Day 1b Boosts Record Entries in Event #33: $1,500 Millionaire Maker
An astounding total of 5,845 entries filled the combined rooms for Day 1b of Event #53: $1,500 Millionaire Maker at the 2023 World Series of Poker. That total exceeded the 4,585 entries on Day 1a. Together they created the largest $1,500 buy-in event in poker history, with more than 10,430 entries total. Records continue being broken at the Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas.
Fighting through all of these entries, 1,310 players survived the second flight to bag for Day 2, playing out on June 25 at Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas.
Several of the game's notable names participated in the event and among those who bagged a stack were Loni Hui (220,000), Faraz Jaka (57,000), and Vanessa Kade (51,000), along with WSOP Main Event champions Espen Jorstad (149,500) and Jamie Gold (83,000).
Zilong Zhang (407,000) captured the overnight Day 1b chip lead, finishing a mere 2,000 chips ahead of Christian Vaca (405,000). Zhang and Vaca were the other players to bag up more than 400,000 chips on the second and final flight of this huge tournament.
Day 1b Top Ten Chip Counts
| Place | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Zilong Zhang | United States | 407,000 | 163 |
| 2 | Christian Vaca | United States | 405,000 | 162 |
| 3 | Pei Li | Canada | 396,500 | 159 |
| 4 | Stan Yuk Lee | United States | 386,000 | 154 |
| 5 | Yi Li | United States | 370,000 | 148 |
| 6 | Claude Ngangacodru | United States | 370,000 | 148 |
| 7 | Justin Datloff | United States | 358,500 | 143 |
| 8 | Christopher Caruso | United States | 354,000 | 142 |
| 9 | Ky Nguyen | United States | 353,500 | 141 |
| 10 | Artur Papazyan | United States | 352,000 | 141 |
Not everyone was able to make it through to the next day of play. Notables such as WSOP Main Event Champions Koray Aldemir, Joe Cada and Damian Salas, along with Maria Ho, William Kassouf, Mustafa Kanit and Yuri Dzivieleski all saw their stacks disappear before the end of the day.
Players who have survived either Day 1 flight will return to play for Day 2 on June 25 at 10 a.m. local time. Play will resume on Level 12 with blinds of 1,000/2,500 and a 2,500 big blind ante.
PokerNews will continue to provide live updates for the Event #53: $1,500 Millionaire Maker as the excitement ramps up and we get deeper into the tournament.