The record-setting field of 1,143 that began Event #17: $1,500 Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better at the 2023 World Series of Poker has been reduced to just 33 players, each with a chance to capture the bracelet on Day 3.
Kyle Burnside and Kyle Cartwright are the players with the best opportunity when play resumes at 1 p.m. local time on June 8. Burnside knocked out Jerry Wong and went on a hot run during the last level to finish up with a chip-leading stack of 2,345,000. Cartwright is right behind him with 2,310,000. It’s been nearly a decade since Cartwright won his World Series of Poker bracelet back in 2014, and he’s put himself in a position to add a second to his collection.
End of Day 2 Top 10 Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kyle Burnside | United States | 2,345,000 | 59 |
| 2 | Kyle Cartwright | United States | 2,310,000 | 58 |
| 3 | Erik Perry | United States | 1,935,000 | 48 |
| 4 | Eric Varnado | United States | 1,750,000 | 44 |
| 5 | Qinghai Pan | United States | 1,680,000 | 42 |
| 6 | Ryan Scully | United States | 1,300,000 | 33 |
| 7 | Jim Collopy | United States | 1,275,000 | 32 |
| 8 | Tomomitsu Ono | Japan | 1,270,000 | 32 |
| 9 | Jeffrey Mitseff | United States | 1,215,000 | 30 |
| 10 | Mark Bixler | United States | 1,205,000 | 30 |
Erik Perry (1,935,000), Eric Varnado (1,750,000), and Qinghai Pan (1,680,000) round out the top five. But the most noise on Day 2, literally, came from the table shared by Ryan Scully, Ben Vidal, James Obst, and “Crazy” Mike Thorpe.
Thorpe characteristically kept the table talking as they took turns poking fun at each other and cracking jokes. Scully finished as the leader at this table with 1,300,000, while Vidal bagged up 980,000. Obst, already with a bracelet on his resume and back at the WSOP after a four-year hiatus while he pursued a tennis career, ended up with 720,000 and Thorpe 600,000.
Day 2 began with 394 players divided up between the conference center and Event Center of the Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas, each trying to make it into the money. Mike Matusow, Barry Greenstein, and Alex Foxen had their day end early as only the top 172 finishers earned a payday.
Once the bubble burst, Shaun Deeb (145th), WSOP legend Perry Green (139th), Phil Hellmuth (127th), 2021 champion Connor Drinan (110th), and David Williams (53rd) all made the walk to the payout desk.
The plan for Day 3 is to play down to a champion. Action will pick up on Level 26 with blinds at 20,000-40,000 and limits of 40,000-80,000. Even in a limit game, pots can become massive and stack sizes swing widely on the bumpy road to the final table and onto the crowning of a new champion.
PokerNews will be back on June 8 from 1:00 p.m. local time, following all the action and providing updates until only one player remains out of this once-massive field.
