Drinan Over One Million at the End of Day 1 of Event #77: $1,500 Mixed No-Limit Hold'em/Pot Limit Omaha
Day 1 of Event #77: $1,500 Mixed No-Limit Hold'em/Pot Limit Omaha at the 2022 World Series of Poker has come to an end. Connor Drinan and Vincent Lam are the only players to reach the million-mark in chips; they bagged an impressive 1,200,000 and 1,070,000, respectively.
The day kicked off with around 250 players taking their seats at the start of play but that number quickly escalated. There will be 151 of the 1,234 total entries returning at 1 p.m Tuesday, July 12th, all guaranteed at least $2,400 for their efforts while the eventual winner of the event will take home the prestigious WSOP gold bracelet and $277,949.
Event #77: $1,500 Mixed No-Limit Hold'em/Pot-Limit Omaha Top 10 Chip Counts
| Place | Player | Country | Chips | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Connor Drinan | United States | 1,200,000 | 200 |
| 2 | Vincent Lam | Canada | 1,070,000 | 178 |
| 3 | Zachary Grech | United States | 906,000 | 151 |
| 4 | Carter Newhof | United States | 782,000 | 130 |
| 5 | Leonard Sande | United States | 624,000 | 104 |
| 6 | Vangelis Kaimakamis | Greece | 620,000 | 103 |
| 7 | Millard Hale | United States | 614,000 | 102 |
| 8 | Aden Salazar | United States | 606,000 | 101 |
| 9 | Miltiadis Kyriakides | Austria | 569,000 | 95 |
| 10 | Mohammad Affaneh | United States | 555,000 | 93 |
Drinan has a pair of WSOP bracelets to his name, one from an online event at GGPoker in 2020 and another in an Omaha Hi-Lo event in Las Vegas in 2021. Now he has the chance to add a third piece of poker gold in this No-Limit Hold'em/Pot-Limit Omaha mixed event,
Lam played aggressively to gain his chips in the last few levels of the night and surged to the top counts on the very last hand of the night when he called in a three-way all in for a pot over a million and won during the very last seconds of the day, while most of the other players had already bagged their stacks.
Carter Newhof, who had just cashed in the World Series of Poker Main Event for $19,000, managed to end the day with 782,000 chips. Leonard "LJ" Sande also bagged a decent stack of 624,000 chips after spinning things up near the end of the night.
The bubble burst at the very beginning of hand-for-hand play with 188 players left, when four simultaneous eliminations left the surviving 186 players in the money. Those four players split the first two money prizes. One of them was Justin Fawcett who lost two big hands in a row before busting at the hands of Vincent Dale.
Other players that navigated their way through the Day 1 field and advanced to Day 2 included Daniel Negreanu (325,000), two-time bracelet winners Anson Tsang (209,000) and Barny Boatman (86,000), Vangelis Kaimakamis (620,000), Dan Shak (189,000), Mike Watson (144,000), Ryan Laplante (127,000) and Adam Hendrix with a short stack of 73,000.
Not all of the well-known players were able to bag at the end of Day 1 as many were knocked out during proceedings. These included WSOP Main Event champions Hossein Ensan and Joe Cada, Scott Seiver, Jeff Madsen, four-time bracelet winner Anthony Zinno, Rainer Kempe Marcel Luske and three-time bracelet winner Davidi Kitai.
Day 2 is set for 1 p.m. Tuesday, July 12th, with the PokerNews Live Reporting Team providing coverage throughout the tournament.