On a flop of A♠4♦10♣, Kao "Flexx" Saechao checked from the cutoff and Kane Kalas on the button, bet 18,000. Saechao paused for a few moments before going all in for 82,000. Kalas went into the tank.
After around a minute, Kalas made the call.
Kao Saechao: A♣A♦Q♠7♦
Kane Kalas: A♥10♥9♦6♦
The turn fell 4♠ and the river J♥, giving Saechao the double up.
Day 1 of Event #78: $1,500 Bounty Pot-Limit Omaha concluded at the 2023 World Series of Poker at Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas with only 14 levels of play completed instead of the 15 levels that were scheduled. The start time was pushed back by two hours to accommodate the record-setting field in the 2023 WSOP Main Event.
The 1,214 entrants generated a prize pool of $1,620,690 with a first-place prize of $171,742 not including any won bounties. Each player entered the fray with a $500 Bounty on their head and the action was plentiful as a result. When the day was done there were just 140 remaining after a full evening of battle.
Top Ten Chip Counts
Rank
Player
Country
Chip Count
Big Blinds
1
Casey Wassell
United States
694,000
139
2
Satar Al-Sadoun
United States
671,000
134
3
Jon Rodack
United States
621,000
124
4
David Hu
Netherlands
556,000
111
5
Jonathan Borenstein
United States
510,000
102
6
James Palmer
United States
501,000
100
7
Dylan Smith
United States
489,000
98
8
Thomas Skaggs
United States
481,000
96
9
Robert Mason
United States
459,000
92
10
Antonio Gonzalez
United States
437,000
87
Casey Wassel (694,000), Satar Al-Sadoun (671,000), Jon Rodack (621,000) were around the top of the leaderboard when Day 1 ended but plenty of notables found a bag at the end of the day. Daniel Negreanu (271,000) was among the survivors after he was eliminated from the WSOP Main Event earlier in the day. Plenty of other professionals including Nacho Barbero (240,000) and Jeff Madsen (252,000) also found bags returning to Day 2.
Other notables who bagged for Day 2 include David "ODB" Baker (361,000), Noah Schwartz (265,000), Kevin MacPhee (220,000), and Dash Dudley (122,000).
Shaun Deeb made a quick cameo in the field, as he still had a seat in the Main Event seat and was just making a quick attempt at running up a stack.
As the bubble approached, eyes were more on the $171,742 grand prize than the value of the bounties, causing the pace of play to slow. Players to fall before the money included controversial player Martin Kabrhel who was an early chip leader but fell shortly after exchanging some words with Negreanu.
Ultimately the bubble burst in the final level of the day and the 183 players remaining were guaranteed to take home $1,501.
Those still in contention will be back in action for Day 2 at 2:00 p.m. local time in the purple section of the Paris ballroom; levels will be 60-minutes from there on out. There will be a 15-minute break every two levels and the dinner is scheduled at the end of level 20, per the late start of Day 1.
The PokerNews live reporting team will be here to grab all of the updates and any exciting highlights throughout the day.