2023 WSOP Day 38: Main Event Shatters Its Attendance Record

July 07, 2023

It is official, the 2023 World Series of Poker Main Event is the largest on record, with more than 9,300 players turning out across four starting flights. The official number of entrants is yet to be determined as late registration remains open until the start of both Day 2abc and 2d.

Day 38 of the 2023 WSOP was all about Event #76: $10,000 WSOP Main Event World Championship. Indeed, this was the online tournament taking place inside the Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas. More than 4,100 players exchanged $10,000 for 60,000 chips and the chance to become poker's world champion. The dream is still alive for around 3,200 of the Day 2d players, who return to the action from 12:00 p.m. local time on July 8.

The Greatest Show: Hellmuth and Jungleman Make Grand Entrance into 2023 WSOP Main Event

Nicholas Rigby (408,800) bagged up the Day 1d chip lead, and leads the tournament overall after a stellar day at the felt. If Rigby's name sounds familiar to you, it is likely because he shot to fame in 2019 after playing the lowly trey-deuce offsuit, and nicknaming it the "dirty diaper!"

Brittney Stout (375,500) is the best-placed female player at this early stage of the Main Event, and will be confident of building on her early success.

Neel Murthy (323,100), Chris "Big Huni" Hunichen (321,200), and Carlos Leiva (318,700) round out the Day 1d top five chip counts.

Plenty of top pros entered the mix on Day 1d, with many progressing to Day 2d.

Chance Kornuth (241,500) continued his impressive hot streak of form, while Men "The Master" Nguyen (221,000) also bagged big.

A host of past Main Event champions joined in the fun, and all but one of them had chips requiring bagging and tagging at the end of the fifth level. Chris Moneymaker (143,100), Joe Hachem (125,300), Qui Nguyen (121,800), and Scotty Nguyen (8,400) are through to Day 2d, but Hossein Ensan came unstuck before the curtain came down on proceedings.

Phil Hellmuth made his usual over-the-top grand entrance, dressed as P. T. Barnum from The Greatest Showman with Dan Cates dressed as his pet lion! Hellmuth progressed with 108,500 chips, but Cates was put back in his cage just after the dinner break.

Big names and big stack aside, Day 1d of the 2023 WSOP Main Event will likely be remembered for a sick start to matters when two players busted during the very first hand!

One player got their 300 big blind stack into the middle with pocket kings and lost to pocket aces, while Mikolaj Zawadzki held pocket eights on a queen-eight-deuce-nine-five board only to commit his stack and discover Jamie Smith held pocket queens for a higher set. Ouch!

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

What to Expect on Day 39 of the 2023 WSOP

Day 2abc of the Main Event commences at 12:00 p.m. local time and sees more than 3,800 players return to their seats. They will play another five 120-minute levels before calling it a night, with those surviving players joining Day 2ds survivors on July 9.

Two fresh events shuffle up and deal. At 10:00 a.m. local time on July 7, Event #77: $777 Lucky 7's No-Limit Hold'em (7-Handed) begins. Last year's event saw 6,903 players create a $3,517,898 prize pool, with Frenchman Gregory Teboul coming out on top and banking $777,777.

Event #78: $1,500 Bounty Pot-Limit Omaha also runs on July 9. Pei Li is the defending champion, having outlasted 1,389 opponents in 2022 on his way to collecting $190,219.

Senior Editor

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  WSOP23 Brittney Stout Carlos Leiva Chance Kornuth Chris Hunichen Chris Moneymaker Hossein Ensan Joe Hachem Mikolaj Zawadzki Neel Murthy Nicholas Rigby Scott Nguyen Qui Nguyen Pei Li

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  Joe HachemChris MoneymakerChance KornuthMikolaj ZawadzkiHossein EnsanQui Nguyen