There were three all in and calls across three separate tables.
First, Jose Zurita was all in against Wooram Cho who held the covering stack in a preflop confrontation.
Jose Zurita: Q?Q?
Wooram Cho: A?2?
Zurita's queens remained ahead on the 2?J?K?8?6? runout to score a full double up through Cho.
The second all-in unfolded in a battle of two medium stacks between Namhyung Kim and Mario Mosboeck. A substantial pot of more than 400,000 emerged to the J?6?5?K? turn on which Kim was all-in for 171,000 and Mosboeck called.
Namhyung Kim: 8?8?
Mario Mosboeck: A?A?
The 7? river ensured at least one seat open and the Day 1b bubble had already burst.
Over on table 13, two players saw a board of A?J?5? with roughly 225,000 already in the middle and the scenario was almost identical. Benjamin Scrogins was all in for his last 30,000 against Rui Sousa who covered.
Benjamin Scrogins: 8?8?
Rui Sousa: 9?9?
Scrogins was in dire shape against the bigger pocket pair but the K? turn did give him a flush draw for some additional outs. The flush came through on the Q? river and he secured a full double up on the stone bubble.
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 Hellmuthmade 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.
Phil Hellmuth, Poseidon
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.
