Alex Foxen Among the $800 No-Limit Deepstack 8-Handed Chip Leaders
Day 1 of Event #53: $800 No-Limit Deepstack 8-Handed has come to a close, and another huge field turned out for the sixth of the seven Deepstack bracelet events on the WSOP schedule for 2019. A total of 3,759 grinders made it to the Rio for Day 1 and, at the end of 20 levels, there will be a field of 440 coming back for Day 2.
Alex Foxen will come back for Day 2 as one of the chip leaders, as the No. 1 ranked GPI player in the world bagged 1,104,000. Foxen added a half-million chips into that number on a huge knockout hand near the end of the night, and he’ll be one of the top contenders returning for Monday’s restart. Other players building a big stack on Day 1 included J.D. Rice (1,138,000), and Luke Nguyen (976,000).
The $800 price point was certainly a factor in the huge turnout, but plenty of big names also showed up for Day 1. WSOP Main Event champions Chris Moneymaker, Greg Raymer, Phil Hellmuth, Chris Ferguson were all in the mix, as well as multi-time bracelet winners like Erik Seidel, Men “The Master” Nguyen, Dutch Boyd, Asi Moshe and Barbara Enright.
Raymer, Hellmuth, Ferguson, Boyd, and Moshe all made it through to what is sure to be a fast-action Day 2.
Other notable players that bagged Day 1 included recent bracelet winner Joseph Cheong, Maria Konnikova, Guo Liang Chen, Valentin Messina and Matt Affleck. A pair of celebrity comedians also made it through, with Brad Garrett and Norm MacDonald laughing their way into the Day 2 mix.
The field played through 20 half-hour levels on Day 1, and Day 2 is scheduled to play down to a winner, with 40-minute levels. The action restarts at 1 p.m. Monday at Level 21, with the blinds at 8,000/16,000. The remaining players will be battling it out for the coveted WSOP bracelet and first place prize of $371,203.
The pace was fast and furious in the latter levels of Day 1, and the second and final day of this tournament will no doubt be more of the same. With players like Foxen, Cheong, Moshe, Hellmuth and Affleck in the hunt, the road to the bracelet will be extremely competitive.
Follow along with the PokerNews live reporting team as Event #53: $800 No-Limit Deepstack 8-Handed plays to a winner on Monday.