WSOP 2023: Alex Foxen Takes Command of PLO High Roller, Five Gold Bracelets Awarded

It was a super-sized day at the 2023 World Series of Poker, as five bracelets were handed out to first-time champions, while eleven events were in play concurrently. This was fitting, as an absolutely mammoth field stormed into the Horseshoe and Paris casinos in Las Vegas for Day 1a of the Colossus and the highest buy-in PLO event in this year’s WSOP kicked off today, as well.

Miller Denies Kenney in $10k Stud 8

Just six players remained for Day 4 action in Event #63: $10,000 Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo 8 or Better, and a five-hour marathon heads-up match saw Ryan Miller overcome controversial pro Bryn Kenney to earn $344,677 and his first WSOP gold bracelet. Miller, who has cashes in the WSOP in three different decades, told PokerNews, “I’ve waited a long time and I wasn’t sure if it would ever come, but I’m super excited to get one.”

A trio of eliminations in the first two hours of play swiftly knocked the short stacks out and left Kenney with a healthy lead over Miller and Maximilian Schindler, who flirted with the chip lead before losing two large hands to get short. Kenney then made three deuces on sixth street shortly after, and Schindler put the last of his chips in on seventh with aces-up to fall in third.

Kenney started heads-up with a 6 million to 2.5 million chip lead, but Miller tied it up swiftly. Both players then had around 16 big bets left in their stacks, plenty of maneuverability, and despite Kenney getting Miller down to just over four big bets at one point, Miller clawed back and won a hefty pot with nines-up to bring Kenney to just over one big bet. One hand later, Kenney got his crumbs in on fourth street, but Miller made a pair of aces on fifth and Kenney couldn’t catch up to send the Pennsylvanian Miller his first WSOP bracelet.

Christmas Comes Early For Klaus Ilk in Super Seniors

It took seven hours for the 13 remaining players in Event #61: $1,000 Super Seniors to play down to a winner, and Austria’s Klaus Ilk, who returned for the final day of action as the short stack, ended up an unlikely winner of his first WSOP gold bracelet and $371,603.

A swift march to the final table of nine saw Ronald Lane holding a commanding lead over the remaining field, and Ilk remained near the bottom of the counts as the short stacks were consumed by Lane and Farhad Davoudzadeh. Ilk started making his move after knocking Kevin Danko out in fifth, before Lane knocked Ronald Swain and Davoudzadeh out in short order to take a commanding 4:1 chip lead into heads-up play. 

Undeterred, Ilk doubled on one of the first hands of heads-up action, took the chip lead a few minutes later, and before much more than a half-hour could tick off the clock, Ilk called a three-bet shove on a flop with , and was up against the of Lane. Ilk would fade the double-gutter and overcard on the turn and river, and took home Austria’s seventh ever WSOP gold bracelet, joining the likes of Stefan Lehner and Ivo Donev.

Simon Mixes it Up and Ships NLHE/PLO

It was a bonus day of play for Event #62: $1,500 Mixed No-Limit Hold’em/Pot-Limit Omaha, and under the lights of the PokerGo livestream, David Simon was able to best start-of-the-day chip leader David Prociak for his first WSOP gold bracelet and $410,659.

After short stacks Tsuf Saltsberg and Eran Carmi were eliminated, Eric Pfenning made a run up towards Prociak’s big stack, but ultimately ran ace-queen into Simon’s ace-king to be left with a little over two big blinds, which were taken by Prociak one hand later. Simon started heads-up a little over a 2:1 dog in chips, and Prociak began applying pressure, grinding Simon’s stack down to just over 13 big blinds at one point. 

Simon began the rally from there, doubling in Omaha before putting the hammer down himself to bring Prociak down to around eight big blinds. Prociak got those chips in preflop with , and despite flopping a flush draw and turning a gutshot on a runout, his ace-high would be no good against the of Simon.

Kopp Second in Family to Earn WSOP Gold

Katie Kopp earned a WSOP gold Bracelet in the 2022 Casino Employees Event, but no longer has sole family bragging rights after her brother, William Kopp, topped Event #66: $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better for $259,549 after surviving a tough final day field of twelve that included Yuval Bronshtein (10th – $15,395), Anthony Zinno (8th – $25,394), Loni Hui (6th – $44,391) and WSOP POY contender Michael Rodrigues, the eventual runner-up.

As has been a theme in today’s bracelet victories, Kopp started heads-up at a chip disadvantage, but Kopp couldn’t be stopped and dominated the heads-up contest with Rodrigues before the final hand, where Kopp flopped a queen-high straight and was against the nut flush draw of Rodrigues. Kopp improved to Broadway while Rodrigues bricked out, and Kopp joined his sister as WSOP gold bracelet winners.

Schroeder Top Cat in Super Turbo Bounty

One day was not enough to crown a champion in Event #68: $1,000 Super Turbo Bounty, so the remaining nine players returned to race to the finish line. Brazil’s Gabriel Schroeder ended up atop the charts, good for his first WSOP gold bracelet and $228,632 after a swift two-and-a-half hour Day 2.

Ryan Goindoo was the first to fall after a lengthy period of shoves and no action, then the floodgates opened, as five players including RunGood Ambassador Daniel Lowery all fell in the next three levels. Shortly after, the biggest hand in the tournament took place, with Schroeder getting it in with against Andy Black’s . Ireland’s favorite poker son couldn’t hang on with Big Slick, as the appeared on the flop, and no help to Black sent him out in third, still in search of his first WSOP bracelet. Unlike the other four bracelets awarded today, the chip leader in heads-up emerged victorious, as Schroeder used his nearly 4:1 chip lead to quickly eliminate Joel Wertheimer for the glory and the gold.

Foxen Locked In on Day 1 of $50k PLO High Roller

The highest buy-in PLO event on the WSOP calendar kicked off with Day 1 of Event #71: $50,000 Pot-Limit Omaha High Roller, and a record 167 entries were recorded with registration remaining open through the start of Day 2. Alex Foxen, no stranger to high roller success, lapped the field with a mammoth 2,868,000 in the bag, over a million ahead of Krasimir Yankov’s 1,786,000. The remaining 70 players is a smorgasbord of poker talent, including Shaun Deeb (1,014,000), Chance Kornuth (971,000), Sam Soverel (720,000), Brian Rast (601,000) and Ben Lamb (298,000), among others.

Dvorkin Leads the Ladies

Only 47 of the 331 players who returned for Day 2 of Event #67: $1,000 Ladies Championship managed to survive through the day, with Mary Dvorkin (1,420,000) and Eunji Park (1,400,000) neck and neck for the chip lead. Defending champ Jessica Teusl is still alive with a healthy 785,000, while Lisa Roberts (680,000), Sam Abernathy (325,000) and Pamela Balzano (216,000) will all return for Day 3 action.

Three Remain in DeepStack Championship

The 44 players that came back for Day 3 of Event #64: $600 No-Limit Hold’em Deepstack Championship could not get the field down to a winner today, leaving just three players to return for an extra day of action. John Taylor will return with a slight chip lead, while David Guay and Steven Stolzenfeld still have plenty of chips to work with. Howard Mash (13th – $15,830), Joe Ebanks (16th – $12,684) and Erik Cajelais (19th – $10,249) all failed to add to their lone WSOP gold bracelets along the way.

Rich Seeking First Women’s Open Bracelet Victory of 2023 WSOP

Event #65: $5,000 No-Limit Hold’em (6-Handed) played down to a final table on Day 3, and while Norbert Szecsi holds the chip lead with 18,600,000, all eyes will likely be on the second place stack of Angelina Rich (14,000,000), who will be seeking to be the first female to claim a WSOP gold bracelet in an open event in 2023. WSOP POY leader Ian Matakis (7th – $114,210) just missed another final table appearance, while Danny Tang (11th – $66,192) and Ryan Leng (12th – $51,579) both made deep runs out of the 48 returning players.

Dzivielevski Seeks Second Bracelet of Summer

Yuri Dzivielevski already has a WSOP gold bracelet from this year’s series, shipping Event #47: $1,500 H.O.R.S.E., and is in prime position to earn his fourth overall bracelet after bagging the chip lead after Day 2 of Event #69: $10,000 No-Limit 2-7 Single Draw Championship. Ryan Riess (792,000), Daniel Negreanu (595,000), Eli Elezra (484,000) and John Monnette (208,000) all are in the hunt out of the remaining 18 players.

Colossus Lives Up to Lofty Name

A total of 7,705 entrants piled up for Day 1a of Event #70: $400 Colossus, and just 965 remained by the day’s end. Chengtzu Lai looks to be the unofficial chip leader at press time, while Bruno Politano (1,046,000), Will Kassouf (800,000), Melanie Weisner (719,000) and Benjamin “Spraggy” Spragg (623,000) all bagged and tagged to end the day.

“Spraggy” makes believers of us all:

"You're not gonna believe how I just busted the Colossus."

I can say with complete certainty that I will absolutely believe how you just busted the Colossus.

— Spraggy (@spraggy) July 1, 2023

DJ MacKinnon does his best @OhYouBlockhead impression:

get back in line to fire your second bullet in colossus

watch a $50k plo player pull out five bricks, tossing it at the cashier like chump change

nobody in line knows you had to martingale your money at electronic roulette to go from $380 to $400.

Black first spin. No sweat. pic.twitter.com/cRwbVNdbxL

— DJ MacKinnon (@djmacjr) July 1, 2023

Could the OG voice of High Stakes Poker be making a WSOP appearance?

Haven't played in the WSOP in five years. Thinking of playing in the next event. It's a turbo (one day) I might get lucky and I've still got those student loans hanging over my head.

— Gabe Kaplan (@GabeKaplan) July 1, 2023

Nate Silver points out what we already knew; poker’s boomin’ these days:

There's kind of a low-key live poker boom going on. First 60 events of @WSOP have had 134,606 entrants vs. 114,751 in 2021 (+17%) and $227m in buy-ins vs $184m (+23%).

If pace holds, would lead to a Main Event with 10k to 10.5k entrants.

— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) June 30, 2023

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