Andres Korn Bags One of the Top Stacks on Day 1 of $3,000 Nine Game Mix
The opening day of Event #36: $3,000 Nine Game Mix at the 2023 World Series of Poker has come to an end, and Andres Korn is the chip leader after 10 levels of play.
The tournament drew 361 entries for a prize pool of $963,870, and the winner will take home the top prize of $221,124. The top 55 of the 183 returning players will earn a min-cash of $4,800.
End of Day 1 Top 10 Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Andres Korn | Argentina | 240,700 |
| 2 | Tamon Nakamura | Japan | 216,400 |
| 3 | Michael McKenna | United States | 212,000 |
| 4 | Walter Chambers | United States | 194,300 |
| 5 | Scott Bohlman | United States | 182,300 |
| 6 | Michael Estes | United States | 180,300 |
| 7 | Philip Sternheimer | United States | 180,100 |
| 8 | Anatolii Zyrin | Russia | 178,300 |
| 9 | Todd Brunson | United States | 174,800 |
| 10 | Marco Johnson | United States | 174,700 |
Others notable players that progressed include Tamon Nakamura with 216,400 and Michael McKenna with 212,000. Anatolii Zyrin, Todd Brunson, Marco Johnson, and Viktor Blom, who were among those that bagged over 150,000.
Also bagging for Day 2 were Randy Ohel, Jared Jaffee, Christopher Vitch, Adam Friedman, David “ODB” Baker, Mori Eskandani, Yuri Dzivielevski, and Allen Kessler.
Day 1 Highlights
Korn vaulted towards the chip lead at the end of the night after spending time near the top of the leaderboard for most of the afternoon. He will return for another shot at a second gold bracelet after he came up short earlier in the series with a runner-up finish in Event #19: $2,500 No-Limit Hold’em Freezeout. Valentino Konakchiev outlasted a field of 1,137 to defeat Korn in heads-up play and claim the top prize of $435,924. Korn took home $269,438 for his second-place effort. A deep run will boost him over the $3 million mark in career earnings, according to The Hendon Mob.
Blom quartered Dzivielevski in the final level of the night to move into contention for the chip lead. The game was Omaha Hi-Lo, and Blom took three quarters with a flush and a shared low with Dzivielevski. Blom — known to many online as “Isildir1” — will return in search of his first WSOP gold bracelet.
Also returning for his first shot at gold is McKenna, a California native that has come close before. McKenna previously ran to the final tables of the $10,000 Omaha Hi-Lo Championship and the $10,000 Dealer’s Choice Championship in 2019, as well as a runner-up finish in the $10,000 Omaha Hi-Lo Championship in 2018 and a fourth-place finish in the $1,500 Razz tournament in that same year.
Vitch was near the top of the leaderboard in the opening stages of the day, thanks in part to a pair of kings in a Limit Hold’em hand with Kessler that continued his mid-day run. He could not keep the pace up to finish among the leaders, but Vitch will return with 124,300 for a run at his third WSOP title.
Play will resume in Level 11 at 1:00 p.m. Vegas time in the Horseshoe Silver section. There will be another ten 60-minute levels with a 15-minute break every two, as well as a 60-minute dinner break after Level 16.
Be sure to keep it with the PokerNews team for live updates from the floor of the 2023 WSOP at Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas.