$100,000 High Roller No-Limit Hold'em Surpasses Last Year's Numbers During Day 1
The largest buy-in event so far at the 2024 World Series of Poker (WSOP) kicked off today with Day 1 of Event #47: $100,000 High Roller No-Limit Hold'em, a tournament that never fails to draw a mix of top professionals, up-and-coming grinders and high-stakes recreationals inside Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas.
The 2023 $100,000 High Roller offering drew 93 entries for a prize pool of nearly $9 million. This year's tournament hit that number during Level 11 and is looking to smash that with 95 entrants registered on Day 1 and plenty of time left to hop in on Day 2 (until about 12:40 p.m.).
Danish high-stakes pro Henrik Hecklen bagged the chip lead over the 44 remaining players with a stack of 3,505,000, while big stacks at the end of the day included Omaha specialist Ben Tollerene (2,815,000), American pro Nick Petrangelo (2,700,000), and sports cards enthusiast Jared Bleznick (2,655,000), who got most of those chips by cracking aces. Reigning champion Jans Arends was in the Day 1 field seeking a third bracelet and another career-defining score, but the Dutch pro was eliminated toward the end of the night.
Day 1 Top Ten Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chips | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Henrik Hecklen | Denmark | 3,505,000 | 88 |
| 2 | Ben Tollerene | United States | 2,815,000 | 70 |
| 3 | Nick Petrangelo | United States | 2,700,000 | 68 |
| 4 | Jared Bleznick | United States | 2,655,000 | 66 |
| 5 | Chris Hunichen | United States | 2,215,000 | 55 |
| 6 | Santhosh Suvarna | India | 2,135,000 | 53 |
| 7 | Jeremy Ausmus | United States | 2,090,000 | 52 |
| 8 | Brian Kim | United States | 2,015,000 | 50 |
| 9 | Johannes Straver | Netherlands | 1,965,000 | 49 |
| 10 | Justin Saliba | United States | 1,860,000 | 47 |
Day 1 Action
While Day 1 kicked off with just a handful of tables, the field grew dramatically as the day played out. In an early highlight, Chris Brewer played a big pot against Adrian Mateos before correctly calling with two pair.
Other Day 1 highlights include 2023 Main Event champion Espen Jorstad getting kings cracked by Kahle Burns' jack and Ren Lin telling the table he may need a "new sugar mommy" if he busts the event.
Fan favorite Daniel Negreanu ran king-jack into aces — not the first time he's busted to aces in a High Roller this year — but wasted no time hopping in on a second bullet. Unfortunately, history repeated itself as Negreanu once again ran into aces, this time those of recent $50,000 High Roller champion Sergio Aido.
Day 2 will kick off at noon local time on Level 13 with blinds of 20,000/40,000/40,000. Late registration will remain open until the end of Level 13, so expect the field to grow before then.
Stay tuned as the PokerNews live reporting team will be back tomorrow for continued coverage of this year's $100,000 High Roller. Be sure to check out the 2024 WSOP Hub in the meantime.