Event #16: $25,000 High Roller No-Limit Hold’em (8-Handed) marks the second of the $25,000 or higher buy-ins at the 2023 WSOP. With the price point raised up, the event looks to draw out the best players in the world to compete in this prestigious event.
Last year it was Chad Eveslage who took down his maiden bracelet for $1,415,610. Eveslage bested a field of 251 and came out on top of a televised final table that included well known and respected high stakes players like Brek Schutten, Chris Brewer, Josh Arieh, and 2021 WSOP Main Event champion Koray Aldemir. With two bracelets under his belt already this year, putting him in early contention for WSOP Player of the Year, Eveslage looks to make it a third by defending his crown and pulling even further ahead in this year’s POY discussion.
2022 Final Table Finishers
Place
Player
Country
Payout (USD)
1
Chad Eveslage
United States
$1,415,610
2
Jake Schindler
United States
$874,915
3
Josh Arieh
United States
$616,047
4
Chris Brewer
United States
$442,213
5
Brek Schutten
Germany
$323,730
6
Koray Aldemir
United States
$241,791
7
Antonio Lievano
United States
$184,324
8
Ognyan Dimov
Bulgaria
$143,480
With 251 players last year creating a prize pool of $5,929,875, many players are expected to give it their all in this event. Tyler Cornell won the inaugural version of this event in 2021 and an appearance from him is expected, along with the listed final tablists from above. Other high stakes regulars seen around the Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas include Alex Foxen, Stephen Chidwick, Sean Winter, Chance Kornuth, Ryan Leng, Phil Hellmuth and 2023 WSOP Main Event champion Espen Jorstad.
Players will begin the tournament with 150,000 in chips with blinds beginning at 1,000/1,000 with a 1,000 big blind ante. Each level will last 60 minutes with a 15-minute break occurring after every two levels. After eight levels of play, players will bag up and return at 12 p.m. the Wednesday, June 7th. Registration will remain open until the beginning of Day 2.
Stay tuned to PokerNews for all updates regarding the 2023 World Series of Poker.
Ryan Riess raised to 2,500 from the hijack and in the big blind another player defended.
The flop rolled off A♣K♣8♣ and the big blind checked to Riess who bet 2,000 which saw his opponent snap call.
Action on the 7♦ turn checked through to the 10♦ river where the big blind checked and Riess bet 5,000. His opponent called him and Riess turned over 10♠8♠ for tens and eights.
His opponent shook his head and tossed his hand in the muck while the 2013 WSOP Main Event champion took down
Niall Farrell raised to 4,000 in the cutoff and was called by George Wolff and Adam Hendrix in the blinds. The flop fell A♣6♠2♥ and the blinds checked to Farrell who continued with a bet of 4,000. Both Wolff and Hendrix called to see the 2♠ pair the board on the turn.
The action checked around and the 8♥ completed the board. Wolff threw in a bet of 27,000 and Hendrix just called while Farrell got out of the way. Wolff tabled A♦8♦ for two pair but Hendrix made trip deuces with 4♣2♣ to claim the pot.
Alex Foxen raised in early position to 6,000 which saw Jonathan Jaffe call in the cutoff. On the button, Jozoff raised to 25,000 and action folded back around to Foxen who folded. Jaffe moved all in for 75,000 effective and Jozoff called.
Michael Jozoff: 10x10x
Jonathan Jaffe: JxJx
The board ran out as no favor to Jozoff and Jaffe took down the pot.
Espen Jorstad raised it up in early position and Brandon Wilson ripped all in for just over 50,000 in the big blind. Jorstad thought for a brief moment and then called to put Wilson at risk.
Brandon Wilson: 4♥4♦
Espen Jorstad: 6♥6♣
The flop came K♦5♠2♦ to give Wilson some backdoor potential but the 9♣ on the turn quickly put that to an end. The 3♦ hit the river and Jorstad's sixes held up to send Wilson to the rail.
Lewis Spencer raised to 9,000 in the cutoff and Asher Conniff three-bet to 33,000 out of the big blind. Spencer called and they went heads-up to a flop of Q♦9♣3♥.
Conniff led out with a bet of 18,000 and Spencer called to see the 4♠ on the turn. Conniff fired out another bet of 53,000 and Spencer still called. The Q♣ paired the board on the river and Conniff checked this time. Spencer jammed all in and Conniff ended up calling off his stack of 157,000. Spencer turned over Q♥J♥ for trip queens while Conniff held K♠K♥.
Calvin Anderson raised to 10,000 in first position and in middle position, Daniel Negreanu three bet to 38,000. Action folded around to the big blind where Michael Moncek moved all in and Anderson folded while Negreanu called to put himself at risk for 124,000 total.
Daniel Negreanu: A♣K♥
Michael Moncek: A♥9♦
The board ran out 10♣4♦4♠2♥7♥ and Negreanu's ace-king held up and the six-time bracelet winner took down a significant pot.
After a couple of preflop raises between Punnat Punsri and Kitty Kuo, all of the chips were in the middle. Punsri was the player at risk for around 175,000 and the cards were on their backs.
Punnat Punsri: Q♣Q♦
Kitty Kuo: A♣J♠
The flop came A♦6♥3♦ and Kuo spiked an ace to take the lead. The 6♣ and 3♠ runout changed nothing and Punsri was sent to the rail for the second time today.
It was an action-packed day at the 2023 World Series of Poker that saw Event #16: $25,000 High Roller attract a total of 264 entries on the first day of the tournament. With late registration still open for the time being, there is a chance it could be the largest $25,000 buy-in event that the WSOP has ever hosted. The field was dwindled down to just 93 players by the night's end and they will be returning for Day 2 Wednesday.
It should come as little surprise that the man leading the way after the first eight levels was none other than Calvin Anderson. Entering the field in the second half of the day, Anderson wasted little time putting his starting stack of 150,000 chips to work. In just three levels, the American poker pro managed to spin up his stack to 1,609,000, good enough for the overall chip lead.
Anderson often has a knack for running up a stack in a short period of time and he had no trouble doing so today. With two WSOP bracelets to his name already - coming in the Seven Card Stud Hi/Lo and Razz variants - Anderson will be looking to add a no-limit hold'em victory to his list of accomplishments. A deep run in this high-stakes event could also lead to Anderson capturing his largest career score of a little over $300,000.
There will be lots of work still to be done as Anderson will have to compete with some of the best poker players in the world over the course of the next two days in order to accomplish the feat. For now, he will be returning to a stack of more than 160 big blinds and has put himself in a good spot to make another deep run.
End of Day 1 Top 10 Chip Counts
Rank
Player
Country
Chip Count
Big Blinds
1
Calvin Anderson
United States
1,609,000
161
2
Freddy Deeb
United States
1,440,000
144
3
Brian Kim
United States
1,291,000
129
4
Isaac Haxton
United States
1,195,000
120
5
Alex Nguyen
United States
1,060,000
106
6
Calvin Lee
United States
979,000
98
7
Ting-Yi Tsai
Taiwan
947,000
95
8
Biao Ding
United States
790,000
79
9
Nick Maimone
United States
783,000
78
10
Eric Wasserson
United States
780,000
78
Day 1 Action
A massive field of high rollers showed up for Day 1 today, surpassing the 251 entries that were recorded just one year ago. When play ended for the night, the tournament clock read a total of 264 entries with late registration still open until the start of Day 2 at 12:00 noon PDT.
It took some time for the big stacks to emerge and it was Isaac Haxton who jumped out to the first seven-figure stack of the day. Haxton got max value with his pocket kings against Darren Elias who flopped top pair. Haxton ran into some problems later in the day when his bluff attempt failed against David Coleman who flopped top set. Haxton still managed to bag one of the larger stacks and will return with 1,195,000.
Another big stack that vaulted to the top of the leaderboard was Freddy Deeb with 1,441,000 chips. While Deeb falls into the category of the "old-school players," he proved today that he can still hang with the young guns. But he'll have to keep it going for another two days if he wants to add another WSOP gold bracelet to his collection.
Brian Kim (1,291,000) and Alex Nguyen (1,060,000) were the only other two players to bag up over one million chips. Both players had an extremely successful day at the table and were among the chip leaders for the majority of the day.
There were only two WSOP Main Event champions that managed to skate their way through the field and advance to Day 2. Espen Jorstad (377,000) and Joe McKeehen (320,000) were here for the first hand of the day and also played the last. As for Ryan Riess, Phil Hellmuth, Martin Jacobson, Joe Cada, and Koray Aldemir, they were all eliminated within the last couple of levels.
The field was littered with big names which was to be expected for the $25,000 buy-in. It will be a who's who when the action resumes tomorrow as the field makes its way into the money and players position themselves for the final table. The cards will go back in the air at 12:00 p.m. with another ten levels on the schedule for Day 2.
The blinds will resume on Level 9 at 5,000/10,000 and a 10,000 big blind ante. There will be a 15-minute break after every two levels and a 60-minute dinner break is scheduled for after Level 14.
The PokerNews live reporting team will be here to bring you all of the live updates throughout the day for more exciting high-stakes tournament action.