Alisson Piekazewicz raised to 200,000 from early position and Ivan Stankov made the call from middle position. Akshat Bajaj moved all in from the cutoff for 2,255,000 and Michael Newman called from the small blind for 1,400,000. The remaining players folded and both players revealed their hands.
Michael Newman: A♣K♥
Akshat Bajaj: A♠Q♥
The board ran out J♦5♦10♦2♣4♥ for Newman to take the pot.
Nacho Barbero raised to 200,000 from the cutoff and Michael Liang three-bet to 700,000 from the small blind. Carl Shaw folded his big blind and Barbero made the call.
The flop came 8♦8♠2♥, Liang bet 450,000 and Barbero called again.
The turn was the 4♠ and Liang shoved for around 3,350,000 and Barbero snap-called.
Michael Liang: J♠J♦
Nacho Barbero: 4♥4♣
Liang had two pair but was left with two outs as Barbero had turned a full house.
The river completed the board with the 7♥ for Liang to bust in 23rd place.
Action was caught after the flop of 3♥10♥J♦ and Rui Ferreira moved all in from the small blind. Alisson Piekazewicz moved all in over the top from the big blind and Akshat Bajaj folded. Both players revealed their hands.
Rui Ferreira: K♥Q♣
Alisson Piekazewicz: 8♥9♥
Ferreira faded a lot of straight and flush outs when the board completed 5♣2♦ to take the pot with just king-high.
Only 23 out of a field of 2,229 will be back for Day 3 of Event #68: $2,500 No-Limit Hold’em at the 2024 World Series of Poker in the Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas. The final 23 will be back at noon local time as the biggest slices of a nearly $5 million prize pool are up for grabs.
The event is scheduled to play to a winner today, but don't be surprised if this tournament needs an extra day to crown its champion. The champion will receive an astonishing $667,963 on top of the coveted gold WSOP bracelet.
All eyes are on Nacho Barbero, who leads the pack with a stack just shy of ten million, nearly 100 big blinds in the new level. Despite having been around the poker world for about two decades, the Argentinian giant is coming off a career year including no fewer than three seven-figure scores worldwide and a slew of six-figure cashes.
Barbero has one bracelet, won in a Super Turbo Bounty in 2022, and can potentially add a second piece of hardware to his collection.
Top Ten Chip Stacks Leading Into Day 3
Place
Name
Country
Chip Count
Big Blinds
1
Nacho Barbero
Argentina
9,935,000
99
2
John Reiter
United States
7,280,000
73
3
Ivan Stankov
Bulgaria
6,400,000
64
4
Andre Akkari
Brazil
5,055,000
51
5
Colin Robinson
United States
4,835,000
48
6
Gianluca Cedolia
Canada
4,665,000
47
7
Peter Park
United States
4,540,000
45
8
Carl Shaw
United Kingdom
4,500,000
45
9
Alisson Piekazewicz
Brazil
3,500,000
35
10
Gonzalo Almada
Argentina
3,360,000
34
Andre Akkari
Although Barbero's position is strong, plenty of crushers are left in the field looking to deny the Argentinian. Among them is Brazil's Andre Akkari, who will return fourth in chips with 5,055,000. Bracelet winners Peter Park, Carl Shaw, Jin Hoon Lee, Rui Ferrera, Mike Holtz, David Guay, and the iconic Barry Shulman are all in contention as well.
Action will resume in Level 28 with blinds at 50,000/100,000 and a 100,000 big blind ante. Levels will be 60 minutes throughout, with breaks after every two levels and a 60-minute dinner break after the sixth level of the day (~6:30 p.m.). The plan is to play down to a winner today, but this can be subject to change depending on how the late stages go.
Keep following along with PokerNews as we get closer to crowning our next WSOP bracelet winner.
