Daily Updates from the 2023 WSOP – July 3

There were two first-time bracelet winners on Monday, and both of them also bagged their country’s first hardware in this series. Both the Mini Main and the PLO8 Championship go into their final days, while the iconic Main Event is now underway with almost 1,100 entries after the first starting flight. The highs and lows of the biggest game in poker continue with the second of four starting flights on Tuesday, and the entire facility is dedicated to Main Event action as Day 1b is the only tournament on the schedule for Tuesday.

Event #70: $400 COLOSSUS No-Limit Hold’em

The field in The Colossus was colossal with almost 16,000 total entries that combined for a prize pool of $6 million even, divided 1,986 ways. After three days of play, Israel scored its first bracelet of the series with the victory of Moshe Refaelowitz in The Colossus worth $501,120.

This was his biggest score by quite a bit, with his WSOP total cashes reading $570,232 after the win. His Hendon Mob page showed a total of $184,800 prior to this first bracelet win so this win makes up the bulk of his cash results at this point. However, don’t let the slim results fool you – Refaelowitz had confidence coming into the series, promising his wife he’d bring home some hardware. She was the first person he called after the win, and the Florida resident who plays under the Israeli flag dedicated the win to his partner in life.

There were quite a few solid players in this one, with names like PokerStars streamer Benjamin “Spraggy” Spragg and GGPoker streamer Kevin Martin both bagging money in this one, as did five-timer Allen Cunningham. There were a few other bracelet winners on Day 3 that missed out on the final table as well including James Dempsey, John Gorsuch, Jason Wheeler, and Ashkan Razavi.

In the final hands, it came down to heads-up between Refaelowitz and South Korean transplant Daewoong Song with the eventual winner going into heads-up with the lead. Song was able to even it up and even pull slightly ahead, but then lost a big pot on what the Israeli winner said was an all-in bluff that might have ended the game right there. Instead, Song gave it up and left himself short and after a short break, the game finished very quickly with Refaelowitz holding the bracelet.

Event #73: $2,500 Mixed Big Bet Event

Argentina joined Israel with its first bracelet of the series on Monday after Julio Belluscio took down the win worth more than $190k. He had to make it through 377 entries for his share of the $838,825 prize pool. Belluscio was the biggest share of the 57 paid spots with the earliest cashing players pocketing just over $4k for their efforts.

There were 11 bracelets at the final table, so it wasn’t like Belluscio had a free ride to the bracelet. Anthony Zinno came to the final table last in chips and couldn’t spin it up ending his day in 7th place, while Day 1 chip leader Erick Lindgren fell in 5th. Five-timer Benny Glaser made it as far as 3rd place, but couldn’t quite make it through to his sixth bracelet. Instead, it was two players both competing for their first bracelet who would meet in the endgame of this one.

Heads-up was a very quick affair, lasting just three hands before Belluscio took it down Costa Rica’s Federico Quevedo. Belluscio came to Vegas this year full of confidence, saying after the bracelet that he expected to win one this year. He credited his rail with a big assist in the win as well, acknowledging that having friends and family there to cheer him on is huge and he made a pledge – ” If I make the Main Event final table, then you will see a real rail. I will spend $100,000 to fly all my friends and family from Argentina here, and they will be making too much noise.”

Event #74: $1,000 MINI Main Event No-Limit Hold’em

After two days of play, France’s Jérémy Oleon has the most chips with almost 100 million in his bag for Day 3. That is almost 20 million ahead of Jennifer Abad in second, who bagged 80 million even. Joshua Reichard, Oliver Berens, and Bradley Gafford round out the remaining five players in this one with stacks ranging from 63.3 million down to 18.4 million.

There were 5,257 entries for the Mini Main this year, putting $4,678,730 into a prize pool that was divided 789 ways. Among the players to bag a decent cash on Day 2 of this one were Marc Halverson, Ramiro Petrone, John Reading, Kyle Chang, Tom Fuchs, Marc Macdonnell, Levi Berger, Ben Underwood, Sunny (Gurpreet) Lubana, Jason Mann, and Erwann Pecheux.

The final five players return to the felt on Tuesday at noon to finish this one out with blinds resuming from Level 42 at 1.5m/3m/3m and they’ll play down to a winner for sure.

Event #75: $10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better Championship

The field for Event #75 ended up at 247 total entries, making a prize pool of $2,297,100 with 42 players pocketing a piece of it. After two days of play, Stephen Deutsch leads the field with 2.11 million, just a hair ahead of John Holley, the only other player above 2 million to end Day 2. Hassan Kamel, Ryan Hoenig, Maxx Coleman, and Martin Zamani all bagged 1 million or more while Dzmitry Urbanovich and Chris Vitch are also lurking with top ten stacks.

Some big names hit the rail empty-handed in this one. Phil Ivey, Stephen Chidwick, Chad Eveslage, Ben Lamb, and Brian Rast all made a run but fell short of the money on Day 2. Phil Hellmuth, Dan Shak, Felipe Ramos, Daniel Negreanu, Dan Heimiller, and Day 1 chip leader Michael Banducci all managed to find some money at the end of Day 2, but no bags.

There are 19 players left in the action for what should be the final day of play on Tuesday. While there are a lot of top names in the top ten of this one, there are a few players with smaller stacks who could easily be dangerous on Day 3. Canada’s Calen McNeil won the $1,500 version of this event for his first bracelet back in 2013 and he bagged 525k at the end of Day 2. Joao Simao, Dylan Weisman, and Paul Volpe all have middling 500k+ stacks for Day 3, while Patrick “Pads” Leonard has the short stack with 170k.

Cards go in the air for what should be the final day of play at 1 pm on Tuesday with the action beginning in Level 21 and blinds of 10k/25k/25k.

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

• Entries: 304
• Prizes: $2,040,000
• Paid: 60
• 1st Place: ???
• Yuval “Larrybird84” Bronshtein Leads Final Six Players Returning for the Live Final Table on July 5

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

The WSOP is full of events, but there is only one event that is top of everyone’s mind as the series draws to a close – The Main Event. The opening flight of the biggest game in poker got underway on Monday, July 2 with all the highs and lows expected from the Big Show. Israel’s Idan the One was an example of the lows, showing just how cruel poker can be in possibly the biggest event of his career. Early on his Day 1a run, he ran kings into the aces of Ruben Correia to lose about half his stack. Not very long after that, the Israeli player woke up with kings again and the rest of his money went in, only for Correia to wake up with aces again and send him to the rail. It took a while for the young player to process the gross beat in poker’s premier showcase.

His was just one story of more than 1,000 entries on Day 1a of the iconic event. With some of the biggest prizes in the game, and serious poker prestige on the line, the Main Event is serious business for players but it’s also a chance to have some fun at the tables with peers from all over the world. Podcaster and heads-up specialist Doug Polk was in the game looking to make some serious money in a few days, but he wasn’t taking it so seriously he couldn’t enjoy an adult beverage or two during the day’s action and in the process, he bagged the day’s 4th biggest stack. Around the room, big names were showing up everywhere, including Jamie Gold who ended up seated under the banner he got for winning the biggest Main Event ever in 2006.

After the first starting flight, Israel’s Yehuda Dayan bagged the chip lead of 389k with Polk sitting in 4th at 281.9k. Canada’s Christine Do also bagged a top-ten stack on the opening day and among the other players to bag shorter stacks were Poker Hall of Famers John Hennigan and Billy Baxter, four-timer Dominik Nitsche, six-timer Shaun Deeb, poker coach Faraz Jaka, poker author Jim McManus, and high rollers David Peters, Sean Winter, and Jake Schindler.

Day 1a was just a taste of what is to come in this year’s Main Event. There are still three more flights for players to try and bag a stack, but one of the things that make the Main so iconic is that it’s a traditional freezeout format. The “one and done” format means players have but a single shot at the Big Show, and players who busted Day 1a won’t be able to take another shot in future flights. That said, there is no shortage of players in Las Vegas right now who didn’t fire on Day 1a, and the remaining flights for the Main Event are sure to be packed to the rafters. With many events this year breaking previous records for field size, there’s every chance this could be the year the 2006 record falls and there are three more shots to make it happen.

Upcoming Events on July 4

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

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