World Series of Photos: The Champ, Stars and Stool

Throughout the summer, PokerGO will bring fans across the globe exclusive access to World Series of Poker final table streams and Poker Central will be following all the WSOP action. Each day, “World Series of Photos” will tell the daily stories from the Rio, so you don’t miss any of the sights of the WSOP. 

Event #73 – $10,000 World Series of Poker Main Event

Each year, plenty of past Main Event winners return to the World Series hoping to have lightning strike twice in the year’s biggest event. Johnny Chan though, is the only player looking for his third-career Main Event title. Chan won the Main Event in 1987 and 1988, before falling heads up to Phil Hellmuth in his quest for back-to-back-to-back titles. The “Orient Express” bagged an above average stack heading into tomorrow’s Day 2C session, so we could see Chan contend this year.

Past champions will always be a story line in the Main Event but this year, the biggest story line throughout the World Series has been the Player of the Year race. While there have been many critiques of the system used to determine this year’s POY, John Monnette has done enough to earn POY no matter the formula. Monnette has cashed 14 times in 2017, including four single-digit finishes and a bracelet in the $10,000 No Limit 2-7 Lowball Draw Championship. Monnette bagged chips in yesterday’s Day 1C flight and a deep run in the Main Event could put him in a commanding POY lead before the WSOP heads to Europe in October.

Over the last year, Jeff Gross has streamed and vlogged his way to become one of the poker world’s biggest personalities and yesterday, before Day 1C of the Main Event began, PokerStars made a massive announcement. Gross was added to their Team PokerStars Pro lineup and was donning the Red Spade during yesterday’s starting flight. Aside from his engaging vlogs throughout the WSOP, Gross has also recorded a handful of scores and been a part of PokerGO live stream broadcasts.

We’re ending this World Series of Photos post with the player that almost ended yesterday at the top of the leader board, Barstool Sports’ Eric Nathan. The man more commonly known as “Barstool Nate” bagged up a pile and midway through his Day 1C session, Nate, pictured top, and “Barstool Smitty” joined the Poker Central Podcast. That will likely not be the last time we see these two, as they are both through to Day 2C and will certainly have the entire Barstool community cheering them on.

Follow all the WSOP action on Poker Central and watch exclusive WSOP Main Event live streams on PokerGO.