10,043 players paid the $10,000 buy in to the 2023 World Series of Poker Main Event (WSOP Main Event).
Now after five days of intense action there are just 149 players remaining in the tournament. Each seeking to battle it out for the record-busting top prize of $12.1m.
With a prize pool of just shy of $94m, the 2023 WSOP Main Event will go down as the biggest in history.
And poker fans and experts are already wondering just how big the event could grow in the future.
But what is certain is that Jamie Gold’s record $12m win back in 2006 in the tournament, will be beaten this year. And the new record could well be beaten in future years too.
What Has Happened at the WSOP Main Event 2023?
- Previous WSOP Main Event Records Broken
It has been an exciting week of action since the tournament began last Thursday.
With four Day 1 events, plus another four Day 2 events, and entries allowed up until the end of Day 2, promoters hoped for the biggest WSOP Main Event ever.
And by the end of Day 2, they had their wish with 10,043 players smashing the record for number of entries.
The top prize was then set at $12.1m. Thus meaning that this year’s winner would earn the largest cash prize of any WSOP Main Event in history.
Organisers of the event were delighted after predicting that this year’s tournament would shatter previous records.
And now many of them are wondering just how big this event could become in future years.
- WSOP Main Event – Story So Far
In order to allow as many people into the event as possible, the opening two rounds of the tournament were staggered.
Days 1A, 1B and 1C were contested on the Thursday with 1D, the largest of the opening days, being contested on the Friday/
A similar format was followed for Day 2. The aim being that by Day 3 the number of players remaining in the tournament would be able to compete directly against each other.
The opening two rounds of a WSOP Main Event are always known to be brutal and this year was no different.
Israeli poker pro Idan The One had a particularly bad beat when he lost two big hands in a row on Level 2 of the event. First off Idan was holding a pair of kings against Ruben Correia’s pair of aces which held to take a sizeable chunk of Idan’s stack.
The unbelievably, Idan landed pocket kings again, this time going all in, only for Correia to land a pair of aces once again and again. The bullets held to send the distraught Israeli out of the competition.
Over the next few days, thousands of others would join him, including some of the biggest and most famous names in poker such as Phil Ivey, Tom Dwan, Daniel Negreanu, Phil Hellmuth, Jason Koon, Justin Bonomo and many more also bit the dust.
By the end of all the Day 2 games, the tournament had been shrunk down to 3583 players and over the next couple of days those numbers fell to 1517 moving forward to Day 4 and then 441 going on to Day 5.
Day five then saw that field shortened down to 149 players who remain in the tournament and in with a chance of winning the top prize.
Current WSOP Main Event 2023 Chip Leaders After Day 5
- Zachary Hall – 16,310,000
- Bryan Obregon – 12,295,000
- Liran Betito – 11,140,000
- Andrew Hulme – 11,065,000
- Joshua Payne – 9,850,000
- Anirban Das – 9,230,000
- Tony Dunst – 8,285,000
- Glenn Fishbein – 8,265,000
- Alejandro Perez – 8,075,000
- Jonathan Therme – 7,900,000
149 players remain in the tournament. 9894 players have been eliminated.
- Which Celebrities Featured in this Year’s WSOP Main Event?
We all know that the top poker stars will usually be in attendance at the biggest poker event of the year. But did you know that the event is popular with celebrities in other fields too?
This year we saw several celebs taking to the felt to test their poker skills at the highest level.
Ex-Manchester City, Barcelona and Argentina striker Sergio Aguero played on Day 1C of the event and made it through to the second day and showed plenty of skill in progressing into Day 3.
However, it was here that Aguero’s luck ran out as he exited the tournament at this point, although he enjoyed it so much he has vowed to return in future.
Professional boxer Ryan Garcia was another to buy in to the event and he produced an excellent performance.
Not only did he match Aguero in getting into Day 3, Garcia actually made it through to Day 5 and was only eliminated when he reached the last 500 or so players, earning him a hefty payday for his efforts over the last five days.
American-Canadian Youtuber and Chess prodigy Alexandra Botez suffered a bad beat loss on Day 3 when she was eliminated from the event, while TV presenter and restaurant owner Guy Fieri unveiled the WSOP Main Event 2023 bracelet and also competed in the tournament.
NFL Hall of Famer Richard Seymour, who now makes his living as a poker player, also made it through the first few days before he was eliminated. Rapper Hoodie Allen, Steven Markowitz, got through to Day 3 but fell early on in proceedings.
With Day 6 to start imminently, it promises to be an intriguing end to the tournament.
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