A player opened to 1,500 in the cutoff and was called by Phil Ivey on the button as well as both blinds.
Action checked to Ivey following the J?5?2? flop and he continued for 3,000. The small blind responded by moving all in for 27,100, forcing two quick folds from the big blind and cutoff. Ivey thought for a while before eventually calling with the covering stack to put his opponent at risk.
Small Blind: K?Q?
Phil Ivey: K?J?
Ivey was ahead with his top pair but would need to fade quite a few outs to win the pot. Nothing changed on the 7? turn with the 6? river keeping Ivey's pair best to hand him the knockout.
Action went four-ways to a flop of 8?3?4?, and the player in early position led out with a bet of 5,000. Only Ari Engel called, who was in the cutoff.
The turn landed the 5? and early position check-called a bet of 9,500 from Engel, bringing the 10? river.
Early position checked again, and Engel fired out a bet of 19,000. Early position took some time to think through his decision, before eventually giving up his hand.
With the 10?5?4? flop already on the felt, Julien Sitbon was in the tank as he faced a check-jam from Roland Nezaj. According to the table, Sitbon had already been in the blender for over 15 minutes.
After some back-and-forth banter, Sitbon said, "If this were a re-entry my money would already be in."
Some more time passed and Nezaj told him to fold his hand and that he was behind. Sitbon finally let it go, and Nezaj showed him he wasn't lying as he tabled 10?10? for top set. Sitbon reached into the muck and pulled his K?K? out as the dealer shipped the pot to Nezaj.
Sergei Gurin opened the cutoff and Hua-Wei Lin three-bet to 5,500 from the small blind. The big blind folded, and Gurin called.
On the 3?Q?4? flop, Lin fired a continuation-bet of 4,000, and Gurin made the call.
When the 8? hit the turn, Lin made another bet of 7,000. Gurin then made a tiny raise to 15,500, and after some thinking, Lin called.
The 8? river paired the board and Lin checked it over to Gurin, who after a long pause, announced a bet of 50,000. Lin had slightly over 50,000 in her stack and was in the tank for around three minutes when she apologized to her table for taking a long time. The table didn't call the clock and around a minute later, Lin dropped in the call.
Gurin flipped over J?9? for a bluff, and Lin tabled K?K? for a pair of kings to claim the pot.
"Nice call," said several of the table to the Taiwanese player.
Picking up the action on the flop, Brad Ruben in the big blind was involved in a hand with a player on the button.
With the board reading 10?4?9? Ruben checked. His opponent bet 1,100 only to see Ruben raise to 3,800. The button player made the call to see a turn.
The turn came 6? and saw Ruben move all in for his remaining 14,000. That did not sit too well with the button player but they did make the call with the covering stack to put Ruben at risk.
Brad Ruben: Q?10?
Button Player: Q?4?
Ruben was ahead with top pair and managed to dodge the flush draw and any four on the 10? river to score a double late in the night.
There was an early position raise to 1,200. Talal Shakerchi called from the cutoff which brought in the button, small blind, and big blind.
Five players saw the monotone flop of Q?K?10? and the action checked to Shakerchi. He bet 3,000 which was called by the button and the big blind.
The Q? on the turn saw another bet from Shakerchi, this time for 5,300. Once again, the button and the big blind called.
The river brought the 9? and after the big blind checked, Shakerchi fired another barrel of 8,000. The button quickly folded but the big blind thought for a few moments before putting in the call.
Shakerchi flipped over Q?10? for a full house to win the pot.
With around 8,000 chips in the pot, the player in the cutoff had gone all in for 11,900 on a flop of 8?5?3?. Daniel Vehring called on the button before Richard Lingden also went all in for 34,400 in early position.
Vehring tanked a while before calling it off, putting both of his opponents at risk.
Cutoff: 7?6?
Richard Lingden: 3?3?
Daniel Vehring: A?9?
The turn brought the 10?, upgrading Vehring to a flush and leaving the cutoff drawing dead. The 9? river did not give Lingden a full house, and both players said their goodbyes with around 30 minutes remaining on the clock.
The action from the hand prior to the river was relayed to PokerNews by a player at the table not involved in the hand.
Mateos Sahakian opened from middle position and was called by a player on the button. Tarun Goyal then three-bet out of the big blind only to see Sahakian come back over the top with a four-bet. That convinced the button player to get out of the way but Goyal called to send the two players to the flop with a heap of chips already in the middle.
Goyal check-called a continuation bet of around one third of the pot following the Q?K?2? flop.
Action checked through the Q? turn to the 5? river at which point Goyal checked again. Sahakian bet 20,000 but was met by an all in raise from Goyal. Sahakian, the effective stack with 30,000 behind, seemed dismayed as he repeatedly said his opponent could not have a bluff in this spot.
Eventually he open folded K?K? for the second nuts and, despite imploring Goyal to table his holding, his opponent did not oblige to leave Sahakian and everyone besides Goyal wondering if this was one of the great folds seemingly unique to the main event or a missed opportunity for a double up.
Play has concluded in a record-breaking Day 1D. Those who have bagged will return Monday, July 8 at 12 p.m. local time for Day 2D. Below are some highlights from the final level of play.
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.
Maria Konnikova
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."
Martin Jacobson
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.
