Ahmed Karrim Leads Day 1a of The Closer
Day 1a of Event #85 $1,500 The Closer is in the books with Ahmed Karrim in the lead with 1,695,000. The South African, who has secured five WSOP cashes this summer, is narrowly ahead of Raghav Bansal of India with 1,600,000.
A total of 929 players entered the fray, with only 75 making it to Day 2, which will be played on Sunday, July 17th at 1 p.m. local time.
The bubble burst shortly after the final break of the night when Ukrainian Vadim Shelz knocked out the button player after rivering a flush against their opponent's flopped wheel, guaranteeing the remaining players a minimum payday of $2,405.
Event #85 $1,500 The Closer Top 10 Chip Counts
| Place | Name | Country | Chips | Big Blinds |
| 1 | Ahmed Karrim | South Africa | 1,695,000 | 57 |
| 2 | Raghav Bansal | India | 1,600,000 | 53 |
| 3 | Sean Ragozzini | Australia | 1,550,000 | 52 |
| 4 | Garrett Johnstone | United States | 1,450,000 | 48 |
| 5 | Tony Nieman | United States | 1,285,000 | 43 |
| 6 | Kazuhiro Shirasawa | Japan | 1,235,000 | 41 |
| 7 | Teddy Cablay | United States | 1,200,030 | 40 |
| 8 | Neil Rauschhuber | United States | 1,100,000 | 37 |
| 9 | Jessie Bryant | United States | 1,000,020 | 33 |
| 10 | Rhonda Shepek | Canada | 955,000 | 32 |
Day 1a Action
Several big names played one of the last events of the series. Still, they failed to make the money, including Daniel Negreanu, Barry Greenstein, Phil Hellmuth, Maria Konnikova and Justin Bonomo.
Some big names did manage to bag and tag. Jen Shahade will be back on Sunday with 920,000, David "ODB" Baker bagged 735,000 and Roland Israelashvili finished with 500,000.
It was the tale of two Nguyens today as Mingh Nguyen and Men Nguyen both troubled the top of the leaderboard. Men "The Master" Nguyen ran up a stack to over 1,000,000 at one point but was eventually eliminated in 130th place to cash for $2,405.
Mingh Nguyen bagged 925,000, but it could have been very different. At the peak of his powers, his stack was 2,100,000 and would have been an overwhelming chipleader.
Among the names to have bust out but have cashed are Liina Vark ($2,631), Steven Zolotow ($2,631), Farah Galfond ($2,631) and Christina Gollins ($3,006).
One of the hands of the day was when Korean Eunyoung Choi defeated their opponent with quad kings against quad eights. Choi bagged 250,000, which is around eight big blinds.
Day 1b will begin at noon local time in Paris with 22 30-minute levels with a 75-minute dinner break after level 12. As always, Poker News will be first with all of the latest news from the World Series of Poker at its new home of Bally's and Paris Las Vegas.