On a flop of 3♥3♠4♦, the small blind and Bin Weng checked to the button, who fired 6,000. The small blind folded, but Weng came back with a raise to 20,500. After some time thinking, the button folded.
Kannapong Thanarattrakul opened to 4,500 from the cutoff and Faraz Jaka three-bet to 16,000 from the button. After the blinds folded, Thanarattrakul four-bet shoved for roughly 62,000. Jaka snap-called.
Kannapong Thanarattrakul: Q♣J♣
Faraz Jaka: 8♠8♣
The board ran out K♠6♣2♠K♣2♥, meaning Thanarattrakul and his camera crew had to vacate the tournament area
Ihar Soika opened the action with a raise to 4,500 from the button. The big blind three-bet to 16,000 before Soika clicked it back to 27,500. The big blind moved all in for 71,000 and Soika called.
Big Blind: 10♥10♦
Ihar Soika: J♠J♣
The board ran out 9♦Q♦6♦9♠9♣ and Soika held on to eliminate his opponent.
The first day of Event #52: $5,000 No-Limit Hold’em (6-Handed) has concluded here at the 2024 World Series of Poker hosted at the Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas. The first day attracted over 700 entrants, and that number will only increase tomorrow as late registration and reentries remain available until the end of Level 11, at approximately 1 p.m. on Day 2.
Bracelet winner and Winamax team pro Julien Sitbon bagged the biggest stack by the end of the night, finishing with 520,500 chips worth 208 big blinds going into day 2. Other top stacks at the end of the night include Krasimir Yankov (500,000), Ihar Soika (393,500), Joseph Roh (392,000), Yuliyan Kolev (387,500), Damian Salas (337,000), Bin Weng (310,000) and Upeshka De Silva (294,500).
End of Day 1 Top Ten Chip Counts
Rank
Player
Country
Chips
Big Blinds
1
Julien Sitbon
France
520,500
208
2
Krasimir Yankov
Bulgaria
500,000
200
3
Filipp Khavin
United States
443,500
177
4
Maksym Sheingart
Israel
421,000
168
5
Ihar Soika
Belarus
393,500
157
6
Joseph Roh
United States
392,000
157
7
Yuliyan Kolev
Bulgaria
387,500
155
8
Boris Berthomet
France
377,500
151
9
Matthew Hunt
United Kingdom
372,500
149
10
Joseph Cheong
United States
369,500
148
Notables who entered on Day 1 but were not fortunate enough to advance by the end of the night include Rania NasreddineChance Kornuth, Chad Eveslage, Maria Konnikova, Xuan Liu, Gus Hansen and Bill Klein.
Klein was knocked out early in the day after making a wheel, only to run into Soika's full house. That pot left Soika with a massive stack and he was able to ride that momentum all the way to the end of the night. Konnikova got off to a good start today but fell in the last level of the night in a pot against Sitbon that saw the latter player ascend to the very top of the chip counts.
Ihar Soika
Day 2 is set to start Friday, June 21, at noon local time at Level 11, with the blinds at 1,000/2,500 and a 2,500 big blind ante. The plan is to play ten 60-minute levels before players bag their chips and advance to Day 3.
As always, stay tuned to PokerNews as we bring you all the action from this and every other live bracelet event at the 2024 WSOP.