$40 Million Guarantee Within Reach After WPT World Championship Day 1c
A total of 973 players entered Day 1c of the World Poker Tour (WPT) World Championship on Thursday, bringing the total entries to 2,312. For the $40 million guarantee to hit, the tournament needs 1,819 players to register for Day 1d (Friday), and there's a high probability that will happen.
Although the first three sessions attracted far fewer players than is needed on Friday, the final session is expected to far and away be the biggest. Many players have been waiting to register for Day 1d, and numerous players flew from The Bahamas on Thursday to Las Vegas from the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Paradise event.
The prize pool will be available after registration closes late Friday evening. We'll also find out just how close or how far over the record-breaking guarantee the tournament gets.
Kyle Ho Bags Biggest Stack
When the 10th 60-minute level completed, 360 players bagged up chips, but no one had a larger stack in their bag than Kyle Ho, who finished the session with 1,211,000 chips. The largest stack during the previous two starting flights was Jeff Hakim on Day 1a with 998,000.
Ho wasn't the only player on Thursday to finish with over 1 million chips. Chance Kornuth ended with 1,130,000, and 2019 WSOP Main Event champion Hossein Ensan filled his bag with 1,100,000 chips.
One player who didn't bag over 1 million chips, or any chips for that matter, is 17-time bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth, who is still in search of his first World Poker Tour title. The "Poker Brat" made his first appearance in the 2023 WPT World Championship Festival, but he was unable to spin up a stack and reach Day 2.
Fortunately, for the Poker Hall of Famer, much like anyone who failed to bag during the first three sessions, he'll have one last opportunity on Friday. At the conclusion of Day 1c, WPT Executive Tour Director Matt Savage announced that over 400 players had already registered for the final opening flight. Many others will sign-up before play begins at 11 a.m. PT, and throughout the day.
Other notables who advanced from Day 1c include Tony Dunst, Daniel Sepiol, Ren Lin, David Jackson, Matt Affleck, and David Williams. Full chip counts will be available in the morning.
*Image courtesy of World Poker Tour.