Ari Dinov raised to 2,500 from middle position and Erick Lindgren defended his big blind.
Lindgren check-called a bet of 3,500 from Dinov on a 7♥2♥Q♣ flop and both players checked the 9♥ turn.
The river K♠ prompted a bet of 6,000 from Dinov and a check-raise to 30,000 from Lindgren.
Dinov then turned over his hand, revealing A♦2♦ without announcing call, and seemed confused about the rule exposing your hand heads-up equaling a fold and asked why the dealer was pushing the pot to Lindgren.
Robert Williamson III was excited to begin Day 2. "This is going to be a big hand. I feel it."
Danny Tong raised 2,000 from middle position and Williamson reraised to 6,000. When it came back around Tong pushed all in for 22,500 and Williamson called.
Danny Tong: K♦K♥
Robert Williamson III: A♦10♣
The flop looked good for Tong, Q♠5♠5♦, but Williamson spiked the A♠ on the turn, and Tong began packing his belongings, his seat barely warm. The miracle king did not come on the 8♥ river and Williamson delivered the big hand he had promised.
2023 has seen many long-time pros move up the lists of World Series of Poker bracelet winners, adding hardware in some of the biggest events and most prestigious fields. On Day 1 of this event, several of those pros made moves to win a big event by placing the biggest bets.
Event #73: $2,500 Mixed Big Bet at the Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas drew a record-breaking field, something that is becoming commonplace in a record-breaking year. 146 players remain from that field of 377, which generated a prize pool of $836,600, with a first-place payout of $190,240 and 57 of the remaining players guaranteed $4,021.
But many of the players will also have their eyes set on increasing their bracelet total. Chad Eveslage, who has already increased his bracelet total this year to three by winning the $1,500 Dealers Choice 6-Handed and $10,000 Dealers Choice 6-Handed Championship events, with more than 20 games apiece, certainly wasn’t intimidated by an event with a mere seven. He finds himself well-positioned for a Day 2 run, and to climb further up the WSOP Player of the Year standings.
Also looking to climb that leaderboard and potentially win his sixth bracelet is Josh Arieh. Arieh added a fifth this year in the $10,000 Limit Hold'em Championship, but showed on Day 1 that he’s a master of big bet poker too, no surprise since three of his bracelets come in Pot-Limit Omaha variants.
Day 1 chip leader Erick Lindgren will be looking to add his third bracelet and first in ten years. His biggest hand of the night was a set-over-set double-up in Pot Limit Omaha, which vaulted him to that chip lead, and proved he has honed his skills in all the big bet games.
Other bracelet winners in the top 30 seeking to diversify their trophy cases include Anthony Zinno, Yuval Bronshtein, Phillip Hui, Matthew Ashton, Michael Savakinas, Alex Epstein, and Jeff Lisandro. With a field this stacked, the competition for the bracelet will be fierce, and the big bets will be firing across the felt on Day 2.
Top Ten Chip Counts
Rank
Player
Country
Chip Count
1
Erick Lindgren
United States
350,000
2
Dimitrios Michailidis
United Kingdom
330,200
3
Julio Belluscio
Argentina
328,800
4
Chad Eveslage
United States
301,300
5
Ren Lin
United States
255,000
6
Richard Bai
United States
218,000
7
Benjamin Miner
United States
213,700
8
Tamon Nakamura
Japan
210,200
9
Maximilian Schindler
United States
203,800
10
Xu Zhu
China
193,000
Josh Arieh
Day 2 will restart at 2:00 p.m. local time. A decision will be made by the end of the day whether ten levels will be played as scheduled, or whether an eleventh will be played to compensate for the level that was not played on Day 1.
There will be 15-minute breaks every two levels and a 60-minute dinner break after level 16 (approximately 7:30 p.m.).
Stay tuned to PokerNews as we chronicle every thrilling step on the way to making World Series of Poker history and making one player’s bracelet dream a reality.
