Chris Hunichen Carries Top Five Stack Into Day 2d of the 2023 $10,000 WSOP Main Event
After yesterday, July 7th, saw the 4,062 survivors of Day 1a, b, and c play their Day 2 of Event #76: $10,000 No-Limit Hold'em Main Event World Championship at the 2023 World Series of Poker at Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas, today it is the turn of the players that have made it through the largest starting day, Day 1d. In total, 4,100 people registered during Day 1d, and 3,202 of them will make an appearance today on Day 2d.
Late registration will still be open for the first two levels of play, and if Day 2abc is any indication, hordes of players will show up to take a shot at going down in poker history by winning the WSOP Main Event. With the record of entries already being broken and a prize pool of over $90,000,000 created, the magical 10,000-player milestone is now in sight, and fewer than 500 new entries needed in those four hours to create the first-ever five-digit field for a WSOP Main Event.
Those who decide to do so will receive the starting stack of 60,000 (75 big blinds), ways away from chip leader Nicholas Rigby’s stack of 408,000 chips, over 500 big blinds, at the start of play. In the 2021 WSOP Main Event, Rigby went viral in the poker world when he kept playing a hand that many would consider at the bottom of the barrel. In an homage to his local games in Pittsburgh, he kept playing three-deuce, both in the suited and offsuit “dirty diaper” variety, even calling all-ins with them when less than 100 players remained. He is sure to provide more spectacle throughout Day 2d and beyond.
One player that will most likely not be caught playing the aforementioned hand is high roller Chris Hunichen. Hunichen is a staple of the high roller and super high roller scenes, with over ten million in lifetime tournament earnings, playing tournaments with buy-ins as high as $250,000. Hunichen will start Day 2d as fourth in chips with a stack of 321,200. The experienced poker player will try to make the most of his 400 big blinds as an illustrious WSOP bracelet still eludes him in his otherwise successful career.
Start of Day 2d Top Ten Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nicholas Rigby | United States | 408,800 | 511 |
| 2 | Brittney Stout | United States | 375,500 | 469 |
| 3 | Neel Murthy | United States | 323,100 | 404 |
| 4 | Chris Hunichen | United States | 321,200 | 402 |
| 5 | Carlos Leiva | Argentina | 318,700 | 398 |
| 6 | Brandon Mincher | United States | 317,000 | 396 |
| 7 | Jeffrey Weil | United States | 308,100 | 385 |
| 8 | Matthew Adams | United States | 307,200 | 384 |
| 9 | Vincent Pistorino | United States | 306,000 | 383 |
| 10 | Harish Ananthapadmanabha | United States | 305,400 | 382 |
However, Rigby and Hunichen will have to compete with some of poker’s finest competitors on Day 2d. Among others, now 17-time bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth (108,500) will take his seat, along with fellow Main Event winners Chris Moneymaker (143,100), Joe Hachem (125,300), Qui Nguyen (121,800), and the short-stacked Scotty Nguyen (8,000).
Some other household names who managed to bag big on Day 1d include Chance Kornuth (241,500), seven-time bracelet winner Men “The Master” Nguyen (221,000), Jonathan Pastore (206,400) and Ari Engel (203,000).
Play will resume at noon local time Saturday, July 8th. The tournament will restart in Level 6, which has blinds of 400/800 with an 800 big blind ante. As stated before, late registration will be open for the first two levels, (until about 4:40 p.m.) and just like on Day 1, the field will play five levels of two hours each, with a break after every level and a dinner break after the completion of Level 3.
Be sure to stay tuned to PokerNews as the live reporting team will provide all the updates for what is sure to be a thrilling day of WSOP Main Event action.