James Little Leads The $1,000 Freezeout Field Going Into Day 2
James Little was chip leader as Day 1 of Event #18: $1,000 Freezeout NLHE, in the 2022 World Series of Poker at Bally’s and Paris Las Vegas drew to a close. Little bagged up a stack of 765,000 and with the Day 2 blinds starting at 5,000/10,000/10,000 ante, he finds himself in a great position to win his first bracelet. Little finished second in a $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha event in 2019 for $184,424, and is in a prime position to do one better this year. As things stand, Little currently leads the 203 players moving on to Day 2 on June 10th.
Some 2,663 players competed on Day 1, creating a $2,370,070 prize pool, of which $330,057 is earmarked for the eventual winner. Only 203 players remain in the hunt for this event's gold bracelet.
Event #18: $1,000 Freezeout No-Limit Hold'em Top 10 Chip Counts
| Place | Player | Country | Chips | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | James Little | United States | 765,000 | 76 |
| 2 | Lily Lofty | United States | 755,000 | 75 |
| 3 | Thomas Stocker | United States | 720,000 | 72 |
| 4 | Paul Lee | United States | 695,000 | 69 |
| 5 | Jordan Griff | United States | 690,000 | 69 |
| 6 | Dustin Cullimore | United States | 675,000 | 67 |
| 7 | Ryan Yu | Canada | 635,000 | 63 |
| 8 | Jason Reels | United States | 635,000 | 63 |
| 9 | Austin Farmer | United States | 630,000 | 63 |
| 10 | Amirpasha Emami | Canada | 625,000 | 62 |
Other leading stacks include Lily Lotfy (755,000) and Thomas Stocker (720,000), Jordan Griff (690,000), and Paul Lee (695,000).
A handful of notable names managed to survive to Day 2. Shaun Deeb (395,000), Ben Yu (270,000), Yaser Al-Keliddar (185,000) and Ismael Bojang (375,000) are all in contention to add to their current bracelet tallies.
The bubble burst a couple of hours before Day 1 concluded. The unfortunate soul who burst the bubble got the last of their chips in with ace-king only to run into the pocket aces of Ismael Bojang. The surviving 400 players each locked in at least $1,601 for their efforts.
Some of the players who cashed in this event but failed to progress to Day 2 included, two-time bracelet winner Steven Wolansky (398th - $1,601), Maria Ho (304th - $1,751), Kevin Rabichow (270th - $1,751), Tristan Wade (241st - $2,002), Brock Parker (225th - $2,209), and Justin Liberto (215th - $2,209).
Play resumes at 12:00 p.m. local time and continues until a champion is crowned. Join us here at PokerNews as we bring you all of the action, as it happens, from this exciting event.