Artem Metalidi Bags Chip Lead in Day 1 of $5,000 Freezeout
After 15 levels of play, Day 1 of the 2023 World Series of Poker Event #12: $5,000 Freezeout No Limit Hold’em closed with 148 advancing from a field of 735 players at the Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas
A $3,381,000 prize pool was generated from the entries, with the winner walking away with $649,550 and a gold bracelet. The top 111 players will see a return on their investment, with the min-cash being confirmed at $8,011
The money bubble is expected to burst in the early goings of Day 2, which begins at 1 p.m. local time on Monday, June 5. The plan for Day 2 is to play ten 60-minute levels, with the winner being crowned the day after. Players return to the battle on Level 16, meaning blinds of 4,000/8,000 and an 8,000 big blind ante.
End of Day 1 Top 10 Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chips | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Artem Metalidi | Ukraine | 796,000 | 100 |
| 2 | Julio Delgado | United States | 728,000 | 91 |
| 3 | Adekunle Olonoh | United States | 709,000 | 89 |
| 4 | Ruan Zhuang | United States | 597,000 | 75 |
| 5 | Matthew Hunt | United Kingdom | 519,000 | 65 |
| 6 | Michael Rodrigues | Portugal | 508,000 | 64 |
| 7 | Masaya Hayami | Japan | 505,000 | 63 |
| 8 | Nathan Russler | United States | 494,000 | 62 |
| 9 | Andrew Ostapchenko | United States | 486,000 | 61 |
| 10 | Orson Young | United States | 480,000 | 60 |
In pole position to claim the winner’s spoils is Artem Metalidi, after they bagged big from the opening session. The Ukrainian poker player ended Day 1 with a stack of 796,000, which is good for 100 big blinds. You may remember Metalidi from the 2018 WSOP Main Event where he finished in eighth place for $1,250,000. The seven-figure payday five years ago makes up just more than a third of his impressive $3,653,788 in live tournament earnings.
Other players with a solid chance of a deep run include 2021 WSOP Player of the Year Josh Arieh (436,000), Adekunle Olonoh (709,000) and Michael Rodrigues (508,000)
As expected with a $5,000 buy-in event, poker’s biggest names turned out in force with the likes of Daniel Negreanu, Chance Kornuth and Alex Foxen all hopping into the event. However, neither player could rustle up some magic on their solitary bullet.
Defending champion Mo Arani had a fruitful session and has a stack of 321,000. The 2021 winner of this event, Alexandre Reard, also has the chance to capture this bracelet for a second time after ending the day with 285,000.
Other notables who navigated the first hurdle include Robbi Jade Lew (102,000), Kristen Foxen (151,000) and movie producer Randall Emmett (200,000).
As always, keep it locked in with PokerNews to find out who makes the money and advances through to the final day.