WSOP Day 34 Recap: WSOP Main Event Kicks Off, Young Sik Eum Wins Mini Main Event

One of the most exciting days on the poker calendar took place on Sunday night as Day 1a of the WSOP Main Event began a fortnight-long voyage to the final table and a top prize of millions of dollars. The $10,000 Main Event kicked off and was joined in the books on Sunday night by four other WSOP bracelet events, two of which concluded.

Day 1a of Main Event Welcome 900 Runners

It’s an optimistic prediction by many that this year’s World Series of Poker Main Event will welcome the biggest crowd in the history of the event, perhaps even topping 9,000 players who are prepared to put down $10,000 – or win a satellite to the value of the same - in order to battle for millions in the world’s greatest poker tournament.

This year’s opening flight saw 900 entries as players from all over the world of all levels bid to become this year’s world champion. Cedrric Trevino (317,800) was the chip leader at the close of play as he multiplied his 60,000-chip starting stack by more than five times. He was followed in the top five by Wesley Fei (300,000), Suhaag Gandikota (269,700), Chanracy Khun (267,800) and Thomas Eychenne (255,800), with popular pro and recent major tournament crusher Andrew Moreno sixth on 238,200.

Plenty of other big names made it through to Day 2 with well above an average stack, as Jimmy D’Ambrosio (213,000), Ryan Depaulo (188,800), Kelly Minkin (204,700), Kevin Gerhart (149,900), and former world champion Ryan Riess (139,900). Two more former WSOP Main Event winners, Qui Nguyen (74,400) and Martin Jacobson (64,300), both made Day 2 with more than they started.

Others weren’t so fortunate, with 2021 WSOP Player of the Year Josh Arieh busting after a horrible spot as his rivered nut flush lost to a full house for most of his chips. Johnnie ‘Vibes’ Moreno, Ana Marquez, Aleksejs Ponakovs, Masato Yokosawa, Nikita Kuznetsov and Robert Heidorn all failed to bag a Day 2 stack along the way.

Eum Wins Mini Main Event for $594,000

An entertaining end to the 66^th event of the 2022 WSOP saw Young Sik Eum roar to victory at a final table he dominated, especially in the all-in moments. While nine made the final, only five began the final day. The bust-outs started with the chip leader heading into play, Romanian player Cosmin Joldis, winning a coinflip against Kei Nitta to send the Japanese player home with a score of $158,515.

Four remained, and Young Sik Eum was about to start his ascent up the leaderboard to a stunning victory. Taking out Philip Lee in fourth place for $208,275, Eum’s ace-eight triumphing against the odds when Lee’s ace-nine was overtaken on the flop. Indian player Kartik Ved fared no better in third place, busting for $275,593 when Eum’s ace-three got there on the turn of an ace against Ved’s pocket fours.

Heads-up saw a dominant Eum go into the action with a better than 3:1 chip lead. Holding the lead, he moved all-in with a four-bet pre-flop with king-nine, only for Joldis to call with pocket tens. The king came on the turn to give Eum the bracelet and top prize of $594,189, with Joldis collecting $367,233 for coming second.

Madsen Chasing Fifth Gold in PLO 8 or Better Event

Jeff Madsen finished in the top 10 of the $10,000-entry PLO 8 or Better Championship on a busy Day 2 of Event #69. There was excitement at both ends of the event as Michael Duek bagged the chip lead with 4,460,000 chips, a clear million ahead of his nearest challenger, Shiva Dudani (3,280,000), with Tom Hu coming in third in chips on 2,315,000.

Madsen himself banked 1,795,000 chips for tomorrow assault on the event’s penultimate day, with other big names such as Brandon Adams (1,035,000), John Beauprez (980,000), Toby Lewis (870,000) and Elior Sion (865,000) all present for the next day’s play with only 39 players remaining.

Among those to bust on Day 2, we said goodbye to stars like Isaac Baron, Koray Aldemir, Michael Wang, Daniel Rezaei, Jared Jaffee, Jake Schwartz, Dario Sammartino, defending champion Tommy Le, 2022 bracelet winner Fabian Brandes, Stephen Chidwick, Ben Yu and Yuval Bronshtein.

Million Dollar Bounty Ends Day with 207 Players

Event #68, the $1,000-entry Million Dollar Bounty event, saw just 207 players survive from 3,936 entrants on Day 1b, with an overall prize pool now of over $3.1 million. Top dog on the day was Armando Figueroa who bagged an appropriately similar stack of 3,150,000 chips. He was followed in the counts by Brazil’s Gabriel Moura (2,530,000) and Freddy Granados (2,405,000) from Costa Rica in what was a truly continental day at the felt.

Others to survive the flight included superstars of the game such as Dalibor Dula (1,350,000), Koray Aldemir (1,180,000), Matt Glantz (1,015,000), David ‘Bakes’ Baker (940,000)and Ryan Laplante (850,000).

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