With the Day 1 of the Tournament of Champions at the 2023 World Series of Poker reaching its completion after ten 60-minute levels of play, with Roger Franco bagging the all-important chip lead heading into Day 2.
The road to victory for any player won't be easy as they must navigate the remaining field of 243, who all have their eyes on the bracelet. Many names to look out for still remain in the field, including multi-time bracelet winners Jeff Madsen and Frankie O’Dell,
The freeroll created exclusively for bracelet and Circuit ring winners alike did not disappoint as 727 entrants turned up to claim their share of the $1,000,000 prize pool, up 263 entries from last year.
End of Day 1 Top Nine Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Roger Franco | United States | 393,500 | 197 |
| 2 | Brandon Hamlet | United States | 325,000 | 163 |
| 3 | Richard Folkes | United States | 294,000 | 147 |
| 4 | Dakota Britton | United States | 291,000 | 146 |
| 5 | Richard Doyen | United States | 284,000 | 142 |
| 6 | Jennifer Lin | United States | 272,500 | 136 |
| 7 | Julien Perouse | France | 268,500 | 134 |
| 8 | Ryan Tillmann | United States | 256,000 | 128 |
| 9 | Niall Costigan | United States | 245,500 | 123 |
Poker legend and beloved sports commentator Lon McEachern also bagged and tagged a stack for tomorrow’s session. McEachern qualified for the event by winning the $400 No Limit Hold'em Seniors Ring Event in the WSOPC in Northern California at the start of the year. McEachern is taking through an above-average stack of 133,000 chips.
Also still in the field is Jeremy Ausmus, who is not only looking to add to his already astounding $14.7 million in live earnings but an addition to his trophy cabinet that already contains four WSOP bracelets.
Throughout today’s play, many notable names unfortunately hit the rail including five-time bracelet winner Shaun Deeb, Jeff Platt, Nick Schulman and defending champion Benjamin Kaupp.
Day 2 commences June 1 at 12 p.m. PST and will be in the Horseshoe’s Gold section. Day 2 will resume on Level 11, with the blinds at 1,000/2,000 and a 2,000 big blind ante. Late registration is still open until play gets underway, with the money bubble expected to burst in the late afternoon.
As always, keep it locked in with PokerNews to find out the conclusion of this exciting event.