Bumper Crowd Expected for Day 1b of The Closer
Welcome back to PokerNews, the official media partner of the 2024 World Series of Poker and home of live updates from all bracelet events.
Today sees the start of the second and final flight of Event #98: $1,500 The Closer No-Limit Hold'em here at Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas. Day 1b gets underway at 12 p.m. local time on July 16.
The starting stack is 50,000 chips with the plan for Day 1 to play 20 30-minute levels. For the surviving players, Day 2 resumes at 11 a.m. local time on July 17 and plays down to a winner.
Yesterday, 814 entrants turned out for Day 1a, with 84 progressing. Daniel Rezaei (1,830,000) bagged up the overnight chip lead with a whole host of stars, including six-time bracelet winner Brian Hastings (630,000), joining the Austrian.
End of Day 1a Top Ten Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chips | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Daniel Rezaei | Austria | 1,830,000 | 92 |
| 2 | Robert Nemeskerikiss | United States | 1,435,000 | 72 |
| 3 | Kazuhiko Yotsushika | Japan | 1,335,000 | 67 |
| 4 | Valentino Konakchev | Bulgaria | 1,295,000 | 65 |
| 5 | Gianluca Cedolia | Canada | 1,280,000 | 64 |
| 6 | Mauricio Ramirez | Costa Rica | 1,240,000 | 62 |
| 7 | Rohit Kwatra | United States | 1,195,000 | 60 |
| 8 | Bradley King | United States | 1,085,000 | 54 |
| 9 | Jacob Powers | United States | 1,060,000 | 53 |
| 10 | Miguel Lopes | Portugal | 950,000 | 48 |
Last year’s event attracted a field of 3,531 entries, generating a prize pool of $4,713,885. The winner was Pierre Shum who defeated Peter Nigh heads up to win $606,810 and his first WSOP bracelet.
| Year | Entries | Winner | Country | Payout |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 3,531 | Pierre Shum | United States | $606,810 |
| 2022 | 2,039 | Minh Nguyen | United States | $536,280 |
| 2021 | 1,903 | Leo Margets | Spain | $376,850 |
| 2020 | - | Not held | - | - |
| 2019 | 2,800 | Abhinav Iyer | India | $565,346 |
| 2018 | 3,120 | Joe Cada | United States | $612,886 |
PokerNews traditional coverage starts on Day 2, so why not use MyStack to update your chip counts if you are entering Day 1b?
Are you planning on playing at this event? PokerNews activates MyStack for every WSOP event, regardless of that tournament's buy-in, allowing you to adjust your chip counts directly in our live reporting pages.
MyStack is a free poker tool that allows you to control your chip counts on our live reporting pages. Once you have created a free PokerNews account, you can use MyStack to update your chip counts in real time; hopefully, your stack will continue increasing throughout the event!