Jeffrey Trudeau Leads the Way in Day 1b of the Main Event
The second of four starting flights has concluded in the 2023 World Series of Poker Paradise $5,000 Main Event here at the Atlantis Resort & Casino. Day 1b attracted a total of 515 entrants which, along with the 883 entrants of the online flight on GGPoker and 657 entrants from Day 1a brings the total entrants so far for the Main Event to 2,055. That number brings the Main Event more than two-thirds of the way to surpassing the $15,000,000 guaranteed prize pool.
Jeffrey Trudeau bagged the chip lead out of 78 survivors from today’s Day 1b flight, finishing with 942,000 chips worth 94 big blinds by the end of the night. Trudeau has just over $3,000,000 in career tournament earnings to his name since 2006 with a career-best score of $352,200. Trudeau is most closely followed by Eyal Al Revah (889,000), Gary Thompson (840,000) and Mario Mosboeck (825,000). Austrian prodigy Mosboeck won a massive pot with pocket aces to burst the money bubble and surge up the chip counts in one of the final hands of the night.
Top 10 Chip Counts After Day 1b
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jeffrey Trudeau | Canada | 942,000 | 94 |
| 2 | Eyal Al Revah | United States | 889,000 | 89 |
| 3 | Gary Thompson | Ireland | 840,000 | 84 |
| 4 | Mario Mosboeck | Austria | 825,000 | 83 |
| 5 | Jaesung Lee | South Korea | 771,000 | 77 |
| 6 | Drew O'Connell | United States | 768,000 | 77 |
| 7 | Andrei Boghean | Romania | 725,000 | 73 |
| 8 | Vitor Dzivielevski | Brazil | 682,000 | 68 |
| 9 | Jack Germaine | United Kingdom | 599,000 | 60 |
| 10 | Emilien Pitavy | France | 587,000 | 59 |
Other notables to advance from today’s Day 1b flight include Vitor Dzivielevski (682,000), Olga Iermolcheva (517,000), Adrian Mateos (505,000), Damian Salas (330,000), Alexandra Botez (310,000), David Williams (228,000), Jim Collopy (206,000) and Sam Soverel (140,000).
Phil Hellmuth made a grand entrance midway through the day dressed as Poseidon, God of the sea. Hellmuth was flanked by an entourage of 17 mermaids – one for each of his WSOP gold bracelets. Hellmuth’s run today would come to an end in Level 13 after running into Ori Eshel’s pocket queens.
Some other notables who were not as fortunate to find a bag at the end of the night include Timothy Adams, Martin Kabrhel, Kevin Martin, Jonathan Little, Nikita Luther, Koray Aldemir, Shaun Deeb, Ryan Riess, Isaac Haxton, Kristen Foxen and Daniel Negreanu.
All players who have survived their respective starting flights can still play either of the remaining two starting flights to try and bag a bigger stack, but only the largest stack will be in play for Day 2. The last two starting flights are expected to bring in a diverse field of pros, recreationals and online qualifiers.
As always, stay tuned to PokerNews as we bring you all the action from this event until a winner is crowned on December 14.