The 2022 World Series of Poker has been, for the most part, one in which the players have fully supported. After two years of a reduced capacity, the 2022 festival truly marks the first time that the international poker community has been able to gather, this year in the new home of the WSOP at Bally’s and Paris Las Vegas. The players have continued to flood the tournament floor for the $10,000 Championship Event, with the numbers creeping close to the all-time record with late registration still open.
Massive Field Comes Out for Day 1D
As is usually the case with multiple Day One events, the final day of action in the Championship Event brought out the largest crowd. In fact, WSOP officials saw this coming and tried to tell players to get in the Day 1B and 1C fields instead of waiting until the last minute. Additionally, WSOP officials adjusted the schedule to allow for this massive difference; instead of having Days 1A and 1B play on Thursday and Days 1C and 1D on Friday, Days 1A-C will instead play on Thursday and Friday will be the sole dominion of the Day 1D players.
It turned out that was an innovative idea.
The Day 1D field turned out to be larger than the three previous flights combined. Over the first three Day Ones, 3580 players had stepped to the line. On Wednesday’s Day 1D, 4481 runners took their seats for poker’s biggest prize. That brings the total field size, yet unofficial, to a resounding 8061 combatants.
The reason we say “unofficial” is because late registration for the 2022 $10,000 Championship Event extends through the first two levels of action on EITHER Day Two of this year’s event. Doing the math, you can see that there is a great possibility that the 2022 version of this tournament will take a run at the all-time record. Back in 2006, 8872 players took part in the largest Championship Event in WSOP history; if there are another 800 players who are just arriving in Las Vegas looking to fulfill their dream of WSOP glory, then they have Thursday and Friday to make that dream come true.
Former Champions Make Their Stand
Several former champions have been able to stake their claim to making another run at a title. The defending champion of the WSOP Championship Event, Koray Aldemir, was able to navigate the carnage to emerge with a 71,800-chip stack. Chris Moneymaker (2003), Greg Merson (2012), Joe Hachem (2005), and Johnny Chan (1987-88) all have a bag for Day 2B on Friday, with Chan in particularly decent shape on 218,000 chips.
They were joined by a regiment of pros who are trying to add their name to the annals of poker history. 2022 bracelet winner Eli Elezra, Robert Mizrachi, Xuan Liu and Loni Harwood were all able to punch a ticket to the Day Two festivities. While these and many others will move on, top pros like Phil Ivey, Fedor Holz, and Allen Kessler will have to wait until 2023 to try again.
There is a little bit of controversy regarding who might actually be leading the $10,000 Championship Event at this point. Hao Chen from China has a reported bag of over 580K chips, but WSOP officials are going to doublecheck this count when the bags are opened back up on Friday. For now, however, Chen is at the top of the standings after the completion of the four Day Ones.
1. Hao Chen (China), 580,100* (D)
2. Patrick Clarke (Ireland), 397,200 (C)
3. Randal Heeb (USA), 339,000 (D)
4. Marcus Stein (USA), 336,800 (C)
5. Patrick Hagenlocher (USA), 332,800 (B)
6. Cedric Trevino (USA), 317,800 (A)
7. Matthieu His (France), 316,000 (D)
8. David Eldridge (USA), 308,000 (C)
9. Wesley Fei (China), 300,000 (A)
10. Joseph Bold (United Kingdom), 299,400 (D)
* – pending official verification from WSOP officials
Days 1A, 1B, and 1C will be coming back together today, the smaller segment of the 5935 players left in the tournament. The action today will feature 2642 players, while Friday’s Day 2B action will pick up the roughly 3293 runners who played Day 1D. Do remember, however, that these are not the final numbers; the first two levels of both Thursday and Friday’s Day Two play is allowing for late registration.
Action resumes in Bally’s and Paris Las Vegas at 11AM on Thursday morning, with Day 2A (1A/B/C) coming together. After Friday’s Day 2B (1D) action, the field will come together for the first time on Saturday. We will also know by that point just what the players are playing for (other than the title of World Champion and that WSOP bracelet) and whether the game has set a new record during the 2022 World Series of Poker.
(Photo courtesy of PokerGO.com)
A lot of players want to play sattys to get in. Please start the sattys sooner and you’ll get more players on Day 1A, B, and C