Ivey Second in Chips After Day 1 in Event #43: $50,000 Poker Players Championship
The first day of one of the most anticipated events of the 2023 World Series of Poker (WSOP) wrapped up early Monday morning in the form of Event #43: $50,000 Poker Players Championship, a prestigious mixed game tournament that never fails to bring in poker's best and brightest.
One of the brightest of them all, ten-time bracelet winner Phil Ivey, who yesterday bubbled the $250,000 Super High Roller, ended the day second in chips with 944,500 among the 54 remaining players in no small part thanks to a massive call he made in a pot-limit Omaha hand against 2013 PPC champion Matthew Ashton. The only player to bag more chips than Ivey was Josh Arieh (1,088,000), who is looking for his second bracelet of the summer as he continues to pad his Poker Hall of Fame resume.
Two-time defending champion Dan "Jungleman" Cates, who showed up at the start of Day 1 in full costume and makeup dressed as the Terminator, came close to bowing out early but managed to bounce back to continue his quest for a historic three-peat.
Also among the 73 runners on Day 1 of the single-entry event were recent bracelet winners David "ODB" Baker, Shaun Deeb and John Monnette.
Other bracelet winners like Scott Seiver, Jeremy Ausmus, Julien Martini, Joe Cassidy and Christopher Vitch and Jennifer Harman, who PokerNews spoke to earlier in the series, are also chasing another, while the likes of Viktor Blom, Jared Bleznick and Alexander Wilkinson are all after a first piece of WSOP hardware.
Day 1 Top Ten Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Josh Arieh | United States | 1,088,000 |
| 2 | Phil Ivey | United States | 944,500 |
| 3 | James Obst | Australia | 929,500 |
| 4 | John Monnette | United States | 800,500 |
| 5 | Viktor Blom | Sweden | 784,000 |
| 6 | Jeremy Ausmus | United States | 737,500 |
| 7 | Bryce Yockey | United States | 634,000 |
| 8 | Elior Sion | United Kingdom | 620,000 |
| 9 | David Williams | United States | 585,000 |
| 10 | Matthew Ashton | United Kingdom | 565,000 |
Day 1 Action
All eyes were on Cates as he made his dramatic Terminator cosplay entrance and spoke in short monotone utterances, a bit he maintained throughout the day to the amusement of players including Negreanu, who filmed the spectacle for his vlog viewers.
The Terminator's time in the Paris ballroom was almost short-lived as he took a hit from Scott Seiver in the first level of play before losing even more in the coming levels. Without breaking character, Cates was able to climb back and will return to continue his historic run on Day 2, perhaps in a new Terminator-themed get-up.
Not everyone was as lucky as Cates. Five-time bracelet winner Eli Elezra was the first elimination of the day, and fellow Poker Hall of Famers Negreanu and John Hennigan also fell. Other players who weren't fortunate enough to bag include Yuval Bronshtein, Ralph Perry, Tamon Nakamura, Michael Rodrigues and recent bracelet winners Ben Lamb, Nick Schulman and "best Badeucey player in the world" Chad Eveslage.
One of the biggest stories of the day was the appearance of Chris Moneymaker 20 years after his 2003 Main Event victory that ignited the Poker Boom. It's the Poker Hall of Famer's first time playing the PPC as he looks for his tenth cash since winning $2.5 million two decades ago in the Main Event.
Many of the younger players in the field grew up in the shadow of Moneymaker, and some of them voiced their gratitude for the perfectly named poker superstar. Toward the end of the evening, Philip Sternheimer told the table about a time Moneymaker bluffed him in a celebrity game shortly after his 2003 victory.
"That was the best moment of my life at the time," reflected Sternheimer. "And here we are 19 years later."
Day 2 action will resume at 1:00 p.m. local time on June 19 on Level 7. Plenty of players are still likely to join the field with late registration open for three levels on Day 2, so expect to see plenty more stars at the tables.
Stay tuned as the PokerNews live reporting team will be back on-site tomorrow here at Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas ahead of the crowning of the next PPC champion.