The Muck · WSOP Daily Brief
Day 40
Happy Fourth. The Main Event is in its holiday stretch: Day 1C fires today at 11 a.m., and the official Day 1A numbers are finally in. They are smaller than expected, smaller than last year, and smaller than what we reported yesterday, which we correct in full below. Ryuta Nakai bagged the Day 1A lead at 323,000 after ten hours of relentless aggression, and five former world champions survived, Hellmuth in Superman-adjacent shape at 66,000. Meanwhile three bracelets are hanging in the air unclaimed: Brian Rast leads the final day of the $10K 8-Game Championship chasing number eight with Alex Foxen lurking for POY gold, the $600 Deepstack Championship is down to five from a 5,177-entry field, and Andrew Moreno took the chip lead into the final day of the $3,000 Freezeout. None of those winners are confirmed by a primary source at press time, so we are not pretending otherwise.
Story 01 of 6
PokerNews published its official Day 1A recap, and the numbers are now confirmed: 772 entries (the recap text says 771 hopefuls, the event info box says 772), with 543 players bagging chips after five two-hour levels. That is down 151 entries from last year's 923 on Day 1A, per PGT. Yesterday we reported a Day 1A count of 2,599 based on early roundup reporting. That number was wrong and we are correcting it today. The prize pool currently sits at $12,424,800 and will grow as the remaining three flights and Day 2 late registration come in. One further wrinkle: ESPN's coverage credited Rafael Mota of Brazil with the Day 1A chip lead at 810,000, while PokerNews' official chip counts have Ryuta Nakai on top at 323,000 with no Mota in the top ten. We are going with the PokerNews live reporting numbers and flagging the ESPN figure as unreconciled.
Why it mattersDay 1A is always the lightest flight, but a year-over-year drop of 16 percent on the opening flight is the first real data point in the attendance question, and it points the wrong way for anyone hoping the Main Event challenges the 2024 record of 10,112 or even last year's 9,735. The counterargument: Day 1A is the flight of superstition and scheduling convenience, and the July 4 weekend layout this year may simply be pushing traffic to 1C and 1D. Days 1B through 1D will tell the real story. On the correction: The Muck's whole pitch is source-backed reporting, so when the official count lands at less than a third of what we printed, we say so in the first story, not in a footnote.
Story 02 of 6
Ryuta Nakai of Japan finished Day 1A on top with 323,000, good for 404 big blinds, after a day PokerNews described as winning a lot of pots frequently with a relentlessly aggressive style. Nakai already has a third-place finish this summer in the $25,000 Heads-Up Championship. Igor Pansovoi bagged 300,300 and Australia's Gregory Sly took 254,500. Five former Main Event champions advanced: Joe Cada (133,600), Greg Merson (81,200), Daniel Weinman (79,300), Phil Hellmuth (66,000), and Damian Salas (54,900). Also through: Scott Seiver (177,300), who correctly folded queens preflop against aces early, Erik Seidel (86,400), Stephen Chidwick (83,400), Adrian Mateos (42,000), and Jason Koon on fumes at 18,700. The cold-deck parade claimed Leo Margets, last year's final tablist, who ran kings into aces preflop and never recovered, plus Jared Bleznick via two-outer, Dan Smith, Seth Davies, and Chad Eveslage. Survivors return Monday July 6 for Day 2ABC.
Why it mattersA Japanese pro leading the Main Event opening flight extends the defining national storyline of this WSOP: Kihara's two bracelets, Ogita's Mini Main million, and now Nakai stacking 400 big blinds on Day 1A. And the champions list matters because the Main Event field is so big that former winners bagging chips on any flight is statistically noteworthy. Hellmuth at 66,000 is only slightly above starting stack, but Hellmuth alive is Hellmuth content, and ESPN knows it.
Story 03 of 6
Brian Rast took the chip lead into the final day of Event #80: $10,000 8-Game Mixed Championship, chasing his eighth WSOP bracelet, with roughly 12 players remaining per PokerNews coverage. Alex Foxen, currently second in the POY race at 2,721 points per SoMuchPoker's last published standings, is also at or near the final table, and PokerNews notes a strong finish would position him to reclaim the top spot from Shaun Deeb. Per our editorial rule we searched for a winner article and found none from a primary source at press time, so the last confirmed state is Rast leading into the final day. No winner is being reported here until one is confirmed.
Why it mattersRast at eight bracelets would tie him with Negreanu, who got there Thursday in considerably louder fashion, and would further cement one of the great mixed-game resumes of the era. The Foxen angle is arguably bigger: the revamped POY race pays $1 million this year, Deeb leads at 2,816, and a championship-level mixed finish is exactly the kind of point haul that flips the leaderboard. If Foxen closes, the POY race becomes the best undercard of Main Event week.
Story 04 of 6
Event #78: $600 Deepstack Championship No-Limit Hold'em drew 5,177 entries and is playing down to a winner today, July 4, with five players remaining per German outlet Hochgepokert's Saturday report. The winner takes $282,817. South Korea's Seong Han led the final 50 into Day 3 per PokerNews, and Bryan Piccioli was chasing a third bracelet earlier in the event. Martin Kabrhel's 281st-place cash here was already covered in his three-events-at-once saga; the tournament itself reaching a conclusion is the new business. No winner had been confirmed by a primary source at press time.
Why it mattersA 5,177-entry field at $600 is another data point that the WSOP's low buy-in events are printing attendance even as the Main Event's opening flight sagged. A six-figure-plus payday off a $600 bullet on the Fourth of July is the exact recreational-poker fantasy the WSOP sells, and whoever wins it today gets one of the better value stories of the summer.
Story 05 of 6
Andrew Moreno bagged the chip lead at 11,955,000 heading into the final day of Event #79: $3,000 Freezeout No-Limit Hold'em with 13 opponents between him and a first bracelet, per PokerNews coverage dated Friday July 3. The event was scheduled to conclude July 3. Per our editorial rule we searched for a winner article before writing this and did not find one from a primary source, so we are reporting the last confirmed state: Moreno led the final 14. The result, whatever it is, will lead tomorrow's brief.
Why it mattersFreezeout events are the purist format: one bullet, no rebuy laundering of mistakes, and the structure rewards exactly the kind of disciplined accumulation Moreno showed to bag nearly 12 million. If he converted, it is a first bracelet for a player who has been on the cusp for years. If he did not, chip leads into final days have been a cursed asset all week, ask Maxx Coleman.
Story 06 of 6
The best pure story of Day 1A was not on the leaderboard. Poker Hall of Famer Billy Baxter, in Las Vegas since 1975, bagged 19,800 and spent the day telling PokerNews stories from the old days. Baxter did not play the Main Event for his first 21 years in town; he was a lowball specialist when no-limit 2-7 was the daily game. He finally entered in 1996 because Stu Ungar, whom he was staking, talked him into it. Ungar's pitch, per Baxter: 'Come on, you should play it. I'm going to win it anyway, so it ain't gonna cost you nothing.' Ungar won it. Baxter's advice for first-timers this year: 'Enjoy it, because I can tell you this: it's going to be very difficult to get through these big fields.'
Why it mattersA man who bankrolled Stu Ungar's third world title telling the story at the table 30 years later, on a 19,800 stack he fully intends to nurse into Day 2, is the kind of thing you cannot manufacture. The WSOP sells its history hard, but occasionally the history just shows up, buys in, and starts talking.
Main Event Day 1A chip counts are official via PokerNews. Day 1B (played July 3) bag counts were not published in sources available at press time. Day 1C is live today. Event #80 final-day chip counts for Rast were not published in available sources.
Main Event Day 1A eliminations confirmed via the PokerNews recap. No prize money at this stage; the bubble is days away.
Six bets preflop in the first hands of the tournament, suited ace-king against Ryan Sands' pocket aces. Yesterday we reported the hand; today the name is confirmed. Immortality of a kind.
Last year's Main Event final tablist ran kings into aces preflop and never recovered. The deck owes her one.
Two-outered, per PokerNews. Joins Dan Smith, Seth Davies, Chad Eveslage, David Bach, and Espen Oeye on the wait-until-next-year list.
Still the man to catch per SoMuchPoker's last update. His lead is under live threat this weekend depending on how the 8-Game Championship resolves.
2,721 points at last published standings, and PokerNews notes a strong finish in Event #80 would position him to reclaim the top spot. The $1 million POY prize makes this the highest-leverage side plot of Main Event week. Result unconfirmed at press time.
Not a POY story, a legacy story. A win ties him with Negreanu at eight bracelets and adds a second championship-level mixed title to a resume already stacked with them. Result unconfirmed at press time.
The $100K PLO win should move him meaningfully up the board but official updated standings had not posted at press time. He is presumably in the Main Event field at some point this weekend.