Duc Nguyen Bags Massive Chip Lead for Final Day of Event #93: $777 Lucky 7's No-Limit Hold'em
Day 2 of Event #93: $777 Lucky 7's No-Limit Hold'em at the 2024 World Series of Poker has concluded, with only five players remaining from the 296 that came to play at the start of the day. As players bagged their chips, Duc Nguyen was the overwhelming chip leader with 119,200,000 chips, the equivalent of 99 big blinds. Michael Liang finished second in chips with 52,500,000 or 44 big blinds.
Final Five of Event #93: $777 Lucky 7's No-Limit Hold'em
| Seat | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rajesh Mehta | United States | 19,900,000 | 17 |
| 2 | Manoj Batavia | United States | 38,000,000 | 32 |
| 3 | Mitch Garshofsky | United States | 24,800,000 | 21 |
| 4 | Michael Liang | United States | 52,500,000 | 44 |
| 5 | Duc Nguyen | United States | 119,200,000 | 99 |
Nguyen had a strong end to Day 2, coming to the unofficial final table of eight with the biggest stack of around 60,000,000 chips and then quickly doubling that up by eliminating two-time bracelet winner Ilija Savevski with king-queen versus pocket queens, and then Austrian Lukas Hafner shortly after. Savevski and Hafner had a good run and were among the chip leaders throughout the second part of the day until they ran into an insurmountable obstacle in Nguyen. They were eliminated in eighth and seventh place, respectively.
Three starting flights saw a total of 6,292 entries who generated a prize pool of $4,303,728. Honoring the tournament's name and the lucky number seven, $777,777 will be given to the winner, along with the WSOP bracelet.
Ending third in chips was the always upbeat and talkative Manoj Batavia, who just a few days ago celebrated his 78th birthday; he would love to win his first WSOP bracelet. This is the only event for Batavia at this year’s WSOP, and he has been making every second count by having fun and running up to an impressive finish.
Rounding up the final five are Rajesh Mehta with $267,997 in live tournament winnings and Mitch Garshofsky, who has $2,632,332, including a few deep runs at the WSOP, such as fifth place in the $500 No-Limit Hold'em Salute to Warriors (Event #63) in 2021 and tenth place at the $1,000 No-Limit Hold'em Seniors Championship in 2009.
Falling just short of the final day’s play was Peruvian Jorge Postigo, who has $363,708 in live tournament winnings. Postigo had been on the short stack for a while at the end of the day but was still able to outlast several players with many more chips to secure a $80,777 payout for sixth place.
Jason Daly, who won the $3,000 Limit Hold'em 6-Handed at the 2023 WSOP, had already collected an impressive 12 cashes this summer before this event, including a third-place finish in the $10,000 Seven Card Stud Championship and ninth place in the $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better (8-Handed). Today, he added an 11th-place finish to those accomplishments for $35,980.
Among other players who made deep runs were Dongying Ling, Rosen Apostolov, Anthony Ruttler and Dean Ruan, who were eliminated in ninth, tenth, 12th and 13th places, respectively.
Also making it very deep was Justin Zaki with $5,530,229 in live tournament winnings, who finished in 15th place.
Other notable players that made Day 2 but were eliminated include Michael McNeil, David Funkhouser, Marc Rivera, Vanessa Kade, two-time bracelet winner Jeff Sluzinski, Jason Wheeler, Maurice Hawkins, Avi Cohen, Dejaunte Alexander, Jessica Vierling, Kathy Liebert and Dinesh Alt, as well as last year's Main Event sixth-place finisher Dean Hutchison, and the only player from the $25k Fantasy Draft that played today, Bin Weng.
Final Table Results and Remaining Payouts
| Rank | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | - | - | $777,777 |
| 2 | - | - | $300,777 |
| 3 | - | - | $190,777 |
| 4 | - | - | $141,777 |
| 5 | - | - | $105,777 |
| 6 | - | - | $80,777 |
| 7 | Lukas Hafner | Austria | $60,777 |
| 8 | Ilija Savevski | North Macedonia | $46,542 |
Play will resume Wednesday, July 17, at 11 a.m. local time at Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas, with 14 minutes remaining in Level 38 with blinds at 600,000/1,200,000 and a 1,200,000 ante. Stay tuned to see who takes down one of the final bracelets of the season.