Alex Kulev Bags the Lead with Five Remaining at the End of Day 2 in $50,000 High Roller
Day 2 of Event #84: $50,000 High Roller No-Limit Hold'em has come to an end at the 2023 World Series of Poker. This event attracted a total of 176 entrants and created a prize pool of $8,404,000, 43 of which entered at the beginning of Day 2. With a total of 44 players who found a bag at the end of Day 1 plus the new entrants, there were 87 players to start the day with many well-known players in the poker world among them.
Alex Kulev found himself at the top of the leaderboard with 19,800,000 in chips and just five players remaining. Nearing the end of the night, Kulev skyrocketed to the top when his pocket nines defeated the ace-six of Daniel Smiljkovic for the full double-up.
The 2021 Main Event Champion Koray Aldemir is still in the mix, having survived multiple times throughout the day including near the end of the night when he made a flush with ace-eight against Jake Schindler’s pocket kings. Aldemir will be starting Day 3 with 4,000,000 in chips.
Final Five Chip Counts
| Seat | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jake Schindler | United States | 13,550,000 | 27 |
| 2 | Koray Aldemir | Germany | 4,000,000 | 8 |
| 3 | Daniel Smiljkovic | Germany | 3,150,000 | 6 |
| 4 | Alex Kulev | Bulgaria | 19,800,000 | 40 |
| 6 | Gergely Kulcsár | Hungary | 12,350,000 | 25 |
Ex-Manchester City footballer Sergio Agüero didn't quite get the first-place finish he was looking for, but did manage to cash. He finished in 19th place after attempting to hero call it all off with the second highest pair on the board. However, he ran into the top pair of Johannes Straver and was sent to the payout desk in 19th place for $88,506.
Moshe Refaelovitz decided to take a shot in this event after earning a whopping $505,120 in the 2023 $400 Colossus, defeating a massive field of 15,894 entrants. The day went very well for Refaelovitz, battling his way to eighth place, to collect a payout of $228,347. His run finally came to an end when his ace-queen couldn’t get there against the pocket tens of Kulev.
Fedor Holz was the unfortunate player to land on the stone bubble about four hours into Day 2, as his ace-king couldn’t get there against the pocket tens of Brandon Wittmeyer, who went on finish in seventh place for $359,859.
Final Table Results and Payouts
| Place | Name | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | $2,087,073 | |
| 2 | $1,289,909 | |
| 3 | $957,491 | |
| 4 | $713,413 | |
| 5 | $533,561 | |
| 6 | Johannes Straver | $400,562 |
| 7 | Brandon Wittmeyer | $301,859 |
| 8 | Moshe Refaelowitz | $228,347 |
Many notables joined the field, making the cash but not quite making it to Day 2 include, David Peters ( 27th - $80,920), Alejandro Lococo (25th - 80,920), Jeremy Ausmus (21st - $88,506), Jason Koon (15th - $101,149),and Daniel Negreanu (14th - $101,149)
Also many played that didn’t find their way into the money including, 2022 High Roller champion Joao Vieira, Phil Ivey, Phil Hellmuth, Chris Hunichen, and 2019 Main Event Champion Espen Jørstad.
Day 3 will begin at 2:00 p.m. local time on July 14 on Level 27, with blinds 250,000/500,000 and a big blind ante of 500,000. Action will continue until a champion has been crowned.
Keep it locked toPokerNews for the exciting conclusion to this event and for up-to-date coverage of this and all remaining events at the 2023 World Series of Poker!
