Chen in Control; Leads Final 18 into Day 2 of Flip & Go
Another day of hot poker action took place at the World Series of Poker 2023 at Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas. Event #89: $1,000 FLIP & GO No-Limit Hold'em saw 128 players make it through the Flip stage of this unique tournament, which draws its inspiration from the GGPoker's online variant bearing the same name.
Those players who made it through the Flip stage were then whittled down to a final 18 over the course of 12 levels of more typical poker action. The total prize pool is $1,182,810 with $160,490 reserved for the eventual champion.
Poker regular Pete Chen bagged up the most chips at the close of play with an impressive 2,990,000 in his stack with which to start Day 2. Right behind him is James Bullimore (1,840,000) and rounding out the top three is Mason Vieth (1,715,000).
Other notables who return for Day 2 include bracelet winners Kevin Eyster (815,000), Jesse Lonis (1,120,000), and David Williams (725,000).
Top Ten Chip Counts
| Place | Player | Country | Chips | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Pete Chen | Taiwan | 2,990,000 | 75 |
| 2 | James Bullimore | United Kingdom | 1,840,000 | 46 |
| 3 | Mason Vieth | United States | 1,715,000 | 43 |
| 4 | Jack Salter | United Kingdom | 1,675,000 | 42 |
| 5 | Dong Meng | United States | 1,420,000 | 36 |
| 6 | Xizhe Yuan | United Kingdom | 1,245,000 | 31 |
| 7 | Eric Wasserson | United States | 1,200,000 | 30 |
| 8 | Jesse Lonis | United States | 1,120,000 | 28 |
| 9 | Drew Gonzalez | United States | 960,000 | 24 |
| 10 | Brady Hinnegan | Canada | 945,000 | 24 |
The action was fast paced throughout the tournament portion of the event, as players were not at all afraid to get their chips into the middle. The result was a plethora of bustouts early on.
Some big names who were eliminated in the tournament portion included Shaun Deeb, Koray Aldemir, Shannon Shorr, and this tournament’s poster child Scott Seiver (who only took six bullets to make the money this year).
ACR Ambassador Ebony Kenney suffered a bad beat early on, getting it all in with ace-king against the ace-queen of Yuchung Chang. Of course, the queen appeared on the turn to send her home.
Williams also ran up an impressive stack after busting Colton Blomberg. Williams snap-called with a set of eights against Blomberg's turn shove with a gutter straight flush draw that bricked on the river. Unfortunately, Williams' resulting big stack was cut back down within the same level when he got involved with a big hand versus Chen in a set-over-set situation that rocketed Chen into the chip lead.
Even more exciting action is promised for Day 2 as players return at 12:00 p.m. local time in the Horseshoe on July 15th. The blinds will be 20,000/40,000 with a 40,000 big blind ante.
There is sure to be plenty of action with this lineup, so make sure to tune into PokerNews for all of your updates!