WSOP 2023 Day 2 Recap: First WSOP Bracelet of Series Won by Peter Thai, $25k High Roller Reaches Final Table

The 54^th annual World Series of Poker (WSOP) reached its second day on Wednesday, with five tournaments taking place and one gold WSOP bracelet awarded to a tournament winner. Peter Thai took down the opening event for over $75,000 and the most priceless prize in poker. Elsewhere, the $25k High Roller Event #2 reached its final table with big names poised to claim glory, while the Mystery Millions began its mammoth journey to the bounty drama with last year’s biggest winner surviving in style.

Peter Thai Wins Opening Event for $75,000

The $500 Casino Employees Event reached its final table and played right down to a winner on the second and final day of the tournament. The first bracelet won at this year’s WSOP was by Peter Thai, who claimed victory after a sensational final table went his way in dramatic fashion.

With the action ten-handed, three American casualties preceded the exit of the only non-American at the final table, Canada’s Sean Balfour, in 6th place. Both Benson Tam (5th for $17,303) and Bruce Jiang (4th for $23,738) were taken out by Peter Thai as he ascended to chip leader, and having built a big lead, he took out both Paul Blanchette in 3rd and his heads-up opponent James Urbanic in swift fashion to claim a maiden bracelet.

Sean Winter and Chance Kornuth Chase High-Roller Crown

The second event on the schedule, the $25,000-entry High Roller Event #2 saw a field of 78 players whittled down to just eight final table players on Day 2 of this three-day event. At the close of play, French player Alex Hallay (7,980,000) led the way with a huge lead amassed from a short stack of just 40,000 chips earlier in the day. Others to make the final table included poker legends, such as Sean Winter (3,945,000) and Chance Kornuth (2,605,000).

On what was a busy day at the felt, players such Phil Hellmuth, Dan Smith, Shaun Deeb and Jason Koon all missed out on profit, as players such as all-time money list leader Justin Bonomo (29^th for $43,750), former Main Event winners Koray Aldemir (26^th for $43,750), and Espen Jorstad (25^th for $43,750) joined Daniel Negreanu (22^nd for $50,000) in busting before the final table.

With $1.2 million up for grabs in the PokerGO live-streamed final later today , there is sure to be a day of drama ahead as the biggest bracelet win of the first week here in Las Vegas takes place.

Matt Glantz Among Survivors on Day 1a of Mystery Millions

Last year’s ecstatic winner Matt Glantz made it through to the next day after coming back to Event #3, the $1,000-entry Mystery Millions determined to reclaim his crown. Winning the $1 million bounty in 2022, Glantz was delighted to make it into the next day’s seat draw, stating: “Bagged the nonsense circus bounty event.  The repeat is still alive. Imagine how much you would hate to see it.”

Glantz survived, but after a mammoth day at the felt that saw 2,023 entries build a prizepool of over $1.8 million, it was Francis Anderson (2,750,000) who led the way from Bohdan Slyvinskyi (2,310,000) in the counts. Dan Colpoys (2,000,000) also had a stellar day at the felt, with players such as Vanessa Kade, Josh Arieh and Farah Galfond all missing out on escaping the day with a stack.

Other Events See McEachern and Hui the Heroes

Two other events took place on Wednesday’s second day of the 2023 WSOP. In the Tournament of Champions, which is open to players who have won a WSOP bracelet or Circuit Ring in the past year, Lon McEachern (133,000) proved he knows his poker at the felt as well as he does beind the mic as he survived Day 1, with 726 players reduced to 243 hopefuls by the close of play.

Boshuang Gao was the chip leader with 445,000 chips by the end of the action, with legends of the game such as Pete Chen (151,500), Jeff Madsen (94,500) and Michael Perrone (74,500) all making Day 2 as well.

In the fifth event of this 54^th annual WSOP, Day 1 of the $1,500 Dealer’s Choice Six-Handed Event #5 saw Larry Tull (217,000) bag the biggest stack as 456 starters played down to 135 survivors.

Big names such as Phil Hui (175,000), Marco Johnson (168,00) and Scott Bohlman (167,500) all made the upper limits of the leaderboard while famous faces such as John Racener (140,000), Brian Rast (47,000) and Benny Glaser (28,500) along with the 2004 world champion Greg Raymer (38,000) all lived to three-bet another day.

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