The focus of the 2021 World Series of Poker (WSOP) is now almost exclusively on the $10,000 buy-in Main Event, as three more champions were crowned on Day 37 of the WSOP.
However, all eyes were on the Main Event, with Las Vegas local Steve Foutty bagging the Day 1b chip lead and a whole host of big names bagging in the second of six starting flights.
The race for the 2021 WSOP Player of the Year race continues to heat up with the likes of Shaun Deeb and Daniel Negreanu putting the pressure on current POY leader Jake Schwartz.
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With four more starting flights of the Main Event, why not check out this video from PokerNews'Tiffany Michelle on how to register for the 2021 WSOP Main Event.
Steve Foutty Among Leaders After Day 1b of WSOP Main Event
The day attracted 845 entries and ended with 611 players left.
The chip leader at the end of Day 1b was Las Vegas local Steve Foutty, who bagged 287,000 after trending steadily upwards toward the end of the night. Foutty has already had a fairly successful WSOP with five cashes so far.
2021 WSOP Main Event Top 10 Chip Stacks After Day 1b
RANK
PLAYER
Country
CHIP COUNT
1
Steve Foutty
United States
287,000
2
Matthew Traylor
United States
279,500
3
Maxime Canevet
United States
277,000
4
Justin Garcia
United States
243,500
5
Kayvon Shahbaz
United States
238,500
6
Keegan Westover
United States
230,700
7
Kevin Rasor
United States
228,900
8
Aaron Earthman
United States
226,800
9
Jonathan Williams
United States
225,100
10
Jean Guillette
Canada
223,200
A few of the other big stacks to end the night include; ClubGG qualifier Matthew Traylor who bagged 279,500 and Keegan Westover who ended with 230,700, thanks in large part to a wild hand in which he spiked a king on the flop to crack aces. He could have had even more had queens not folded preflop in the same hand.
The day included many highlights, with many well-known player's able to navigate their way to a bag. They include; Ronnie Bardah who finished with 139,600, Stephen Chidwick (124,900), Kevin Gerhart (112,400), Mike Matusow (56,500) and Justin Bonomo. The former Big One for One Drop champion had a rough go of it for much of the day, failing to gain any real traction, but nevertheless is still alive with a short stack of 18,900.
Craig Varnell also survived the day with 51,800, but this amount will feel like a lot more to him having been as low as 9,000 in the last level of the night, before spinning it back up just under starting stack.
Even though over 60% of the field advanced to Day 2ab, there were many who could not survive and ended up hitting the rail before the end of the day. Including two-time WSOP Main Event champion Johnny Chanwho was eliminated early in the day by two-pair, Ryan Depaulo and John Racener hit the rail in the middle part of the day. The last level of the night claimed the Main Event lives of Brian Rast who lost a big flip, Nick Schulman via set over set and of Shaun Deeb who could not climb out of the short stack hole he was in all day.
The survivors of Day 1b will now have a lengthy break before they return to action on Tuesday November 9th at 11 a.m. local time where they will combine with the Day 1a and Day 1d survivors for Day 2abd.
The next starting flight, Day 1c will begin at 11 a.m. noon local time with the same five two-hour level structure as the first two starting days. PokerNews will have all the coverage once again.
Based in the United Kingdom, Will started working for PokerNews as a freelance live reporter in 2015 and joined the full-time staff in 2019. He now works as Managing Editor.
He graduated from the University of Kent in 2017 with a B.A. in German. He also holds an NCTJ Diploma in Sports Journalism.
