Day 2abc brought together players who entered the tournament on the first three starting days. The number of players in the Main Event, including late registrations, grew to 8,468, and 312 players registered on Day 2abc.
| Year | Total Main Event Entries |
|---|---|
| 2022 | 8,209 |
| 2023 | 9,500+ |
| 2024 | 9,493 |
| 2025 | 8,959 |
| 2026 | 8,468 |
Only 1,260 players, after another ten hours of play, made it to the next stage.
Phil Helluth doubled up early . On the flop , in a four-way pot, Sanjeev Sisodia makes a continuation bet of 3,500 from early position. He got min-raised to 7,000 by Hellmuth, then Sanjeev made it 14,500, and got raised to 23,000. Sanjeev puts his opponent all-in for 74,500.
Set over set – fives for Phil, twos for Sanjeev.
“I can’t throw away the second set,” Phil mocks, collecting his chips, “but I could easily throw away the third set.”
He prefers to remain silent about the fact that deuces should not be raised from first position at all.
The stream begins at level 8.
Michael Mizrachi, Scott Seiver, and Mike Matusow have been chosen as the stars of the televised tables. Matusow is joined by Olivier Busquet, who has rarely played poker in recent years (but a Main Event is a Main Event).
However, don't expect any spectacular performances from either player—one is playing too poorly, the other too passively.
Level 600/1,200/1,200
For some, it's already the push-fold stage. For others, it's a continuation of the first day's fun, with its endless scope for creativity. Such an experience is impossible online – the stacks and levels are always too short.
Ohad Freund opened tens in second position at an 8-max table for 2,500. To his left, Frenchman Eric Sfez called with , then Cole squeezes the whole thing to 8,000 from the hijack. With , Freund calls, but Sfez suddenly 4-bets to 32,000!
Cole (pictured) folds. It seems like Freund should be having a tough time too, but somehow he manages to get suspicious and goes all-in. A hundred blinds, early position, in the main, with tens!
One can only envy the intuition of the 52-year-old Israeli amateur, or at least his desperate courage.
Scott Seiver three-bets a wide-opening Rigby with nines, but big-stack Sandberg wakes up on the button with aces and four-bets to 18,000. Rigby folds, Seiver hesitates, then calls.
Flop . This slows the pace of play a bit – Sandberg checks back to Seiver.
Turn , and the owner of the aces should be pleased, but we see two checks again.
River – . Scott seems to be about to block bet, but ultimately checks three times. Sandberg overbets to 45,000.
“It’s a funny thing about poker,” Seiver says. “All this ‘I know that you know’… It’s so tempting to go all-in here. And I don’t usually fight my urges. What will he do with the kings? And with ? Very tempting...
"Eh... Okay. We'll live for now," he sums up and puts the cards in the fold.
Busquet makes a continuation bet, and the player who defended the BB check-raises.
“I think I would call,” says Nick Shulman, noting plenty of hands like , and so on. If Olivier finds the pass, it will be quite strange.”
Busquet calls, and disaster comes on the turn.
Hasenburger bets 24,600 – almost the pot. After much deliberation, Olivier calls.
River (73,600):
The effective stack is 51,400. A fourth straight and a deep flush have hit. Hasenburger goes all-in. Schulman calls some completely unbelievable hands as reasonable bluffs – , ...We don't risk losing a heads-up legend with this kind of action.
Judging by Busquet's expression, it seems he's not thinking about a poker decision, but rather assessing whether he's spending his time wisely. Perhaps he should give way to the youngsters, help the nice Austrian build up his stack?
No, we'll play some more – Busquet finally folds.
Seiver's hyperactive preflop play is finally starting to pay dividends.
Scott min-raised preflop and got several calls. He checked the flop. Berger bet 7,000, Scott check-raised to 22,000, Berger called, and it was just the two of them.
On the turn, Scott bets 20,000, and Berger calls.
River (97,800):
Not the most favorable card for Seiver, but overpairs aren't in his opponent's range that much, considering he called second. After some thought, Scott decides to check first.
Berger puts it for some reason.
Seiver thinks for a long time, then explains:
At first, it seems like he's thinking about raising, but gradually we realize he's more concerned with the possibility of folding! The genuine confidence emanating from our opponent is doing its job.
With a heavy sigh, Scott finally makes the call.
To the amazement of the commentators, Berger turns over his cards and tells him:
– You won.
Without saying anything, still slightly shaken by some of his thoughts, Scott begins to collect the chips.
Unfortunately, we won't see him again that day. At the end of the game, Seiver will have bagged 282,000 chips.
Mizrachi enters a multi-way pot with ATs and gets action on the flop from the preflop raiser in the form of a check-raise:
Michael calls, and the turn brings a .
Lapka... checks. Michael checks after him, saying:
– I have a good hand, but let it be a check.
River – .
Paw bets 30,000.
Apparently, his opponent's non-trivial actions drove Mizrachi a little crazy, and he immediately called.
How about a squeeze with J9o with stacks around 30 big blinds? And a quick call from 76s? The guy with KJs isn't standing pat either, and suddenly a 37,000 pot pops up out of nowhere.
Andrés Campero ends this unusual hand with an all-in. Ross folds, but Donovan, after some hesitation, calls and eliminates his opponent from the tournament.
On the last hand before the break, Mizrachi is dealt a cooler and doubles up.
Mizrachi isn't on our list of dream WSOP Main Event champions for this year, but it would still be incredible to see a back-to-back victory.
The chances of that? Close to zero.
After the break, new TV tables arrive. Of course, where would we be without Phil Hellmuth and his white magic?
KQs immediately fly into the muck, because why pay when you are behind?
The second table features Jeremy Ausmus with a big stack of 234,500, and Ian Matakis, the 2023 WSOP Player of the Year, who has just 500 chips less. Blinds are 1k/1.5k, with a 1.5k ante on the big blind.
The third table – alas, still Matusow and Busquet.
How do deep stacks play on Day 2 of the World Series? Ausmus continuation bets two opponents, and the first player raises a hand unrelated to the board.
Ausmus calls and gets beat on the turn when the dealer puts out a .
Check – check.
River – . Two checks again.
It was around this point that Jeremy's day went downhill. At least he made it to the end!
Hellmuth is on fire! After flopping top pair against a set, he declines a continuation bet with Olympian calm.
On the turn, he suddenly makes a small raise, essentially buying himself a cheap showdown.
Sitzoukis calls and checks the river .
Phil did all this to lose to a full house at least, because he immediately checks after and names his hand without turning over his cards, as if he knows he's beat.
– If you had bet even 10 thousand on the river, I would have folded. "Out in the open and laughing!" Phil says after the showdown. "And the question remains: why call preflop with a small pair if you won't get paid off with a set anyway?"
This table is basically sponsor-free, (apart from GGPoker on Mizrachi and BetRivers on Hellmuth), but Sitzoukis has a patch we haven't seen before, for the Play Live poker room in Melbourne, Australia. It's not the only repped live poker room. Mizrachi is sporting a Venetian hat.
The final level of the day begins, and Helmuth shifts gears:
Both opponents quickly fold. They only learn his hand after the day's play is over.
Mizrahi pushes his opponent with three barrels.
This doesn't seem like the texture for a preflop raiser from UTG, but everyone knows Mizrachi plays a bit on his own wavelength preflop – and he knows they know.
"Are you bluffing?" Lascar asks him bluntly.
“On TV – no,” Michael shakes his head.
– Why didn’t you go all-in then?
And Lascar makes the call.
Another squeeze from Hellmuth. Sitzoukis folds his dominant hand immediately. Tyler Gaston, having clarified his opponent's stack, calls.
Flop (57,000):
Both check.
Turn (57,000):
Phil calls 32,000 and Gaston folds.
An unremarkable hand... except that this old man with K9o is about to call.
A king appeared on the flop and the nines went home.
Parker spends about two seconds on his fold of . In the first days of the Maine, this is literally an average pair.
Elliot Kampen calls with a connector.
Flop (80,500):
Eichenberg continuation bets 22,000. Kampen calls.
Turn (124,500):
Eichenberg continues to make 55,000 with the hand that folded preflop. Kampen calls again.
River (234,500, effective stack 72,000):
The only chance to save yourself is to notice your opponent literally shaking with adrenaline. Kampen is twitching irregularly, as if to the beat of some complex music, but there's no earphone in his ear.
But Eichenberg only looks at his own cards. All-in, call. Good game from Nick Schulman.
Brutal finale of the second day.
“I thought I’d get through on the third day, but what can you do... Call,” says Cameron Holder, and it’s unclear whether there’s more theatricality or honest fatalism in his speech.
Menneteau makes a not-so-difficult pass, and Gaston wins a huge pot.
In one of the next hands, he squeezes two opponents with AKo from the button, makes a continuation bet into the only caller on a double-suited flop, checks the turn afterward, and catches a king on the river.
But when his opponent bets about 3/4 of the pot, Gaston is in no rush to call. He thinks for a few minutes, then makes the correct fold.
"Great fold!" Nick Shulman approvingly. Someone at the table upped the ante: "Just an insane fold!"
“Raise,” Gaston says, and raises to 26,000.
– And he could have anything... It's very frustrating. I've already folded at this table... – Helmuth comments quietly and sadly.
"I like this guy!" Ali Nejad admires.
The very last deal of the day also belongs to Gaston.
Only the final whistle saves these people from complete defeat!
However, with such a stack, Gaston doesn’t even make it into the top 20.
The leader, Gaspar Fernandez (Argentina), amassed an incredible 754,000 chips, more than three hundred blinds.
The top bracelet winner is Michael Banducci (USA) with 630,000.
The best of the Japanese is Haruna Fujita – 551,500.
Irina Tikhanskaya from Belarus is also close to the leading group, with 468,000.
Day 1 chip leader Ryuta Nakai has seen his stack grow, but he's not complaining too much – he's got 235,000, compared to just around 100,000 at one point during Day 2.
The last Main Event champion, Michael Mizrachi, ends the day with 202,500. The bracelet record holder, Phil Hellmuth, has 173,300.
Here are the top 25 chip holders at the end of Day 2abc:
| # | Player | Chips |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Gaspar Fernandez | 754,000 |
| 2 | Mason Vieth | 730,000 |
| 3 | Arturas Astrauskas | 646,500 |
| 4 | Michael Banducci | 630,000 |
| 5 | Daan Mulders | 629,500 |
| 6 | Miguel Riera | 592,000 |
| 7 | Chiori Gannon | 589,500 |
| 8 | Kevin Ordet | 584,000 |
| 9 | Haruna Fujita | 551,500 |
| 10 | Peter Patricio | 543,500 |
| 11 | Yita Choong | 540,500 |
| 12 | Alban Juen | 538,000 |
| 13 | Ryan Harfouch | 528,500 |
| 14 | Jordan Ramirez | 527,000 |
| 15 | Yulian Bogdanov | 525,000 |
| 16 | Sam Snead Sweilem | 519,500 |
| 17 | Carlos Saucedo | 517,500 |
| 18 | Christopher Storie | 517,500 |
| 19 | Dan Stavila | 514,000 |
| 20 | Zdenek Zizka | 512,000 |
| 21 | Tobias Matuschek | 511,000 |
| 22 | Simon Wilson | 510,000 |
| 23 | David Kluchman | 504,500 |
| 24 | Arnaud Mattern | 501,500 |
| 25 | Sasha Liu | 495,500 |
