After pulling off a bluff with jack-high against Arthur Morris on the PokerGO livestream, Phil Hellmuth tangled with the same player in one of the biggest Day 1c feature table pots.
The hand began with Damien Gayer raising from an early position to 1,200 with A♠3♠, and then Morris called with 8♦8♣. Hellmuth, in position against those two players, opted for a call with J♠J♥, as did James Minghini, holding A♥3♥ on the button.
Michael Cervantes, in the big blind with K♣6♣, also came along for the ride to see a flop of 6♦10♣4♠, not much of an improvement for any of the five players. Action checked to Hellmuth, and he bet 4,000 with an over pair, receiving a call only from Morris, who was drawing to a two-outer that would come on the 8♠ turn.
Morris would check his set, and Hellmuth would bet 8,000 this time before being check-raised to 22,000. The "Poker Brat" begrudgingly called.
When the K♥ appeared on the turn, it gave Hellmuth an over card to his pair, but he could not find a fold facing a 35,000-chip bet and he lost approximately half his stack in the pot. Hellmuth was still steaming about the turn card five minutes after the hand concluded.
With two players seeing a board of 2♣6♣Q♣2♥2♠ and a bit over 30,000 already in the middle, a player in middle position checked and Dennis Wilke bet 50,000. His opponent, who had about 30,000 behind, went deep into the tank.
Several minutes went by before the clock was called. Finally, with less than ten seconds remaining, the middle position player made the call and tabled twos full of queens with A♦Q♥. Wilke turned over a bigger full house with Q♦Q♠ to send his opponent to the rail and drag in a huge pot.
The 2024 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event continued today with its third opening flight that attracted more than 2,500 entries over the course of five 120-minute levels. Being played at the Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas, there were plenty of tables spread throughout the casino with action in every corner.
As play was about to begin, the Poker Hall of Famer Johnny Chan wished everybody luck and uttered the famous words of "Shuffle up and Deal,". From there, fewer than 2,000 players managed to bet, check, and fold their way to a bag at the end of Day 1c of the spectacle that is the Main Event.
Among the top stacks was Arthur Morris who bagged an impressive 221,800 chips by the culmination of Day 1c. Morris has a WSOP ring on his poker resume but a bracelet still eludes the American player who is approaching $3,000,000 in live tournament earnings.
Phil Hellmuth Entrance 2024 Main Event
Main Event Day 1c Top Ten Chip Counts
Rank
Player
Country
Chip Count
Big Blinds
1
Zyad Qasem
United States
390,300
488
2
Leonard Herrmann
Germany
306,000
383
3
Ardit Kurshumi
United States
297,400
372
4
Colin Beveridge
United States
295,500
369
5
Mo Nuwwarah
United States
273,300
342
6
David Simon
United States
269,800
337
7
Manuel Pochat
Argentina
255,200
319
8
Royce Cohen
United States
254,500
318
9
Patrice Brandt
Germany
254,400
318
10
Thomas Hulley
Australia
239,200
299
Action of the Day
No Main Event would be complete without the traditional Phil Hellmuth entrance and this year's much-anticipated arrival was a Kung-Fu-based act with the music to match. He finished Day 1c with 66,700 in chips.
The Main Event isn't just about gaining chips, but also about saving them and one player who saved himself a chunk of change was Rupom Pal who folded top full house holding pocket queens, which was the second nuts, to a river three-bet shove from Jamie Sanfilippo. After Pal folded, Sanfilippo showed pocket jacks for quads, which proved Pal's fold to be correct.
Dan Bilzerian made an appearance, albeit a very brief one, and was eliminated just two hands after taking his seat in the Horseshoe Grand Ballroom. First, Bilzerian bluffed all three streets, and the majority of his stack, into Derek Reid, who held pocket aces. The very next hand, Jonathan Dwek delivered the final blow as his ace-jack called the shove of Bilzerian, who had queen-five.
Jamie Gold, who won the Main Event back in 2006, bagged up 111,100 chips and caught up with PokerNews at the end of the day to share his thoughts.
"I had been down for almost eight days, really sick and I wasn't even sure I could make it today, but I really wanted to be with the 20 players on my Commerce Pro poker team that 16 of them made Day 2. We were all supposed to play together on Day 1a, but I was just too sick," said Gold on why he played Day 1c.
Gold was asked if he feels like he has a target on his back in the Main Event.
"I mean, you know, in general it's a bad thing in normal tournaments because, you know, when you have aces and you get five callers because everybody wants to be in a hand with you makes it very difficult. But the Main Event, I'm now finding how to navigate it. I didn't, for a long time, maybe 10 years. I didn't really understand how to play properly against everyone who was just automatically gonna kind of call me down, but now I take it as I'm just gonna get paid off where most people don't get paid off in a lot of spots because people don't like to play big cards."
Jamie Gold
Arden Cho had an eventful day and ended up bagging 168,800 — but it wasn't all clear sailing for Cho. During Level 2, Cho was at risk with top set holding pocket aces against the turned straight of her opponent, but an ace on the river improved her to quads which kept her in the tournament.
Cho caught up with PokerNews after the day came to an end to speak about the hand and how her day played out.
"You know, you look down at aces and you get a little excited. I'm in the small blind, I three-bet, and I get two callers. I'm very excited. I flop a set and I bet, and I get a caller. I'm very excited. Needless to say it was a pretty wet board, but I rivered quads. So, yay, it's not often you get quads and not often you get a full double. So that was very exciting," replied a clearly excited Cho.
"I think it definitely made me feel a bit lucky. It made me feel like, oh, this could be a lucky day and I do think you have to have a bit of that optimistic attitude to survive in these and to grind it out right to stay patient."
Arden Cho
Some notables who made it through the day were Justin Bonomo (174,100), Christopher Brewer (156,800), Adrian Mateos (143,100), Adam Hendrix (134,500), Michael Soyza (134,600), Ben Lamb (124,600), Isaac Haxton (124,900), and Andrew Lichtenberger (108,900).
Those who were unfortunate in their pursuit of a bag were the likes of Chino Rheem, Eshaan Bhalla, Punnat Punsri, Shaun Deeb, Chris Moorman, and Martin Kabrhel who lost most of his stack early on after he called a four-bet with nine-five.
Those that made it through the day will join the survivors from Day 1a and 1b on Sunday, July 7, to play out Day 2abc.
Day 1d kicks off at noon on Saturday, July 6, and registration remains open until the end of Level 7 on Day 2.
Keep your eyes glued to PokerNews throughout the rest of the Main Event and all remaining bracelet events to keep up to date with the latest action from the baize.
