The crown jewel of the 2024 World Series of Poker welcomed poker enthusiasts from near and far to the Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas for what has traditionally been the busiest flight of the elusive WSOP $10,000 Main Event. After the previous three flights had been coming up short of last year's record-breaking attendance figures, Day 1d more than made up for it, becoming the record Main Event flight for entries.
Some 5,014 entries were recorded to put the flagship tournament on track to nearly match the 2023 numbers throughout the four Day 1 fights. With late registration still open for the first two levels on both Day 2s, the 10,043 unique players from one year ago may still be reached. One thing is already certain: The 2024 WSOP Main Event is the second-largest in history thus far, with more than 9,200 entries, and the next two days will tell if five figures will be reached once more.
Event #81: $10,000 WSOP Main Event World Championship Day 1d Top Ten Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Scott Stewart | United States | 370,200 | 463 |
| 2 | David Miller | United States | 332,200 | 415 |
| 3 | Jeff Beckley | United States | 312,000 | 390 |
| 4 | Victor Fryda | France | 310,000 | 388 |
| 5 | Michael Danley | United States | 295,000 | 369 |
| 6 | Ruslan Nazarenko | United Kingdom | 282,800 | 354 |
| 7 | Jayphong Nguyen | United States | 280,700 | 351 |
| 8 | Endrit Geci | United States | 267,500 | 334 |
| 9 | Dau Ly | United States | 261,500 | 327 |
| 10 | Mark Evangelista | United States | 259,300 | 324 |
When it came to bagging and tagging for Day 1d, Scott Stewart emerged among the biggest stacks across the three tournament areas in play. Seven years ago in 2017, Stewart was one of the fan favorites as he made it all the way to 13th place for a payday of $535,000, he enjoyed a very successful day at the tables to bag up 370,200 to find himself among the chip leaders.
Jeffrey Beckley made it through with 312,000 while other notables with big stacks include Brian Hastings (252,100), Aram Zobian (231,400), Anson Tsang (205,900), Pedro Marques (190,000), and Phil Ivey (153,500). Zobian is no stranger to a deep run in the WSOP Main Event as he finished sixth back in 2018 for $1,800,000. He spent most of the day on the same table as John Juanda (96,000) and Triple Crown Winner Davidi Kitai (81,600).
Bestselling writer and poker aficionado Maria Konnikova delivered the shuffle up and deal in the Horseshoe Event Center for the "single most exciting day of the year" for poker players from all over the world.
"I mean, this is incredible. And every single year I have to pinch myself and say, you get to play in a $10,000 buy-in tournament and you get to compete and you get to have this dream. And how many people get to be there? So no matter what happens, please have fun, and the number two piece of advice which I'm giving to myself in my head all the time is - please do not punt."
During the final tournament break, Konnikova added; "I saw some of the hands from the other days and you should not go broke there. I think people don't realize how deep the tournament is. When I speak with other people, I always tell them, the only hand you should get it in preflop with in level one is pocket aces and I don't want to hear anything else. ��
The Freezeout format and the history of the WSOP makes the tournament so special for Konnikova, as it only gives everyone one shot at glory every year. She described her day as up and down without any major confrontation that would eventually lead to a small profit with 74,400 in the bag.
Among the former champions, Martin Jacobson entered the fray today. Ten years ago, the Swede etched his name into the history books of the WSOP when he topped a field of 6,683 entries to claim the top prize of $10,000,000. He has done the first step and advanced with 117,800 after somewhat of a roller coaster ride, bumping fists with several opponents right upon bagging and tagging.
"You know, you just gotta survive day by day, kind of take one day at a time. And I know it sounds cliche, but it's really what it is." Said Jacobson.
It was an eventful day for Jacobson as he peaked at two and a half times the starting stack, picking up pocket kings six or seven times. One of those times brought a major setback as even another king on the board was not enough to beat pocket queens. So far, he cashed three times during the 2024 WSOP without any earth-shattering results.
"I had a few deep runs, but, nothing major. So, I'm about break even. Which, you know, it's bittersweet. Better than being back down. But still, I'll say it could be another 11 million coming your way at the end of the Main Event."
Further WSOP Main Event winners to advance from Day 1d were the WSOP Europe Main Event winners Jack Sinclair (128,400) and Alexandros Kolonias (183,400), Joe McKeehen (121,300), defending champion Daniel Weinman (55,600), as well as Joe Cada (32,800).
Throughout the five levels of 120 minutes each, hundreds of hopes to become the next Main Event champion were crushed and that also included some of the biggest names in poker. Chance Kornuth exited in level two after his set was run down by a straight. He was joined on the rail by the likes of Sean Winter, Ludovic Geilich, Jeff Madsen, Pierre Calamusa, Jason Koon, David Williams, Dan Sepiol, Vanessa Kade, and online legend Viktor "Isildur1" Blom to name all but a few.
Nicholas Rigby and his "dirty diaper" made the headlines in the WSOP Main Event before, but he didn't make it out of Day 1 this time. In a three-way all-in, his pocket jacks came up third-best against pocket queens and pocket tens to send the jovial American to the rail in the fourth level.
The final numbers for the 2024 WSOP Main Event will be set in the following two days when all survivors of the four starting days return to their seats at the Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas. Day 2abc will recommence at noon local time on Sunday, July 7, 2024 with initial blinds of 400/800 and a big blind ante of 800.
The late registration will be open for the first two 120-minute levels and the same scenario repeats one day later for Day 2d, after which the official numbers are known. Hundreds of poker enthusiasts from all over the world are expected to take advantage of the late registration period in the most-prestigious live poker event of the year with the deepest structure.
Stay tuned right here on PokerNews for all of the action from Las Vegas in the next two weeks as another World Champion will be crowned on July 17, 2024.
