He Bags Best on Day 1B; Late Registration Closes on WPT World Championship

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Dec 16, 2024 3 min read

As the clock struck 8 p.m. on Monday at Wynn Las Vegas, late registration for the $10,400 WPT World Championship officially closed, locking in the final numbers for the series showstopper of the World Poker Tour World Championships (WPTWC).

Before the start of the third starting flight, Day 1C, 1,432 entries had already been recorded, pushing the prize pool to $14,033,600. Once the last-minute entries were confirmed, the final tally was 2,392 after 960 more entries. This boosted the prize pool to over $23.4 million, and payout information will be shared by the WPT later tonight.

On Saturday, 751 players turned up for Day 1A, which saw Phillip Lee (1,102,000) and Fabian Gumz (1,013,000) bag seven-figure stacks as they topped their respective field. Reigning champion Dan Sepiol, who spoke to PokerNews while he was playing, was also among the 252 competitors who made it over the first hurdle.

Another 224 Make it to Day 2

In Sunday's Day 1B session, Yifu He was one of the flight's 681 registrants. He grew his 100,000 starting stack to 1,065,000 and led the 224 players who still had chips in front of them after 11 levels of play.

He, who has $365,731 in total live earnings according to The Hendon Mob, earned a decent slice of that figure in last year's WPT World Championship. The Californian resident banked $37,600 after finishing 121st out of the 3,835 entries 12 months ago. That payout stands as his second-biggest cash, trailing the $64,921 he netted after a fourth-place finish in a World Series of Poker Circuit Main Event in 2019.

Also ending Day 1B above the one million chip mark were Qiang Xu (1,050,000) and Gabriel Kiflu (1,027,000). China's Xu cashed in four events at the WPTC in 2023, but neither of his results were all that notable. Kiflu is well positioned for just his fifth recorded cash of the year after he wrapped up proceedings with 175 big blinds.

The most notable name among the top ten chip counts is Igor Kurganov. The high roller, whose volume at the tables has diminished over the years, showed no signs of ring rust as he ended play with 866,000, good for 144 big blinds.

Kurganov, once among tech mogul Elon Musk's inner circle, has cashed in both previous editions of the WPT World Championship. The Russia All-Time Money List leader bowed out in 31st in 2022 for $119,300 and put in another deep run to 48th ($111,300) the following year.

Another crop of WPT Champions also booked their spot in the tournament's second stage. Asher Conniff, Jared Jaffee, Taylor Paur, Robert Mizrachi, Chris Moorman, Qing Liu, Dylan Smith, Justin Young, Casey Sandretto, Chino Rheem, Sean Jazayeri, Duff Charette, Marc Sen, Niall Farrell, Orson Young, David Williams, Ben Palmer, Scott Baumstein, Filipp Khavin, Nenad Medic, Brandon Cantu, Matt Salsberg, Ryan Riess, Brian Altman, Andrea Dato and Tony Dunst will all return on Tuesday, December 17 in their pursuit of another WPT accolade.

Dunst, one of the faces of the WPT, will be alongside the WPT's Vince Van Patten and Lynn Gilmartin, as the duo also piloted a stack to Day 2.

Day 1B WPT World Championship Top 10 Chip Counts

Calum has been a part of the PokerNews team since September 2021 after working in the UK energy sector. He played his first hand of poker in 2017 and immediately fell in love with the game. Calum has written for various poker outlets but found his home at PokerNews, where he has contributed to various articles and live updates, providing insights and reporting on major poker events, including the World Series of Poker (WSOP).

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