Jesse Kertland Bags Huge in Event #70: $400 Colossus
Players who made it through Day 1a and Day 1b combined into one field for a total of 1,980 competitors looking to make it through to Day 3. After a total of 15 levels of play that field was whittled down to only 80. This was an incredible run for everyone who has advanced thus far, as the Colossus here at the 2023 World Series of Poker, hosted by Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas, attracted a monumental 15,983 entrants.
Some of those who finished up in the lead included Jesse Kertland (26,150,000), who made a huge call towards the end of the night to catapult him up in the counts; Kertland already had five cashes in this year’s WSOP coming into this event. Colin Robinson (22,300,000) also broke the twenty million mark but he won’t be playing for a lifetime highscore, as he’s coming off a runner up in Event #39: $1,500 Monster Stack for $718,000. Toshimasa Sakato (15,925,000) doesn’t trail too far behind, with most of his recorded cashes being in the 2021 and 2022 WSOP Online Bracelet events hosted by GGPoker.
End of Day 2 Top 10 Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jesse Kertland | United States | 26,150,000 | 65 |
| 2 | Colin Robinson | United States | 22,300,000 | 56 |
| 3 | Darrick Arreola | United States | 19,750,000 | 49 |
| 4 | Michael Halevy | United States | 16,975,000 | 42 |
| 5 | Toshimasa Sakato | Japan | 15,925,000 | 40 |
| 6 | Laurence Samet | United States | 15,625,000 | 39 |
| 7 | Francesco Micucci | Italy | 14,725,000 | 37 |
| 8 | Mitchell Smith | United States | 12,475,000 | 31 |
| 9 | Erdenbold Begzjav | Mongolia | 12,400,000 | 31 |
| 10 | Moshe Refaelowitz | United Kingdom | 12,400,000 | 31 |
James Dempsey (8,275,000) and Ian Steinman (7,700,000) remain the only two previous bracelet winners in the field but they weren’t the only two to start the day. 2005’s Player of the Year, Allen Cunningham was eliminated deep in Day 2 and 2021’s Ladies Champion, Lara Eisenberg also fell throughout the day.
Popular poker personalities Benjamin Spragg and Kevin Martin also made it deep in the money but came short of a bag. Martin's night came to an abrupt end shortly after having his queens cracked.
Day 3 will begin at 10:00 a.m. local time on July 3rd in the Paris ballroom. All player’s returning are guaranteed a payout of $5,930, but the apex everyone will be looking up to is a whopping $501,120 to go along with the hardware. Not a bad prize for a $400 buy-in.
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