Daily Updates from the 2023 WSOP – June 23

There were no bracelets awarded on Friday but two starting fields from the record-breaking Seniors game combined for their Day 2 while the PLO Championship played down to the final five players. The Championship HORSE race got out of the gates with a big field, the team event is down to the final 26 teams, and the opening flight of the Millionaire Maker saw more than 4,500 entries for what looks like another massive multi-day field.

Event #48: $1,000 SENIORS No-Limit Hold’em Championship – Day 2

There are 217 seniors still in action in Event #48 after two days of play. There were 8,180 entries for this one across the two starting flights, putting more than $7.25 million into the prize pool. Of those players, 1,624 returned on Day 2 but only 1,227 of those would get any money out of the deal.

It didn’t take long for them to get there, with the money bubble bursting around 3 hours into Day 2 with Dennis Otto as the bubble player. They played a full 10 levels of poker on Day 2, and in the end, Leonard Clementi ended up as the chip leader to end the day with the only stack over 4 million. Chun Li has about 3.2 million for second, while David Palm will be playing 2.335 million in third place for Day 3. Victor Ramdin, Allen Kessler, and JJ Liu all managed to bag a Day 3 stack, as well as Dominick French, Men Nguyen, Joseph Workman, Mark Seif, Mike Matusow, Mike Honeyman (who is coming off a Main Event win in Calgary earlier this year on the Pure Poker Tour), Frank Cupello, and Ted Forrest.

Day 3 action gets underway at 10 am, a suitable early-bird time for the Seniors and there are another 10 levels on the schedule for Saturday with the bracelet expected to be awarded on Sunday.

Event #50: $10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Championship

Event #50 is now down to the final five players as they expect to play down to a winner during Saturday’s action. Stanislav Halatenko is the runaway leader going into the final day with almost 20 million in his bag while second-place Travis Pearson barely has 8.5 million. In fact, the rest of the table combined is playing about 24 million to start Day 4 compared to 19.75 million for the leader.

It was a busy Day 3 as they played down from 42 returning players to the final five. Along the way, quite a few hopefuls fell in their quest for the Championship bracelet including Sam Soverel, Kosei Ichinose, Dimitar Danchev, Juha Helppi, Benoit Galland, Dylan Weisman, Paul (Jaspal) Brar, Edmund Chan, Ioannis Angelou Konstas, and Sean Winter. There were a total of 110 players who shared a piece of the $6,798,300 prize pool that grew from the 731 entries to start this game and players returning for Day 4 are all now guaranteed $296,154 with $1,309,232 waiting up top for the winner.

PLO Championship Final Five

Seat	Player	Home	Chips
1	Arthur Morris	United States	4.875 M
2	Travis Pearson	United States	8.55 M
3	Peng Shan	China	6.8 M
4	Ap Garza	United States	3.775 M
5	Stanislav Halatenko	Ukraine	19.75 M

Event #51: $1,000 TAG TEAM No-Limit Hold’em

The Tag Team Event is always well attended and this year’s event was no exception. 1,282 team entries were recorded before the registration desk closed for a total prize pool of $570,490 and the winning team will share the top prize of $95,331. There are just 26 teams left in the game after two days of play and the Japanese team of Yuki Sako – Shunsuke Tokoo is leading the way as one of three stacks bigger than 2 million. David Williams – Theo Tran and Nipun Java – Ronald Phipps round out the top three stacks for Day 3.

Other teams to bag a Day 3 stack include Justin Pechie – Ronnie Bardah and Ramon Kropmanns – Jessica Serial. Day 3 action picks up at noon on Saturday and the plan is to award the bracelet before they finish for the day.

Event #52: $2,500 Mixed Triple Draw Lowball

There are just 19 players left in the Mixed Triple Draw game after two days of play. Nick Pupillo leads the counts with just over 1.5 million and is one of four players with a million or more to start Day 3. Portugal’s Joao Vieira is among those million-stacks and John Monnette, Robert Mizrachi, Ray Henson, and Matt Vengrin all bagged smaller stacks for the final day. There were 353 entries in this one building a prize pool of $785,425 with 53 players sharing in the prizes.

2019 Player of the Year Robert Campbell, Jake Schwartz, Scott Abrams, Maria Ho, Terrence Chan, Chin Rheem, Daniel Strelitz, and Nacho Barbero all barely missed Day 3 with late Day 2 cashes while Maxx Coleman, Brian Yoon, David “Bakes” Baker, Ari Engel, and Hal Rotholz were among the earlier players to exit with some money in their pockets.

Day 3 resumes the action at 1 pm and while all the players coming back for Day 3 have locked up $6,948 they’ll all be looking for the $181,978 first-place prize.

Event #53: $1,500 MILLIONAIRE MAKER No-Limit Hold’em – Flight A

Day 1a of the MILLIONAIRE MAKER saw a massive field of 4,585 entries that put the prizes over $6 million already. Just over 1,000 players found bags at the end of the opening flight, and Nick Basile bagged one of the biggest stacks of the day. Yong Yi and Sihao Zhang are sitting one and two in the counts after the opening flight, with Canada’s Nick Basile sitting in third, though almost 300k behind the two leaders who both have more than 700k.

There were a few big names to bag up after the first day including Jeff Platt, Jason Wheeler, Ryan Leng, Kristen Foxen (nee Bicknell), Jessica Teusl, Kyle Ho, Jackie Burkhart, and Rob Lothian. There is one more shot for players who failed to find a bag at the end of Day 1a with Day 1b kicking off at 10 am in Vegas, and this flight is expected to be even bigger than the massive 1a.

Event #54: $10,000 H.O.R.S.E. Championship

There are just 91 players left in action in the $10k HORSE Championship. Steven Loube leads the way after the opening day of play with 353k, but he’s got some tough competition just beneath him. Scott Bohlman bagged the second stack with 311.5k while Scott Seiver and David “Bakes” Baker also have top-five stacks. Just outside the top five, Mori Eskandani, Paul Volpe, and Matt Grapenthien are among the vipers waiting to strike on Day 2. Among the other players to find a bag on the opening day were Alex Livingston, Mike Gorodinsky, Daniel Negreanu, Esther Taylor, Josh Arieh, Thomas Taylor, Brandon Shack-Harris, Carol Fuchs, Ari Engel, Max Pescatori, Paul Tedeschi, “Johnny World” Hennigan, and David “ODB” Baker.

They got 165 entries before they bagged up for the opening day, but that’s not a final number as Championship events remain open for entries until the start of Day 2. That means the current prize pool of $1,534,500 is expected to grow before it is finalized when cards go in the air later on Saturday.

The second day of play in this Championship game is scheduled for 1 pm on Saturday. Level length jumps to 90 minutes for Day 2 and the plan is to play seven levels before they bag up for Day 3 action on Sunday.

Upcoming Events on June 24

Event #56: $500 SALUTE to Warriors – No-Limit Hold’em

• Start: 10 am
• Late Entry: 9 Levels
• Start Stack: 50,000
• Reentries: 1

Event #57: $25,000 High Roller Pot-Limit Omaha

• Start: 12 noon
• Late Entry: 12 Levels
• Start Stack: 150,000
• Reentries: 2

Event #58: $3,000 6-Handed Limit Hold’em

• Start: 2 pm
• Late Entry: 8 Levels
• Start Stack: 40,000
• Reentries: 0

Online Event #10: $400 No-Limit Ultra Deepstack

• Start: 3:30 pm