button in SafariThe Heater is Real For Naoya Kihara on Day 1 of Event #23: $10,000 Seven Card Stud Championship
Low Card: 1,000
Completion: 3,000
Limits: 3,000-6,000
Naoya Kihara stayed red hot on Day 1 of Event #23: $10,000 Seven Card Stud Championship.
Just 24 hours removed from winning his second World Series of Poker bracelet in the $10,000 No-Limit 2-7 Championship, Kihara jumped into the field today to try to carry forward that momentum. While in the 2-7 he had to come back from one chip on Day 1, he won’t have to worry about that this time as Kihara finished atop the leaderboard with 319,500.
A total of 47 contenders out of 97 entries survived the event’s opening day after ten levels of play. Leonard Carrillo (291,500), David Benyamine (252,000), Ryan Miller (243,000), and Patrick Leonard (241,000) follow Kihara on the leaderboard. Benyamine’s day included hitting quads in a big pot.
Day 1 Top Ten Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Bets |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Naoya Kihara | Japan | 319,500 | 40 |
| 2 | Leonard Carrillo | United States | 291,000 | 36 |
| 3 | David Benyamine | France | 252,000 | 32 |
| 4 | Ryan Miller | United States | 243,000 | 30 |
| 5 | Patrick Leonard | United Kingdom | 241,000 | 30 |
| 6 | Eli Elezra | Israel | 228,000 | 29 |
| 7 | Maksim Pisarenko | Russian Federation | 223,000 | 28 |
| 8 | Joe Cassidy | United States | 217,000 | 27 |
| 9 | Marco Johnson | United States | 198,500 | 25 |
| 10 | Matthew Beinner | United States | 184,500 | 23 |
Other big stacks include Eli Elezra (228,000), Maksim Pisarenko (223,000), and Marco Johnson (198,500). Esther Taylor finished with 169,000, just one chip ahead of Allen Kessler (168,500). “That’s why you can never be me, Allen,” Taylor teased Kessler as they were bagging up their chips.
Further down the leaderboard are Brandon Shack-Harris (164,500), Gus Hansen (153,000), $1,500 Seven Card Stud champion James Cheung (140,500), Joao Vieira (124,000), and Paul Volpe (104,000). The shorter stacks include Brad Ruben (97,500), Robert Mizrachi (85,000), Dylan Weisman (78,000), Bryce Yockey (65,000), and David “ODB” Baker (55,000).
Reigning WSOP Main Event champion Michael Mizrachi jumped into the field during the last level and instantly lost most of his stack on his first hand, but he managed to rebound and end the day with 55,000. Chino Rheem and Nick Guagenti waged an epic heads-up duel last year, with Guagenti prevailing for his third bracelet, but they’ll each have their work cut out for them to make a repeat run as they ended up at the bottom of the counts, Rheem with 42,000 and Guagenti with 38,000.
Justin Liberto, two days after winning his second bracelet in the $1,500 Mixed Omaha, was the first player sent to the rail today. Others to fail to make it through the day included Daniel Negreanu, Scott Seiver, 2024 champion James Obst, Shaun Deeb, Chance Kornuth, and Yuri Dzivielevski.
The remaining 47 players return to the Paris Las Vegas ballroom tomorrow at 1 p.m. local time. The action picks up on Level 11 with limits of 4,000/8,000. Late registration remains open for the first level of the day, so there is a chance for the field to approach last year’s total of 127 entries.
PokerNews will be back tomorrow following all the action and providing live updates.