Olga Iermolcheva Bags Big in Event #70: $400 Colossus; Spraggy Well in Contention
Droves and droves of both recreational and professional poker players filled the Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas at the 2023 World Series of Poker for Event #70: $400 Colossus. An overwhelming 7,705 entries were tallied from the start of the day until the end of dinner break. Of those entries, only 965 remain with a bag and a guaranteed shot at the WSOP gold bracelet. Those unable to find a bag have another opportunity to find one on Day 1b.
Event #70: $400 Colossus Day 1a Top 10 Chip Counts
| Place | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chengtzu Lai | United States | 1,456,000 | 121 |
| 2 | Alessandro Minasi | Italy | 1,415,000 | 118 |
| 3 | Abraham Serrano | Spain | 1,337,000 | 111 |
| 4 | Alan Chute | United States | 1,326,000 | 111 |
| 5 | Yanfeng Wang | United States | 1,250,000 | 104 |
| 6 | Ivan Starostin | Russia | 1,228,000 | 102 |
| 7 | Todd German | United States | 1,202,000 | 100 |
| 8 | Olga Iermolcheva | Ukraine | 1,105,000 | 92 |
| 9 | Corey Davila | United States | 1,080,000 | 90 |
| 10 | Nadav Bitton | Canada | 1,074,000 | 90 |
One, Olga Iermolcheva, ran a stack of 65,000 to a whopping 1,125,000 over a span of two hours. She has had plenty of deep runs this summer already, including a win at the $500 Ladies Championship at the Orlean’s Summer Open for $14,350, as well as a 19th place finish here at the Event #11: $600 NLH Deepstack for $ 13,438. There was one hand she might have talked herself out of risk that may have been pivotal in her arriving where she did.
Alan Chute bagged a tremendous 1,326,000 at the end of the day thanks to cracking the aces of bracelet winner Lori Eisenberg, who had accumulated quite the stack but was thwarted at the end of day. Chute’s biggest documented score was for $ 8,920 in a Daily Deepstack this summer and he’ll be looking to best that if he can keep up his trajectory going into Day 2.
Marle Spragg and Benjamin Spragg, quite the power couple, were both in attendance and riding a deep run going into the money. Mrs. Spragg bagged this tournament in 2022 but came just short this time, as she was seen heading to the payouts in the last level of the evening. Mr. Spragg did spin his stack up to an impressive 623,000 by night’s end.
Plenty of big names, including the likes of Alejandro Lococo, Ben Yu, and Allen Cunningham all fell before the end of day.
Player’s who bagged will be ineligible to play the next flight but even those that cashed have another opportunity to run the gauntlet if they so choose.
The remaining players will be returning on Sunday, July 2nd at 10 a.m. local time to play a full 15 levels. They'll be joined by the survivors of Day 1b which takes place July 1st at 10 a.m. local time. Stay tuned in to PokerNews to catch it as it happens live.