2023 WPT World Championship at Wynn Las Vegas
$10,400 WPT World Championship
Day: 4
Event Info
Final Results
Event Info
Players Info - Day 4
2023 WPT World Championship at Wynn Las Vegas
Buy-in
$10,400
Prize Pool
$40,000,000
Entries
3,835
Entries
132
Players Left
45
The $40 million guaranteed World Poker Tour (WPT) World Championship, which started with 3,835 players, has dwindled down to just 45, one of whom is reality TV star Princess Love Norwood.
On Day 4 (Monday), 132 players returned to Wynn Las Vegas still hoping to win the $5,678,000 first place prize. But that dream died for about one-third of them, including Igor Kurganov (48th place for $111,300), Upeshka De Silva (76h place for $60,800), WPT ambassador Brad Owen (88th place for $53,500) and 2009 world champion Joe Cada (108th place for $41,900).
Husband Shows Love for Reality Star Wife
Princess Love appears on the reality TV show Love & Hip Hop: Hollywood. She is married to singer Ray J (real name is William Ray Norwood Jr.), and formerly dated boxing legend Floyd Mayweather Jr. Ray J was at the Wynn supporting his wife and briefly chatted with PokerNews during a break.
"She's never played in this kind of atmosphere, so we here supporting," Ray J said. "I'm squatting in the room, coming down and coming back up. But, hey, she feels good, so we might be lucky this year."
Ray J will be back at noon PT for Day 5 on Tuesday showing continued support for his celebrity wife. She'll need all the support she can get as her chip stack has dropped down to 3,625,000, good for 38th place out of 45 remaining players. But she's already locked up a minimum payout of $111,300.
No Runaway Chip Leader
In most tournaments, especially this deep, there's a player or two at the top who hold a massive lead over the rest of the field. But that isn't the case in the 2023 WPT World Championship. In fact, the race heading into Day 5 is so close that there's a strong possibility the leaderboard will look much different early during Tuesday's session.
Mark Mounsey bagged the biggest stack at 18,725,000, but he's followed closely by five other players, and every player in the top 10 is one big pot away from first place. Maxime Chilaud is second in chips with 17,900,000, and then Ren Lin is in third at 17,750,000, barely above the 17,450,000 chips Raphael Blouet bagged. Ben Heath rounds out the top five with a healthy 16,600,000 stack.
2023 WPT World Championship Day 4 Top 10 Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Chip Count |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mark Mounsey | 18,725,000 |
| 2 | Maxime Chilaud | 17,900,000 |
| 3 | Ren Lin | 17,750,000 |
| 4 | Raphael Blouet | 17,450,000 |
| 5 | Ben Heath | 16,600,000 |
| 6 | Ben Jacobs | 16,425,000 |
| 7 | Naj Ajez | 14,600,000 |
| 8 | Noel Rodriguez | 13,925,000 |
| 9 | Mario Navarro | 12,225,000 |
| 10 | Alex Jauregui | 12,075,000 |
Both Foxen's are also still in it, and the couple was seated at the same table on the WPT live-stream during Day 4. Kristen Foxen finished the session with 10,300,000 chips, while Alex Foxen has a smaller stack at 4,425,000.
Andrew Lichtenberger (11,100,000), Daniel Sepiol (2,800,000), and the smallest stack of them all, Viet Vo (2,200,000), are all still in the hunt to become World Poker Tour champions. When play resumes, the blinds will start at 150,000/300,000 (300,000 big blind ante), which means Princes Love will only have about a dozen big blinds.
*Image courtesy of World Poker Tour.
It was a slow start and a rough Day 1 in the $1,000,000 buy-in World Poker Tour (WPT) Big One for One Drop for poker legend Phil Ivey, who busted just before the session concluded.
The Poker Hall of Famer and WPT ambassador was among the 17 players who registered for the seven-figure tournament, and one of three who couldn't find a bag.
Poker Legend Can't Find a Fold
Ivey started off slowly, losing a decent amount of his 1,000,000-chip stack relatively early in the tournament. He'd battle throughout the day before Level 8, the final level of the night, where he tangled with Dan Smith in a monster pot.
On a flop of A♠10♣2♠, following an under the gun check, Smith bet 80,000 with Q♦J♦ and received a call from Ivey, who was holding A♥Jx. After the K♠ on the turn, action checked to Smith again and he bet 180,000 with the straight he'd just hit. For a second straight time, his bet was called.
The river was a meaningless 7♣, and Ivey checked it one last time to the high-stakes crusher. Smith shoved all in for 425,000 effective and Ivey, after using four time extension chips, decided on a call, which of course meant he was eliminated from the tournament just a few minutes prior to the end of the session. David Einhorn and Talal Shakerchi were the other two players who busted on Day 1 in this freezeout event.
Ivey spoke with PokerNews prior to the start of play, and he admitted he hasn't played much poker recently and was "coming in cold" to the $1 million buy-in event.
Smith on Cruise Control
The late pot against Ivey brought Smith from being a slight chip leader to a massive chip leader heading into Tuesday's Day 2 session. He bagged 3,680,000 chips, good for 180 big blinds. Santhosh Suvarna and Adrian Mateos both had just over 2 million chips at the end of play. Full chip counts will be available later tonight.
Jason Koon, Isaac Haxton, and Fedor Holz were also among the many superstars who paid $1 million to play in this charity event, which was previously hosted during the World Series of Poker (WSOP) every few years up until 2018.
Chris Brewer left Wynn Las Vegas late Monday night with the smallest stack at under 15 big blinds.
Registration closed following Level 5, which means payouts are already available. Four spots will be paid with first place worth $7,114,500 and a min-cash good for $1,224,800.
$1,000,000 Big One for One Drop Day 1 Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Chip Count |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dan Smith | 3,680,000 |
| 2 | Santhosh Suvarna | 2,160,000 |
| 3 | Adrian Mateos | 2,035,000 |
| 4 | Mikita Badziakouski | 1,605,000 |
| 5 | Matthias Eibinger | 1,360,000 |
| 6 | Isaac Haxton | 1,160,000 |
| 7 | Jason Koon | 1,020,000 |
| 8 | Mario Mosboeck | 850,000 |
| 9 | Rick Salomon | 840,000 |
| 10 | Nick Petrangelo | 700,000 |
| 11 | Fedor Holz | 630,000 |
| 12 | Stephen Chidwick | 355,000 |
| 13 | Martin Kabrhel | 320,000 |
| 14 | Chris Brewer | 275,000 |
*Image courtesy of World Poker Tour.
$10,400 WPT World Championship
Day 4 Completed