Brace Yourselves for the Monster!
The 2023 World Series of Poker has seen two days of monster flights leading up to today, with an impressive 3,945 entrants from Day 1a with 1,242 players moving on to day 2. Day 1b saw a total of 4,375 and 1,473 entrants bagging their chips for Day 2. This brought the total participants registered for Event #39: $1,500 Monster Stack No-Limit Hold’em to 8,318.
The monster stack has lived up to its name with a massive prize pool, vast number of players and many notables all vying for the treasured bracelet. Players from around the world packed Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas each day, generating a monstrous $12,477,000 prize pool.
The Day 1a chip leaders were Pavlin Karakikov (593,000), Arun Malhotra (563,000), Adrian Bertini (549,000), Micha Bitton (544,000), and Yuhan Huo (538,000). Day 1a chips leaders will have a little bit of catching up to do, due to the sheer numbers of Day 1b.
The Day 1b chip leaders included Turkish crusher Tinay Aksoy (795,000), Christian Buerger (739,000), Shunsuke Tokoo (714,500) and Linglin Zeng (635,500). WSOP bracelet winner Kathy Liebert also finished in the top ten with 575,000.
Start of Day 2 Top Ten Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tinay Aksoy | Turkey | 795,000 | 265 |
| 2 | Christian Buerger | Germany | 739,500 | 247 |
| 3 | Shunsuke Tokoo | Japan | 714,500 | 238 |
| 4 | Linglin Zeng | China | 635,500 | 212 |
| 5 | Ahmed Karrim | South Africa | 611,500 | 204 |
| 6 | Pavlin Karakikov | Bulgaria | 593,500 | 198 |
| 7 | Antoinette Leblanc | United States | 590,000 | 197 |
| 8 | Kathy Liebert | United States | 575,000 | 192 |
| 9 | Arun Malhotra | Canada | 563,500 | 188 |
| 10 | Rachid Amamou | Switzerland | 554,000 | 185 |
Some notable players who will be competing for this monstrous prize and the grand WSOP bracelet are Michael Wang, Michael Lech, Patrick Leonard, Greg Raymer, Joe McKeehen, Men Nguyen , Jeff Madsen, Upeshka De Silva and Veronica Brill.
Play will resume at 10 a.m. local time. The participants will be playing ten levels of one-hour each with a 15-minute break every two levels. The 60-minute dinner break will occur after Level 17 at approximately 4:30 p.m.
PokerNews will be on-site all day long to capture all the action as the remaining runners look to make a deep run and go after the gold.