Jones Bags Day 1 Chip Lead; Former Champ Okamura One of the Big Stacks
In a record-breaking field that saw total entries balloon to 2,076 players, up from the previous record of 1,234, Justin Jones bagged up a total of 756,000 chips from a starting stack of just 25,000 to lead the 259 surviving players into Day 2 of Event #62: $1,500 Mixed No-Limit Hold'em/Pot-Limit Omaha, part of the 2023 World Series of Poker at the Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas.
The record-breaking field created a total prize pool of $2,771,460, with 312 players taking home at least $2,402 and first place pocketing a whopping $410,659.
Jones has two cashes at this year's series, both in Omaha events. Now he is on course to complete a poker hat trick of in-the-money finishes.
Philip Wiszowaty (708,000) is hot on Jones' heels, having previously reached the final three tables of the $25,000 Pot-Limit Omaha High Roller this week.
Bracelet winner David Prociak (518,000) bagged up enough chips to occupy one of the top ten places in the overnight chip counts.
End of Day 1 Top 10 Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Justin Jones | United States | 756,000 | 126 |
| 2 | Philip Wiszowaty | United States | 708,000 | 118 |
| 3 | Eric Pfenning | United States | 585,000 | 98 |
| 4 | Michael Kuney | United States | 540,000 | 90 |
| 5 | Guofeng Wang | China | 526,000 | 88 |
| 6 | David Prociak | United States | 518,000 | 86 |
| 7 | Robert Wells | United Kingdom | 512,000 | 85 |
| 8 | Tomas Soderstrom | Sweden | 502,000 | 84 |
| 9 | Pushpinder Singh | Canada | 498,000 | 83 |
| 10 | Bart Lybaert | Belgium | 481,000 | 80 |
Motoyoshi Okamura, who won this event in 2021, finished the day with at top 15 stack, bagging a total of 459,000 chips, with another bracelet winner, Gregory Kolo, just above the former champion with 460,000 chips.
The bubble burst near the mid-way point of the final level of the night, with Cody Stanford being the unfortunate player to exit in 313th place. Fabrizio Gonzalez would be the next to bust and the first player to cash in 312th place.
Some other notable players that made the money and advanced to Day 2 included Robert Cowen (416,000), Tom Cannuli (398,000), Christian Harder (382,000), Brandon Shack-Harris (357,000), Shaun Deeb (344,000) the controversial Martin Kabrhel (331,000), Vivian Saliba (246,000), Barny Boatman (141,000), Chris Moorman (80,000), and
Some of the big names that unfortunately did not make it to the money places included Jamie Gold, David Williams, Maurice Hawkins and Erick Lindgren, who was eliminated when Vidur Sethi blind called his all-in.
Day 2 will see 259 players return to the silver section in the event center at the Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas at 1:00 p.m. on June 28 to battle ever closer to the top prize and the coveted gold bracelet. The players return to Level 16, meaning blinds are 3,000/6,000 and a 6,000 big blind ante. Join PokerNews on June 28 for Day 2 of this exciting event.