WSOP 2023 Day 37 Recap: Day 1C of WSOP Main Event Sees Agüero Thrive and Negreanu Survive with Record in Sight

A thrilling day of action in the World Series of Poker Main Event dominated Day 37 of the WSOP. The World Championship wasn’t the only bracelet event in progress, as Sam Soverel conquered the final six of the ‘Hybrid’ event at this year’s World Series to win his second WSOP bracelet in style.

Day 1C of Main Event Sees Over 3,000 Entries

This year’s WSOP Main Event will award a ‘lifetime’ of entries to one lucky player, but only if the record attendance of 2006 is broken. After the first three Day 1 flights, a total of 5,217 players have put up the $10,000 entry fee and sat down with 60,000 starting chips, meaning the event still needs 3,557 entries or more on Day 1D and the start of either Day 2ABC or 2D to break the record.

Day 1C was the biggest flight yet, and with 3,080 entries at the time of going to press, the overall lead in the World Championship was run very close. Day 1A’s chip leader - Israel's Yehuda Dayan – still leads the surviving D2ABC field of 4,040 with 389,900 chips, but Day 1C’s leader, British poker professional Chris Brammer got awfully close with 386,100 in his bag by the close of play.

Plenty of other big stacks sat close behind Brammer as Day 1C ended, with the top ten also featuring players such as Anthony Ibrahim (298,000), Sreekanth Nistala (260,200) and Tom Cannuli (248,000).

As was the case on Day 1A and Day 1B, several WSOP Main Event winners from poker’s past survived to Day 2, with Joe McKeehen (111,500), Scott Blumstein (71,900), Espen Jorstad (62,000), and Ryan Riess (68,100) all manging to join other former world champions Greg Raymer, Johnny Chan, Martin Jacobson, Damian Salas, and Jamie Gold in the Day 2ABC seat draw. That dramatic meeting of minds will take place on Friday, July 7.

Of the world champions who have taken part this year, only one has failed to make it, as German poker powerhouse and 2021 world champion Koray Aldemir fell on Day 1C. His pocket kings were no good against pocket aces in his exit hand. Aldemir was by no means the only big name to bust, with stars such as Maria Ho, Vanessa Selbst, Erik Seidel, Mikita Badziakouski, Darren Elias, and Kevin Martin all losing their tournament lives across five two-hour levels. PokerStars presenter and broadcasting legend Joe ‘Stapes’ Stapleton was unable to make the Day 2 cut after being left with “no chips and no chair” in the words of the stand-up comedian.

A surprise entry – and survival – on Day 1C was the former Manchester city, Atletico Madrid and Argentina soccer star Sergio Agüero, who ‘pitched up’ to play Day 1C adorned in a hoodie that covered most of him. Cameras picked him out as they made a pass soon enough, however, and Agüero, who is the all-time leading goalscorer for the current Premier League champions, survived with a very good stack of 87,000 by the final whistle. He’ll be back on Friday to see if he can extend his extra time in the Main Event.

Day 1C also saw some sharks rising to the surface of a deep pool, with five-time bracelet winner Josh Arieh (181,200), Phil Laak (146,100), Mustapha Kanit (142,400), Ronnie Bardah (121,400), Stephen Chidwick (105,000), and Todd Brunson (88,200) all bagging up good stacks.

Finally, Daniel Negreanu survived Day 1C, albeit with a lower stack of 25,900. Having finished 11^th in 2015, ‘Kid Poker’ may not have started as he would have hoped, but he still has chips and will no doubt be dangerous on Day 2abc regardless of how many chips he has. At this stage, any chips are plenty chips. Over a thousand players have now busted the Main Event. Those still in it can certainly still win it.

Sam Soverel Scores Second Bracelet Triumph

U.S. Poker Open and Poker Masters crusher Sam Soverel won the Hybrid Online Event #13 as the final six players convened in Las Vegas to play to a winner at the live felt. Soverel, who led from the start, saw Ethan ‘Rampage’ Yau crash out first before fellow short stack Lingkun Lu departed in fifth place.

Aleks Ponakovs failed in the same ambition as Soverel – to win his second bracelet – when Soverel busted him in fourth with pocket tens, as Ponakovs’ pocket threes fell short. Gergely Kulcsar from Hungary had been on a tear and that continued to heads-up as he busted Yuval Bronshtein in third place but although the Hungarian led heads-up, it didn’t stay that way.

A full house for Soverel led to the lead changing hands and soon after, the bracelet was in Soverel’s grip. His ace-eight was too good for Kulcsar’s ten-nine as the Hungary player’s straight flush draw didn’t come in. The trophy and top prize of $393,516 belonged to the home country player Soverel.

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