Stephen Combs shoved his remaining 215,000 in early position and was called by Sean Balfour in the cutoff.
Stephen Combs: 8♥8♣
Sean Balfour: A♦J♣
The board ran out 3♦9♥A♥5♣A♣ to send Combs home in 26th place for $2,411.
Wade Warren shoved his last 145,000 from under the gun prompting the table to fold to Ryan Welch on the button, who reshoved for slightly more. The blinds folded and the cards were turned on their backs.
Wade Warren: Q♣Q♥
Ryan Welch: K♣J♦
The flop of J♣6♦6♣ kept Warren in the lead but the K♥ turn was a dagger to Warren's queens. The 8♠ didn't improve Warren's hand and he was eliminated right before the three table redraw.
Benson Tam, the chip leader coming into Day 2, defended the big blind against the late position open of Mark Strodl.
Heads up, the players saw a flop of 6♠10♥6♥. Tam checked and Strodl checked behind.
The turn brought the 2♠ and Tam took the betting lead. Strodl then raised and Tam declared all-in. Strodl thought briefly before calling and putting himself at risk.
Mark Strodl: J♦10♦
Benson Tam: 9♠6♠
Benson was ahead with his flopped trips. Strodl was looking for a ten on the river, but it came the 9♣ instead, giving Tam a boat and the pot.
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Welcome to Day 2 of Event #1: $500 Casino Employees Event at the 2023 World Series of Poker. Cards go in the air for the finale of the opening event of the WSOP at Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas.
A total of 1,015 entries turned out to kick off the 2023 WSOP and Benson Tam is the chip leader after 17 levels of play. Tam will lead a group of 89 players into today's finale. The field generated a prize pool of $426,300 with a top prize of $75,535 and a gold bracelet for today's winner.
Trailing behind Tam is PokerNews Community Manager Jesse Fullen and Lisa Eckstein. Zaen Qatan and James Urbanic rounded out the top five bags from Day 1.
| Place | Player | Country | Chips | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Benson Tam | United States | 889,000 | 89 |
| 2 | Jesse Fullen | United States | 861,000 | 86 |
| 3 | Lisa Eckstein | United States | 775,000 | 78 |
| 4 | Zaen Qatan | United States | 773,000 | 77 |
| 5 | James Urbanic | United States | 618,000 | 62 |
| 6 | John Vournas | United States | 613,000 | 61 |
| 7 | Burcu Dagli | United States | 583,000 | 58 |
| 8 | Joshua Honegger | United States | 529,000 | 53 |
| 9 | Joshua Brodsky | United States | 527,000 | 53 |
| 10 | Sandra Faabeng | United States | 499,000 | 50 |
Players return today at 10:00 a.m. Vegas time in Level 18 with blinds at 5,000/10,000 with a 10,000 ante. Play will continue on Day 2 until a winner is declared.
Be sure to keep it with the PokerNews team for live updates from the floor of the 2023 WSOP at Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas.
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