The first day of Event #52: $5,000 No-Limit Hold’em (6-Handed) has concluded here at the 2024 World Series of Poker hosted at the Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas. The first day attracted over 700 entrants, and that number will only increase tomorrow as late registration and reentries remain available until the end of Level 11, at approximately 1 p.m. on Day 2.
Bracelet winner and Winamax team pro Julien Sitbon bagged the biggest stack by the end of the night, finishing with 520,500 chips worth 208 big blinds going into day 2. Other top stacks at the end of the night include Krasimir Yankov (500,000), Ihar Soika (393,500), Joseph Roh (392,000), Yuliyan Kolev (387,500), Damian Salas (337,000), Bin Weng (310,000) and Upeshka De Silva (294,500).
End of Day 1 Top Ten Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chips | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Julien Sitbon | France | 520,500 | 208 |
| 2 | Krasimir Yankov | Bulgaria | 500,000 | 200 |
| 3 | Filipp Khavin | United States | 443,500 | 177 |
| 4 | Maksym Sheingart | Israel | 421,000 | 168 |
| 5 | Ihar Soika | Belarus | 393,500 | 157 |
| 6 | Joseph Roh | United States | 392,000 | 157 |
| 7 | Yuliyan Kolev | Bulgaria | 387,500 | 155 |
| 8 | Boris Berthomet | France | 377,500 | 151 |
| 9 | Matthew Hunt | United Kingdom | 372,500 | 149 |
| 10 | Joseph Cheong | United States | 369,500 | 148 |
Notables who entered on Day 1 but were not fortunate enough to advance by the end of the night include Rania Nasreddine Chance Kornuth, Chad Eveslage, Maria Konnikova, Xuan Liu, Gus Hansen and Bill Klein.
Klein was knocked out early in the day after making a wheel, only to run into Soika's full house. That pot left Soika with a massive stack and he was able to ride that momentum all the way to the end of the night. Konnikova got off to a good start today but fell in the last level of the night in a pot against Sitbon that saw the latter player ascend to the very top of the chip counts.
Day 2 is set to start Friday, June 21, at noon local time at Level 11, with the blinds at 1,000/2,500 and a 2,500 big blind ante. The plan is to play ten 60-minute levels before players bag their chips and advance to Day 3.
As always, stay tuned to PokerNews as we bring you all the action from this and every other live bracelet event at the 2024 WSOP.