Day 1 of Event #78: $1,500 Bounty Pot-Limit Omaha concluded at the 2023 World Series of Poker at Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas with only 14 levels of play completed instead of the 15 levels that were scheduled. The start time was pushed back by two hours to accommodate the record-setting field in the 2023 WSOP Main Event.
The 1,214 entrants generated a prize pool of $1,620,690 with a first-place prize of $171,742 not including any won bounties. Each player entered the fray with a $500 Bounty on their head and the action was plentiful as a result. When the day was done there were just 140 remaining after a full evening of battle.
Top Ten Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Casey Wassell | United States | 694,000 | 139 |
| 2 | Satar Al-Sadoun | United States | 671,000 | 134 |
| 3 | Jon Rodack | United States | 621,000 | 124 |
| 4 | David Hu | Netherlands | 556,000 | 111 |
| 5 | Jonathan Borenstein | United States | 510,000 | 102 |
| 6 | James Palmer | United States | 501,000 | 100 |
| 7 | Dylan Smith | United States | 489,000 | 98 |
| 8 | Thomas Skaggs | United States | 481,000 | 96 |
| 9 | Robert Mason | United States | 459,000 | 92 |
| 10 | Antonio Gonzalez | United States | 437,000 | 87 |
Casey Wassel (694,000), Satar Al-Sadoun (671,000), Jon Rodack (621,000) were around the top of the leaderboard when Day 1 ended but plenty of notables found a bag at the end of the day. Daniel Negreanu (271,000) was among the survivors after he was eliminated from the WSOP Main Event earlier in the day. Plenty of other professionals including Nacho Barbero (240,000) and Jeff Madsen (252,000) also found bags returning to Day 2.
Other notables who bagged for Day 2 include David "ODB" Baker (361,000), Noah Schwartz (265,000), Kevin MacPhee (220,000), and Dash Dudley (122,000).
Shaun Deeb made a quick cameo in the field, as he still had a seat in the Main Event seat and was just making a quick attempt at running up a stack.
As the bubble approached, eyes were more on the $171,742 grand prize than the value of the bounties, causing the pace of play to slow. Players to fall before the money included controversial player Martin Kabrhel who was an early chip leader but fell shortly after exchanging some words with Negreanu.
Ultimately the bubble burst in the final level of the day and the 183 players remaining were guaranteed to take home $1,501.
Those still in contention will be back in action for Day 2 at 2:00 p.m. local time in the purple section of the Paris ballroom; levels will be 60-minutes from there on out. There will be a 15-minute break every two levels and the dinner is scheduled at the end of level 20, per the late start of Day 1.
The PokerNews live reporting team will be here to grab all of the updates and any exciting highlights throughout the day.
