WSOP 2023: Halatenko and Pupillo in Contention for Maiden Bracelets, Negreanu in the Hunt in H.O.R.S.E.

Day 25 of the 2023 World Series of Poker at the Horseshoe Las Vegas and Paris casinos saw a rarity for the series, as no gold bracelets were awarded. Six events were in motion, however, with a huge Day 2 of the Seniors, two $10,000 Championship events, the Tag Team and the Millionaire Maker all in motion, along with the $2,500 Mixed Triple Draw.

Halatenko Accumulates Piles in PLO Championship

Event #50: $10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Championship brought back 42 players from a starting field of 731, all with the goal of being one of the final five remaining to come back for the final day of play. A grueling 12 hour day was in the cards for the four-card aficionados, and leading the final five is Stanislov Halatenko, whose 19,750,000 stack accounts for nearly half of the 43,860,000 in play. Travis Pearson (8,550,000) and Peng Shan (6,800,000) have healthy stacks of more than 30 big blinds, while Arthur Morris (4,875,000) and AP Garza (3,775,000) will be looking to spin it up.

The 42 remaining players were all guaranteed a $28,905 payday for their efforts through the first two days, but even with the gambling reputation of Omaha, the action was slow and steady throughout the day. Garza was involved in one of the early eliminations, making a wheel against Kabeelan Rajamurthy (37th – $33,823) to start Garza’s ascent up the counts. Sean Winter (35th – $33,823), Joseph Liberta ($40,278) and Adam Hendrix (17th – $48,800) joined the growing rail, and with two tables left the chip lead was neck and neck between Benoit Galland and Halatenko.

Halatenko would then bust William Kopp (16th – $48,800) in a monster pot, where both players had a jack-high straight on a board, but Halatenko’s found a full house on the river, and Kopp called off his stack with just the to propel Halatenko to a big chip lead. Dylan Weisman (14th – $60,136), the aforementioned Galland (13th – $60,136), Juha Helppi (12th – $75,352) and Dimitar Danchev (9th – $95,980) all busted before the official final table of eight was reached, but three more players had to bust to reach the day’s end.

The chatty Ren Lin couldn’t make the short stack rally happen, running into Garza’s boat to sink his tens-up in eighth. Garza played the role of executioner again in dispatching Kosei Ichinose next, Garza’s besting Ichinose’s when all the chips got in on a flop. The battle of the draws went to Garza, when he binked a flush on the runout to eliminate Ichinose in seventh. The final player to miss the final table was arguably the most accomplished remaining in Sam Soverel, who ripped in his stack with a wrap and a flush draw, but he whiffed everything against the top two pair of Shan to fall one spot shy of the final table of five. PokerGo captured the final hand of the day in all its drama:

Sam Soverel is eliminated in 6th place to end play for the night in the @WSOP $10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Championship. @SamSoverel misses a slew of outs and will have to settle for a $218,297 pay day.

? – Day 3 Replay: https://t.co/pckahdRXsH pic.twitter.com/qOl5ZYyYV1

— PokerGO (@PokerGO) June 24, 2023

Pupillo In Front of Talented Pack in Mixed Triple Draw

The 145 returning players in Event #52: $2,500 Mixed Triple Draw were all looking to wheel and “dugi” their way to the final day of play to stay in contention for a WSOP gold bracelet. Just 19 players bagged up chips, and a pure grinder sits atop the counts in Arizona pro Nick Pupillo (1,505,000), who guaranteed his third deep run in variants other than No Limit Hold’em of the summer after finishing 6th in the $10,000 Limit Hold’em Championship and 11th in the $1,500 Dealer’s Choice event. Pupillo will be looking to be the latest to take his name off the “Best Without a Bracelet” list, with a gold WSOP bracelet about the only accolade not in his coffers over a decade-long career with over $4.6 million in career tournament earnings.

Joao Vieira (1,040,000), Hye Park (810,000), Robert Mizrachi (500,000), John Monnette (410,000) and Cary Katz (135,000) will all return for Day 3 action, while Jon Turner, Ken Aldridge, Ben Yu, Scott Seiver, and Shaun Deeb all busted before reaching the money. Robert Campbell, Scott Abrams, Maria Ho and Jake Schwartz all managed to earn a cash before falling short of the final day.

Seiver and Volpe Riding Strong in H.O.R.S.E.

Day 1 of Event #54: $10,000 H.O.R.S.E Championship is traditionally a slower day for the $10k championship series, and a field of 165 entries still managed to bring 91 back after a full day of play for Day 2 action. Steven Loube (353,000) will return Saturday with the chip lead, a healthy amount ahead of Scott Bohlman’s 311,500, while Scott Seiver (297,000), David “Bakes” Baker (268,000) and Paul Volpe (214,500) all managed impressive bags of their own.

“KidPoker” himself Daniel Negreanu also managed to accumulate a healthy stack of 168,000, in hopes of turning around what has to be a disappointing summer so far, with just a handful of cashes to his name so far. Five-time WSOP Bracelet winner Josh Arieh (159,500) will be looking to keep his momentum from a ninth-place finish in the $50,000 Poker Players Championship going, as well.

A murderer’s row of heavy hitting bracelet winners did manage to find the rail through the day, including Adam Friedman, Jen Harman, Brian Rast, Erik Seidel, Anthony Zinno, Nick Schulman, and Koray Aldemir. Meanwhile, John Racener (39,000) Kevin Gerhart (17,500), and Shaun Deeb (10,500) all have work to do if they want to add to their bracelet collections.

Pair of Monster Stacks Lead the Millionaire Maker

Poker players seeking a guaranteed seven-figure payday found their wish granted with Day 1a of Event #53: $1,500 Millionaire Maker No-Limit Hold’em, with a guaranteed $1,000,000 payday up top for the eventual winner. Two players managed to spin their 25,000 starting stacks up past the 700,000 marker, with Yong Yi (750,000) and Sihao Zhang (725,500) easily lapping the remaining 1,012 players. Ryan Dodd (414,500), Alex Greenblatt (405,500), Javier Zarco (303,000), Vincent Moscati (244,500) and Dutch Boyd (241,500) also managed to put large stacks to bags for Sunday’s Day 2.

Banghart and Ramdin Surging in the Seniors

A whopping 1,624 entrants from a starting field of 8,180 returned for Day 2 action in Event #48: $1,000 Seniors Championship. Leonard Clementi leads the clubhouse with 4,200,000, while Chun Li kicked up a healthy 3,165,000 for second place. Other notables with healthy stacks out of the 217 remaining players include Jeff Banghart (1,980,000), Victor Ramdin (1,005,000), Ira Friedman (940,000), and Men Nguyen (700,000), while Mark Seif (355,000), Mike Matusow (250,000), Lee Markholt (243,000) and Dan Heimiller (221,000) will have some work to do to move on to Day 4.

Williams/Tran Invoking Legion of Doom in Tag Team

There was plenty of tagging and not so much bagging in Event #51: $1,000 Tag Team, as the 252 teams that returned for Day 2 were quickly whittled down to just 26 before the end of the day, with Japan’s Yuki Sako/Shunsuke Tokoo (2,340,000) holding a slim lead over David Williams/Theo Tran (2,085,000) and Nipun Java/Ronald Phipps (2,065,000). Vincent Moscati managed a rare double bag, putting a stack away in the Millionaire Maker and tagging up with Tanner Bibat to bag 945,000 in the Tag Team. 

Phil Hellmuth had an eventful night that somehow didn’t involve the WSOP:

Beautiful night for me. Dinner at Bardot w my wife, my son Phillip and his GF Danae, my son Nick and his GF Skyyler, and my parents. Then, somehow we found our own blackjack table at @Aria . . . Family FTW! #POSITIVITY #PHNiceLife

— phil_hellmuth (@phil_hellmuth) June 24, 2023

Dara O’Kearney went from multi-tabling to out in a snap:

Bust both events almost simultaneously after two long days of breakless poker

Happy to have secured first two cashed in my first two events, and thank you to @JulieJumpshot for doing all the heavy lifting in the team event pic.twitter.com/wcDa3xrVb9

— Dara O'Kearney (@daraokearney) June 24, 2023

The Mush got a stake! (Spoiler: He didn’t bag):

Shout out @TBensbenz for getting @MushJoeythe a chance at $1mil in $1,500 (and me too) GLGLGL pic.twitter.com/njYr8bX3z5

— Ryan Depaulo: Degenerate Gambler (@depaulo_ryan) June 23, 2023

Matt Berkey’s Tag Team Partner giving thanks for running deep:

I finished in 113th place this experience has been truly humbling and thrilling! I'm super ecstatic that I got Matt BIG BET BERKEY's TAG TEAM seat and I also love the Solve for Why company along with everyone else in Solve for why that I've followed over the last few years!

— Trent S (@tsluder94) June 23, 2023

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