Diego Sanchez Bags Big After Day 1 of $5,000 No-Limit Hold'em (30-minute levels)
A fast-paced Day 1 has come to an end in Event #45: $5,000 No-Limit Hold'em (30-minute levels). Diego Sanchez leads the field of 49 players heading into Day 2 of this two-day event with 660,000 chips.
Sanchez hails from Mexico City, Mexico and is enjoying his first time back at the WSOP since 2014. He has two WSOP cashes to his name, both earned back in 2014. His largest live tournament cash came in a WSOP Circuit event held in 2010 at Caesars Palace for $57,400. Sanchez is looking to add to his $238,072 career live tournament earnings with a big six-figure score and WSOP gold bracelet. Sanchez also burst the money bubble when he knocked out Loni Harwood with pocket queens against her ace-king.
Dennis Blieden is second going into Day 2 with 561,000 in chips, while Jacob Bazeley finished with 509,000 as he ran up a stack at the end of the day after he was a short stack mid-way through. Conor Beresford capped off his day with a run of good cards and rounds out the top four with 504,000 chips.
There was a total of 505 entries after eight levels of late registration, beating last year's total by 60 entries. They made up a prize pool of $2,438,250 with the winner receiving $527,555. The tournament paid a total of 76 players with a minimum cash being worth $7,442.
Many notables joined the field today, but there were few who survived this incredibly tough group of players. Some of those to hit the rail early included Faraz Jaka, Justin Bonomo, Mike Leah, Maurice Hawkins, Ryan Laplante, Martin Jacobson, Joe McKeehen, JC Tran, Matt Waxman, Jordan Young, Joe Cada, and Ryan Riess.
There were still plenty of familiar faces that were able to find a bag at the end of the day such as Chris Moorman (170,000), Frank Kassela (444,000), Aditya Agarwal (416,000), Yevgeniy Timoshenko (385,000) and Max Silver (504,000).
Day 2 of this event will continue on Saturday at noon at Level 21. The remaining 49 players will continue playing until a winner is eventually crowned.
Day 2 Seat Draw
| Room | Table | Seat | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brasilia | 709 | 1 | Apostolos Bechrakis | Greece | 218,000 | 18 |
| Brasilia | 709 | 2 | Frank Kassela | United States | 444,000 | 37 |
| Brasilia | 709 | 3 | Conor Beresford | United Kingdom | 504,000 | 42 |
| Brasilia | 709 | 4 | Sean Loring | United States | 128,000 | 11 |
| Brasilia | 709 | 5 | Christopher Brammer | United Kingdom | 464,000 | 39 |
| Brasilia | 709 | 6 | Pete Chen | Taiwan | 135,000 | 11 |
| Brasilia | 709 | 7 | James Chen | Taiwan | 361,000 | 30 |
| Brasilia | 709 | 8 | Jonathan Concepcion | Spain | 207,000 | 17 |
| Brasilia | 709 | 9 | Quang Ngo | United States | 138,000 | 12 |
| Brasilia | 710 | 1 | Joseph Kohls | United States | 117,000 | 10 |
| Brasilia | 710 | 2 | Leonel Flores | United States | 177,000 | 15 |
| Brasilia | 710 | 3 | Jett Schencker | United States | 240,000 | 20 |
| Brasilia | 710 | 4 | Andrew Marson | United States | 272,000 | 23 |
| Brasilia | 710 | 5 | Clinton Harris | United States | 124,000 | 10 |
| Brasilia | 710 | 6 | Ty Reiman | United States | 191,000 | 16 |
| Brasilia | 710 | 7 | Alex Foxen | United States | 207,000 | 17 |
| Brasilia | 710 | 8 | Ashton Griffin | United States | 247,000 | 21 |
| Brasilia | 711 | 1 | Jason Tam | Canada | 297,000 | 25 |
| Brasilia | 711 | 2 | David Ormsby | Canada | 477,000 | 40 |
| Brasilia | 711 | 3 | Michael Tureniec | Sweden | 278,000 | 23 |
| Brasilia | 711 | 4 | Viliyan Petleshkov | Bulgaria | 293,000 | 24 |
| Brasilia | 711 | 5 | Yevgeniy Timoshenko | United States | 385,000 | 32 |
| Brasilia | 711 | 6 | DID NOT REPORT 1 | United States | 272,000 | 23 |
| Brasilia | 711 | 7 | Dennis Blieden | United States | 561,000 | 47 |
| Brasilia | 711 | 8 | Brant How | Canada | 210,000 | 18 |
| Brasilia | 712 | 1 | Javier Gomez | United States | 59,000 | 5 |
| Brasilia | 712 | 2 | Max Silver | United Kingdom | 504,000 | 42 |
| Brasilia | 712 | 3 | Kenneth Smaron | United States | 264,000 | 22 |
| Brasilia | 712 | 4 | Diego Sanchez | Mexico | 660,000 | 55 |
| Brasilia | 712 | 5 | Jimmy Guerrero | France | 180,000 | 15 |
| Brasilia | 712 | 7 | Chris Moorman | United Kingdom | 179,000 | 15 |
| Brasilia | 712 | 8 | Ivan Deyra | France | 183,000 | 15 |
| Brasilia | 712 | 9 | Rui Ye | United States | 110,000 | 9 |
| Brasilia | 713 | 1 | [Removed:14] | United States | 219,000 | 18 |
| Brasilia | 713 | 2 | Dan Wirgau | United States | 60,000 | 5 |
| Brasilia | 713 | 3 | Liang Xu | China | 105,000 | 9 |
| Brasilia | 713 | 4 | Kiryl Radzivonau | Belarus | 215,000 | 18 |
| Brasilia | 713 | 5 | James Akenhead | United Kingdom | 184,000 | 15 |
| Brasilia | 713 | 6 | Aditya Agarwal | India | 416,000 | 35 |
| Brasilia | 713 | 7 | Kyle Julius | United States | 236,000 | 20 |
| Brasilia | 713 | 8 | Jacob Bazeley | United States | 509,000 | 42 |
| Brasilia | 714 | 1 | Quan Zhou | China | 181,000 | 15 |
| Brasilia | 714 | 2 | Tobias Ziegler | Germany | 373,000 | 31 |
| Brasilia | 714 | 3 | Michael Brinkenhoff | United States | 171,000 | 14 |
| Brasilia | 714 | 4 | Ivan Luca | Argentina | 219,000 | 18 |
| Brasilia | 714 | 5 | Neel Murthy | United States | 321,000 | 27 |
| Brasilia | 714 | 6 | Samuel Phillips | United States | 74,000 | 6 |
| Brasilia | 714 | 7 | Kenneth Ray | United States | 99,000 | 8 |
| Brasilia | 714 | 8 | Carlos Boyd | Panama | 145,000 | 12 |