After nearly ten full levels of play on Day 2 of Event #23: $50,000 High Roller (8-Handed) at the 2023 World Series of Poker at the Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas, a start-of-day field of 58 was whittled down to just five, out of the 124 total entries. A prize pool of $5,921,000 was amassed by them and leading the remaining players in search for the top spot is high stakes crusher Alex Foxen (13,340,000), ahead of Dutchman Jans Arends (10,300,000) in second. Those two were able to put quite some distance between themselves and the rest of the field with their nearest competitor, Leon Sturm, sitting on 4,850,000.
Bubble Play
Action was fast throughout the day, so it was not surprising that the money bubble was reached after just five levels. Although Chance Kornuth was the official bubble boy after getting his aces cracked by Foxen, the individual with the most reason to feel hard done by must surely be Micah Raskin, after Anton Morgenstern one-outered him on the soft bubble for the majority of his stack before Bill Klein finished him off two spots away from the money, courtesy of another bad beat.
2023 WSOP Event #23: $50,000 High Roller (8-Handed) Final Table Results
| Position | Name | Country | Prize/Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alex Foxen | United States | 13,340,000 | 111 |
| 2 | Jans Arends | Netherlands | 10,300,000 | 86 |
| 3 | Leon Sturm | Germany | 4,850,000 | 40 |
| 4 | Bill Klein | United States | 4,675,000 | 39 |
| 5 | Seth Davies | United States | 3,940,000 | 33 |
| 6 | Justin Bonomo | United States | $295,169 | |
| 7 | Sam Soverel | United States | $230,066 | |
| 8 | Sung Joo Hyun | South Korea | $182,662 | |
| 9 | Anton Morgenstern | Germany | $147,776 |
Final Table Action
Not long after the bubble burst with Kornuth's elimination in 20th place, the final three tables were cut down to just one after Philip Sternheimer lost to the flopped two pair of Seth Davies.
The first casualty of the final table was Morgenstern when he could not win a flip against Davies. Sung Joo Hyun enjoyed a deep run but ultimately fell in eighth place, failing to improve his big slick, with Davies again the one responsible for the knockout.
Next to go was Sam Soverel, who had been nursing a short stack for a while and managed to make a few payumps in the process.
Six handed play continued for some time after Soverel's elimination but eventually Justin Bonomo was felted in sixth place after running right into Davies' ace-king. With the knockout of Bonomo, only five players remained, marking the end of the day
Play resumes June 11th at 4 p.m. and will be live-streamed. Blinds restart with around 20 minutes left in Level 18 at 60,000/120,000 with a 120,000 big blind ante. Given the $1,546,024 up top to go along with a WSOP gold bracelet, the action is sure to be intense.
Stay tuned to PokerNews as its live reporting team provides updates through to the conclusion of this event.
