2023 WSOP Day 37: Main Event Looks Set to Obliterate the Attendance Record

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Jul 06, 2023 4 min read Last updated Apr 16, 2025

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.

Event #76: 10,000 WSOP Main Event World Championship Day 1c Top 10 Chip Counts

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.)

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.

Matthew Pitt hails from Leeds, West Yorkshire, in the United Kingdom, and has worked in the poker industry since 2008, and worked for PokerNews since 2010. In September 2010, he became the editor of PokerNews. Matthew stepped away from live reporting duties in 2015, and now concentrates on his role of Senior Editor for the PokerNews.

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• Tags WSOP23 Christopher Brammer Dan Cates Erik Seidel Espen Jorstad Gergely Kulcsar Joe McKeehen Josh Arieh Koray Aldemir Maria Ho Mustapha Kanit Phil Hellmuth Phil Laak Ronnie Bardah Vanessa Selbst Stephen Chidwick Scott Blumstein Sam Soverel Ryan Riess
• Related Players Erik SeidelPhil HellmuthMaria HoPhil LaakVanessa SelbstJosh Arieh

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