WSOP Day 35 Recap: Day 1b of Main Event Sees 1,245 Players Boost Field Further, Mystery Bounty Reaches Day 2

There were three tournaments in action on Day 35 of the 2022 WSOP Main Event, where over a thousand players entered the biggest poker tournament of the year. Along the way, big players busted, first timers flew up the leaderboard and there was drama at virtually every table. In two other events, the Million Dollar Bounty and PLO Championship both reached key stages as they moved towards giving out the latest WSOP bracelets.

Main Event Day 1b Sees Bumper Attendance

The second Day 1 flight of the 2022 WSOP Main Event played out on Monday, with 1,245 entries yielding 634 survivors by the close of play. Patrick Hagenlocher has less than $2,000 in live tournament earnings but that didn’t stop him piling up an incredible 332,800 chips, good for the overall lead in this year’s Main Event and a chunky advantage over second-placed Matthias Kribben from Germany, who gathered 268,100 chips.

Elsewhere in the upper limits of the leaderboard, Paul Michaelis (213,700), Michael Gagliano (167,000), Roland Israelashvili (149,000), Andre Akkari (126,600), John Eames (120,500), Eugene Katchalov (106,300) and Eric Afriat (100,500) all ended the day with above average stacks, while others such as Dan Shak (96,000), David ‘ODB’ Baker (also 96,000), Ben Heath (89,500) and Prahlad Friedman (70,700) all improved on their starting stacks.

Plenty of big names busted, however, with stars such as Chance Kornuth, both Kristen and Alex Foxen, Leo Margets, Julien Martini, Niall Farrell and Robert Cowen all failing to bag a Day 2 stack and make their way into other events for the remainder of the 2022 World Series.

Final Five in PLO Event Sees Dudani on Top

Event #69 reached the final day of the $10,000-entry PLO Championship event, with a day of drama cutting dozens of players down to just five players. There were a lot of early exits, with Brandon Adams leaving in 24^th place, Jeff Madsen busting in 19^th and David Coleman sliding out of contention two places later in 17^th.

Once players gathered at the final table, British player Toby Lewis (8^th for $124,611), Nitesh Rawtani (7^th for $162,542) and Thair Kallabat (6^th for $215,326) all busted before play ended, and when it did, Shiva Dudani (15,650,000) had the chip lead, with a huge gap to second-in-chips Michael Duek (9,405,000). Everyone else at the final table has less than half of the chip leader’s stack, with Tom Hu (7,330,000), Sean Troha (5,045,000) and Joachim Haraldstad (3,580,000) all face a mountain to climb on the final day.

Million Dollar Bounty Action Sees Cheong and Bonomo Thrive

In the $1,000-entry Million Dollar Bounty event, there were two final Day 1 flights for players to get their teeth into. Day 1c kicked off early and featured 4,269 players who were whittled down to just 232 survivors by the close of play. Among them, the chip leader was Ismail Abou Sharkh, who piled up 2.8 million chips, with Joseph Cheong third on the leaderboard with 2,415,000 to call on during Day 2.

Others to find a bag on Day 1c included German super high roller regular Christoph Vogelsang (1,075,000), WSOP bracelet winner Barry Greenstein (625,000), WSOP Player of the Year leader Dan Zack (485,000), Joey Weissman (340,000) and Elio Fox (320,000).

On Day 1d of the same event, turbo action meant even faster eliminations. A total of 2,334 players took part, with 352 survivors including some of the players who busted Day 1c, such as Justin Bonomo (635,000).

Chip leader after Day 1d concluded was Michael Del Vecchio (1,750,000), with others such as Padraig O'Neill (1,500,000), Jack Melki (1,500,000), Emily Nguyen (1,150,000) and Lucas Kavanaugh (800,000) all making the cut with an above-average stack. Big names to sneak into the counts with less than that included Craig McCorkell (170,500), Calvin Anderson (170,000), Steve Zolotow (165,000) and Vanessa Kade (153,000).

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