WSOP 2023 Day 42 Recap: Champions Fall as Bubble Bursts on Day 4 of the Main Event

Day 4 of the WSOP Main Event saw 1,517 players begin the action at the Horseshoe and Paris casinos in Las Vegas, with just 44 surviving to the end of the day. Some previous world champions busted while others survived as stars of the felt battled to make it really deep in the big one, but there were three other events in progress too, as players such as Josh Arieh thrived in the $25,000-entry H.O.R.S.E. High Roller.

Bubble Bursts on Day 4 of Main Event

The record-breaking field of 10,043 players in this year’s WSOP Main Event has already been trimmed to just 441 survivors. Day 4 of the world’s biggest-ever Main Event saw drama, excitement and some of the biggest players in the world make their way from the tables as former champions fell at either the Horseshoe or Paris casinos in Las Vegas.

At the close of play, it was the American player Ryan Tosoc (5,120,000) who held the chip lead, just one big blind ahead of Mitchell Halverson (5.1 million), who made it all the way to the last two tables just 24 months ago. With players such as Scott Berko (4.7m) and John Racener (3.71m) in the top ten, no-one is likely to be holding the chip lead for too long a period over the next couple days at the felt.

The biggest news on Day 4 of the Main Event was that the money bubble burst, with three players being busted on the same hand. They split the first two money places of $15,000 three ways, meaning they each got their money back, with an extra $10,000 ‘bubble prize’ of entry into next year’s Main Event going to Jeppe Bisgaard.

Big names such as 2023 bracelet winner Jason Mercier, chess grandmaster Alexandra Botez, Day 1 boss Doug Polk, Allen ‘Chainsaw’ Kessler, ‘Boston Rob’ Mariano, British crusher Stephen Chidwick, and Michael ‘Grinder’ Mizrachi all busted inside the money places but outside of a deep run.

Four of the highest-profile former Main Event winners lost their tournament lives on Day 4, with 2006 winner Jamie Gold crashing out. The double world champion from 1987 and 1988, Johnny Chan, also lost his stack, while the 2009 WSOP Main Event champion Joe Cada and the more recent winner Scott Blumstein slid out of contention too.

Another strong day went into the books for Nicholas Rigby, as the ‘Dirty Diaper’ soared for most of the day before dropping a little to 3.65 million by the close of play, still good for 12^th place out of the 441 players who remain. It is still anyone’s $12.1 million top prize and title of world champion.

Scarborough Faring Well as Last Day in Lucky 7’s Looms

Anthony Scarborough leads the final five players into the action in the $777-entry Lucky 7’s Event #77. With a massive stack of 140 million chips, he’d got almost double his nearest challenger’s stack, as French player Julien Montois bagged up 70.7 million in second place.

The leaderboard may be limited but it is packed with quality. Shawn Daniels (47.4m) will still feel supremely confident of winning his first bracelet, as will Hungarian Istvan Briski (32.4m) with Charles La Boissonniere (13.4m) hoping for a miracle from short stack. Whoever wins, it will be the first time they’ve worn the gold WSOP bracelet.

Seth Davies Stars on Opening Day of Event #79

American pro Seth Davies bagged the biggest chip stack on Day 1 of the $2,500-entry NLHE Event #79 on Monday, with his stack of 1,113,000 joined by Ramon Fernandez as the only two stacks above a million from 310 survivors.

A total of 2,068 entries saw others such as bracelet winners Alex Lindop (858,000), Galen Hall (743,000) and Brent Shaffer (615,000) make the top dozen, while big names Renan Bruschi (493,000), Rafael Reis (475,000) and David Miscikowski (394,000) easily cruised into the upper limits of the leaderboard too.

Arieh the Leader in H.O.R.S.E. Race

Josh Arieh top-scored on Day 1 of the $25,000-entry H.O.R.S.E. High Roller Event 80. The five-time WSOP bracelet winner, who already has a bracelet win this summer, crushed the opposition to pile up a massive 621,500 chips on Day 1 of this high-roller event.

With stars of the mixed game circuit such as Nacho Barbero (504,000), Matt Glantz (463,000), Andres Korn (461,000) and Michael Moncek (415,000), who also chases his second bracelet win this summer, still in the top 10, Arieh will not have it all his own way. He’ll be tough to stop too, however, as he pursues yet another bracelet and the outside shot at the WSOP Player of the Year title he won just two years ago. Of 98 entries so far, only 56 found a bag and none fuller than Arieh’s.

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