WSOP 2024 Day 40 Recap: Largest Flight for Main Event Produces Poker Drama as Mcdonald Leads Main Event into Day2

The biggest-ever Main Event came in 2023 and while that field will not be exceeded in 2024, a huge Day 1d contributed to a massive amount of players in this year's World Championship. Along with the Main Event, the $1,000-entry Event #82, a No Limit Hold'em event with 1,428 entries took place too, with players such as Jeff Madsen flying high after Day 1.

Day 1d Drama Sees 

The largest Day 1 field in Main Event history saw 4,985 players push the total field up to 9,259 as some of the biggest names in the game took part in the action. The total so far already makes the 2024 World Championship the second-largest Main Event in history with players still able to enter at the start of Day 2abc or 2d.

John Mcdonald (496,000) will start Day 2 as the chip leader some way clear of Robert Pardo (441,000) in second place, with Scott Stewart (370,200) in third spot on the Day 1d top 10.

Phil Ivey has already won a WSOP bracelet this summer to improve his total to 11, six shy of Phil Hellmuth. Ivey ended his Day 1 with a lot more chips than Hellmuth here, bagging up 153,500, good for 2.5x the starting stack of 60,000. Several former Main Event winners ended Day 1d with chips, too, as Joe McKeehen (121,300), Martin Jacobson (117,800) and Scotty Nguyen (104,900) all survived. The 2023 winner and defending champion Daniel Weinman (55,600) won big with quads early, but lost a few late on to dip below starting stack in his defense of the title.

Plenty of pros accumulated mass quantities of chips by night’s end, with Brian Hastings (252,100), Aram Zobian (231,400), Ari Engel (209,400), Anson Tsang (205,900), Nick Guagenti (151,000), Cody Daniels (140,100), Stephen Chidwick (126,000), David Peters (125,800), Kristen Foxen (122,200), Paul Volpe (83,700) and Alex Foxen (83,000) all surviving.

Others such as Brandon Steven (55,400), Tony Miles (39,900) and Benny Glaser (36,200) weren't able to rack up quite so many but at least they are still alive in the tournament, with others such as Chance Kornuth, Jason Koon, Daniel Sepiol and Jamie Kerstetter all saw their Main Event hopes wither and fade.

There are currently 785 entries needed to break last year's record attendance, but with two Day 2s to come, who knows what might happen. Tomorrow's Day 2abc promises to be special. 

WSOP Event #81: $10,000 Main Event World Championship Day 1d Chip Counts

Kornuth and Kamel Pushing for Glory 

Event #82 kicked off, with Dan Olsen (677,000) the chip leader after a busy day of action. Plenty of players took part who busted the Main Event, including Chance Kornuth, who ended the play on 501,000 chips in third place. Only 214 players survived to Day 2, with Tamer Kamel (345,000) another big threat for the event's title, with his tournament experience sure to count for plenty.

Sammy Farha (190,000) is also strong, but shorter in the counts were Kyna England (68,000), David Peters (62,000) and Dara O’Kearney (45,000) while players such as Upeshka De Silva, Joseph Cheong, Josh Arieh, and Chino Rheem all fell short of surviving Day 1. 

WSOP Event #82: $1,000 No Limit Hold'em Day 1 Chip Counts

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