WSOP 2023: Wildest Day of WSOP Main Event So Far as Rigby Slays Kornuth, Shawn Daniels Wins First Bracelet Event of Career

A huge day of action in the 2023 WSOP Main Event saw the Main Event light up Las Vegas with drama, excitement and premium-level play as it reached the final 149 players in this year’s World Championship. Elsewhere, Joao Vieira and Josh Arieh duked it out at the top of the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. High Roller event and Americans Seth Davies and Shawn Daniels noth had days to remember at the felt.

Rigby Roasts Kornuth’s Chances in 200BB Pot

Nicholas Rigby once again dominated the drama on Day 5 of the WSOP Main Event, with a rollercoaster day going down in history as one of its most exciting to date. Rigby ended his day near the lower end of the counts after a fall but this was almost to be expected. His call of Robert Heidorn’s ace-king shove with just ten-seven indicated a player prepared to mix it up.

It was exactly this perception of Rigby, however, that won him the biggest pot of the tournament earlier in the day. Rigby, a.k.a. the ‘Dirty Diaper’, has become something of a WSOP hero to the Thunderdome rail and his 200 big blind all-in pre-flop monster pot against  Chance Kornuth will live long in the memory.

When giants collide…@GTO_Diaper vs. @ChancesCards in the biggest pot of the tournament so far.

? – Watch Live Here: https://t.co/6FK0YJq5Dy pic.twitter.com/tJ0DcimmfC

— PokerGO (@PokerGO) July 11, 2023

Rigby ended nowhere near the top of the leaderboard, however, as Zachary Hall bagged up a whopping 16,310,000 chips at the close of play, some way clear of even his closest challenger, Bryan Obregon (12,295,000). Hall is still in the Main Event thanks to a miraculous survival on Day 3 of the Main when he was all-in and at risk with two-pair on the turn, holding ten-six against the flopped set of sixes for British professional Chris Da-Silva. Hall hit a two-outer ten on the river for a better full house and survived. From being a card from the door outside of the money places, Hall’s hopes of winning the $12.1 million top prize now looks amazingly different.

As 441 players were reduced to just 149 survivors, some big names busted. Chris Brewer saw his run at a third WSOP bracelet ended, TV Writer Matt Salsberg couldn’t find the perfect ending to his incredible story and Nick Marchington bowed out short of the really big money and another final table appearance.

Other stars of the felt thrived, however. Toby Lewis missed the chance to pick off a big bluff but still ended up on 4.2 million. Ludovic Geilich (4.9m) climbed into the top 50, as Daniel Weinman (5.3m) did even better. In the top dozen stacks, John Racener (7,670,000) performed well in his attempt to win the event after coming second in 2010. British star Andrew Hulme will be hopeful that his experience combined with his chipstack guarantee an evenr deeper, run, ending his day on 11.06m, but perhaps Tony Dunst (8,285,000) attracted the most attention with his run up the leaderboard to start tomorrow’s Day 6 in seventh place of the 149.

Dunst, a prominent World Poker tour commentator, already has huge pedigree himself in the WSOP and in live tournaments in general. After some big hands, it is looking all the more like Dunst’s Main Event and no-one will relish the pressure of ‘under the lights’ poker more.

That includes Nicholas Rigby.

Shawn Daniels Wins First Bracelet in Lucky 7’s

In Event #77, the $777 buy-in Lucky 7’s event, American professional Shawn Daniels won his first-ever WSOP bracelet in a dramatic showdown for the gold. It certainly got easier for Daniels when the overnight chip leader Anthony Scarborough busted in 4^th place for $168,777, Scarborough losing with to Istvan Briski’s .

“Fives have been running hot.” Shawn Daniels said but Briski only needed to flop a ten to reduce the field to three. Daniels didn’t call those cards well, but he soon did so when it mattered, eliminating Briski in third place to take a 3:1 lead into the final duel. Julien Montois initially fought back, even taking the lead. Daniels, watched by his father on the rail, wrestled it back, however, before winning with two pair against a busted straight draw to claim the $777,777 top prize. Emotional, Daniels was in tears before he collected his career-defining bracelet.

Arieh and Hennigan Chasing Vieira in $25,000 H.O.R.S.E.

Event #80 on the schedule is the $25,000-entry H.O.R.S.E. event, and with just 15 players left from 112 entries, Portuguese player Joao Vieira (2,595,000) leads the field, with Yingui Li from China on the same chips. Josh Arieh (2,040,000) sits in third as he goes for bracelet #2 this Series, with John ‘World’ Hennigan (1,588,000) and Mike Matusow (705,000) both in hot pursuit of the leaders as they chase down another bracelet win in tomorrow.

Seth Davies Stars on Day 2 of Event #79

A total of 310 players kicked off Day 2 of the $2,500-entry No Limit Hold’em Event #79, but after a busy day of bust-outs, only 24 remain in with a chance of striking gold on tomorrow’s final day. The American professional Seth Davies (9,425,000) is flying at the top of the leaderboard and having never won a WSOP bracelet before, could hardly have put himself in a better position to change that in 24 hours’ time.

With players such as Ramon Fernandez (5.02m), Rui Ferreira (4.3m) and Diego Ventura (3.15m) all in the top 10, nothing will be easy, but over 3 million clear at the top of the Day 2 leaderboard, Davies might never have a better chance to seal WSOP victory.

Ultra Stack Sees Matthew Land Late Lead  

Matthew Land hardly ‘coasted’ to the lead on Day 1a of the 81^st event of this year’s World Series but snuck into the lead late in the day to top 243 survivors in Event #81. The $600-entry Ultra Stack event ended with Land on top of the leaderboard with 2,160,000, but that was just a three-bet past Jiawei Mao’s pile of 2,150,000. Elsewhere in the top 10, there were stacks for Christina Gollins (2,000,000) and Shane Schleger (1,800,000) as a vast field of 3,091 lost 92% of the field on Day 1a.

Pot Limit Omaha Event Attracts POY Leader

With only a short time to go until the WSOP Player of the Year race is over this year, the current leader isn’t letting up in his pursuit of glory. Ian Matakis ended Day 1 of Event #82, the $3,000-entry PLO 6-Max event, in second place on 490,500 chips, only behind Tyler Gaston (552,500) on the day.

Elsewhere in the top 10, Dylan Weisman (455,500) and Kelvin Kerber (401,500) both enjoyed stellar days at the felt as they chase down a bracelet that will come with a $480,122 top prize.

Amit Makhija may just have solved the ‘bubble problem’ in poker. Daniel Negreanu’s response in the comments is equally great, too.

Instead of a bubble in big field tournaments we should just make the bottom ten stacks auto bubble when we’re 10 off the money. Get all the short stack’s incentivized to light their chips on fire, max chaos, quick bubbles, and no stalling.

— Amit Makhija (@amak316) July 10, 2023

This incredible hand may have been the best of the World Series so far.

This is the most ridiculous hand you will see this @WSOP, and it's not even close.

Pour one out for Bill Klein and Stuart Taylor after this ridiculous runout. pic.twitter.com/EK17VoMXp1

— PokerGO (@PokerGO) July 11, 2023

This one, however, got the biggest reaction in Paris.

Live reaction from Paris of the Lewis and Vampan hand pic.twitter.com/W7muaLGblu

— Anna (@BonaFideAnna) July 12, 2023

Chris Moneymaker is pretty bulletproof, but even he took a few hits here!

"@CMONEYMAKER hasn't done shit since 2003…"

? Chris Moneymaker reads mean tweets!

What's your favorite one?!#poker #WSOP

Updates all day on https://t.co/eD3emYu5hK! pic.twitter.com/PuDcXLmdgK

— Poker Org (@pokerorg) July 11, 2023

The Main Event is amazing… for most people, anyway.

Unpopular take: The Main Event is horrible value for almost every entrant.

Rake is 7%, so roughly only $9,300 from every 10k bi goes into the prize pool. You have better odds going into high limit, and betting 10k on 1 roulette number and you'll have a higher EV, as that bet…

— Luiz (BrazilGod) (@TheBrazilGod) July 11, 2023

Is the Jeff Platt Curse real? We couldn’t possibly comment, except to say that only minutes after receiving a reply from Jeff to a previous tweet of ours, we tripped and fell down a flight of stairs, twice.

Niall Farrell agrees.

Do a quick segment with @jeffplatt, bust QQ to AKo for 2.5m 20 mins later ?

— Niall Farrell (@Firaldo87poker) July 11, 2023

Joe Stapleton has provided yet more evidence.

I don’t know what’s going on but I would go so far as to say I am CLOSE friends with @jeffplatt, talk to him almost every day, didn’t drag a single pot in the main event, and went broke on day 1.

— Joe “Legacy Blue” Stapleton (@Stapes) July 11, 2023

OK, this one is fake, but Matt Waxman may be billing Platt for post-dramatic stress disorder.

Day 2 main event:

Had 300k when @jeffplatt walked by, gave me a pat on the shoulder and whispered "I'll brb with the mic".

The very next hand I got AA and some 70+ yr old Brazilian guy (only person at the table who had me covered) got it all in pre vs me with A7o. Flop 777. GG

— MW (@Matthew_Waxman) July 11, 2023

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