Gros tapis pour Benjamin Chalot et Daniel Negreanu, Jamie Sequeira chipleader
After 15 levels of play, the Day 1 action of Event #47: $5,000 Freezeout (8-handed) concluded with only 82 players out of the 421 entries in total managing to find a bag to tag.
All those entries created a total prize pool of $1,941,863, guaranteeing the winner to walk away with $426,694 for first place and the coveted gold WSOP bracelet while 64 players total will be in the money on Monday for at least $8,000.
Jamie Sequeira takes the overnight chip lead with a huge bag of 1,070,000 in chips. The Canadian player counts $48,316 total live earnings in WSOP events and will continue to battle for the first gold bracelet of his career. Trailing in second place is Benjamin Chalot with 733,00, who cashed in three events so far in the series. Closing the podium for today is Daniel Rezaei with 702,000 who is looking for the 17th WSOP cash of his career.
Also in the top chip counts is no one else than Daniel Negreanu with 722,000. After two final tables recently in Event #36: Dealers Choice 6-Handed Championship and in Event #32: H.O.R.S.E, Negreanu will try to add a seventh gold bracelet to his collection.
When the play got underway only 69 players were in their seats, but the field quickly grew, and the entrants were coming and going throughout the day.
Event #47 Day 1 Top 10 Chip Counts
| RANK | PLAYER | Country | CHIP COUNT | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jamie Sequeira | Canada | 1,070,000 | 134 |
| 2 | Benjamin Chalot | France | 733,000 | 92 |
| 3 | Daniel Rezaei | Austria | 702,000 | 88 |
| 4 | Daniel Negreanu | Canada | 617,000 | 77 |
| 5 | Daniel Lazrus | United States | 597,000 | 75 |
| 6 | Ivan Galinec | Croatia | 561,000 | 70 |
| 7 | Joni Jouhkimainen | Finland | 559,000 | 70 |
| 8 | Johan Martinet | Mexico | 450,000 | 56 |
| 9 | Jongwook Lee | South Korea | 430,000 | 54 |
| 10 | Tony Miles | United States | 429,000 | 54 |
Several other big names and bracelet owners are also advancing to Day 2. Joni Jouhkimainen (559,000), Alexandre Reard (395,000), 2019 Main Event runner-up Dario Sammartino (379,000), Jeremy Wien (272,00), Diogo Veiga (168,000), Joao Simao (133,000), Pete Chen (95,000) and Johan Guilbert (103,000) are just a few of the many well known players in the poker world that have made it through to Day 2. Romain Lewis (55,000) and Ben Heath (49,000) also found a bag at the end of the day but as short stacks.
Some of those players unfortunate to bust out here on Day 1 included Main Event Champions Joe Hachem and Phil Hellmuth, as well as four-time bracelet winners Michael Gathy and Anthony Zinno, three-time WSOP champion Chance Kornuth, Gediminas Uselis, Julien Martini, Maria Ho, Pierre Calamusa, Sylvain Loosli, Manig Loeser, Dan Shak, Joseph Cheong, James Chen, Faraz Jaka, and Darren Elias just to name a few.
David Benyamine and Calvin Anderson, who joined the field right before the end of the late registration, didn’t last long and joined them in the rail.
Day 2 will restart at 2 p.m local time, Monday, Oct. 25, and the battle will continue until the final five players are reached. Level 16 will feature a small blind of 4,000, a big blind of 8,000, and a big blind ante of 2,000. There will be a 15-min break every 2 levels and players will also enjoy a 60-minute dinner break after Level 24 at approximately 8:30 p.m.
The PokerNews live reporting team will be on hand to bring you all the updates from the “Shuffle up and deal” until the final moments of the night, so make sure to keep coming back!