Pavel Plesuv Leads the Final Seven in Millionaire Maker
After attracting a whopping 10,430 entries over the course of two starting flights, only 41 returned on Day 4 of Event #53: $1,500 Millionaire Maker at the 2023 World Series of Poker. It took nine levels of 60 minutes each to whittle the field down to their last 7 hopefuls, who will return on Wednesday, June 28 at 1 p.m. local time at the Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas.
The massive prize pool of $13,905,360 means that each of the remaining players is guaranteed $222,749, but only one player will be able to collect the jaw-dropping first-place prize of $1,201,564 that awaits the champion.
Pavel Plesuv is at the head of the pack with 70,300,000 chips. Already boasting more than $6 million total in live tournament earnings, this will be Plesuv’s 37 WSOP cash, and he's in a prime position to make it one to remember. In second position, but still far behind Plesuv is Florian Ribouchon (46,000,000), who has already cashed in five events this series and is the proud owner of a WSOP ring.
Myles Mullaly completes the leading trio (43,600,000). The three players are a little ahead of the rest of the field formed by Andreas Kniep (34,800,000), Paul Gunness (24,100,000), Vitor De Souza Coutinho (20,800,000) and Anton Smirnov (19,800,000).
Event #53: Millionaire Maker Find Day Seat Draw & Chip Counts
| Seat | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | Pavel Plesuv | Moldova | 70,300,000 | 44 |
| 3 | Anton Smirnov | Russia | 19,800,000 | 12 |
| 4 | Paul Gunness | United States | 24,100,000 | 15 |
| 6 | Florian Ribouchon | France | 46,000,000 | 29 |
| 7 | Myles Mullaly | United States | 43,600,000 | 27 |
| 8 | Andreas Kniep | Germany | 34,800,000 | 22 |
| 9 | Vitor De Souza Coutinho | Brazil | 20,800,000 | 13 |
Action of the Day
Danish player Martin Stausholm bubbled the final table in 11th place ($107,670) after his ace-nine crashed into the ace-nine from Smirnov, who also stopped Charles Benoit’s run in 10th place when his king-seven found a king on the board to beat the ace-seven in Benoit’s hand.
Andras Matrai was the last player to hit the rail tonight, after Ribouchon's trap with aces worked on a king-high flop, allowing the seven finalists to bag and tag their stack for the final day.
The eliminations were fast and furious today as many famous faces and bracelet winners fell along the way. Javier Zarco (14th - $68,523), Ian Matakis (15th - $68,523), Champie Douglas (20th - $55,215), Erick Lindgren (24th - $55,215), three-time bracelet winner David "ODB" Baker (29th - $44,786), and Blair Hinkle (36th- $36,576) were among those that made a sizable cash, but failed to find a spot at the final table.
Play resumes at 1:00 p.m local time on Wednesday at the Horshoe Feature table as the world watches to discover who will become the latest poker millionaire of the 54th annual World Series of Poker.
The action will be streamed on PokerGO with approximately a 30-minute delay, and the updates will be in sync with the stream to avoid spoilers. Keep it locked into PokerNews to find out who will rise to the top and earn a WSOP gold bracelet, and be crowned the champion!