It’s finally here! The 2024 World Series of Poker Main Event has kicked off and it did so in style, with two brutal bustouts on the very first hand and a host of stars showing up to stake their claim to poker glory.
The 55th Annual World Series of Poker Main Event kicked off with a thrilling start as @notontilt09 aka Dan Weinman, the 2023 champion, took charge of Day 1A's Shuffle Up and Deal!
The cards are in the air and the excitement is palpable as players from around the globe vie for… pic.twitter.com/AsrpTY5AbZ
— WSOP – World Series of Poker (@WSOP) July 3, 2024
Event #81: $10,000 WSOP Main Event World Championship.
The action started immediately and for Craig Issod and Travis Darroch it would last precisely one hand each. Issod flopped a set and shoved the river, only to find his opponent had rivered a straight.
Darroch’s demise was a quads over boat debacle, his river all-in raise met by an instacall.
Darroch: 10♠ 10♣
David Williamson: 8♦ 8♠
Flop: 8♥ J♠ 10♦
Turn: 8♣
River: A♦
Darroch, who goes by the online moniker “Dramatic Degen” tweeted afterwards: “First time in my life ever playing the @WSOP Main Event. And I busted hand 1. Luckily, I’m already laughing about it. But that was painful.”
Hendon Mobster Barny Boatman, one of ten nominees for the Poker Hall of Fame induction later this month, safely navigated Day 1a, as did former Main Event champs Jerry Yang (2007), Greg Merson (2012) and Qui Nguyen (2016).
A full 620 of the 916 entries made it through to Day 2abc later in the week, and there are three more starting flights over the next three days.
Top 10 Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count |
| 1 | Joshua Feiger | USA | 311,900 |
| 2 | Assaf Zeharia | Israel | 276,600 |
| 3 | Frank Funaro | USA | 265,000 |
| 4 | Mark Stockton | USA | 260,700 |
| 5 | Jie Wu | China | 252,300 |
| 6 | Nan Li | USA | 247,500 |
| 7 | Vid Zagar | Slovenia | 241,300 |
| 8 | Jonathan Wong | USA | 239,800 |
| 9 | Naoya Kihara | Japan | 228,300 |
| 10 | Pedro Bromfman | Brazil | 224,600 |
While the Main Event was getting underway, four bracelets were decided.
Arash Ghaneian finished off the extended heads-up stage of Event #74: $10,000 Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo 8 or Better Championship, while Jimmy Setna and Jason James, aka Team Setna bagged Event #75: $1,000 Tag Team No-Limit Hold’em.
Matthew Lambrecht won Event #76: $10,000 Mystery Bounty No-Limit Hold’em (8-Handed) and Hong Kong’s Win Liu took down Event #77: $2,500 Mixed Big Bet.
Elsewhere in the Horseshoe and Paris casinos, the action continued apace:
Event #78: $1,000 Mini Main Event No-Limit Hold’em
Day 2 reduced 486 players to just five, Kyle Wiliamson leading the way at the final table. Landon Tice (219th for $3,680) and Stoyan Madandhziev (51st for $12,587), made it to the paid spots.
Final Table Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count |
| 1 | Kyle Williamson | USA | 146,300,000 |
| 2 | Georgios Skarparis | Cyprus | 143,700,000 |
| 3 | Alexandre Barbaranelli | Italy | 36,800,000 |
| 4 | Mikhail Zavoloka | Russia | 20,200,000 |
| 5 | Dirk Bruns | Germany | 17,500,000 |
Event #79: $50,000 High Roller Pot-Limit Omaha (8-Handed)
With close to $9million in prizemoney, the biggest buy-in PLO event of the summer schedule also fought its way down to a final five.
A frantic day 2 saw Phil Ivey, Daniel Negreanu, Shaun Deeb and Ike Haxton all fall short of the money, with Dylan Smith bubbling the paid spots to a cruel runner, runner flush.
Among those who did find an ROI were Jason Mercier (18th for $105,000), Cary Katz (12th for $121,768) and Brian Rast (8th for $221,778).
Final Table Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count |
| 1 | Danny Tang | Hong Kong | 20,725,000 |
| 2 | Ronald Keijzer | Netherlands | 13,275,000 |
| 3 | Daniel Perkusic | Germany | 12,150,000 |
| 4 | Jim Collopy | USA | 5,100,000 |
| 5 | Santhosh Suvarna | India | 4,850,000 |
Event #80: $800 Independence Day Celebration No-Limit Hold’em
Aimed perhaps at the holiday crowd without $10k to spare for the main Event, day 1 of the two-day $800 Independence Day Celebration event pulled in a very decent 2,864 entries.
Only 150 remained at the end of play, including Men “the Master” Nguyen, infamous whistleblower in the Bryn Kenney case, Martin Zamani, and two-time bracelet winner, Mark Seif.
Top 10 Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chips |
| 1 | Ivan Denev | Bulgaria | 2,480,000 |
| 2 | Michael Phillips | USA | 2,010,000 |
| 3 | Mark Seif | USA | 1,895,000 |
| 4 | Lukas Hafner | Austria | 1,875,000 |
| 5 | Brandon Sheils | UK | 1,865,000 |
| 6 | Yoshiya Agata | Japan | 1,860,000 |
| 7 | Shalom Elharar | USA | 1,785,000 |
| 8 | Agharzi Babayev | Azerbaijan | 1,780,000 |
| 9 | Alexander Petrucelli | USA | 1,505,000 |
| 10 | Yuzu Wang | China | 1,485,000 |
That’s it for yet another day at the Vegas poker coalface but we’ll be back tomorrow with news of day 1b of the Main Event and all the other action, so be sure to check in!
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