Calvin Anderson Bags Day 2 Chip Lead in Big O Championship in the Hunt for Number Five
An action-packed Day 2 of Event #37: $10,000 Big O Championship at the 2024 World Series of Poker saw the 108 players who bagged on Day 1 of the event at the Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas being joined by 32 new entries during the first two levels of the day, during which late registration was open.
This brought the total entry count of the brand-new event to 332, a massive turnout for a $10,000 buy-in event. It created a prize pool of $3,087,600, of which fifty players would receive a payout. Indeed, plenty of payouts were distributed, as at the end of the day, only 19 had chips and moved on to Day 3.
Leading them is Calvin Anderson, who put 2,385,000 chips in his bag at the end of the day, good for nearly 80 big blinds when the tournament restarts. Anderson is well-accomplished both live and online in all forms of poker. In 2023, he won two of his four total bracelets, and he will be looking to continue his form this year.
Following Anderson closely is John Fauver, who may be unknown to the larger public but has plenty of pot-limit Omaha wins under his belt, in every variety of the game. Fauver was the only other player who crossed two million chips, bagging up 2,125,000. Dylan Weisman, meanwhile, rounds out the top three as he is looking for his second bracelet of the year. He finds himself in the upper regions of the chip counts on back-to-back days with a stack of 1,700,000 chips.
Also in the upper half of the chip counts are WSOP regular Michael Rocco (1,640,000), old-school David Benyamine (1,350,000), and three-time bracelet winner Ryan Hughes (925,000).
End of Day 2 Top Ten Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Calvin Anderson | United States | 2,385,000 | 80 |
| 2 | John Fauver | United States | 2,125,000 | 71 |
| 3 | Dylan Weisman | United States | 1,700,000 | 57 |
| 4 | Michael Rocco | United States | 1,640,000 | 55 |
| 5 | Tomasz Gluszko | Poland | 1,515,000 | 51 |
| 6 | David Benyamine | France | 1,350,000 | 45 |
| 7 | George Parublev | United States | 1,050,000 | 35 |
| 8 | Farid Jattin | Colombia | 1,035,000 | 35 |
| 9 | Ryan Hughes | United States | 925,000 | 31 |
| 10 | P.J. Cha | United States | 925,000 | 31 |
Other notables who have made it through to Day 3 include $25K Fantasy picks Anson Tsang (890,000) and Adam Friedman (415,000), as well as recent $10,000 2-7 Triple Draw runner-up Danny Wong (890,000).
Day 2 Action
To reach the bubble phase, a lot of players had to leave empty-handed. In the first few levels of the day, goodbyes were said to the likes of Brian Rast, Jim Collopy, Sean Troha, Nick Schulman, Ren Lin, and Freddy Deeb. Benny Glaser, Yuri Dzivielevski, Kevin Gerhart, Phil Hellmuth, Scott Seiver, Joao Vieira and Day 1 chip leader Wing Po Liu got closer, but all bowed out before cashing as well.
Ultimately, Amir Wahab and Zhen Cai busted two away from the money, meaning that the remaining players picked up at least the min-cash of $20,306. Once in the money, the likes of David Williams, Mike Matusow, Tom Koral, Yuval Bronshtein, and Justin Saliba waved goodbye.
At the final three tables, Matt Glantz, Naoya Kihara, Sean Winter, Benjamin Miner, and Dylan Smith were eliminated before the final 19 players bagged and tagged for the third day.
They are all guaranteed at least $25,430 for their efforts, but everyone will be eyeing the gargantuan $681,998 top prize, the coveted WSOP bracelet, and the prestigious title of inaugural Big O Champion that comes with the victory.
Remaining Payouts
| Place | Prize |
|---|---|
| 1 | $681,998 |
| 2 | $454,668 |
| 3 | $311,737 |
| 4 | $217,783 |
| 5 | $155,065 |
| 6 | $112,573 |
| 7 | $83,359 |
| 8 | $62,985 |
| 9 | $48,582 |
| 10-11 | $38,269 |
| 12-15 | $30,800 |
| 16-19 | $25,340 |
The remaining players will return to the Horsehoe Event Center at 1 p.m. local time on June 15. The blinds will be at Level 21, 15,000/30,000 with a 30,000 big blind ante, and all levels will remain 60 minutes in length. The schedule is to play down to five players, who will then return for a fourth and final day.
Check back in to PokerNews at that time to not miss any of the five-card, split-pot action that the $10,000 Big O Championship still has in store.