Xu Leads Final 11 Players; Reard, Korn and Farrell Chase Next WSOP Bracelet
Out of a field of 1,137 entries in Event #19: $2,500 No-Limit Hold'em Freezeout, only 11 hopefuls remain in contention for the coveted gold bracelet during the 2023 World Series of Poker at the Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas. The biggest slice of the $2,529,825 prize pool remains up for grabs with a payday of $26,926 locked up so far, while the winner will walk away with $435,924 for their efforts.
Three WSOP bracelet winners are among the finalists and have preserved their chances of a repeat victory but it is China's Qiang Xu who sits atop the leaderboard with a stack of 7,760,000. Alexandre Reard (4,800,000) and Andres Korn (4,760,000) follow in second and third place, respectively, while Triple Crown winner Niall Farrell (1,700,00) is among the short stacks.
Eight different countries will be represented on the final day and the action is scheduled to commence at noon local time on Friday, June 9. The blinds will be 50,000/100,000 with a big blind ante of 100,000 and the field will combine to a single table after the next elimination. Furthermore, the event is also scheduled to be streamed on the PokerGO platform, with cards in the air at 4 p.m. and the stream beginning at 5 p.m.
Seat Assignments for the Final Day
| Room | Table | Seat | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Horseshoe | FT 1 | 1 | Andres Korn | Argentina | 4,760,000 | 48 |
| Horseshoe | FT 1 | 2 | Ruben Costa | United States | 2,185,000 | 22 |
| Horseshoe | FT 1 | 4 | Ankit Ahuja | India | 3,505,000 | 35 |
| Horseshoe | FT 1 | 6 | Adam Swan | United States | 3,080,000 | 31 |
| Horseshoe | FT 1 | 9 | Qiang Xu | China | 7,760,000 | 78 |
| Horseshoe | FT 2 | 1 | Niall Farrell | United Kingdom | 1,700,000 | 17 |
| Horseshoe | FT 2 | 3 | Girish Reknar | United States | 4,285,000 | 43 |
| Horseshoe | FT 2 | 4 | Alexandre Reard | France | 4,800,000 | 48 |
| Horseshoe | FT 2 | 5 | Valentino Konakchiev | Bulgaria | 2,475,000 | 25 |
| Horseshoe | FT 2 | 6 | Byung Eun Shin | South Korea | 1,475,000 | 15 |
| Horseshoe | FT 2 | 9 | Timothy Miles | United States | 3,775,000 | 38 |
Big Names Fall During Frantic Day
It was a frantic second tournament day as the early carnage continued right where last night had finished after the bubble burst. During the first four levels, the field of hopefuls was cut into half and among the notables to depart were Poker Hall of Famer Erik Seidel, rising star Jesse Lonis, Greg "FBT" Mueller, WSOP Circuit crusher Maurice Hawkins, and Mike Matusow to name all but a few.
Start-of-the-day chip leader Dinesh Alt continued to cruise atop the leaderboard but that all changed after a clash with Andres Korn. Ludovic Geilich saw his pocket aces cracked by ace-queen suited and he was joined on the rail by the likes of Joseph Cheong, David Pham, Blaz Zerjav, and Humberto Brenes. The tournament was racing towards the final three tables, which former big stacks Jared Jaffee and Stephen Song narrowly missed.
On the final three tables, Justin Bonomo lost a flip to Adrian Mateos and the same applied shortly after for Marton Czuczor against Girish Reknar. Qiang Xu started his rise to the top of the leaderboard when his nut flush left Korn short, but the WSOP bracelet winner from Argentina doubled back into contention a few minutes later. Xu's countrymen Feng Qu and Biao Ding were not as fortunate as they departed on the final three and two tables respectively.
There was no happy end for former WSOP Main Event finalist Tony Miles either, who was swiftly joined on the rail by Mike Sowers, Ori Hasson, as well as the aforementioned Alt and Mateos during an action-packed final stage.
Reaching the unofficial ten-handed final table was narrowly missed but that will certainly be the case early on the final day as of noon local time in the Horseshoe Event Center. The PokerNews live reporting team will be back to provide all the action until the next gold bracelet winner of the 2023 WSOP in Las Vegas has been crowned.
Remaining Payouts
| Place | Winner | Country | Prize (in USD) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $435,924 | ||
| 2 | $269,438 | ||
| 3 | $192,723 | ||
| 4 | $139,671 | ||
| 5 | $102,577 | ||
| 6 | $76,537 | ||
| 7 | $57,620 | ||
| 8 | $44,087 | ||
| 9 | $34,210 | ||
| 10-11 | $26,926 |