rigby	1d	408.8k
Yehuda Dayan	1a	389.9k
Christopher Brammer	1c	386.1k
Brittney Stout	1d	375.5k
Shota Nakanishi	1a	360.1k
Neel Murthy	1d	323.1k
Chris Hunichen	1d	321.2k
Carlos Leiva	1d	318.7k
Brandon Mincher	1d	317k
Jeffrey Weil	1d	308.1k

Three Ring Circus

While for most players Day 1d is the final chance to take a shot at the biggest tournament of their lives, for 17-time bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth, there’s always more to it than just poker. Hellmuth has been one of the more flamboyant personalities on the felt for his entire career and in recent years has been making “Grand Entrances” to the Main Event during the final opening flight of the storied tournament. Among his past entrances were stints as a Roman Gladiator, and a less-than-successful attempt to arrive in a NASCAR vehicle.

This year, The Poker Brat teamed up with another big personality in the game, Dan “Jungleman” Cates, to create a circus atmosphere for their entrance. With Hellmuth dressed as the Ringmaster and the “Jungleman” appropriately dressed as his lion, the pair arrived just before the second break of Day 1d trailed by 17 models, one for each of Hellmuth’s bracelets.

Only the Ringmaster will be moving on to Day 2, however. While Hellmuth spent the day on the feature table and ended up bagging almost 110k at the end of the day, his jungle cat compatriot wasn’t so lucky. It’s unclear if the makeup and lion paws affected his game, but the king of the jungle, Cates, was felled shortly after dinner and so won’t be competing for his first Main Event bracelet.

Ended Day 1 of @WSOP Main Event w 105,800. Cool picture!!

My haters, not many, (feels like 98% like me) get blocked by me on Twitter. Then they ask me to unblock them! I guess they can’t see my tweets anymore w/out some effort. I always unblock when they ask in person… pic.twitter.com/ObE3xMMaU4

— phil_hellmuth (@phil_hellmuth) July 7, 2023

Bucket Lists and Families

While the Main Event is all about the poker and the big prizes at the end, it’s also something of an “event” in the poker world that draws all kinds of people from all over the world. In some cases, poker is a family affair, and that’s certainly the case with the Hachem family. Dad Joe won the Main Event back in 2005 during the early boom, but his son Daniel has been on the felt for the past few years now often playing in the very same games as his dad. They were both in action on Day 1d, and they both bagged chips for Day 2, though father Joe ended the day with the biggest family bag.

For other people, the Main Event is a bucket-list item, something they have to participate in at least once in their lives. Gene Calden got that chance during Day 1d and in the process became the oldest player ever to buy into the Main Event, at 100 years old. Calden got a huge round of applause when he arrived in the game, and got the same when he sadly busted during the day.

At the age of 100, Eugene Calden kicks off the final starting day of the 2023 @WSOP Main Event with @CMONEYMAKER! He also became the oldest player to participate the Main Event in history! #ShuffleUpandDeal

Photo Credit: @drew_amato pic.twitter.com/tfuBw420rs

— Moneymaker Tour (@MoneymakerTour) July 6, 2023

Players can still get into the Main Event before Day 2 begins, so the record-breaking numbers aren’t even complete yet. Expect the record to keep climbing until the gate finally comes down on entries on Saturday’s Day 2d. Among the other players to make it through to the second day were Men Nguyen, Ari Engel, Brad Sailor, Joseph Liberta, Nick Guagenti, and Mathieu Boucher. While the Day 1 flights are now complete, Friday is when the first three starting flights combine for their Day 2, while the 1d players have a day off today and return for their Day 2 on Saturday. Sunday is when the full field finally combines on Day 3.

Upcoming Events on July 7

Event #76: $10,000 MAIN EVENT No-Limit Hold’em World Championship – Day 2abc

• Start: 12 noon
• Late Entry: 7 Levels
• Start Stack: 60,000
• Reentries: 0

Event #77: $777 Lucky 7’s No-Limit Hold’em – Flight A

• Start: 10 am
• Late Entry: 12 Levels
• Start Stack: 40,000
• Reentries: Unlimited

Event #78: $1,500 BOUNTY Pot-Limit Omaha

• Start: 2 pm
• Late Entry: 9 Levels
• Start Stack: 25,000
• Reentries: 2
• Bounties: $500/player

High-stakes cash player Sam “ApesSonIMHO” Soverel took down the Hybrid bracelet on Wednesday and his second bracelet put his lifetime earnings over $22 million. Meanwhile, the Main Event is proving to be massive with every flight so far this year surpassing last year’s numbers. Wednesday’s third flight crushed 2022 with more than 3,000 entries compared to 1,800 last year and merely matching last year’s Day 1d will crush the 2006 record. In fact, this year’s series will be sniffing at the record if Day 1d gets 1,000 fewer entries than last year, so the prospects for a new record look very good heading into the final chance.

Online Event #13: $5,300 No-Limit Hold’em High Roller Championship – Hybrid

Online event #13 was a unique combination of both online and live poker as most of the game was played out on the WSOP.com online client on Monday night before the final table reconvened in Las Vegas on the live felt on Wednesday afternoon. When the dust settled on Wednesday it was cash game specialist Sam “ApesSonIMHO” Soverel who was holding his second bracelet. There were 408 entries for this one on Monday with 60 players sharing in the $2,040,000 prize pool.

Soverel prefers live poker to online, and he was actually playing a live high-stakes cash game on Monday night while he was grinding Online Event #13. “I much prefer live,” he said after the win. “Live’s fun. It’s more social. It’s way better to me.”

He was chip-leading when they got to the final table on Wednesday, but he wouldn’t have an easy go. The final six was, unsurprisingly, a bit of a stacked affair with six bracelets at the table before this one was awarded. Ethan “Rampunts” Yau, also known on YouTube and Twitter as Rampage, made the final six but was the first out of the star-studded final. Aleksejs “APonakov” Ponakovs and Yuval “Larrybird84” Bronshtein were the other two bracelet holders at the table.

Soverel’s first bracelet came back in 2016 and since then he’s been frustratingly close to his second a few times, with a 2nd, two 3rds, and 4th, 5th, and 6th place finishes in recent years, it seemed just a matter of time before he found his second bracelet. When it finally came it pushed his WSOP earnings over $5.2 million and his total lifetime earnings to just north of $22 million.

Place	Player	Home	Payout
1	Sam “ApesSonIMHO” Soverel	United States	$393,516
2	Gergely “wildace_hun” Kulcsar	Hungary	$284,784
3	Yuval “Larrybird84” Bronshtein	Israel	$207,264
4	Aleksejs “APonakov” Ponakovs	Latvia	$150,144
5	Lingkun “CN_23” Lu	United States	$109,344
6	Ethan “Rampunts” Yau	United States	$80,784

Event #76: $10,000 MAIN EVENT No-Limit Hold’em World Championship – Flight C

Three of four starting days for the storied Main Event are now in the books, and Wednesday’s Flight C was the biggest one yet, and it wasn’t even close. More than 3.000 players crammed into Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas for the third flight bringing the three-day total for the event to more than 5,200 players so far with prizes cracking $50 million during Wednesday’s flight.

The record for the Main Event, and in fact for any live poker tournament to date, happened in 2006 when Jamie Gold came through 8,773 for a $12 million share of the $82,512,162 in total prizes. Last year, the 2022 Main came tantalizingly close to cracking that record, ending entries with about 100 players fewer than 2006. This year, going into the final flight, the field is only about 3,500 players away from the record, and with more than 3,000 in attendance for Wednesday’s 1c, 1d promises to be a huge one.

Last year, Day 1d saw an astonishing 4,481 entries to come ever-so-close to the record. What makes that most interesting in comparison to this year is that 2022’s Day 1c got a paltry 1,800 entries compared to 2023’s field of more than 3,000. While it is unclear if that increase can hold into Thursday’s final flight numbers, if this year’s 1d gets 1,000 FEWER players than last year’s, the event will still be in the record range while a field size equalling last year’s final flight will blow that record out of the water.

After five levels of play in the third starting flight, Christopher Brammer from the UK has the biggest stack with 386.1k. He is the only player from Day 1c with more than 300k, but he joins two Day 1a bags in the 300k range, coming in just behind the chip-leading bag of Yehuda Dayan with 389.9k. Michael Banducci from the US just missed the 300k mark with 292.6k for second place and Lawrence Chang, Roman Valerstein, and Michael Pinto round out the top five spots, all with more than 250k.

While Canadian-Romanian star Daniel Negreanu didn’t figure in the top stacks at the end of Day 1c, he’s still in the mix looking for his first Main Event bracelet in Vegas. Negreanu is one of the players that could equal Phil Hellmuth, if not in numbers then in the feat of winning both versions of the Main Event. “DNegs” famously won the 2013 International Main Event at the World Series of Poker Asia Pacific (APAC), and while he’ll have a lot of work to do on Friday’s Day 2abc, he still has a few chips to do the work with.

There are quite a few shots at a second Main Event bracelet after Wednesday’s flight as well. Former champs Joe McKeehen, Tom McEvoy, Scott Blumstein, Espen Jorstad, and Ryan Riess all found bags at the end of 1c, and will be joining Greg Raymer, Johnny Chan, Martin Jacobson, Damian Salas, and Jamie Gold with shots to bag a second Main Event bracelet. One former champion who hasn’t been seen in the mix yet is newly-minted 17-time bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth. There is little chance of him missing the Big Show, however, and as always, he’s expected to put on a bit of a “Big Show” himself when he makes his entrance around 4 pm on Day 1d.

Spectacle! @WSOP Main Event entrance: tomorrow at 4 PM: 17 models (hopefully w Lion makeup), @junglemandan coming in as a lion, and me coming in as “The Greatest Showman!” We will drop Jungle at his table w 2 models, then go to my table #POSITIVITY #PHNiceLife pic.twitter.com/IdsfYRRN0Z

— phil_hellmuth (@phil_hellmuth) July 5, 2023

Thursday marks the final shot for players looking to advance in the biggest live poker game on the planet. The pace of entries for the 2023 Main Event is already well above the 2022 numbers after three opening flights and all three flights so far have smashed the 2022 numbers. The final flight promises to be a huge one with Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas bulging at the seams to fit them all in. It still remains to be seen, but 2023 is easily on pace to not just break 2006’s record, but crush it. Day 1d action gets underway at noon and it is the final shot at what could easily be the biggest live poker tournament ever seen.

Upcoming Events on July 5

Event #76: $10,000 MAIN EVENT No-Limit Hold’em World Championship – Flight D

• Start: 12 noon
• Late Entry: 7 Levels
• Start Stack: 60,000
• Reentries: 0

Online Event #14: $400 No-Limit Hold’em Turbo

• Start: 3:30 pm

The World Series of Poker (WSOP) is heading to Northern Europe for its first-ever ten-day festival in Tallinn.

The Estonian capital has long been a home to some of Europe’s biggest tournaments and now, thanks to a partnership with OlyBet, the WSOP will be adding something new to the mix.

WSOP Tallinn will take place in September at Olympic Park Casino and Hilton Hotel. A total of 12 Circuit rings will be up for grabs between September 14 and 24, including one for the €1 million guaranteed main event.

WSOP’s Global Network Continues to Grow

WSOP Vice President, Gregory Chochon, said the decision to host a Circuit series in Estonia was a natural fit. Indeed, with OlyBet’s parent company, Olympic Entertainment Group, having a partnership with GGPoker, there was already a tacit link between the two companies. Now, after discussing formalities, OlyBet and the WSOP will work together to run the first Circuit series in Estonia.

“During this year’s World Series of Poker, we’ve again seen the continuous growth of the sport. This growth is continuing into Northern Europe and we are delighted to partner with OlyBet to bring the excitement and passion of the WSOP Circuit Series to Estonia,” Chochon.

Corey Plummer, CEO of Olympic Entertainment Group, echoed those sentiments and praised his company’s credentials as a tournament operator.

“We already host the largest poker festival in Northern Europe with the Kings of Tallinn, and we expect to go further with the WSOP Circuit,” Plummer said in a press release this week.

There’s no doubt that people’s hunger for WSOP events is stronger than ever. This year’s WSOP in Las Vegas has broken multiple records. The Millionaire Maker attracted over 10,000 entrants, making it the largest $1,500 live event in history.

The WSOP Colossus also set new standards. A total of 15,894 entrants took part in the $400 tournament, generating a prize pool of more than $5.2 million. That meant the eventual winner, Moshe Refaelowitz, turned his $400 entry fee into a $501,120 payday.

WSOP Remains Poker’s Biggest Draw

The Main Event is also expected to be the biggest ever, which is why WSOP executives announced an ambitious new Circuit schedule late last week. There will be 25 WSOP Circuit stops in the US alone over the next 12 months, including events in Florida, California, and Chicago.

Running in tandem with US Circuit events will be a selection of international offerings. WSOP Circuit London is set to take place between July 27 and August 13 at JW Marriott Hotel in London. From there, the international tour will head to Tallinn.

The schedule is still being finalized, but we know there will be at least €1 million in guaranteed prize money. We also know GGPoker and OlyBet will be running satellites for all the major tournaments, including the WSOP Circuit Tallinn main event.

A comprehensive satellite system and previous events in Estonia, such as Kings of Tallinn, suggest the new Circuit series could attract big numbers. Indeed, if events in Las Vegas are anything to go by, we could see guarantees and records broken when the WSOP bandwagon rolls into Estonia for the first time.