Bronshtein Bags Big in Record-Breaking $1,500 Razz
A record-breaking 556 players entered Event #24: $1,500 Razz, making it the largest live razz tournament in World Series of Poker history. The number shatters the previous record from 2015 of 462 entries.
With that many players in the field, a prize pool of $742,260 was created, and the winner will take home an impressive $152,991 and a WSOP gold bracelet, while 84 players will collect at least a min-cash of $2,409.
Leading the way into Day 2 will be Maksim Pisarenko who bagged 251,500 for the chip lead. Not far behind him, though, are Vasilis Lazarou with 223,500 and two-time bracelet winner Yuval Bronshtein with 207,000.
Of the record-breaking field, 170 players advanced on to Day 2, with plenty of notables bagging chips, including former WSOP Players of the Year Jeff Madsen (190,000), Shaun Deeb (80,000), and David Bach (51,500), multi-time bracelet winners Michael Moncek, (187,000), David "ODB" Baker (185,000), and Marco Johnson (91,500), and Hall of Famer Tom McEvoy (157,000).
End of Day 1 Top Ten Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Day 2 Big Bets |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Maksim Pisarenko | Russia | 251,500 | 31 |
| 2 | Vasilis Lazarou | United States | 223,500 | 28 |
| 3 | Yuval Bronshtein | Israel | 207,000 | 26 |
| 4 | Takashi Ogura | Japan | 197,500 | 25 |
| 5 | Eoghan O'Dea | Ireland | 195,000 | 24 |
| 6 | Jeff Madsen | United States | 190,000 | 24 |
| 7 | Michael Moncek | United States | 187,000 | 23 |
| 7 | Alon Doitch | United States | 187,000 | 23 |
| 9 | Marcus Stein | United States | 186,000 | 23 |
| 10 | David "ODB" Baker | United States | 185,500 | 23 |
Among the notables that failed to make it through to Day 2 were defending champion Daniel Strelitz, Hall of Famers Daniel Negreanu, Phil Hellmuth, and Barbara Enright to name just a few.
Day 2 resumes at 1 p.m. local time on June 10th in the Gold section of the Horseshoe Event Center. Levels will be extended to 60 minutes and ten of them will be played, starting at limits of 4,000 and 8,000, with the money bubble expected to be reached midway through the day.
Stay tuned to PokerNews for continuing coverage of this and every WSOP event here at Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas.