The most anticipated tournament of the year, the 54th Annual World Series of Poker $10,000 World Championship NLH aka WSOP MAIN EVENT kicked off on Monday, July 3, 2023 with 2006 champion Jamie Gold delivering the famous call “Shuffle up and Deal!”

With that, cards went flying as hundreds of players battled it out at host venue Horseshoe & Paris Las Vegas. By the end of the scheduled five levels of play, each level lasting two hours, Day 1A concluded. Based on the WSOP / Pokernews reports, 721 survived however the official number of entries had yet to be confirmed.

Gold was among the survivors with a 273 bb stack, and joined by other past champions Martin Jacobson with 258 bb and Joe Cada with 192 bb. Racking up the chip lead was Israel’s Yehuda Dayan with a towering 650 bb equivalent to nearly 11 starting stacks. Another strong heat finisher was three-time WSOP bracelet winner Doug Polk with 470 bb putting him in 4th rank.

From the Asian front, 22 players bagged up chips, 8 of them were from Japan, led by Japanese Short Deck pro / WSOP bracelet holder Shota Nakanishi with a massive 600 bb stack. Nakanishi finished second in the overall Day 1A chip counts. Also powering through was Yuri Ishida with a very healthy 313 bb stack.

Ranked third in the Asian survivor list was Taiwanese pro / WSOP bracelet holder Pete Yen Han Chen who jumped in immediately after finishing 3rd at Event 70: $400 COLOSSUS NLH. Chen quickly chipped up and bagged up a hefty 316 bb stack. He was the only player from Taiwan who advanced.

Another bracelet holder in the Asian lineup was Guoliang Wei with a 90 bb stack at the end of the night. Wei was one of 7 players from China to make the cut. Hai-Chi Ho topped the Chinese contingent with 496 bb bagged.

From India, three players survived led by Nishant Sharma with 222 bb. Sharma has already cashed at three events. Another contender was Paawan Bansal who up until the Main Event boasted of five cashes however is still looking for that big payload. Bansal closed with 94 bb.

Several players from Korea were seen on the tournament floor but only two had chips by the end of play – Bawoo Yun (196 bb) and Daehyung Lee (191 bb). Also in the list was Ying Chan, the lone survivor waving the Hong Kong flag.

Daewoong Song and Pete Chen run deep at Event 70: $400 COLOSSUS NLH

WSOP ring winner Daewoong Song and WSOP bracelet holder Pete Yen Han Chen came close to victory at the mighty Event 70: $400 COLOSSUS NLH but ultimately both fell to UK’s Moshe Refaelowitz who locked up his first WSOP bracelet.

Day 3 opened with 80 players returning out of the massive 15,894 entry field. This was the third largest series field to date. Eight hours later, it was down to the final four led by Chen.

Returning from a break, Chen’s pocket Jacks lost an all in against Song. After Darrick Arreola was eliminated, Chen later joined, thus missing out on a career second bracelet. He was the second player from Taiwan to be stopped in 3rd place with Chen-An Lin first denied at Event 39: $1,000 Super Turbo Bounty NLH. Chen walked away with a sizable payout of $216,320 then headed straight to the Main Event registration.

One hour later, Song followed Chen to the rail, falling in 2nd place. This was Song’s sixth series cash, the most by any player from Korea. He pocketed a career high payout of $300,410.

Other Asians cashing on the final day were Toshimasa Sakato (13th- $29,470) and Erdenbold Begzjav (48th – $10,330).

Other Asia deep runs

Event 73: $2,500 Mixed Big Bet Event – 377 entries – Day 2

• Xu Zhu – China – 19th for $7,199
• Tamon Nakamura – 20th – $7,199