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Daily Updates from the 2023 WSOP – June 28

Daily Updates from the 2023 WSOP – June 28
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Lyle Bateman Pokerlistings Author
  • Fact Checked by: PokerListings
  • Last updated on: October 2, 2024 · 10 minutes to read

The Millionaire Maker made two millionaires with Pavel Plesuv the biggest winner. That was Plesuv’s first bracelet and he joined two other first-timers on Wednesday with hardware after Ka Kwan Lau bagged the PLO High Roller bracelet and Robert Schulz took down the $3k Freezeout game. There is a deeply sick final table on deck Thursday in the $1,500 Single Draw Deuce game as Brad Ruben leads a stellar final five, the Super Seniors get into Day 2 action, and the Ladies Championship kicks off Day 1 on Thursday.

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

Pavel Plesuv, Winner of Event #53: $1,500 MILLIONAIRE MAKER No-Limit Hold’em for $1,201,564, with rail
Pavel Plesuv, Winner of Event #53: $1,500 MILLIONAIRE MAKER No-Limit Hold’em for $1,201,564, with rail

The Millionaire Maker is now in the books, and in the end, they not only made one millionaire, they made two. Pavel Plesuv from Moldova was the big winner, taking down the top prize of $1,201,564 and his first bracelet, but Florian Ribouchon also bagged a million with his second-place score of $1,003,554.

This was a massive field of nearly 10,500 entries over two starting days, which put $13,905,360 into the prize pool to be split up 1,563 ways. The earliest players to bust pocketed $2,400 while the top 11 players all got at least six-figure payouts when the game ended for them.

This was Plesuv’s biggest score to date and his first bracelet, but he’s no stranger to earning money at the poker table. This win pushed his WSOP earnings to about $2.2 million while his Hendon Mob results show a total of $7.2 million won now. His previous biggest score was a partypoker LIVE runner-up finish in 2018 that netted him about $925k while this win marks his sixth time amassing all the chips in a tournament.

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

Ka Kwan Lau, Winner of Event #57: $25,000 Pot-Limit Omaha High Roller for $2,294,756
Ka Kwan Lau, Winner of Event #57: $25,000 Pot-Limit Omaha High Roller for $2,294,756
Ka Kwan Lau, Winner of Event #57: $25,000 Pot-Limit Omaha High Roller for $2,294,756 with rail
Ka Kwan Lau, Winner of Event #57: $25,000 Pot-Limit Omaha High Roller for $2,294,756 with rail

The record-setting field of 449 entries in the PLO High Roller game created the biggest live PLO MTT prize pool in WSOP history of more than $10.5 million. A total of 68 players got a piece of those prizes and Gergo Nagy was the first player to walk out with cash to the tune of $40,179. Among the other players to cash out before the final day were Isaac Kempton, Kane Kalas, Sean Winter, Sam Soverel, Paul Volpe, Josh Arieh, Joao Vieira, Dylan Smith, Ben Lamb, Chad Eveslage, Isaac Haxton, Dylan Weisman, Chance Kornuth, and Jeremy Ausmus.

For his part, Weisman’s day ended on one of the biggest pots of the tournament to that point when the money went in on the turn with Weisman holding a straight with redraws to a boat against Sergio Martinez Gonzalez with a spade draw. The clean spade hit the river to send Weisman to the cage, and after the beat, he took to Twitter to discuss the final hand and the toll high-stakes poker takes.

Five players returned for the final day of play, and Lau was the biggest of the bunch by quite a margin. He was playing more than 10 million more than the second-place stack of Sergio Martinez Gonzalez going into the final day, and he held that lead for the win. While this was Lau’s first bracelet, he was one spot away from the same bracelet in 2021. The win brings his WSOP earnings to almost $3.8 million with his Hendon earnings sitting just a hair under $5 million.

Event #59: $3,000 Freezeout No-Limit Hold’em

Robert Schulz, Winner of Event #59: $3,000 Freezeout No-Limit Hold'em for $675,275
Robert Schulz, Winner of Event #59: $3,000 Freezeout No-Limit Hold’em for $675,275

Robert Schulz was the last player with chips in Event #59, taking down his first bracelet for a prize of $675,275. He had to make his way through 1,598 entries to win the biggest share of the $4,266,660 prize pool, and he shared those prizes with 239 other players.

Schulz came into the final day of play seventh in chips, but over the seven-hour final day he managed to chip back up to the win after taking down Julien Sitbon heads up. Sitbon, for his part, bagged his sixth cash so far this series and second final table after a fifth-place finish in Event #32. Among the other players who stood between Schulz and the bracelet on the final day were Dario Sammartino, James Mendoza, and Barak Wisbrod.

This was Schulz’ biggest win by quite a margin and brought his lifetime Hendon Mob earnings to just over $1.75 million while about $1.1 million of that has come from WSOP events. Schulz came close to his first bracelet in 2018 at the European Series when he bagged second place in a 6-handed deepstack event.

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Event #60: $1,500 No-Limit 2-7 Lowball Draw

They are down to the final five players in the single-draw deuce game now, considered by many to be the purest form of poker. Four-time bracelet winner Brad Ruben is leading the final five by more than 1 million going into the final day of play, but OG GOAT Erik Seidel is sniffing at his heels in second place. Jason Mercier, who is making his first appearance in the results so far this year, bagged the 3rd place stack for Day 4. With Canada’s Mike Watson and Jon Turner from the US rounding out the final five players, it’s a star-studded field of some serious poker talent.

They were actually supposed to award a bracelet on Wednesday in this one, by the schedule. But once the depth of the final five in this field was recognized, they elected to call the game with five remaining and bring them back Thursday for a streamed final table on PokerGO. This could easily be one of the best final tables of the whole series, and it kicks off at noon on Thursday. Ruben has the advantage going into the final day, but he can’t feel comfortable looking down at the names farther down the list – this is going to be a great one!

Event #61: $1,000 SUPER SENIORS No-Limit Hold’em

There are 109 players returning for Day 3 action in the Super Seniors game, and the starting field was pretty stellar. The year of the records continued in this one with 3,122 total entries for a whopping prize pool of $2,777,690. Last year, this event saw 2,669, putting the year-over-year increase at about 17%.

There were 468 paid spots in this one with the earliest cashing exits pocketing $1,600 for their troubles. There were 810 players that returned for Day 2, so almost half of them were scheduled to go home empty-handed. It took about three levels of poker on Day 2 to make it into the money. The brisk pace continued and after 10 levels of play there were just 109 players left vying for the bracelet. Massoud Eskandari, Kevin Song, Jeffrey Mermelstein, David Icke, and Martin Kohler are all among the players still in the bracelet hunt.

Day 3 action gets going at 10 am and, once again, there are 10 levels on the schedule for Thursday.

Event #62: $1,500 Mixed No-Limit Hold’em, Pot-Limit Omaha

There are a few names in poker – Deeb, Mercier, Lamb, Seidel, almost anyone named Phil – that most players dread seeing in their table draw or the chip leaders’ table in a tournament they are playing. The name Mizrachi is likely high on that list as well, but that’s the situation players in Event #62 face going into Day 3. While Robert Mizrachi isn’t the leader after two days, he is sitting sixth in chips with a dangerous stack of 3.1 million.

Eran Carmi is the leader going into the third day with 4.255 million but among the players they’ll have to face down are Upeshka De Silva, Bart Lybaert, Guofeng Wang, and Eric Pfenning, in addition to Mizrachi. All those players are coming to Day 3 with top-ten stacks, and only Pfenning has less than 3 million. Rounding out the field farther down the list are players like Barny Boatman, Shaun Deeb, Jared Jaffee, and Brandon Shack-Harris. We can only assume this is the real Boatman in this one – there’s been some confusion recently after Patrick “Pads” Leonard trolled the OG Hendon Mob co-founder by using his name in recent a tournament.

Day 3 gets underway at 1 pm with the plan being to play down to a winner, and one of the other players that will be in the mix is the controversial Martin Kabrhel. Kabrhel was accused of cheating in the recent Super High Roller and his attempts to clear his name since have been met with some skepticism, but he’s still in the action and will be playing just over a million on Day 3.

Event #63: $10,000 Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo 8 or Better Championship

With entries open in Championship events until the start of Day 2, the numbers for this game were set at 141 entries when cards went in the air. That put $1,311,300 into the prize pool and 22 players are expected to pocket a piece of that before the end of their tournament.

Some of those payouts have already been spoken for with just 17 players returning to the felt for Thursday’s Day 3. Matt Grapenthien scored the $16k min-cash and Chad Eveslage, who has won two Dealers Choice bracelets this year, took the other $16k score while Mark Gregorich, Dylan Linde, and Brian Hastings all made $17,500 before the end of Day 2.

Maximilian Schindler is the chip leader for what should be the final day of play. He is the only player who bagged more than 1 million after Day 2 with Andres Korn bagging 926k for second. Joao Vieira, Bryn Kenney, Craig Chait, Bruno Fitoussi, and Dan Coploys are among the big names returning for Day 3. The final day kicks off at 2 pm.

Event #64: $600 Deepstack Championship No-Limit Hold’em

There were 4,303 entries recorded for Event #64 before registration closed on Day 1. Interestingly, that was exactly the same field size as the Salute to Warriors game got, but the slightly higher buy-in for this one meant the prizes were slightly higher at $2,194,530. A total of 645 players shared in that prize pool, and some of the money has already been awarded before Day 1 bagged up for the night.

There are just 543 players left in the game now with all returning players guaranteed at least $960 and the first pay jump just five spots away at 538th. Steven Stolzenfeld and Adel Kabbani bagged the top two stacks after Day 1 and they are the only players with a million or more in their bags. Jaime Kaplan and Milan Timko both have 900k or more while Neel Joshi rounds out the top five with 843k.

Matt Affleck, Martin Zamani, Aram Oganyan, Kyna England, and Kathy Leibert are among the other players to make it through the opening day with chips, and they’ll all come back for another 10 levels of play on Thursday starting at 10 am.

Event #65: $5,000 6-Handed No-Limit Hold’em

There were 1,097 entries on Day 1 of Event #65, putting $5,046,200 into the prize pool for the moment. However, entries are still open into Day 2 of this one so those numbers are certain to rise before the final tally is set.

There were 381 players still alive at the end of the first day and Bulgaria’s Yuliyan Kolev leads with the only 500k+ stack in the game so far. Ting Yi Tsai and Punnat Punsri are playing stacks in the 400k range while Matt Berkey and Ren Lin round out the top five with bags bigger than 350k. Among the other players to bag a stack after Day 1 was Vanessa Selbst who tops the list of female poker winners with close to $12 million in live tournament earnings, nearly double Kathy Leibert’s second-place total.

The field will solidify today after the Day 2 action kicks off at noon, and there are ten more levels of poker on the schedule for Day 2.

Event #66: $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better

Nick Guagenti is the top dog after the first day of play in Event #66. There were 1,125 entries for this one, putting the prizes at just over $1.5 million. Exactly one of the 169 paid spots was spoken for before they bagged at the end of Day 1 with Louis Werman picking up the min-cash at the end of the night.

The remaining 168 players are all guaranteed at least $2,409 now as they return for 10 more levels of poker on Day 2. There are some big names still alive in this one including 2019 PoY winner Robert Campbell and Amon Filippi in the top ten stacks. JJ Liu, James Chen, Erick Lindgren, and Anthony Zinno were among the other players still alive in the money.

Day 2 kicks off at 1 pm on Thursday with the action starting in Level 16 and 3k/6k/6k blinds.

Upcoming Events on June 29

Event #67: $1,000 LADIES No-Limit Hold’em Championship

  • Start: 10 am
  • Late Entry: 8 Levels
  • Start Stack: 20,000
  • Reentries: 1
  • Event Entry is $10K Ladies Discounted Price is $1K

Event #68: $1,000 Super Turbo Bounty No-Limit Hold’em

  • Start: 12 noon
  • Late Entry: 12 Levels
  • Start Stack: 20,000
  • Reentries: 0

Event #69: $10,000 No-Limit 2-7 Lowball Draw Championship 8 or Better

  • Start: 2 pm
  • Late Entry: Start of Day 2
  • Start Stack: 60,000
  • Reentries: 1
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