WSOP 2023 Day 40 Recap: Maurice Hawkins and Nicholas Rigby Star on Day 2d as Dirty Diaper Eliminates Phil Hellmuth in Main Event

Day 2d of the WSOP Main Event saw the total entries in the biggest World Championship in poker history locked at 10,043 as the top prize was revealed as $12.1 million, the largest ever awarded. That moment is over a week of dramatic poker away, and there was enough excitement on Saturday night to thrill poker fans around the world on PokerGO. With two other events in progress too, it was a busy day at the Horseshoe Las Vegas and Paris casinos.

Day 2d of Main Event Sees Rigby Bust Helmuth

What do you get when you get one of the most fearless poker players in the world and the 17-time record bracelet winner at the feature table? Fireworks were guaranteed, and they certainly happened as Nicholas Rigby busted Phil Hellmuth on his way to ending the day in second place on the leaderboard.

The Poker Brat busted with two-pair to Rigby’s better two-pair and was gracious in the moment, shaking Rigby’s hand as the man known as ‘Dirty Diaper’ piled up yet more chips. The aggressive player ended Day 2d in second place, just behind Maurice Hawkins (941,000), as Rigby bagged 921,500.   

The top 10 was packed with big stacks, as players such as Jeff Shapiro (832,000), Jacob Mitch (660,000) and Liran Betito (604,000), Australian professional James Obst (593,000) and WPT champion Steve Watts (555,000) all enjoyed a fruitful day at the felt and made Day 3 looking not just to build towards the 1,507 money places in 2023, but the business end of the tournament.

Other big names made Day 3, with Women’s Hall of Famer Kathy Liebert (477,000), three-time WSOP bracelet winner Chance Kornuth (449,500), and poker legend Tom Dwan (426,500) all finished inside the top 50 places.

With a min-cash of $15,000 up for grabs for just under half the remaining field, there is a very long way to go until the biggest parts of the $93.4 million prizepool is shared out.

Lucky 7’s Concludes Mammoth Day 1b

On Day 1b of the $777 buy-in Lucky 7’s Event #77, 2,380 entries were reduced to just 100 players as chip leader Stepan Vinokurov (3,315,000) finished ahead of seasoned professionals David Peters (2,775,000) and Alex Livingston (2.2 million) in the top five of the leaderboard.  

Plenty of big names made the Day 2 field, with Aaron Mermelstein (1.66 million), WPT winner Eric Afriat (1,475,000), Renan Bruschi (1,425,000), WSOP Player of the Year hopeful Chad Eveslage (1,205,000), and British poker superstar Patrick Leonard (800,000) all putting themselves in a great position to claim gold in what may be a thrilling conclusion to this event.

Just 15 Players Remain in PLO Bounty Event

The Day action was red-hot in the PLO Bounty Event #78, as the $1,500-buy-in event saw just 15 players survive from the 140 players who started the day. With a top prize of $171,741 -and that priceless WSOP gold bracelet – on the line at the Horseshoe Las Vegas tomorrow, players such as Daniel Negreanu and David ‘ODB’ Baker lost out on the penultimate day of the event.

With 15 remaining, Satar Al-Sadoun (4.8 million) leads the field, with Thomas Skaggs (3.53 million) closest in attendance. Big names such as Ryan Coon (2m), Noah Schwartz (1.1m) and Jeff Madsen (945,000) are all hoping that their experience will count for just as much as their chips when the gold is up for grabs.

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