WSOP 2023 Day 39 Recap: Day 2 of Main Event Sees Stars of the Felt Survive, Chris Brammer Maintains Chip Lead

The latest day of World Series of Poker action saw Day 2ABC of the WSOP Main Event take place, with the $777 Lucky 7’s and $1,500 Bounty Event also on during Day 39 of this year’s Series. There was drama all the way at the Horseshoe Las Vegas and Paris casinos as all three events saw dramatic hands and massive pots dragged by some of the biggest names in the game.

Brammer Leads the Field

Around 3,900 players took to their seats on Day 2ABC, with 196 entries on Day 2 meaning the that the overall field in this year’s Main Event stands at 9,538 with Day 2D late registrations still to come.

One player who excelled on Day 1, Doug Polk, got off to a fantastic start at the feature table, as – just like Phil Hellmuth yesterday – he made a pile with pocket sixes.

Looks like sixes are the lucky hand in the 2023 @WSOP Main Event as @DougPolkVids takes a 100K pot with them early here on Day 2. pic.twitter.com/FmTPo0dE2f

— PokerGO (@PokerGO) July 7, 2023

With a prizepool of over $93 million now up for grabs, the chip leader after Day 2ABC is the British professional Christopher Brammer who led with 879,000 chips as the bags came round to be filled. He is followed by some other massive stacks, with Julio Belluscio (825,500), the 2019 Main Event final tablist Nick Marchington (716,000), Finnish cash game legend Patrik Antonius (584,500), and Survivor star Ronnie Bardah (519,000) all high up in the field.

Other big names such as Shota Nakanishi (500,500), Stephen Chidwick (472,500) and Cole Ferraro (454,000) all comfortably made the upper limits of the leaderboard.

The 2022 World Champion Has Busted

The 2022 WSOP Main Event champion Espen Jorstad busted in just the second level of the day after flopping a set of sixes but this time, the ‘Devil’s Hand’ was no good. Julian Aguirre had flopped a straight and no paired board came to Jorstad’s rescue.

Jorstad wasn’t the only big name to bust, with Daniel Negreanu heading to the rail. Kid Poker was all entertainment at his table, but having begun with only 25,900 chips, fell short, busting along with players such as Adrian Mateos, Jamie Kerstetter, Jeremy Ausmus, and the 2004 WSOP Main Event winner Greg ‘Fossilman’ Raymer.

The other former world champions enjoyed a much more profitable day as the ‘Curse of the Champion’ that has plagued other years of the Main Event was flipped on his head again on this year’s Day 2. Hybrid winner Damian Salas (147,500), Joe McKeehen (220,000), Martin Jacobson (128,000), Ryan Riess (174,500), the youngest-ever winner Joe Cada (241,500), 2006 champion Jamie Gold (248,000), and the legendary 1987 and 1988 winner Johnny Chan (372,000) all survived in great shape.

One player survived despite not ending Day 2ABC in his seat. Steven ‘Hoodie Allen’ Markowitz decided to opt out of the action in order to catch a flight out of Vegas. Appearing as a groomsman at a friend’s wedding, Markowitz will be racing back to Sin City to a Day 3 stack 124,500 chips... if he can make his early flight back to Las Vegas. 

Blanton the Big Stack in Lucky 7’s Event

There was a busy opening day in the $777-entry Lucky 7’s Event #77 as Chase Blanton bagged up the biggest stack with 2,265,000 chips. Further down the leaderboard after Day 1A, Jerry Yang (1,350,000), Jon Turner (740,000) and Kevin Song (540,000) are all still in there battling for a WSOP bracelet and six-figure top prize.

Only 59 players of the 1,470 players who entered Day 1a still have a stack, with the average chip stack at the close of play nearing a million.

Casey Wassell Leads Bounty Event

In Event #78, the $1,500 Bounty Pot Limit Omaha action saw 1,214 entrants, with 140 surviving to Day 2. The money bubble burst during the last level for 183 winning players, so everyone still involved is chasing a guaranteed part of the $1,620,690 prize pool with a top prize of $171,742 up for grabs.

With each player having a $500 bounty on their heads, Casey Wassel top scored with 694,000 chips, as players such as Satar Al-Sadoun (671,000) and Jon Rodack (621,000) ran them close. There was a very strong showing from Daniel Negreanu (271,000) with other superstars David ‘ODB’ Baker (361,000), Nacho Barbero (240,000) and Jeff Madsen (252,000) also surviving.

Others such as Noah Schwartz (265,000), Kevin MacPhee (220,000), and Dash Dudley (122,000) will all be threats to the latest WSOP bracelet too in what is sure to be an entertaining event to witness come to a conclusion.

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