Phil Hellmuth won another small pot without showdown to stay alive in the tournament while Eric Persson, Mike Matusow and Aaron Kupin all departed. There are currently 69 players remaining out of a field of 130 entries.
Action folded to a short-stacked Phil Hellmuth in the hijack and he raised to 7,000 before Sampo Ryynanen three-bet to put the 16-time bracelet winner all in. Hellmuth quickly called.
Phil Hellmuth: A♣K♣K♦5♠
Sampo Ryynanen: 9♥8♥6♠3♣
Hellmuth improved to a pair of aces on the A♦Q♠10♠ flop and stayed ahead as the board finished out 2♣8♦ to earn him an early double.
Three ways to the A♠7♠4♠ flop, Zachary Freeman bet 20,000 out of the big blind. Eric Persson in the cutoff folded while Anatolii Zyrin called on the button. Freeman then bet the 9♦ turn for 70,000 to receive a call and jammed the 8♠ river. Zyrin shrugged and called with the superior stack.
Picking up the action on the J♥3♥3♦ flop, one full bet was in the middle between Paul Volpe and Anthony Zinno. The latter check-called a bet on the 7♥ turn and the 5♦ river was checked. Volpe bet again and Zinno folded.
Legendary commentator Lon McEachern joined Chad Holloway and Jesse Fullen for the second episode of The Chad & Jesse Poker Show.
They talk about old World Series of Poker (WSOP) memories and what the first years of video production were like; as well as some old Doyle Brunson stories are told by McEachern.
At least 16 new entries for Day 2 have boosted the field to 131 total entries and all but one of them have already appeared to take a seat. The action is expected to kick off in a few minutes from now with a slight delay.
After a fast-paced Day 1 that debuted a new structure for the 2023 World Series of Poker Championship Events, Event #10: $10,000 Dealer's Choice Championship will pick back up today with Day 2 kicking off at 1 p.m. local time.
Leading the star-studded 58 players who bagged Day 1 is six-time bracelet winner John Hennigan with a stack of 309,500, while fellow big stacks Marco Johnson (297,500) and David "The Gunslinger" Bach (273,000) are respectively after their third and fourth bracelets.
Other notable players who ended Day 1 with a top ten stack include five-time bracelet winner Brian Rast, the popular Patrick "Pads" Leonard (who won a bracelet in the 2022 Tag Team event) and three-time bracelet winner David "Bakes" Baker.
Day 2 Top 10 Chip Counts
Rank
Player
Country
Chip Count
1
John Hennigan
United States
309,500
2
Marco Johnson
United States
297,500
3
David Bach
United States
273,000
4
Anatolii Zyrin
Russia
255,000
5
Larry Tull
United States
208,500
6
Ray Henson
United States
203,000
7
Patrick Leonard
United Kingdom
202,500
8
Zack Freeman
United States
202,000
9
Brian Rast
United States
190,000
10
David "Bakes" Baker
United States
190,000
Those are hardly the only poker stars who will be on the Day 2 felt as Poker Hall of Famers Daniel Negreanu and Erik Seidel bagged middling stacks, while the always-positivePhil Hellmuth will look to spin up his stack of 9,000 into a record-extending 17th bracelet.
Defending champion Ben Diebold and runner-up Mike Gorodinsky are both in contention, while Adam Friedman, who famously won this event three consecutive years from 2018 to 2021, won't be made a four-time Dealer's Choice champion this time around as he fell on Day 1.
We may see a few more notables hop into the field as late registration remains open until the start of play on Day 2.
The plan is to play seven 90-minute levels with a 15-minute break after every level and a 60-minute dinner break after Level 14, which is expected to wrap up at approximately 7:40 p.m. Day 3's restart time has yet to be determined and will play down to a winner as it follows a similar structure to Day 2.
Stay tuned as the PokerNews live reporting team is here at Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas and will provide updates before the next Dealer's Choice champion is crowned.