WSOP Main Event Bracelet
Daniel Weinman won the 2023 WSOP Main Event, but did he win the biggest amount after tax?

The 2023 WSOP Main Event already holds the distinction of being the largest $10,000 buy-in tournament in history after four starting flights, so the question heading into Day 2abc wasn’t if the record would be broken, but by how much. 3,865 players returned to Horseshoe and Paris casinos in Las Vegas, along with a few new faces to try and navigate a monumental field in search of a date with a consolidated field on Day 3. The Main Event wasn’t the only tourney on the docket on the day, as two new tournaments started up for players looking for a smaller buy-in or trying to recoup after busting the mother of all poker tournaments.

Brammer Hammers the Field Again For Second End-of-Day Chip Lead

Christopher Brammer came into Day 2abc second overall in chips after bagging up 386,100 in Day 1c. Not content with a silver medal, Brammer more than doubled his stack to the tune of 879,000, good for the clubhouse chip lead with one more Day 2 flight to go. 

Brammer was already having a solid day going into the final level of play, and the United Kingdom native picked off a massive river bluff for 121,500 with QdJd on an Ah8d7d4dJc runout to boost his stack up to over 700,000. A few more pots and Brammer earned the chip lead in his flight for a second consecutive day.

Julio Belluscio (825,500) and Nick Marchington (716,000) round out the podium positions of the big stacks, while Patrik Antonius (584,500), Ronnie Bardah (519,000), Day 1a chip leader Shota Nakanishi (500,500), Stephen Chidwick (472,500), Doug Polk (433,000) and John Duthie (431,000) all put away impressive stacks into their Day 3 bags. Faraz “The Toilet” Jaka also had a big day on one of the PokerGo feature tables, with this hand a prime example of how he spun up a stack of 375,000 to end the day with.

The first two levels of play in Day 2abc brought an additional 196 entrants into the field, including Liv Boeree, Isai Scheinberg, and Igor Kurganov. As the new entrants trickled in, familiar faces began finding themselves on the rail, and one of the first was the reigning WSOP Player of the Year Daniel Zack, who was swiftly joined by Nacho Barbero as opening level casualties. The early exits likely excluded them from the presentation of this year’s Main Event Bracelet, brought in by the purveyor of “Donkey Sauce” itself, Guy Fieri.

It was a tale of two extremes for former Main Event champs during Friday’s action, as defending champ Espen Jorstad couldn’t find any traction, losing his last 64,000 with a flopped set against the flopped straight of Julien Aguirre. Jorstad would fail to fill up, and he joined Greg Raymer on the rail. Johnny Chan (372,000), Jamie Gold (248,000), Joe Cada (241,500), Joe McKeehen (220,000), Ryan Riess (151,000), Damian Salas (147,500), Martin Jacobson (128,000), Tom McEvoy (20,000) and Scott Blumstein all survived the day.

Nearly 2,000 players saw their Main Event dreams go down in flames today, among them Daniel Negreanu, who couldn’t work any short-stack magic, and Brian Yoon, who hero-called off his stack with fours on a 2c5h7s7d7c runout only to be up against the eights of Nick Marchington. Scott Seiver, Day 1b chip leader Jean-Pierre van der Spuy, David Peters, Nick Schulman, Justin Bonomo, John Hennigan, Isaac Haxton, and a very zen Brian Rast also found themselves felted by day’s end.

 

With 9,538 entrants now accounted for in the 2023 WSOP Main Event, perhaps the final question other than “Who will emerge victorious?” among poker fans is, “Will the number of entrants break 10,000?” A total of 462 more players are needed to hit the mythical five-figure entrant total, which may sound out of reach given the low number of Day 2abc entrants, but never count out Poker Boom 2.0 and its ability to bring the throngs of players into Vegas for a taste of poker history.

WSOP 2023 Event #76: $10,000 Main Event World Championship Leaderboard:
Place Player Country Chips
1st Christopher Brammer United Kingdom 879,000
2nd Julio Belluscio Argentina 825,500
3rd Nick Marchington United Kingdom 716,000
4th Heitor Saraiva USA 665,000
5th Sachin Joshi United Kingdom 632,000
6th Andrew Hulme United Kingdom 610,000
7th Patrik Antonius Finland 584,500
8th Nikita Luther India 572,500
9th Gary Benson Australia 572,000
10th Philip Yeh Sweden 541,000

 

“KidPoker” in Contention in PLO Bounty

A late start was no deterrent for the 1,214 bounty hunters who fired in Event #78: $1,500 Bounty Pot-Limit Omaha, with $500 bounties up for grabs for every elimination. Casey Wassell (694,000) ended the night on top of the 184 remaining players, but the big story is Daniel Negreanu (271,000); he commands an above average stack on his quest for WSOP redemption. 

A miserable 2023 for the six-time WSOP bracelet winner seemed to come to a head after a dismal performance in the Main Event, but Negreanu chose to keep firing on a day many players would soon forget, and was rewarded with a fighting chance at bracelet number seven heading into tomorrow’s Day 2 action.

WSOP 2023 Event #78: $1,500 Bounty Pot-Limit Omaha Leaderboard:
Place Player Country Chips
1st Casey Wassell USA 694,000
2nd Satar Al-sadoun USA 671,000
3rd Jonathan Borenstein USA 510,000
4th Dylan Smith USA 489,000
5th Thomas Skaggs USA 481,000
6th Andreas Zambas USA 425,000
7th Filipe Pinhao Portugal 415,000
8th David “ODB” Baker USA 361,000
9th Mark Bixler USA 349,000
10th Billy Welch USA 342,000

Blanton Leads Opening Flight of Lucky Sevens

The opening flight of Event #77: $777 Lucky Sevens brought a robust field of 1,470 players to the felt, already pushing the prize pool just over the seven-figure mark. A total of 64 players survived a lengthy 22-level day, which saw Thomas “Chase” Blanton (2,265,000) bag a narrow lead over the dangerous, hard to beat and especially hard to read “Did Not Report” (2,200,000). Jerry Yang (1,350,000), Jon Turner (740,000), Kevin Song (540,000), and Max Steinberg (390,000) all made it through Day 1a, while Lexy Gavin-Mather and Allen Cunningham did not.

WSOP 2023 Event #77: $777 Lucky Sevens Leaderboard:
Place Player Country Chips
1st Thomas “Chase” Blanton USA 2,868,000
2nd Did Not Report 1,786,000
3rd Daniel Bolgrin USA 1,460,000
4th Clifford Huang USA 1,400,000
5th Yi-Cheng Yeh USA 1,400,000
6th Ian Burr USA 1,378,000
7th Brandon Noe USA 1,291,000
8th Nicolas Sena-Hopkins USA 1,266,000
9th Curtis Connors USA 1,236,000
10th Huawei Lin USA 1,187,000

Daniel Negreanu took time out from play at the table to call for drinks. PokerGO needed nothing more to put together a little Kid Poker remix.

Matt Waxman pointed out a very odd similarity between his opponents at ‘Table Matrix’ in the Main Event Day 2abc field. 

Is this the best troll of the 2023 World Series so far? 

Greg Jennings posted a neat chip update after the Day 1s concluded for all nine 2022 WSOP final table players… who somehow all survived! 

Liv Boeree and Igor Kurganov decided to break the poker simulation by re-enacting a classic from 2019’s Main Event coverage. 

Finally, for what reason would you abandon a stack on Day 2 of the Main Event? Family member on deathbed? Dog taken to emergency vets? You’re one of several groomsmen at a wedding in another state? Wait a minute…  

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