2023 WSOP Day 37: Main Event Looks Set to Obliterate the Attendance Record
Table Of Contents
The 37th day of the 2023 World Series of Poker (WSOP) at the Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas was all about the $10,000 buy-in Main Event. With Day 1c of Event #76: $10,000 WSOP Main Event World Championship expecting to be huge, and the blind structure so amazing that comparatively few players bust before day's end, no new events shuffled up and dealt.
Online Event #13: $5,300 No-Limit Hold'em High Roller Championship concluded inside the Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas. The 408-strong field was whittled down to a more manageable six players on July 3, with those six surviving players concluding the tournament in a live setting.
Florida native Sam Soverel was the player that came out on top, helping himself to his second WSOP bracelet plus $393,516 in prize money. Soverel defeated Hungary's Gergely Kulcsar heads-up, halting Kulcsar's impressive comeback as he sat down as the short stack.
Christopher Brammer Bags Biggest Main Event Day 1c Stack
More than 3,000 players turned out for Day 1c of Event #76: $10,000 WSOP Main Event World Championship, taking the total attendance to over 5,200 with one flight remaining. The impressive turnout means that the 8,773 field of the record-breaking 2006 WSOP Main Event is within reach, as Day 1d should be the busiest flight of the four Day 1s.
Only 2,326 players had chips requiring bagging and tagging after the completion of five two-hour levels, and none of those Day 1c survivors had more chips than Christopher Brammer (386,100).
Brammer already has a WSOP bracelet, having captured the bracelet award in a €5,000 No-Limit Hold'em Turbo event at the 2017 WSOP Europe festival. Brammer has several million in online poker tournament earnings and over $2 million from the live arena. The popular Brit has now put himself in a prime position to add yet another massive score to his resume.
Six previous WSOP Main Event champions chose Day 1c as the flight to become a two-time Main Event winner. Four of those continued the trend of past champions reaching Day 2. Joe McKeehen (111,500), Tom McEvoy (90,400) Scott Blumstein (71,900), Espen Jorstad (62,000), and Ryan Riess (68,100) all successfully navigated their way through the Day 1c shark-infested waters.
However, disaster struck for reigning champion Koray Aldemir, who ran kings into aces during the final three hands of the night.
Plenty of stellar names will keep Aldemir company in other events, having busted from the Main Event at various points of the penultimate start day. Maria Ho, Vanessa Selbst, and nine-time bracelet winner Erik Seidel will have to wait until 2024 for another shot at WSOP Main Event glory.
As you would expect, from such a bumper field, scores of elite-level professionals punched their Day 2 tickets. Josh Arieh (181,200), Phil Laak (146,100), Mustapha Kanit (142,400), Ronnie Bardah (121,400), and Stephen Chidwick (105,000) each finished their flight with six-figure stacks.
Others to look out for on Day 2abc include Richard Gryko (159,100), David Prociak (157,400), Brian Rast (113,400), Joao Simao (99,200), Joao Vieira (89,600), Sergio Aguero (85,500), Karina Jett (73,400), and Timur Margolin (17,200).
Aguero holds legendary status in football (soccer) circles. The former Argentina striker is the all-time leading goal scorer for Manchester City of the Premier League; a heart condition forced the diminutive forward to retire in December 2021. Aguero bagged up a respectable 87,000 at the close of play and could be a dark horse going into Day 2 and beyond.
Day 1d kicks off at 12:00 p.m. local time on July 6, and it could well be the best-attended WSOP Main Event flight ever. Seventeen-time bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth is expected to buy-in fashionably late, at around 4:00 p.m. local time, dressed as The Greatest Showman, with a lion costume-sporting Dan Cates accompanying Hellmuth to the tables; don't you just love the WSOP? The plan is the play five 120-minute levels.
https://twitter.com/phil_hellmuth/status/1676673208966324224
Event #76: 10,000 WSOP Main Event World Championship Day 1c Top 10 Chip Counts
Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Christopher Brammer | United Kingdom | 386,100 | 483 |
2 | Michael Banducci | United States | 292,600 | 366 |
3 | Lawrence Chang | United States | 280,900 | 351 |
4 | Roman Valerstein | United States | 273,300 | 342 |
5 | Michael Pinto | Netherlands | 266,600 | 333 |
6 | Daniel Kirsch | Canada | 252,800 | 316 |
7 | DID NOT REPORT 11 | United States | 248,100 | 310 |
8 | Adrian Buckley | United States | 245,000 | 306 |
9 | Patrick Beuter | United States | 244,200 | 305 |
10 | Keith Cummins | Ireland | 244,000 | 305 |
Will the WSOP Main Event Attendance Record Be Broken?
Everything points towards the 2023 WSOP Main Event being the best attended in the 54-year history of the World Series of Poker. Through the first three of four flights, an unofficial 5,237 players have bought in, compared to 3,653 by this stage in 2022. That represents a 43.36% increase on the 2022 turnout, which was the second-largest WSOP Main Event in history with 8,663 entrants (information about daily entrants in the 2006 WSOP Main Event is scarce.)
Flight | 2022 | 2023 | Difference | Percentage Change |
---|---|---|---|---|
Day 1a | 896 | 1,039 | 143 | +15.96% |
Day 1b | 897 | 1,118 | 221 | +24.64% |
Day 1c | 1,860 | 3,080 | 1,220 | +65.59% |
Day 1d | 3,295 | TBC | TBC | TBC |
The current record holder, the 2006 WSOP Main Event, drew in 8,773 players, meaning Day 1d on July 6 "only" needs 3,537 entrants to set a new record.
What to Expect on Day 38 of the 2023 WSOP
Most of the poker world's attention will be fixated on Day 1d of Event #76: $10,000 WSOP Main Event World Championship, and rightly so. However, there is another tournament taking place, Online Event #14: $400 No-Limit Hold'em Turbo, so expect some of the Main Event entrants to fire up this tournament on their smartphones and tables.
You will next get to see some fresh live events on July 7 when Event #77: $777 Lucky 7's and Event #78: $1,500 Bounty Pot-Limit Omaha commence.
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In this Series
- 1 2023 WSOP Day 1: Big Guns Turn Out in Force for the $25K High Roller; Razaei Leads
- 2 2023 WSOP Day 2: First Bracelet of the Series Awarded; Hallay Leads High Roller
- 3 2023 WSOP Day 3: Andrew Kelsall Leads the Final 11 of the Dealer's Choice
- 4 2023 WSOP Day 4: Polk Advances to Sweet 16 in $25K HU, Eveslage Wins Second Bracelet
- 5 2023 WSOP Day 5: Polk Makes Final Four as Shaun Deeb Chases Stud Title
- 6 2023 WSOP Day 6: Four Bracelets Awarded; Eveslage Aiming for Back-to-Back Wins
- 7 2023 WSOP Day 7: Three Champions Crowned; Chosen One Eveslage Does it Again
- 8 2023 WSOP Day 8: Calvin Anderson Spins It Up in the High Roller
- 9 2023 WSOP Day 9: Could We See the First Female Champion of the Series?
- 10 2023 WSOP Day 10: Action-Packed Day Sees Three Bracelets Awarded
- 11 2023 WSOP Day 11: One Bracelet Awarded; $50k High Roller Kicks Off
- 12 2023 WSOP Day 12: Alex Foxen Chases Second Bracelet In $50k Event
- 13 2023 WSOP Day 13: Shaun Deeb Bags Another WSOP Chip Lead; Seidel Gunning for 10th Bracelet
- 14 2023 WSOP Day 14: Lamb Leads Stacked Omaha Hi-Lo Championship Final Table
- 15 2023 WSOP Day 15: Arends Leads the $100K; Lamb and Deeb Capture Gold Bracelets
- 16 2023 WSOP Day 16: Five Shiny Bracelets Find New Homes
- 17 2023 WSOP Day 17: Razz Championship Spills Over into Day 4
- 18 2023 WSOP Day 18: First Bracelet For Wong; Kornuth Bags Big in $250K
- 19 2023 WSOP Day 19: Benny Glaser Chases Fifth Bracelet
- 20 2023 WSOP Day 20: Johnny Chan in the Hunt for Bracelet No. 11
- 21 2023 WSOP Day 21: Cates Terminated from the $50K PPC
- 22 2023 WSOP Day 22: Ashton Hunting for Second $50K PPC Title
- 23 2023 WSOP Day 23: Ivey Falls Short of His 11th Bracelet
- 24 2023 WSOP Day 24: Five Bracelets Awarded; More Records Broken
- 25 2023 WSOP Day 25: Halatenko Leads Final Five Into Day 4 of $10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Championship
- 26 2023 WSOP Day 26: Phil Hellmuth Makes The Final 17 of $10,000 H.O.R.S.E.
- 27 2023 WSOP Day 27: Heimiller; Matusow, and Gorodinsky Shine Brightly
- 28 2023 WSOP Day 28: Chance Kornuth Continues Crushing
- 29 2023 WSOP Day 29: Negreanu Finishes Another Day 1 With a Big Stack
- 30 2023 WSOP Day 30: Erik Seidel Seeking His 10th WSOP Bracelet
- 31 2023 WSOP Day 31: Vitor Dzivielevski Hoping to Join His Brother in the Bracelet Club
- 32 2023 WSOP Day 32: Dzivielevski Brothers Chasing Gold, Both Run Deep
- 33 2023 WSOP Day 33: Three Bracelets Won as Shiina Okamoto Leads The Ladies Event
- 34 2023 WSOP Day 34: Excitement Builds for the $10,000 Main Event!
- 35 2023 WSOP Day 35: The Wait is Over! The $10,000 Main Event Shuffles up and Deals!
- 36 2023 WSOP Day 36: Main Event Continues Growing During Fourth of July Celebrations
- 37 2023 WSOP Day 37: Main Event Looks Set to Obliterate the Attendance Record
- 38 2023 WSOP Day 38: Main Event Shatters Its Attendance Record
- 39 2023 WSOP Day 39: No Repeat Main Event Champion as Espen Jorstad Gets Eliminated
- 40 2023 WSOP Day 40: Maurice Hawkins Leads Main Event into Day 3
- 41 2023 WSOP Day 41: Morgan Petro Bags Big Lucky 7's Stack; Kornuth Continues Crushing
- 42 2023 WSOP Day 42: Arieh Claims the $25K H.O.R.S.E. Day 1 Chip Lead
- 43 2023 WSOP Day 43: Three-Hour Bubble Sees $25K H.O.R.S.E. Get Stuck in the Mud
- 44 2023 WSOP Day 44: Wang Claims $50,000 High Roller Chip Lead
- 45 2023 WSOP Day 45: Kulev Set to Claim $50K High Roller Title
- 46 2023 WSOP Day 46: Friedman Gets Closer To Sixth Bracelet
- 47 2023 WSOP Day 47: Another Deep Run for Hellmuth; Pupillo Final Three in Mixed Event
- 48 2023 WSOP Day 48: Reard In a Dominant Position in the $10K NLHE 6-Max Championship
- 49 2023 WSOP Day 49: John Juanda Could Join an Exclusive Club
- 50 2023 WSOP Day 50: Can The Last Person Out Please Turn Off The Lights?