Nick Pupillo Leads Last Nineteen Heading into Final Day of Event #52: $2,500 Mixed Triple Draw
After ten more 60-minute levels of play on Day 2 of Event #52: $2,500 Mixed Triple Draw at the 2023 World Series of Poker at the Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas, just 19 players remain from a start-of-day field of 145.
Leading the survivors is Nick Pupillo with a large stack of 1,505,000 after he was able to add a significant chunk to his count late in the day by making a wheel against Cary Katz's number two in 2-7 triple draw. His nearest competitor, Tomomitsu Ono, was able to amass 1,235,000 while Joao Vieira rounds out the top three on 1,040,000.
When play started with 145 of the original 353 runners, the first hurdle the remaining players needed to clear was the money bubble. It did take quite some time for that stage of the tournament to be reached but eventually Yuebin Gao was the individual unfortunate enough to hit the rail in 54th place, guaranteeing the remaining 53 players a payday of at least $4,069.
From that point on, play continued at a fairly regular pace with the average stack sitting at a little under 20 big bets.
Day 3 Top Ten Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nick Pupillo | United States | 1,505,000 |
| 2 | Tomomitsu Ono | Japan | 1,235,000 |
| 3 | Joao Vieira | Portugal | 1,040,000 |
| 4 | Brant Hale | United States | 1,000,000 |
| 5 | Oscar Johansson | Sweden | 910,000 |
| 6 | Robert Wells | United Kingdom | 850,000 |
| 7 | Hye Park | United States | 810,000 |
| 8 | Anatolii Zyrin | Russia | 800,000 |
| 9 | Ryan Moriarty | United States | 640,000 |
| 10 | Divakaran Marella | United States | 530,000 |
Several notables were able to navigate their way through the day's play, including five time bracelet winner John Monnette (410,000) and Poker Central founder Katz (135,000).
Other high profile players to enter Day 2 but progress no further include poker commentator Maria Ho, WSOP POY contender Michael Rodrigues and the chip leader coming into the day, Marco Johnson.
All of the remaining players have locked up at least $6,948 but their main focus will now be on the $181,978 first place prize and the WSOP gold bracelet that accompanies it. Day 3 resumes on Saturday, June 24th, at 1 p.m. local time, at which point the field will be whittled down to a winner.
Be sure to stay tuned to PokerNews as its live reporting team continues to provide coverage through to the conclusion of this event.