The most anticipated poker tournament of the summer is upon us as Day 1a of Event #76: $10,000 WSOP Main Event No-Limit Hold'em World Championship at the 2023 World Series of Poker (WSOP) kicked off today and drew more than a thousand players through five two-hour levels of action.
Leading the way is Israel's Yehuda Dayan with a monstrous stack of 389,900, as he looks to add to his mere $10,504 in reported live earnings. He is followed by other big stacks including bracelet winner Shota Nakanishi (360,100) and poker personality and recent Heads-Up Championship runner-up Doug Polk (282,000).
Four Main Event champions played Day 1a and all four managed to bag: Joe Cada (2009), Martin Jacobson (2014), Damian Salas (2020) and Jamie Gold (2006), who WSOP Vice President Jack Effel joked was the only person who doesn't want the Main Event attendance record broken this year.
Some of the notables who will return for Day 2abc on July 7th include Poker Hall of Famers John Hennigan and Billy Baxter, four-time bracelet winner Dominik Nitsche, six-time bracelet winner Shaun Deeb, poker coach Faraz Jaka, poker author Jim McManus, and high rollers David Peters, Sean Winter, and Jake Schindler.
End of Day 1a Top Ten Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Yehuda Dayan | Israel | 389,900 | 487 |
| 2 | Shota Nakanishi | Japan | 360,100 | 450 |
| 3 | Hai-Chi Ho | China | 297,400 | 372 |
| 4 | Doug Polk | United States | 281,900 | 352 |
| 5 | Neville Costa | Brazil | 275,000 | 344 |
| 6 | Samuel Gagnon | Canada | 271,000 | 339 |
| 7 | Todd Collins | United States | 250,400 | 313 |
| 8 | Rick Mechammil | United States | 247,600 | 310 |
| 9 | Christine Do | Canada | 237,300 | 297 |
| 10 | Anirban Das | Italy | 236,900 | 296 |
Gold Kicks Off a Day Full of Bad Beats & Heartbreak
There was high energy going into the first day of an event that is expected to break the attendance record of 8,773 set in 2006 when Gold won the Main Event for $12 million. It was fitting then that Gold kicked things off with a shuffle up and deal announcement where he wished this year's Main Event players good luck "except when you're the last person at the final table against me, then I do not wish you so well."
It didn't take long for dreams to be crushed in poker's most prestigious event. Israel's Idan The One started his first Main Event off nicely by taking down a decent pot preflop with a four-bet. But things turned quickly in another four-bet pot where The One held kings only to run into the aces of Ruben Correia.
Shortly after losing half his stack, the two tangled once again as The One five-bet shoved for his tournament life as Correia called. The One's nightmare had come true as his pocket kings were again dominated by the same opponent's aces to send the Main Event hopeful out in just the second level of play. The One was in visible agony and spent an hour against the wall with his head in his hands as he processed the devastating beat and realized he will not be the one to win the 2023 Main Event.
That wasn't the only cooler of the day. In one of the final hands before dinner break, Steven Piper managed to make aces full of kings holding pocket aces, losing only to pocket kings for quads. That's exactly what Gary Horn had as he sent the Piper singing.
There were also success stories on Day 1a, including from none other than Gold, who managed to chip up nicely throughout the day as he battled in the Silver section of Horseshoe. Poker coach Faraz Jaka, meanwhile, got well above starting stack after picking up aces to eliminate Tyler Matzen.
In the same section, Polk built up a stack at a table that included young poker star Landon Tice, who wasn't as fortunate and busted not long after a boat over boat collision against Michael Wilklow that may have resembled the literal car crash Polk was in today.
Other players who didn't survive the day include 2021 Poker Players Championship runner-up Ryan Leng, Casino Employees Event runner-up James Urbanic, Utah all-time money leader Jared Griener, sports card specialist Jared Bleznick and 2010 Main Event third-place finisher Joseph Cheong.
On the lighter side of things, Player of the Year contender Shaun Deeb, known by his peers as a king of slow rolls, got a bit of karma when he was accidentally slow rolled by Juha Helppi. The Finnish bracelet winner hadn't realized he had the best hand after calling a river bet from Deeb, who warned the table that "you know I'm still going to slow roll any of you any chance I get."
There are still three starting flights that need to play out before Day 2 of the Main Event. Day 1b will kick off at noon local time on July 4th and will follow the same structure as Day 1a with five two-hour levels and a 75-minute dinner break after Level 3.
Stay tuned as the PokerNews live reporting team is out in full force and will be back tomorrow for more coverage of what will likely be a historic WSOP Main Event.
