WSOP 2024 Day 28 Recap: Obst Remains on Top in PPC, Negreanu, Ivey and Mizrachi All Fighting for Title

A superb day's play in the 2024 WSOP saw five events in progress, with buy-ins ranging from $1,000 in the Super Seniors right up to $50,000 in the Poker Players Championship. With the Chip Reese trophy and millions on the line, which poker legends survived, and who dropped out of contention? We've got the latest from Las Vegas, Nevada.

James Obst Leads Poker Players Championship on Day 2 with Negreanu and Ivey Chasing

Day 2 of Event #58, the $50,000 Poker Players Championship, ended with just 29 players still in seats as Australia's James Obst once again led the field at the close of play. Across a rollercoaster ride of a Day 2, Obst increased his stack to 1,961,000, a little way clear of two poker greats who are chasing him down with momentum, Jeremy Ausmus (1,839,000) and Johannes Becker (1,764,000). 

A little further back in the top 10 stacks, six-time WSOP winner Daniel Negreanu (1,341,000) finished a three-bet ahead of the three-time PPC winner Michael 'Grinder' Mizrachi (1,329,000), with Phil Ivey (815,000), Phil Hui (700,000), Stephen Chidwick (604,000), Viktor Blom (570,000), Gus Hansen (395,000), and John Monnette (128,000) all included as 29 players survived. 

On a busy Day 2, there were 14 additional entries to the 75 on Day 1, meaning a total field of 89 entrants has been whittled down to just 29 survivors. The money bubble is some way off, however, with just 14 players being paid and a top prize of over $1.1m on offer. 

Players to bust on Day 2 and miss out on the dream of winning the biggest part of a $4.4m prizepool included Josh Arieh, two-time PPC winner Dan 'Jungleman' Cates, Benny Glaser, Paul Volpe, and Shaun Deeb. With last year's reigning champion Brian Rast already having busted on Day 1, Jason Mercier was a late departure too.

Both Daniel Negreanu and John David Rogers got the better of the 17-time WSOP bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth in the final level of play to send the Poker Brat to the rail, Hellmuth paired to miss the low and lost to Negreanu overpair to leave without making any profit.

Only 14 players will cash this event, with the winner taking away $1,178,703 and the infamous Chip Reese Trophy. It's anyone's guess which one of the 29 superb players that will be.

WSOP Event #58: $50,000 Poker Players Championship Day 1 Chip Counts

Place	Player	Country	Chips
1st	James Obst	Australia	1,961,000
2nd	Jeremy Ausmus	United States	1,839,000
3rd	Johannes Becker	Germany	1,764,000
4th	Jared Bleznick	United States	1,546,000
5th	David Benyamine	United States	1,531,000
6th	Joao Vieira	Portugal	1,428,000
7th	Daniel Negreanu	Canada	1,341,000
8th	Michael Mizrachi	United States	1,329,000
9th	Bryce Yockey	United States	1,255,000
10th	Hal Rotholz	United States	1,055,000

Martin Jacobson Among Survivors on Millionaire Maker Day 2

Some very big names made the Day 3 cut in the $1,500-entry Event #54, known to everyone as the Millionaire Maker. Players such as Sasha Guerin (2,205,000), Chris Moorman (1,775,000) and Jason Wheeler (1,350,000) all made the top 25 players, while there was just one former world champion remaining when play ended, as the 2014 WSOP Main Event winner Martin Jacobson (335,000) slid into the overnights, albeit with work to do to run super-deep.

Others to survive included Timur Margolin (2,320,000) Ankit Ahuja (1,510,000), Max Neugebauer (865,000), Sean Troha (575,000) and Jared Jaffee (400,000), but not everyone made it to Day 3. Players such as Aussie 2024 WSOP bracelet winner Malcolm Trayner, legendary poker pro Shannon Shorr, high roller regular Dan Shak, and Game of Gold star Olga Iermolcheva all booked profit but failed to hold onto their stacks.

WSOP Event #54: $1,500 Millionaire Maker Day 2 Chip Counts

Place	Player	Country	Chips
1st	Sebastien Sigouin	Canada	2,615,000
2nd	Connor Rash	United States	2,550,000
3rd	Jeremy Surinach	France	2,550,000
4th	Jason Sagle	Canada	2,385,000
5th	Timur Margolin	Israel	2,320,000
6th	Vitalijs Zavorotnijs	Latvia	2,305,000
7th	Gabriel Schroeder	Brazil	2,295,000
8th	Jason Hickey	United States	2,240,000
9th	Sasha Guerin	United States	2,170,000
10th	Rudy Cervantes	United States	2,160,000

Goodkin Going Well in Super Seniors as Fitoussi Fills Up 

The first day of action in the Super Seniors Event #59, which costs $1,000 to play broke records in Las Vegas as an amazing 3,362 entries were reduced to just 975 survivors, each of whom is fighting for a slice of a record-breaking prizepool of $2.95 million. With the top prize of $358,045 on offer, money places begin at 505th, so work is to be done for many, but top of the tree after Day 1 was David Goodkin on 349,500 chips. 

Big names all made the Day 2 cut, with the four-time WSOP bracelet winner Farzad Bonyadi (203,500), another bracelet winner Kevin Song (125,000) former Seniors Championship winner James Hess (149,500), poker legend Barry Shulman (122,000) and the 2003 Main Event runner-up Sammy Farha (119,000) all returning to the action tomorrow. 

WSOP Event #59: $1,000 Super Seniors Championship Day 1 Chip Counts

Place	Player	Country	Chips
1st	David Goodkin	United States	349,500
2nd	Paul Runge	United States	275,000
3rd	Robert Nolen	United States	264,000
4th	Nicholas Bennett	United States	258,000
5th	Ron Fetsch	United States	243,000
6th	Bruno Fitoussi	France	236,000
7th	Edward Harris	United States	234,000
8th	Thomas Mcdonald	United States	234,000
9th	Mark Ebner	United States	233,500
10th	Kevin O'Donnell	United States	231,000

Big Names Battling in Latest NLHE Event

Event #60 cost $3,000 to play, and saw 1,441 entries in the latest No-Limit Hold'em WSOP event this summer. With 539 survivors, top of the tree is Yanfeng Wang (369,000), who shares the lead with Brazilian player Jose Ferreira who ended with exactly the same number of chips

With the current prizepool of $4,320,000 expected to grow considerably with registration still open and vital Player of the Year points up for grabs, the 2015 WSOP Main Event winner Joe McKeehen ended play with 203,000, while the impressive Austrian bracelet winner Jessica Teusl bagged up even more on 221,000.

The 2024 Heads-Up Championship winner Darius Samual (290,000) and his fellow British bracelet winner Carl Shaw (283,000) made the top 10, while dangerous professionals Joey Weissman (276,000) and Roman Hrabec (248,500) also survived, with plenty of drama to come on Day 2 of this event. 

WSOP Event #60: $3,000 No Limit Hold'em Day 1 Chip Counts

Place	Player	Country	Chips
1st=	Yanfeng Wang	United States	369,000
1st=	Jose Ferreira	Brazil	369,000
3rd	Daniel Gagne	Canada	363,000
4th	Yan Li	China	347,500
5th	Stephen Kehoe	United States	333,000
6th	Homan Mohammadi	Germany	324,500
7th	Ramaswamy Pyloore	United States	306,500
8th	Brian Barker	United States	298,000
9th	Darius Samual	United Kingdom	290,000
10th	Carl Shaw	United Kingdom	283,000

Finally, the 61st event of this year's WSOP, the $2,500-entry Stud/Omaha Eight or Better event saw 507 enter and 189 players survive, with 47 players more than in 2023. The $1.1m prizepool will see just 77 paid as players chase a top prize of $222,703.

Joseph Shammas (266,000) leads the remaining field, with the three-time WSOP bracelet winner Chad Eveslage (259,000) hunting that lead down. Robert Mizrachi (258,500) isn't far behind, with WSOP Main Event runners up David Williams (186,000) and Dario Sammartino (183,000), WSOP commentator Norman Chad (182,000), mixed game legend Benny Glaser (164,000), Ari Engel (138,000), Joe Hachem (107,500), and Allen 'Chainsaw' Kessler (73,500) all making the Day 2 seat and table draw.

Others such as Chris Vitch, Scott Abrams, Patrick Leonard, and Shaun Deeb were unable to fill a bag at the end of the night.

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