Ben Jones Bags Top Stack for Day 1 of Event #78: $2,500 No-Limit Hold’em
A super-stacked field of big names and new players looking to make their mark in the poker world had the Paris Ballroom filled from one end to the other to play in the brand new WSOP Event #78: $2,500 No-Limit Hold'em.
A total of 1,364 entries were in the field and they generated a prize pool of $3,034,900. Two hundred and five places will be paid, with the min-cash earning $4,009. The top five will lock up a six-figure payday and the winner will receive the prestigious WSOP gold bracelet and a first-place prize worth $499,636. Of those players who started the day with high hopes, only 257 had chips requiring bagging and tagging at the end of the night.
Event #78: $2,500 No-Limit Hold'em Top 10 Chip Counts
| Place | Player | Country | Chips | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ben Jones | United Kingdom | 738,000 | 123 |
| 2 | Ari Oxman | United States | 685,000 | 114 |
| 3 | Leandro Vlastaris | United States | 586,000 | 98 |
| 4 | Weiming Aaron Lam | Singapore | 518,000 | 86 |
| 5 | Bryn Kenney | United States | 484,000 | 81 |
| 6 | Georgios Kapalas | Greece | 464,000 | 78 |
| 7 | Axel Hallay | France | 464,000 | 77 |
| 8 | Sergey Sergeev | Russia | 457,000 | 76 |
| 9 | Virgile Turchi | France | 452,000 | 75 |
| 10 | Emmett Rutkowski | United States | 450,000 | 75 |
The chip leader at the end of the night was England’s Ben Jones, who bagged 738,000 after 15 levels of play. Jones has multiple cashes in various events throughout the years and will be gunning for a first-place finish to add a bracelet to his already impressive poker resume.
Ari Oxman took down a big pot at the end of the night in a heads-up battle with Scott Seiver. Seiver had ace-three of spades and missed a straight and a flush draw on the river, relinquishing his chips to Oxman’s two pair. This win resulted in Oxman bagging up 685,000.
Some other big stacks to end the night included Weiming Aaron Lam (518,000), Leandro Vlastaris (586,000), Bryn Kenney (484,000), Georgios Kapalas (466,000), and Emmett Rutkowski (450,000).
Day 2 will continue on Tuesday, July 12th, with a 2:00 p.m. restart in Bally’s Red and play will resume in Level 16 where blinds are 3,000/6,000/6,000. Ten 60-minute levels will be played with a 15-min break every two levels. There will be a one-hour dinner break after Level 21.
With many top players still in the field and two more days of play ahead, it will be an exciting road to victory for the champion of this new event. Stay tuned to PokerNews for updates on all of the action in this tournament and what remains of the 2022 WSOP.