After 22 levels of play on Day 1b of Event #88: $1,500 The Closer at the 2023 World Series of Poker, it was Jack Duong who claimed one of the top spots after bagging an impressive 1,485,000 in chips. After the dust settled, only 183 remained from this flight to join the 76 hopefuls from Day 1a for Day 2 tomorrow, July 16th at 10 a.m. local time.
Duong, who is no stranger to these fields with over $2.2 million in tournament earnings, will look to put his big stack to work on Day 2 in hopes of capturing his second WSOP bracelet. Duong won his first WSOP bracelet back in 2015 in Event #62: $1,500 No Limit Hold'em Bounty for $333,351.
The overnight chip lead was a shared affair as both China's Chen Feng Wen and American Mathew Moore bagged 1,750,000 in chips.
2023 WSOP Event #88: The Closer $1,500 NLHE Day 1b Chip Counts
| Rank | Name | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chen Feng Wen | China | 1,750,000 | 58 |
| 1 | Mathew Moore | United States | 1,750,000 | 58 |
| 3 | Cuba Levenberry | United States | 1,710,000 | 57 |
| 4 | David Baize | United States | 1,700,000 | 57 |
| 5 | Daris Justice | United States | 1,530,000 | 51 |
| 6 | Jack Duong | United States | 1,485,000 | 50 |
| 7 | David Toscano | United States | 1,400,000 | 47 |
| 8 | Richard Roberts | United States | 1,380,000 | 46 |
| 9 | Yuchung Chang | Taiwan | 1,360,000 | 45 |
| 10 | Ronald Sims | United States | 1,340,000 | 45 |
Day 1b Action
A total of 2,390 players filled the tournament room of Paris throughout the day to add to the 1,141 entries on Day 1a to create a massive prize pool of $4,713,885.
With the series winding down, many big names jumped into the action hoping for one of their final shots at WSOP gold. Some who found a bag for Day 2 included Niall Farrell (805,000), Pat Lyons (705,000), Ben Yu (535,000) and Kathy Liebert (130,000).
Others who weren’t as fortunate to find a bag included Phil Ivey, Josh Arieh, Maria Konnikova, Mustapha Kanit and Adam Hendrix, as well as table villain Will Kassouf, who got his stack in with ace-king but couldn’t connect against the pocket nines for his opponent to send him to the rail before the dinner break.
The top 359 players locked up a minimum cash of $2,403 and the money bubble was hit shortly after the last break of the day.
Jeff “Boski” Sluzinski was one of the players to go out just before the money bubble when he got his pocket queens in well ahead of the king-deuce for his opponent. The flop fanned out a king and the rest of the board was no help for Sluzinski, who couldn’t secure a min-cash.
Jim Daciolas was down to only a single 5,000-chip and found a way to fold to the money. Once the announcement was made, Daciolas moved in and hit the rail on the next hand.
The final 183 players from this flight will combine with the 76 from Day 1a and will return to the green felts tomorrow with blinds at 15,000/30,000 and a 30,000 big blind ante. There will be a break every four levels and a 60-minute dinner break before the start of the final table. The plan is to play down to a winner, but with the large size of the field, an extra day could potentially be added to get to a winner.
As always, be sure to stick with PokerNews for all your up-to-date coverage of this event and the rest of the 2023 WSOP at Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas.
