WSOP 2024 Day 2 Recap: Daniel Negreanu Flying High in WSOP Kick Off, Champions Reunion Reaches the Final

Four events took place on Day 2 of the 2024 World Series of Poker as Daniel Negreanu was one of several big names to dominate the first open $500-entry event of the series. In the Champions Reunion $5,000-entry Event #1, the final 10 players were reached ahead of PokerGO's live-streamed finale on Thursday, while the $500 Casino Employees Event reached its dramatic final stages and the Mizrachi brothers dominated the first mixed game bracelet event of the summer. 

Fleischer Leads Final 10 in Champions Reunion

Terry Fleischer will take a big lead into the final two five-handed tables of the $5,000 buy-in Event #1, the Champions Reunion. With a field of 493 whittled down to 99 players by the start of Day 2, only 74 would make the money, with Ren Lin the bubble boy after notables such as Joe McKeehen, Toby Lewis, Huck Seed and Jamie Gold all missing out on money. 

The overnight leader, 2016 WSOP Main Event winner Qui Nguyen, took out both Seed and Gold and looked good for a deep run, but after legends of the game such as former world champion Greg Merson (67th), Daniel Negreanu (50th) and protege Jeremy Becker (58th), Robert Mizrachi (55th), reigning world champion Daniel Weinman (52nd), Kristen Foxen (45th), and Dan Zack (26th) all departed, Dan Harrington elimination in 37th place was followed by that of Nguyen himself in 21st. Losing to Asher Coniff, his rival for the chip lead on Day 1, Nguyen was the last former world champion standing, his $10,000 bounty going to Coniff who would make the final day. 

Brian Rast had taken out Qui Nguyen but he was unable to make the final day, busting in 17th place when he lost a race to the Chinese player Yushou Yin, Rast's pocket fives unable to hold against ace-queen.

Heading towards the final ten players who would make the overnights, Aram Zobian looked in danger of missing out. The PokerGO favorite, who won the U.S. Poker Open earlier this year, doubled up twice, however, with ace-queen beating Yin's ace-jack and queen-jack flopping a jack to outdraw Bryce Welker's ace-king. 

"I would very much like to make Day 3," Zobian stated calmly as the board fell and the American got his wish. Welker is the player who will need the most help when the final day begins, with chip leader Terry Fleischer (5,610,000 pictured above) and Turkish player Halil Tasyurek (3,995,000) sat next to each other at the start of Day 3. 

Event #1: $5,000 Champions Reunion Day 2 Chip Counts

Garcia Holds Huge Lead as Four Remain in Casino Event 

The $500 Casino Employees Event #2 saw just four players end the day with a chance of gold, with Spanish player Jose Garcia the overwhelming favorite to see out the final stages and take the $79,134 top prize. 

As the final nine began playing down to a winner, the hope was that play might conclude with the first bracelet won this summer but that will wait until tomorrow. Lukas Robinson, star of the hit GGPoker/Poker After Dark show Game of Gold came close but fell eight places short when his king-jack was beaten by Garcia's ace-three before Barry Goldberg scored two eliminations, taking out Christopher Keem in eighth and Josh Sieverding in seventh. 

After Bradley Wolfe lost out in sixth place, Goldberg's own elimination was the last of the night as he was dominated in two straight hands, first to double up Garcia, then to lose the remainder of his stack to Richard Rothmeier, who ended the evening closes to the chip leader. 

Event #2: $500 Casino Employees Event Fina Table Chip Counts/Results

Negreanu Among Big Stacks in Kickoff 

With a mammoth 3,485 entrants taking their seats in the $500 WSOP Kickoff No-Limit Hold’em Freezeout, the newest event of the WSOP saw both the Horseshoe Las Vegas and Paris casinos filled to the brim with poker talent. Only 523 of the players made the money places, with just 151 survivors making Day 2. Among them were some true superstars of the game.

A gargantuan prize pool of $1,463,700 was created in the third bracelet event of the summer, meaning a top prize of $175,578 and the gold WSOP bracelet will be up for grabs in the final. After 22 levels, it was the Chinese player Qiang Xu (2,130,000) who bagged the chip lead, as players such as Josh Arieh, Greg 'Fossilman' Raymer, Joe Cada, Brad Owen, Shaun Deeb and Jeremy Ausmus all fell short of the money places. Others, such as one of the best never to win a bracelet, Game of Gold Season 1 champion Maria Ho, made the money but not Day 2.

Other stars still in the field fighting for a bracelet are Jason Wheeler (1,615,000), Dan Shak (730,000), and perhaps most notably, Daniel 'Kid Poker' Negreanu (650,000), who all piled up big stacks. Negreanu in particular will be hoping to make the finale, with no WSOP bracelet won on U.S. soil since 2008. The Canadian did claim one record, however, with his latest cash at the WSOP meaning he has banked over $1 million in live tournament earnings for 14 years, the longest amount of time of any living player.

Event #3: $500 WSOP Kick Off Top 10 Chip Counts

Chen on Top in Omaha Hi-Lo Event 

The fourth and final event of the day to conclude saw 928 entries in the first mixed game event of the summer, the $1,500 Omaha 8 or Better Event #4. A total of $1,238,880 was gathered into the prize pool, meaning a top prize of $209,350 and bracelet immortality awaits the winner. 

With 275 players remaining and only 140 paid, this event has not yet reached the money bubble, so there is a long way to go, but no-one made a better start to the event than James Chen, who ended the day on an incredible 386,000 chips. A previous runner-up for over $300,000 in a $10,000-entry WSOP Omaha 8 or Better event, Chen knows his stuff in this format and has a big lead over three-time WSOP bracelet winner Upeshka De Silva (240,000). 

Sammy Farha, who was runner-up to Chris Moneymaker in the 'poker boom' Main Event of 2003, ended the day on a very hearty 172,000 chips, and the Lebanese player was joined in the counts by other legends as Robert Mizrachi (189,000), Felipe Ramos (175,000), John 'Miami' Cernuto (166,500), Jamie Kerstetter (149,000), Mike 'The Mouth' Matusow (106,000), with Poker Hall of Famers Brian Rast (99,500), and Eli Elezra (88,000) still very much a threat.

On a day where well over 65% of the field went home, poker luminaries such as Nathan Gamble, Ryan Leng, Alex Livingston, Shannon Shorr, and the reigning WSOP Main Event Champion Daniel Weinman all exited without making the second day's play.

Event #4: $1,500 Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better Top 10 Chip Counts

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