For the general poker player and public, the World Series of Poker Main Event is the biggest and best of all tournaments, but for the players, the $50k Poker Players Championship is probably the most prestigious. Last night saw Gus Hansen, Phil Ivey and Daniel Negreanu all bag top 10 stacks.
The opening day saw 75 entries of which only 17 failed to make the grade, but even that list was a who’s who of poker’s elite, Scott Seiver, Brain Rast, Ben Lamb, Robert Mizrachi and 2021 WSOP Main Event winner Koray Aldemir among them.
Jungleman Daniel Cates made an appearance, having been absent so far from this year’s Vegas shindig, and bagged a stack, as did Jason Mercier, Erick Lindgren and Nick Schulman.
The top 50 at the end of the day, led by Aussie pro James Obst, boasted an incredible 100 WSOP gold bracelets between them, more than 10% of those belonging to Phil Ivey.
Ivey is fresh off an 11th place finish worth $500k in the $250k SHR and there’s more than a decent chance another legend of the game will enter today.
Top 10 Chip Counts
| Place | Player | Country | Chip Count |
| 1 | James Obst | Australia | 1,208,000 |
| 2 | Aaron Katz | USA | 1,192,500 |
| 3 | Johannes Becker | Germany | 898,000 |
| 4 | Bryce Yockey | USA | 780,000 |
| 5 | Phil Hui | USA | 733,000 |
| 6 | Maksim Pisarenko | Russia | 693,000 |
| 7 | Gus Hansen | Denmark | 652,500 |
| 8 | Phil Ivey | USA | 567,000 |
| 9 | Chino Rheem | USA | 567,000 |
| 10 | Daniel Negreanu | Canada | 543,000 |
While many of the big boys were starting out on the PPC, Santosh Suvarna was scooping Event #55: $250,000 Super High Roller No-Limit Hold’em, while Australia’s Mostafa Haidary bagged Event #52: $5,000 No-Limit Hold’em (6-Handed).
Two more bracelets were won, Patrick Moulder taking down Event #56: $2,500 Mixed Triple Draw Lowball and Frank Funaro winning Event #57: $10,000 Super Turbo Bounty No-Limit Hold’em (8-Handed).
Event #54: $1,500 Millionaire Maker No-Limit Hold’em
The third and final starting flight of the $1500 Milly Maker brought the total entry to 10,939 of which only 2381 survive to day 2, all looking for a share of the $14,603,565 prizepool.
Among them, 2019 Main Event champ Hossein Ensan and 2006 winner Jamie Gold, with final tablists Jerry Wong and Toby Lewis also making it through.
Top 10 Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count |
| 1 | Ye Yuan | USA | 875,000 |
| 2 | Ori Elul | Israel | 673,500 |
| 3 | Xiaoyun Li | China | 660,000 |
| 4 | Muaaz Ganni | USA | 615,000 |
| 5 | Philip Verel | USA | 573,000 |
| 6 | Kyle Ho | Canada | 465,000 |
| 7 | Chris Dilts | USA | 462,750 |
| 8 | Justin Belforti | USA | 453,500 |
| 9 | Sean An | USA | 438,000 |
| 10 | Carl Masters | USA | 419,000 |
Today sees Event #59: $1,000 Super Seniors No-Limit Hold’em, Event #60: $3,000 No-Limit Hold’em, and the long-winded Event #61: $2,500 Mixed: Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better; Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo 8 or Better (8-Handed) all get underway.
That’s it for day 27 at the 55th Annual World Series of Poker but we’ll be back again tomorrow with all the bracelet news and the best of the rest of the action, so be sure to check in!
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