The third of four Day Ones at the 2023 World Series of Poker Championship Event is in the books, and it is leading towards what could be a historic moment. Christopher Brammer packed up a stack of 366,100 chips in what has, to date, been the largest day of action at the WSOP. That is before Day 1D takes to the floors of the Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas today, which should see the all-time record in the tournament shattered.
Good to Be the (Former) King
The action at the Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas was frenetic on Thursday, with the players surging through the gates with their $10K for entry and a dream in their minds. The defending World Champion, Espen Jorstad, stepped to the mic to let out the call of “shuffle up and deal” and the race was on. The numbers were simply stunning for Day 1C; only one level into the action, 2150 players had registered for the tournament, topping the TOTAL numbers from the entirety of Day 1B (1118) and Day 1A (1019).
Jorstad was one of the Kings (and former Kings) to lead the way through the action on Thursday. The defending champion was able to survive the carnage of the Day 1C festivities, ending the day right around his starting stack with 62,000 in chips. The news was also good for former champions Joseph McKeehen (111,500), Scott Blumstein (71,900), and Ryan Riess (68,100), who will all go through to Day 2ABC when it reconvenes on Saturday.
Another player was a focal point of the PokerGO broadcasts on Thursday night. Daniel Negreanu, who has pursued the WSOP Championship Event title for well over two decades, was on the feature table for the streaming broadcasts and he certainly entertained the audience and his table. What Negreanu did not do, however, was take his stack upwards; he will come back for Day 2ABC action with less than half (25,900) of the starting stack he had at the opening on Day 1C (60,000).
That is better than the fate of several other notables that were in the 3080-player field who showed up for action on Thursday. Former World Champion Koray Aldemir, Poker Hall of Famer Erik Seidel, Darren Elias, and Women in Poker Hall of Famers Vanessa Selbst and Maria Ho will all have to wait until 2024 for their next opportunity at the WSOP Championship Event.
Brammer, however, was dominant throughout the day. Nearly immediately he was chipping up at his table before ending the night with 386,100 in chips. That is not quite good enough for the overall lead (more on that in a bit), but it will solidify his place amongst the leaders when Day 2ABC starts up. With Day 1C concluded, here’s the Top Five:
1. Christopher Brammer, 386,100
2. Michael Banducci, 292,600
3. Lawrence Chang, 280,900
4. Roman Valerstein, 273,300
5. Michael Pinto, 266,600
Record Will Be Broken, Question is When
In looking at the opening salvos of action at the 2023 WSOP Championship Event, it is not a question of if the record for players will be broken, it is a question of when. These are the numbers for the first three Day Ones at this year’s event:
Day 1A: 1019 players
Day 1B: 1118
Day 1C: 3080
That’s a total of 5217 (unofficial) players that have passed through the turnstiles at the cage, leaving the 2023 WSOP Championship Event 3556 players short of the all-time record of 8773 from 2006. With Day 1C getting over 3000 players in its own right (and the usual tradition of the final day of a multi-flight event being the largest), it is completely logical that the record will be broken. If Day 1D fails, then there is still the fact that late registration will go on in the tournament until the start of Level 8 of BOTH Day Twos on the schedule.
With one more flight on the schedule, here is the (highly) unofficial leaderboard for the 2023 WSOP Championship Event:
1. Yehuda Dayan (Day 1A), 389,900
2. Christopher Brammer (Day 1C), 385,100
3. Shota Nakanishi (Day 1A), 360,100
4. Hai-Chi Ho (Day 1A), 297,400
5. Michael Banducci (Day 1C), 292,600
6. Jean-Pierre Van Der Spuy (Day 1B), 287,000
7. Julien Martini (Day 1B), 286,000
8. Yuze Ding (Day 1B), 284,500
9. Doug Polk (Day 1A) 281,900
10. Gar Cheung (Day 1B), 281,500
Day 1D will hit the tables at noon (Pacific Time) on Thursday, and it is expected that seventeen-time WSOP bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth (we are contractually obligated to say that) will be a part of the field – at some point. According to his Twitter account, Hellmuth will be entering this year as Hugh Jackman’s P. T. Barnum character from The Greatest Showman, complete with (allegedly) Dan Cates donning a lion costume.
By the end of the action, poker and otherwise, on Thursday night, we should have a decent idea of where the final numbers will end up – and then the REAL show can begin at the 2023 World Series of Poker Championship Event.
