On a board of 3♥8♥3♠5♥ Yita Choong checked out of the big blind and his opponent from early position checked behind.
The river came the 7♥ and Choong put out a bet of 225,000. The early position player called fairly quickly and was shown A♥10♦ by Choong for the nut flush.
On another table, Shannon Shorr was seen vacating the tournament area.
According to the players, Richard Quessette and Mo Morris got it all in before the flop and Quessette was at risk.
Richard Quessette: A♠K♥
Mo Morris: K♠K♣
The flop came K♦Q♥10♦, giving Morris top set, leaving Quessette with a thin draw to a gutshot and running diamonds.
However, the turn J♥ completely reversed the situation, Quessette made a gutshot and was now way ahead. However, the river came the 10♥, giving Morris the full house and ending Quessette’s tournament.
What players at the table noted as impressive was that Quessette had gotten down to 10,000 chips just two hands before the bubble. He managed to survive the bubble and run it up to almost 300,000 chips before this final hand saw him hitting the rail.
Play has stopped for the night. The remaining players have bagged up their chips and will return at 11 a.m. for Day 2. A full recap will follow shortly
Day 1 of Event #78: $1,000 Mini Main Event at the Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas has come to a close. A total of 6,093 players showed up to battle it out on the baize today, generating a prize pool of $5,361,840. After twenty-two 30-minute levels of play, 486 players will come back for Day 2 tomorrow, already in the money and having locked up a payday of at least $2,257.
The guaranteed payday will be the least of their concerns, as a first-place prize of $555,075 and a prestigious gold bracelet await the eventual champion.
Leading the chip counts with 2,825,000 was Paawan Bansal of India. Bansal has nearly $800,000 in live tournament earnings and reached one WSOP final table where he achieved a career-high score of $378,765 by finishing second in the $1,500 Closer event during the 2018 series. He will be aiming to go one better and take home a bracelet by the end of this tournament on Thursday, June 4.
End of Day 1 Top Ten Chip Counts
Place
Player
Country
Chip Count
Big Blinds
1
Paawan Bansal
India
2,825,000
71
2
Jamie Dwan
United Kingdom
2,700,000
68
3
James Carroll
United States
2,700,000
68
4
Connor Rash
United States
2,505,000
63
5
Gustavo Kamei
Brazil
2,300,000
58
6
Shay Rozenbaum
Israel
2,300,000
58
7
Remi Derossi
France
2,250,000
56
8
Maher Al Mouselly
Canada
2,202,500
55
9
Marcello Del Grosso
Canada
2,200,000
55
10
[Removed:510]
United Kingdom
2,155,000
54
After the money bubble burst in Level 20, the remaining 912 players had secured a payday of at least $2,002. Eliminations occurred swiftly during the final two levels of play, with nearly half of the field being sent to the cashier's desk in just over an hour. Bansal wasn't the only player to amass a significant stack today. Following closely at the top of the leaderboard are Shay Rozenbaum (2,300,000 chips), France's Remi Derossi (2,250,000 chips), [Removed:510] (2,155,000 chips), Adrian Winebarger (1,850,000 chips), and three-time bracelet winner Ryan Hughes (915,000).
Tony Miles
The 2003 Main Event runner-up Sam Farha managed to secure a min-cash today. Despite doubling up with king-high in the penultimate level of the day, he couldn't build on that momentum to make it through to Day 2. Another notable Main Event runner-up who did navigate through to Day 2 is Tony Miles. Miles finished second for $5,000,000 in the 2018 Main Event. Although he only brings 650,000 chips through to Day 2, he has the experience competing against large fields for substantial sums of money, so he is definitely a player to watch out for.
Some of the notable players who entered but were unable to make it through to the cash or Day 2 included Shannon Shorr, Leo Margets, Shimizu Nozomu, Harry Lodge, Renji Mao, Khang Pham, and former boxing Olympic gold medalist Audley Harrison. Harrison exited during the twelfth level of play after a one-two punch of back-to-back hands left his stack on the ropes. Ultimately, it was Lukas Schoepper who delivered the knockout blow.
Audley Harrison
Players will resume with blinds at 20,000/40,000 and a big blind ante of 40,000 on Wednesday, July 3, at 11 a.m. local time. They will play down to five players, with levels lasting 30 minutes throughout. There will be 15-minute breaks every four levels and a dinner break scheduled after Level 34.
Stay tuned to PokerNews for continued coverage of this and all remaining events at the 2024 World Series of Poker!
