Jinhua Li raised to 100,000 in the cutoff and Jon Pardy in the big blind jammed in his remaining stack for 280,000. Li pondered for a few moments, reached into his bag, popped a mint and called.
Jon Pardy: 6♠6♣
Jinhua Li: A♦Q♥
The runout was 9♥Q♠2♣8♣A♠ and Li's lucky mint worked and gave him two pair.
In a three-bet pot with two players involved, Camille Brown checked on a flop 9♠8♣J♠ and so did Poorya Nazari seated on the button.
The Q♦ turn went also check-check and a 5♣ landed on the river. Brown led out for 20,00 and faced a raise worth 150,000 from Nazari. Brown made the call but mucked when Nazari tabled 7♦6♦ for the straight.
Ten minutes remain in Level 21, and the tournament clock has now been stopped with the tournament clock displaying 338 players still in contention. Three hands will be played on all remaining tables before players bag and tag their chips.
Play has concluded on Day 2 of Event #53: $1,500 Millionaire Maker at the 2023 World Series of Poker, and after 10 levels of action, Joey Weissman has surged among the chip leaders by bagging 3,770,000.
A total of 2,322 remaining Day 1 survivors filled the rooms for Day 2 with a top prize of $1,201,654 and a combined record-breaking total prize pool of $13,905,360, the energy was palpable. In the end, the final 327 bagged up and advanced to Day 3 on Monday.
Hot on the trail of Weissman were Safwane Bahri (2,880,000), Thomas Cazayous (2,405,000), Brandon Schwartz (2,260,000) and Joshua Boulton (2,200,000).
Top Ten Chip Counts
Place
Player
Country
Chip Count
Big Blinds
1
Joey Weissman
United States
3,770,000
151
2
Safwane Bahri
France
2,880,000
115
3
Thomas Cazayous
France
2,405,000
96
4
Brandon Schwartz
United States
2,260,000
90
5
Joshua Boulton
United Kingdom
2,200,000
88
6
Mayank Madan
United States
2,100,000
84
7
In Sun Geoum
United States
2,090,000
84
8
Steve Kujubu
United States
2,080,000
83
9
Daniel Blum
United States
2,070,000
83
10
Matthew Davis
United States
2,050,000
82
Bahri Safwane
Other familiar faces in contention heading into Day 3 include David Jackson (1,200,000), Safiya Umerova (1,125,000), Mustapha Kanit (885,000), Matt Waxman (875,000), Rene Lazaro (855,000), Ryan Hiller (715,000), Rafael Reis (670,000), Martin Jacobson (545,000) and Jessica Teusl (505,000).
David Jackson
The bubble burst early in the day in Level 14, and the knockouts came at a furious pace. Among the notables who went broke before the bubble were Jamie Gold, Vanessa Kade, Howard Mash, Upeshka de Silva, Ebony Kenney and Ryan Riess.
Day 3 begins on June 26 at 10:00 a.m. local time with ten 60-minute levels to be played, including a 60-minute dinner break after Level 27.
As always, the PokerNews live reporting team will be there every step of the way on the road to crowning the WSOP’s newest millionaire.
