Daily Updates from the 2023 WSOP – July 4

Australia bagged its first bracelet of the series with Hassan Kamel’s PLO8 victory, and he was railed by some Australian poker royalty for the event. Bradley Gafford ended up the winner of the Mini Main, but the big news at this point of the series is always the Main Event. With two flights in the books there are more than 1,500 players waiting for Day 2 action already, and Wednesday is all Main Event, all the time with flight 1c as the only scheduled action on Wednesday.

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

The Mini Main is now in the books and Bradley Gafford added another bracelet to the host country’s total after making his way through the 5,257 entries for the win. His $549,555 was the biggest share of the $4,678,730 prize pool, but there were a total of 789 players who took some cash home after this event.

This was perhaps one of the best comeback stories of the series so far as Gafford came into the final day dead-last in chips. He came into the day determined to double quickly, and he did just that against Jennifer Abad, who had her own rail of supporters handing out T-shirts reading “Jenny in the Mini” that had been hastily created at an all-night T-shirt shop on the strip. That helped send the only woman in the final day home in 4th place and put Gafford on a mission.

Things shifted for good when Gafford doubled twice in three hands through runner-up Josh Reichard. He found flopped quad threes first then found aces over kings to give Gafford momentum that couldn’t be halted and a few hands later Gafford was holding the bracelet amidst a group of his friends. This score was his first bracelet and biggest cash by far. Coming into this event he had about $130k in wins on Hendon Mob, but that total is now up to almost $700k.

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

Australian Hassan Kamel had a pretty powerful rail for his, and Australia’s, first bracelet on Tuesday night. Among the players on hand to watch the spectacle were double bracelet winner and 2019 Player of the Year Robert Campbell as well as bracelet winner and mixed-game beast James Obst.

It took three days of play for Kamel to work his way through the 247 entries for $598,613, the biggest share of the $2,297,100 prize pool. Along with Kamel, 41 other players finished the day with money in their pockets, and among them were Anton Smirnov, Dylan Weisman, Dzmitry Urbanovich, Paul Volpe, Calen “BigWheel” McNeil, Ben Yu, and Patrick “Pads” Leonard. McNeil was looking for his second O8 bracelet and despite coming up short had nothing but praise.

Thanks for all the support everyone . Always painful to come close but played my heart out . This game can be brutal, but this was the funnest time I’ve had playing cards and am so happy to be able to compete with the best ✌🏼

— Calen McNeil (@BigwheelMcNeil) July 5, 2023

The game was scheduled to finish at five players to return for a Day 4 on Wednesday, but Kamel had most of the chips in play when they got to that point, so it was decided they would play it out on Day 3. The endgame action went quickly with the heads-up phase between Kamel and Ryan Hoenig lasting just a few hands before it all ended with Kamel holding the bracelet among the Australian poker royalty on his rail.

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

The second starting flight of the Main Event is now in the books and South African Jean-Pierre van der Spuy leads the day with 287k in his bag. Four-time bracelet winner Julien Martini of France bagged the second-biggest stack and Finnish high-stakes crushed Patrik Antonius had the 7th biggest bag at the end of Day 1b.

There were 1,118 entries for Day 1b on Tuesday and when the end of the Beer Level finally came, there were still 819 bags to collect. Added to the Day 1a qualifiers, that puts more than 1,500 entries into Day 2abc on Friday so far with Day 1c still to come on Wednesday.

Among the other players to advance to Friday’s second day were former Main Event champions Greg Raymer and Johnny Chan. Chan has been sniffing at his 11th bracelet all series with a couple of deep runs already and is looking invigorated and eager for his first bracelet since 2005.

Among the other players to bag chips at the end of 1b were Ramiro Petrone, Giuseppe Galluzzo, Kamran Malekpour, Anthony Ribeiro, Kyle Chang, Chris Brewer, Dinesh Alt, Andy Frankenberger, and Matt Glantz, who all ended the day in the top 100 bags. The third of four shots at the Main Event goes on Wednesday starting at noon, while qualifiers from 1b will join 1a and 1c qualifiers in Day 2abc on Friday.

Upcoming Events on July 5

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

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