Dozens of Stars Progress from Day 1b of The Closer
Day 1b of Event #97: $1,500 The Closer No-Limit Hold'em saw 2,504 players buy in at the Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas, but only 189 of them punched their Day 2 tickets and remain in contention for one of the last bracelets to be awarded at the 2025 World Series of Poker (WSOP). France's Robert Nemeskerikiss (3,125,000) is the name at the chip counts' summit, but all eyes will likely be on the 28 bracelet winners and/or 25K Fantasy Draft picks who progressed from this flight.
Serial Main Event casher Ronnie Bardah (805,000) was one of those WSOP champions who sailed through the choppy Day 1b waters. Bardah has four cashes this summer, including an 11th-place finish in the $777 Lucky 7's event that earned him $45,989. Bardah's stack placed him in the top third on the Day 1b leaderboard.
Cole Ferraro (1,155,000), champion of the $600 No-Limit Hold'em Deepstack in 2021, is the best-placed of the slew of bracelet winners who navigated to Day 2 from this flight. Others include Barry Hutter (950,000), Jeff Madsen (610,000), Sean Troha (555,000), Josh Arieh (500,000), Jim Collopy (440,000), Martin Kabrhel (228,000), and the legendary Benny Glaser (50,000).
Day 1b Top Ten Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Robert Nemeskerikiss | United States | 3,125,000 | 104 |
| 2 | Jared Hyman | United States | 2,645,000 | 88 |
| 3 | Everett Carlton | United States | 2,310,000 | 77 |
| 4 | Peter Walsworth | United States | 1,735,000 | 58 |
| 5 | Guy Naimi | United States | 1,685,000 | 56 |
| 6 | Douglas Ferreira | Brazil | 1,360,000 | 45 |
| 7 | David Yue | United States | 1,265,000 | 42 |
| 8 | Bret Martin | United States | 1,200,000 | 40 |
| 9 | Adrian Tivadar | Romania | 1,185,000 | 40 |
| 10 | Adrien Favre | France | 1,180,000 | 39 |
Day 2 kicks off at 11 a.m. local time on July 16 with 317 players returning to their seats. The plan is to play down to a champion, with 15-minute breaks every four levels, and a dinner break before the start of the final table. Players return to Level 23, meaning the blinds are 15,000/30,000 with a 30,000 big blind ante.
Payouts for this event should be announced shortly before or after the cards are in the air. Stay tuned to PokerNews to see what The Closer players can win, and who gets their hands on the lion's share of the pot.