Yang Wang with the Big Stack in Event #83: $50,000 High Roller
Day 1 of Event #83: $50,000 High Roller at the 2023 World Series of Poker hosted by Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas was a smashing success with an impressive 137 entries, which already bested last year’s field of 107. After 12 levels of play, that number was brought down to only 44.
Yang Wang finished in the top of the counts with a whopping 2,175,000, closely followed by Fedor Holz (1,990,000) and Stefan Schilhabel (1,915,000). Holz actually bagged second in chips on Day 1 of this event last year, so he’s not too far off his mark this go round.
End of Day 1 Top 10 Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Yang Wang | China | 2,175,000 | 109 |
| 2 | Fedor Holz | Germany | 1,990,000 | 100 |
| 3 | Stefan Schillhabel | Germany | 1,915,000 | 96 |
| 4 | Vlad Darie | Romania | 1,830,000 | 92 |
| 5 | Dylan Linde | United States | 1,770,000 | 89 |
| 6 | Jake Schindler | United States | 1,740,000 | 87 |
| 7 | Masashi Oya | Japan | 1,430,000 | 72 |
| 8 | Espen Jorstad | Norway | 1,340,000 | 67 |
| 9 | Brandon Wittmeyer | United States | 1,330,000 | 67 |
| 10 | Nacho Barbero | Argentina | 1,305,000 | 65 |
Plenty of big names battled throughout the day but weren’t able to find a bag, including the likes of Chris Brewer, Shaun Deeb, Alex Foxen, Kristen Foxen, and Isaac Haxton. Haxton made a late appearance but didn’t stay long as he was felted twice in a rather quick procession.
Popular Hustler Casino Live personality Wesley Fei bagged a healthy 1,295,000 after being moved to a tough table with Espen Jørstad (1,300,000) and Jason Koon (810,000). Fei joked with the bunch that all he wanted to do was bag and he asked the table not to bust him. Fei bagged about double what he bagged last year in this event and is assuredly looking to parlay that into a deep run on Day 2.
The 2023 $400 Colossus winner, Moshe Refaelowitz, was also in the field, making a huge leap after busting from the Main Event up to the high roller. He seemed comfortable enough and held his own throughout the day, bagging more than double the starting stack with 695,000 in chips.
High roller regulars Daniel Negreanu (685,000) and Cary Katz (690,000) also bagged similar stack and the pair will be quite a bit better off than if they had chosen to max late register on Day 2.
Late registration is still until the start of the tournament on Day 2, slated to begin on July 13 at 1:00 p.m local time.
This is only a small peek of the many notables in the field so make sure to tune in to PokerNews to see the outcome of this tremendous WSOP event.