$3,500 Main Event Day 2 | 2023 BetMGM Poker Championship

$3,500 Main Event

Day 2 Started

06-11-2023 09:45 UTC-7

Day 2 Seat Draw

Calum Grant

Table	Seat	Player Name	Chip Count	Big Blinds
7	1	Tomas Szwarberg	149,000	60
7	2	Tae Gon Kim	119,500	48
7	3	Vikenty Shegal	105,000	42
7	4	Corey Dodd	83,500	33
7	5	Ran Koller	158,000	63
7	6	Adrian Buckley	112,000	45
7	7	Aaron La	41,500	17
7	8	Alan Zheng	74,000	30

8	1	Leo Taffe	350,500	140
8	2	Ernesto Cuellar	93,000	37
8	3	Christopher Taki	238,000	95
8	4	Martin Jacobson	211,500	85
8	5	Chance Kornuth	193,000	77
8	6	Ben Palmer	90,000	36
8	7	Mario Arribas	83,000	33
8	8	Sean Ragozzini	65,000	26

9	1	Erfan Gevla	391,000	156
9	2	Gabriel Moura	146,500	59
9	3	Timothy Ulmer	52,500	21
9	4	Michael Rossitto	186,500	75
9	5	Sergey Banuchyan	50,500	20
9	6	Jamey McKay	51,000	20
9	7	Biao Ding	69,000	28
9	8	Alex Condon	160,000	64

10	1	Jack Shea	46,500	19
10	2	Ranjeet Pawar	117,000	47
10	3	Farid Jattin	146,000	58
10	4	Melanie Pittard	175,500	70
10	5	Ryan Remington	353,500	141
10	6	Jeff Stellwagon	74,500	30
10	7	Alen Alencar	86,500	35
10	8	Govert Metaal	57,500	23

11	1	Josh McMurry	233,500	93
11	2	Joey Weissman	28,000	11
11	3	Anthony Bellino	53,000	21
11	4	Yita Choong	33,000	13
11	5	Anatoly Nikitin	260,500	104
11	6	Ward Martin	198,500	79
11	7	Kyung Lee	134,000	54
11	8	Prasad Vemulapalli	104,500	42

12	1	Ivanov Vladislav	84,500	34
12	2	Ethan Yau	227,000	91
12	3	Bradley Hinson	205,500	82
12	4	Stevan Chew	100,000	40
12	5	Justin Lett	83,500	33
12	6	Edward Szumski	67,500	27
12	7	Nikolai Tulin	115,000	46
12	8	Dylan Linde	139,000	56

13	1	Will Givens	155,500	62
13	2	Yiannis Liperis	102,000	41
13	3	Jason Mann	235,500	94
13	4	Rodrigo Semeghini	137,500	55
13	5	Anthony Hu	225,500	90
13	6	Thomas Eychenne	102,000	41
13	7	Stephen Song	285,500	114
13	8	Eli Garney	238,000	95

14	1	Beau Winn	155,000	62
14	2	Shiva Dudani	265,500	106
14	3	Christopher Maguire	24,500	10
14	4	Ben Warrington	105,500	42
14	5	Andrew Lichtenberger	24,500	10
14	6	Gregory Caubet	151,000	60
14	7	Nolan King	190,500	76
14	8	Aaron Massey	43,500	17

15	1	Brett Brashers	68,000	27
15	2	Alexander Pryor	106,500	43
15	3	Aleks Dimitrov	312,500	125
15	4	Jesse Lonis	147,500	59
15	5	Eric Semega	60,500	24
15	6	Kevin Stammen	214,500	86
15	7	Michael Gathy	83,000	33
15	8	Jack Oliver	163,000	65

16	1	Eric Yanousky	214,000	86
16	2	Hao Tiam	80,500	32
16	3	Alexandre Vuilleumier	284,000	114
16	4	Lyu Junqiang	140,000	56
16	5	Nick Maimone	264,000	106
16	6	Jesus Castro Reyes	33,500	13
16	7	Josh Boulton	315,000	126
16	8	Elliott Kampen	53,000	21

18	1	Mario Navarro	73,000	29
18	2	Tarun Gulati	59,500	24
18	3	Johann Ibanez	108,000	43
18	4	Mo Zhou	66,500	27
18	5	Kevin Berthelsen	78,000	31
18	6	Tommy Nguyen	88,500	35
18	7	Jesse Rosen	78,500	31
18	8	[Removed:446]	65,000	26

19	1	Haoqi Xie	78,000	31
19	2	Lorenc Puka	88,000	35
19	3	Jeffrey Farnes	191,500	77
19	4	Bob Shao	123,000	49
19	5	Dann Turner	212,000	85
19	6	Mitchell Halverson	135,000	54
19	7	Matthew McEwan	80,500	32
19	8	Wojtek Barzanty	106,500	43

20	1	Samuel Laskowitz	99,500	40
20	2	Dennis Zeigler	37,500	15
20	3	Arsemi Karnatcki	217,500	87
20	4	Joseph Wilson-Stewart	78,000	31
20	5	Mitch Garshofsky	219,000	88
20	6	Juha Helppi	107,000	43
20	7	Ryan Wolfson	122,000	49
20	8	Kharlin Sued	53,000	21

21	1	Spencer Champlin	45,500	18
21	2	Yuriy Boyko	62,000	25
21	3	Ben Farrell	465,000	186
21	4	Erick Lindgren	224,000	90
21	5	Fiodor Martino	99,000	40
21	6	Dong Chen	177,500	71
21	7	Masashi Oya	25,500	10
21	8	Calvin Lee	139,500	56

22	1	Andrew Ostapchenk	82,000	33
22	2	Chad Lipton	131,000	52
22	3	Darren Elias	131,500	53
22	4	Rakesh Bedi	40,000	16
22	5	Alex Nguyen	56,000	22
22	6	Michael Setera	11,000	4
22	7	Josef Gulas Jr	189,500	76
22	8	Jason Kipnis	139,500	56

23	1	Filipp Khavin	64,500	26
23	2	Don Naponse	315,000	126
23	3	Brandon Caputo	138,000	55
23	4	Kenny Deffrasness	56,500	23
23	5	Sultan Khair	138,000	55
23	6	Stanley Lee	56,000	22
23	7	Adekunle Olonoh	101,500	41
23	8	Craig Mason	58,000	23

24	1	Danny DeJesus	88,000	35
24	2	Lyudwie Ivanov	82,000	33
24	3	Eric Blair	179,500	72
24	4	Shengchao Zhu	127,000	51
24	5	Landen Lucas	43,500	17
24	6	Drew O'Connell	171,500	69
24	7	Frank Funaro Jr.	40,000	16
24	8	Tauan Naves	151,500	61

25	1	Brian Hastings	149,000	60
25	2	Ezequiel Waigel	115,000	46
25	3	Jeremy Ausmus	155,500	62
25	4	Michael Lavenburg	157,500	63
25	5	Adam Kharman	81,500	33
25	6	Anthony Spinella	180,500	72
25	7	Frank Lillis	157,000	63
25	8	Victoria Livschitz	136,000	54

26	1	Johannes Straver	59,000	24
26	2	Igor Ioffe	176,500	71
26	3	Emanuele Gugliuzza	92,000	37
26	4	Zinan Xu	34,000	14
26	5	Michael Stashin	254,000	102
26	6	Patrick Hensley	127,500	51
26	7	Sergio Aido	133,000	53
26	8	Szecsi Norbert	176,000	70

27	1	Igor Dursel	50,000	20
27	2	Michael Wang	25,500	10
27	3	Yong Kwon	126,500	51
27	4	Adam Miller	204,500	82
27	5	Ivan Galinec	317,000	127
27	6	Kyle Julius	40,000	16
27	7	Adam Hendrix	47,000	19
27	8	Elia Ahmadian	80,000	32

28	1	Nadya Magnus	92,500	37
28	2	Adrian Bertini	406,500	163
28	3	Nikolaos Platis	19,500	8
28	4	Tiago Rocha	78,500	31
28	5	Rodney Turvin	81,500	33
28	6	Dan Cosner	207,000	83
28	7	Luis Faria	56,500	23
28	8	Brandon Mueller	88,500	35

29	1	Anuj Agarwa	453,500	181
29	2	Martin Finger	33,000	13
29	3	Ronald Sullivan	48,000	19
29	4	Serhii Popovych	45,500	18
29	5	Michael McNicholas	76,000	30
29	6	Andre Tassinari	166,500	67
29	7	Aaron Motoyama	236,000	94
29	8	Wasim Mahfooth	93,500	37

30	1	Wai Ngai	197,500	79
30	2	Matthew Lambrecht	89,500	36
30	3	Brett Bassock	329,000	132
30	4	Kristen Foxen	151,500	61
30	5	Duane Mitchell	90,000	36
30	6	Justin Chi Jen Chu	128,500	51
30	7	Daniel Chuprun	60,500	24
30	8	Jim Farrelly	142,000	57

31	1	Jonathan Jaffe	213,500	85
31	2	Chad Himmelspach	1,000	0
31	3	Mark Dickstein	78,500	31
31	4	Talesh Patel	118,000	47
31	5	Bin Weng	355,500	142
31	6	Mike Vanice	250,500	100
31	7	Daniel Rezael	84,500	34
31	8	Owen Savin	126,000	50

32	1	Martins Adeniya	23,000	9
32	2	Steve Yea	45,000	18
32	3	Connor Rash	165,500	66
32	4	Anthony Macaluso	80,000	32
32	5	Aram Oganya	247,000	99
32	6	Johan Schumacher	121,000	48
32	7	Gary Dileo	97,500	39

33	1	Chang Yu Chung	84,500	34
33	2	Viliyan Petleshkov	117,500	47
33	3	Yigit Tinay	28,000	11
33	4	Lander Lijo	195,000	78
33	5	Boris Kuzmanovic	161,500	65
33	6	Corey Gutilla	70,000	28
33	7	Stanton Tentnowski	155,000	62
33	8	Peter Turmezev	187,500	75

34	1	Gregory Brewer	65,500	26
34	2	Sonny Franco	33,000	13
34	3	Aram Zobian	80,500	32
34	4	Fabian Gumz	37,500	15
34	5	Yue Liu	131,000	52
34	6	Andrew Duffy	74,000	30
34	7	Davide Suriano	141,500	57
34	8	William Paholak	64,000	26

35	1	Federico Cirillo	94,500	38
35	2	Alex Gil	59,000	24
35	3	Brian Orrico	67,000	27
35	4	Fabrice Bigot	118,500	47
35	5	Pablo Mariz	189,500	76
35	6	Frank Lagodich	103,500	41
35	7	Halil Tasyurek	113,500	45
35	8	Giovani Torre	78,500	31

36	1	Andrew Swenson	48,500	19
36	2	Tobias Schwecht	129,000	52
36	3	Jeremiah Fitzpatrick	247,500	99
36	4	Steven Rosen	98,000	39
36	5	Jun Wu	168,500	67
36	6	Christopher Nguyen	110,500	44
36	7	David Stamm	210,000	84
36	8	Adam Adler	300,000	120

37	1	Gregor Sverko	32,500	13
37	2	Ma Zhanpeng	56,500	23
37	3	Hersh Mahajan	220,000	88
37	4	Carlos Chadha	148,500	59
37	5	Paul Richardson	124,500	50
37	6	Stephen Cooper	84,000	34
37	7	Nikita Kuznetcov	276,500	111
37	8	Alex Keating	223,500	89

38	1	Allen Pierce	75,000	30
38	2	Ben Kaupp	254,000	102
38	3	Abhinav Iyer	131,500	53
38	4	Tyng Low	102,500	41
38	5	Ioannis Angelou	65,000	26
38	6	Daniel Smiljkovic	88,500	35
38	7	Sergio Fernandez	163,500	65
38	8	Vitaly Kovyazin	124,500	50

39	1	David Lee	173,000	69
39	2	Peter Lombardo	84,500	34
39	3	Jared Jaffee	200,000	80
39	4	Taylor Black	39,500	16
39	5	Tuan Phan	50,500	20
39	6	Rami Boukai	155,000	62
39	7	Bahbak Oboodi	106,500	43
39	8	James Collopy	104,500	42

40	1	Paul Gunness	362,000	145
40	2	Joe Kuether	112,500	45
40	3	Nikolaos Lampropoulos	148,000	59
40	4	Sriharsha Doddapaneni	57,000	23
40	5	Matt Stout	64,500	26
40	6	Josue Aguirre	138,500	55
40	7	Mark Babekov	252,000	101
40	8	Jing Wang	667,500	267

41	1	Miguel Lopes	74,000	30
41	2	Dan Noor	42,000	17
41	3	Linh Le	56,000	22
41	4	Michael Jozoff	248,000	99
41	5	Tse Shing	67,000	27
41	6	Mark Ioli	223,500	89
41	7	Fernando Zuliani	186,000	74

42	1	Thomas Hall	168,000	67
42	2	Michael Cannon	89,500	36
42	3	Rehman Kassam	113,000	45
42	4	Eric Afriat	40,500	16
42	5	Michael Arellano	386,500	155
42	6	Sundiata DeVore	59,000	24
42	7	Pratik Mehta	116,500	47
42	8	Raul Martinez	151,000	60

43	1	Albert Nguyen	91,000	36
43	2	Kyriakos Papadapolous	74,000	30
43	3	Jason Ziffel	136,500	55
43	4	Justin Young	149,000	60
43	5	Casey Stewart	85,000	34
43	6	Alfred Atamian	250,000	100
43	7	Sang Sim	246,500	99
43	8	Mark Dube	301,000	120

44	1	John Riordan	152,000	61
44	2	Adam Walton	195,000	78
44	3	Clemen Reng	207,500	83
44	4	Art Papazyon	161,000	64
44	5	Michael Lavin	187,500	75
44	6	Jon-Micheal Gisler	57,500	23
44	7	David Gonzalez	162,500	65

45	1	Nick Yunis	187,000	75
45	2	Benjamin Sai	219,000	88
45	3	Jacob Dolehanty	34,500	14
45	4	Gustav Mastellot	43,000	17
45	5	Raj Vohra	118,500	47
45	6	Aleksei Istomin	29,500	12
45	7	Jonathan Pastore	321,000	128

46	1	Yuan Yilu	222,000	89
46	2	Cherish Andrews	53,500	21
46	3	Petar Kalev	100,000	40
46	4	Fabian Schaefer	146,000	58
46	5	Dominik Nitsche	66,500	27
46	6	Fernando Garcia	280,500	112
46	7	Nick Pupillo	54,500	22

06-11-2023 11:00 UTC-7

Money Bubble to Burst on Day 2 of BetMGM Poker Championship

Calum Grant

Day 2 of the 2023 BetMGM Poker Championship kicks off at noon local time at the ARIA Resort & Casino, where 307 of the 1,026 entries currently remain.

Jing Wang currently sits in pole position after he bagged a chip-leading stack of 667,000 on the opening day. Wang is 79 big blinds better off than his closest rival, Ben Farrell (465,000), who topped the counts from Day 1b. Rounding out the top three is WSOP bracelet winner Anuj Agarwal, who returns today with 453,500.

Top Ten Chip Counts Ahead of Day 2

Rank	Player	Country	Chip Count	Big Blinds
1	Jing Wang	Unknown	667,000	267
2	Ben Farrell	United Kingdom	465,000	186
3	Anuj Agarwal	United States	453,500	181
4	Adrian Bertini	United States	406,500	163
5	Erfan Geula	United States	391,000	156
6	Michael Arellano	United States	386,500	155
7	Paul Gunness	United States	362,000	145
8	Bin Weng	United States	355,500	142
9	Ryan Remington	United States	353,500	141
10	Leo Taffe	United States	350,500	140

The Day 2 hopefuls are competing for a bumper $3,283,200 prize pool, which is almost triple the value from 2022. However, more than half of the field will leave empty-handed as only the top 128 players will make the money.

The min-cash has been set at $4,793, while a six-figure payday of $560,442 awaits the winner along with the title and trophy.

Despite finding a double up on the last hand of Day 1b, defending champion Joey Weissman (28,000) will need to spin up a stack to have any hopes of retaining his crown. Also returning today is former Major League Baseball player Jason Kipnis

Kipnis is just one of the hundred-strong qualifiers who booked their seat at the table for a fraction of the buy-in by playing on BetMGM Poker. Twenty-one qualifiers made it through Day 1a, and six more did the same in Day 1b.

They will be looking to replicate the actions of Benji Felson, who was the last qualifier standing last year before hitting the rail in fifth place for $51,587. Felson will have to watch from the sidelines this time around as he busted in the middle stages of yesterday's session.

Notable names returning for Day 2 include players such as Bin Weng (355,500), who is on a huge heater, having won three major events in 2023 alone. Popular vlogger Ethan "Rampage" Yau (227,000) as well as BetMGM Poker ambassador and tournament end boss Darren Elias (131,500).

BetMGM Poker Championship Payouts

Place	Prize	Place	Prize	Place	Prize
1	$560,442	10-12	$44,323	55-63	$10,244
2	$392,704	13-15	$34,474	64-72	$9,488
3	$254,645	16-18	$28,334	73-81	$8,733
4	$188,193	19-21	$23,475	82-90	$7,978
5	$142,655	22-24	$19,469	91-99	$7,256
6	$114,157	25-27	$16,547	100-108	$6,534
7	$94,523	28-36	$14,512	109-117	$5,811
8	$75,054	37-45	$12,542	118-126	$5,155
9	$56,044	46-54	$11,229	127-128	$4,793

Play resumes on Level 11 where the blinds will be 1,500/2,500 with a 2,500 big blind ante. The plan for the day is to stop after Level 19 but this is subject to change. As always, keep it locked in with PokerNews to follow all of the action.

Tags: Adrian Bertini Anuj Agarwal Ben Farrell Bin Weng Erfan Geula Jing Wang Leo Taffe Michael Arellano Paul Gunness Ryan Remington

Level: 11

Blinds: 1,500/2,500

Ante: 2,500

06-11-2023 12:08 UTC-7

Shuffle Up and Deal!

Kirk Brown

Level 11 : Blinds 1,500/2,500, 2,500 ante

Cards are in the air and the sound of chips shuffling can be heard across the Aria Tournament Area as Day 2 of the BetMGM Main Event is officially underway!

06-11-2023 12:24 UTC-7

Zhanpeng Doesn't Realise He Doubles

Calum Grant

Level 11 : Blinds 1,500/2,500, 2,500 ante

Nikita Kuznetsov opened to 6,500 from the cutoff and was called by Ma Zhanpeng from the big blind.

Zhanpeng check-jammed for 18,000 after his opponent bet the 9♣8♦6♣ flop. Kuznetsov called.

Ma Zhanpeng: 9x7x
Nikita Kuznetsov: Q♥10♠

Zhanpeng had top pair and held out to double following the 3♦ turn and 10♣ river. However, Zhanpeng began leaving his seat as he thought the ten gave Kuznetsov a better pair, not realizing he had improved to a straight. The table informed him he had won, and he sat back down.

Player	Chips	Progress
Nikita Kuznetsov	250,000 -26,500	-26,500
Ma Zhanpeng	50,000 -6,500	-6,500

Tags: Ma Zhanpeng Nikita Kuznetsov

06-11-2023 12:28 UTC-7

Kings for Swenson

Calum Grant

Level 11 : Blinds 1,500/2,500, 2,500 ante

Christopher Nguyen opened to 5,000 from middle position and was called by David Stamm from the hijack. Andrew Swenson three-bet to 15,000 off his short stack and only Stamm called.

Swenson bet 10,000, leaving 17,000 behind, on the J♦8♦6♥ flop. Stamm put him in and Swenson obliged in calling for his tournament life.

Andrew Swenson: K♥K♦
David Stamm: 9♥9♣

Swenson collected the double-up following the 10♥4♥ runout.

Player	Chips	Progress
David Stamm	168,000 -42,000	-42,000
Christopher Nguyen	105,500 -5,000	-5,000
Andrew Swenson	95,000 46,500	46,500

Tags: Andrew Swenson Christopher Nguyen David Stamm

06-11-2023 12:34 UTC-7

Sai Says Goodbye to Dolehanty

Calum Grant

Level 11 : Blinds 1,500/2,500, 2,500 ante

Benjamin Sai moved all in as the big stack from the small blind and Jacob Dolehanty called off his last 30,000 from the big blind.

Jacob Dolehanty: A♠2♠
Benjamin Sai: 6♣6♦

Sai scored the KO following the K♣Q♦5♦K♥9♥ runout.

Player	Chips	Progress
Benjamin Sai	238,000 19,000	19,000
Jacob Dolehanty	Busted

Tags: Benjamin Sai Jacob Dolehanty

06-11-2023 12:36 UTC-7

Geula's Ace-King Massacre

Kirk Brown

Level 11 : Blinds 1,500/2,500, 2,500 ante

Biao Ding opened to 5,500 from early position only to be three-bet by Alex Condon to his left for 17,500. Then Erfan Geula in the cutoff decided to put in the cold four-bet to 44,000 and action folded back to Ding, who also decided to get out of the way. Condon then five-bet jammed for around 140,000 and Geula made the call to put him at risk.

Alex Condon: A♠K♣
Erfan Geula: A♥K♥

The players were highly likely to chop the pot, but not when the flop came out Q♥7♥J♥ to instantly flop Condon dead as Geula made the nut flush. The board completed with the meaningless 3♣5♠ and Condon was sent to the rail early in the day.

"Well, at least it was a quick death," Condon sighed as he packed up his belongings and headed towards the exit as Geula stacked his new chips.

Player	Chips	Progress
Erfan Geula	545,000 154,000	154,000
Biao Ding	63,500 -5,500	-5,500
Alex Condon	Busted

Tags: Alex Condon Biao Ding Erfan Gevla

06-11-2023 12:38 UTC-7

Deng Folds Out Gisler

Calum Grant

Level 11 : Blinds 1,500/2,500, 2,500 ante

Jon Gisler opened to 5,000 from the hijack and Clemen Deng defended his big blind.

Deng check-called for 3,500 on the K♠9♣4♣ flop which brought in the Q♦ turn.

"Can I see what you're playing?", asked Gisler and Deng lifted his arms to show his stack of around 100,000.

Action checked through to the J♦ river. Deng fired for 8,500 and Gisler conceded the pot.

Player	Chips	Progress
Clemen Deng	110,000 -97,500	-97,500
Jon Gisler	68,500 11,000	11,000

Tags: Clemen Deng Jon Gisler