WSOP Day 42 Recap: Just 123 Players Remain in WSOP Main Event, Li Claims Bounty PLO Gold

An entertaining day of action on both the PokerGO live stream and around the cardrooms at Bally’s and Paris in Las Vegas saw seven WSOP events take place. With 380 reduced to just 123 in the 2022 World Series of Poker Main Event, no one player is running away with it as players of all levels continue to battle for the $10 million top prize.

Main Event Day 5 Thrills Fans, Zhang and Smith on Stream

A genuinely thrilling time was had by any viewer watching the action on the PokerGO feature table as Zilong Zhang and Dan Smith were among those to battle on a sensational day in the WSOP Main Event. It is often said that anything after Day 4 is TV gold but this year’s Main Event has been incredible from Day 1 and today was no exception.

The day began with 380 players, but was quickly losing players left, right and center. The Day 4 chip leader Taylor von Kriegenbergh lost his way and crashed out in 144^th place, Ari Engel went a few places soon and five-time bracelet winner Brian Rast missed out on the chance of furthering his 2023 Poker Hall of Fame chances by winning the Main Event. Other big names slipped past, with John Juanda one of them as his Main Event ended inside the top 175 players too.

Near the end of the day, play became dominated, just as yesterday’s did, by the actions of one player – Zilong Zhang. Involved in numerous scuffles with ‘Cowboy’ Dan Smith, both players would survive the day. Zhang’s gloriously unorthodox approach was truly something to behold. One pot where he set Smith in on the river, before the WSOP 2022 bracelet winner asked him if he wanted to talk, was legendary. Eventually, Zhang started talking, Smith called and was right to do so, doubling up. Smith would lose a late pot which damaged him, but if he hadn’t won that pot, then his dream may have been over. Zhang ended the day on 6.9 million, with Smith just over 2 million chips, still good for 25 big blinds.

With James Hobbs the overnight chip leader on just over 12.5 million chips, other big names are flying high. Aaron Mermelstein cracked aces with a level to go to rack up 10.6 million. Alejandro Lococo won an incredible six-bet all-in shove with ace-jack to rocket to 10.2 million by the close of play. British player Philippe Souki sneaked into the top ten on 9.4 million, having run deep in the Main Event before. 

At the close of play, 123 players made it to the next day, Day 6 of the Main Event. Nothing will be easy when play resumes, but with one of the most entertaining sets of players ever left with such a field size remaining, we can’t wait to see what happens on the PokerGO stream.  

 Li Wins Bounty PLO Crown for $190k

Pei Li came from behind to topple the overwhelming chip leader at the final table Nolan King in Event #74, the $1,500-entry Bounty PLO event. When the day began, Nolan King was a huge chip leader, but while he led for much of the final, it was Li who ended up winning through. After Portuguese short stack Diogo Veiga busted in ninth place, the only remaining bracelet winner in the field, Bulgarian player Konstantin Angelov, busted in eighth to mean a new player would lift gold at the end of the event.

King and Li seemed on a collision course and so it proved, as each man took turns busting another player. King even managed to get there with a gutshot straight draw to bust the pocket aces of Emil Tuominen in fourth place for $63,231. This didn’t mean King had it all his own way, however, and Li went into the final clash against King with a 2:1 chip lead. Doubling the blinds, skipping two levels of play, things got shallower quicker and top pair eventually won Li the bracelet and $190,219 top prize.  

Hutter High in One Drop Chip Counts:

Just 41 players remain from the 319 combatants who began Day 3 of the $1,111-entry One More for One Drop event, with Barry Hutter (14,075,000) the chip leader. Behind Hutter are a number of terrific players, with reputations that are either already of legend status or growing into one.

Christina Gollins (14,000,000) is a three-bet off the lead in the latest of a number of strong showings in WSOP events, and with Boris Akopov (12,600,000) in third place, the 2013 WSOP Main Event winner Ryan Riess (10,425,000) completes a star-studded top four.

Elsewhere in the upper limits of the leaderboard, Joon Kim (7,575,000) is the only other player apart from Hutter and Riess who has previously won a gold bracelet, but potential first-timers are everywhere, such as Aaron Gunn (5,100,000), Bryan Kim (4,225,000) and Vineet Pahuja (3,075,000).

Day 1b of Lucky 7’s Event Sees over 1,800 Entries

Another huge day’s field in the Lucky 7’s event saw 1,818 players put up the $777 buy-in and take their chances in pursuit of a life-changing sum of money. Of those players, only 273 would make the money, with popular players such as high stakes legend Bill Klein and WSOP regular Lexi Gavin both unfortunate to miss out on Day 2.

With 75 survivors on the day, there are now 119 players who have booked Day 2 seats with the Day 1a players who made it added into the mix. A third and final Day 1 flight takes place tomorrow, which will then lock in the field for the remainder of the tournament.

With Selim Oulmekki from France leading the field on 2,565,000 by the close of play, he was followed in the counts by two Americans in the form of Kevin Oakes (2,125,000) and Armando Figueroa (2,085,000), with popular pro Carlos Villamarin (1,830,000) also in the top 10. Others to make it included British player Gary Armstrong (1,805,000) and double WSOP bracelet winner Kevin MacPhee (460,000). Ben Spragg made the money but not the Day 2 bagging up stage.

Hall of Fame Bounty Event Led by Weinman as Seven Remain

Just seven players are left in the hunt for the $276,067 top prize in the $1,979-entry Hall of Fame Bounty event with Jinho Hong (7,785,000) in pole position to win, with Punnat Punsri (6,280,000) the other person within reaching distance of the leader.

In the rest of the final table, Daniel Weinman has 2,975,000 chips with a top-quality line-up also including Jakob Miegel (2,825,000) and Brazilian pro Yuri Dzivielevski who will try to go four places better than his current position in fifth on 2.7 million chips.

With Weinman and Dzivielevski the only two players to win gold at the World Series of Poker before, it seems like an exciting conclusion to the event whoever gets the gold.

Event #77 Packed with Stars

A busy Day 1 took place in the $1,500-entry Mixed No-Limit Hold'em/Pot Limit Omaha Event #77, with Connor Drinan (12 million) the chip leader with Vincent Lam totalling 1,077,000 at the close of play. Elsewhere in the chip counts, there were bags for Daniel Negreanu (625,000), Anson Tsang (209,000), Barny Boatman (186,000), Dan Shak (189,000), Mike Watson (144,000), Ryan Laplante (127,000) and Adam Hendrix (73,000). Bigger stacks near the top of the chip counts, Carter Newhof (782,000) and Leonard Sande (624,000) both made it through to Day 2.

Players who couldn’t make the next day included former WSOP Main Event champions Hossein Ensan and Joe Cada, four-time bracelet winner Scott Seiver, similarly successful Jeff Madsen, four-time bracelet winner Anthony Zinno, German high roller Rainer Kempe and three-time WSOP bracelet winner Davidi Kitai.

Ben Jones Leads No-Limit Event #78

With a total of 1,364 entries in Event #78, a prize pool of over $3 million will be awarded in the $2,500-entry NLHE event. Ben Jones (738,000) has his sights on the top prize of $499,636 with the chip lead and he is followed by Ari Oxman (685,000) and Leandro Vlastaris (586,000), who along with fourth-placed Weiming Aaron Lim (518,000) are the only players to top half a million chips.

With plenty of big names busting, Ari Oxman took out Scott Seiver late in the day as the four-time bracelet winner couldn’t survive the day, in the same company as Chris Moneymaker, Alex Foxen, Niall Farrell, Loni Hui, Michael Gathy, Jen Shahade, Adrian Mateos, Brandon Adams and Phil Hellmuth.

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