"Elky" and Ivey Lead the Way After Day 1 of Event #22: $10,000 Seven Card Stud Championship
Day 1 of the third championship event of the 2022 WSOP, Event #22: $10,000 Seven Card Stud Championship has ended after ten 60-minute levels of play. The day attracted 85 entries, which far surpassed last year's amount of 62. At the end of the day, just under half remained as 41 players found a bag.
A field that attracted a lot of big-name players ended with Bertrand "Elky" Grospellier on top of the heap with 262,000. He registered late in the day with only a couple of levels left and was able to spin his stack up very quickly to be in pole position.
Right on his heels in second place to end the night was none other than Phil Ivey, who bagged up 256,500. The ever-popular figure at the WSOP, Ivey, had a stellar Day 1 as he just continued to build momentum as well as his stack before he took his customary exit from the tournament area before the chips were bagged.
Event #22: $10,000 Seven Card Stud Championship Top 10 Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bertrand Grospellier | France | 262,000 |
| 2 | Phil Ivey | United States | 256,500 |
| 3 | Yueqi Zhu | China | 237,000 |
| 4 | Randy Ohel | United States | 228,000 |
| 5 | James Paluszek | United States | 220,500 |
| 6 | Brian Liberman | United States | 206,500 |
| 7 | Kevin Gerhart | United States | 205,000 |
| 8 | Leonard August | United States | 196,000 |
| 9 | John Lytle | United States | 191,000 |
| 10 | Vasilis Lazarou | Greece | 182,500 |
Third and fourth place in the counts were two more WSOP bracelet winners in Yueqi Zhu with 237,000 and Randy Ohel with 228,000. James Paluszek rounded out the top five chip counts as he bagged up 220,500.
Outside of the big stacks, several known players advanced to Day 2, including the defending champion of this event, Anthony Zinno, who had a slow end to the night but was still able to find a bag with 68,000.
Adam Friedman (153,000}, Brian Rast (108,000) and Todd Brunson (46,000) were among the big names still remaining as the dust settled at the end of the day. And also of note, the only two women in the event both advanced to Day 2; Oxana Cummings (48,000) and Christina Hill (40,000).
Registration for this event is still open until the start of Day 2, which will get underway at 2 p.m. local time, so expect a few more players to find their way into the action at the start of the day when play resumes at Level 11.
PokerNews will be on hand tomorrow to cover all the Day 2 action.