Ben Yu en tête à 30 left, Alexandre Reard dernier tricolore en lice
The final event of the 2021 World of Series of Poker didn't disappoint with Day 1 of Event #88: $5,000 8-Handed No-Limit Hold’em attracting 531 entries to generate a $2,449,000 prize pool. Only 80 players made the money for at least a min-cash of $8,061 with 30 of those players returning for Day 2 to battle it out for a top place prize of $511,184 and the coveted WSOP gold bracelet.
Ben Yu is in the driver's seat for his fifth WSOP bracelet after bagging the chip lead with 2,515,000 in chips with Uri Reichenstein (2,070,000), George Wolff (1,7770,000), Shaun Deeb (1,680,000) and Matyas Kende (1,635,000) rounding out the top five players heading into Tuesday's final day.
$5,000 8-Handed NLHE Day 1 Top 10 Chip Counts
| RANK | PLAYER | Country | Chips | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ben Yu | United States | 2,515,000 | 63 |
| 2 | Uri Reichenstein | Israel | 2,070,000 | 52 |
| 3 | George Wolff | United States | 1,770,000 | 44 |
| 4 | Shaun Deeb | United States | 1,680,000 | 42 |
| 5 | Matyas Kende | Hungary | 1,635,000 | 41 |
| 6 | Ramon Colillas | Spain | 1,500,000 | 38 |
| 7 | Danny Wong | United States | 1,330,000 | 33 |
| 8 | Justin Liberto | United States | 1,285,000 | 32 |
| 9 | Clayton Maguire | United States | 1,100,000 | 28 |
| 10 | Alexandre Reard | France | 1,048,000 | 26 |
A few notables cashed but could not find a bag including the likes of Brock Wilson, Dominik Nitsche, Phil Hellmuth, Andrew Kelsall, and Martin Jacobson.
Among those hitting the rail before the money in the final event of the 2021 WSOP included POY leader Josh Arieh, 2021 Main Event Champion Koray Aldemir, Chance Kornuth, Benny Glaser, and Rainer Kempe.
Players will return on Tuesday, November 23 at 2 p.m. local time to battle it out for the WSOP gold bracelet. The tournament will resume at Level 23 with blinds of 20,000/40,000 with a big blind ante of 40,000.
Stay tuned for more coverage of this event and the rest of the 2021 World Series of Poker from the PokerNews Live Reporting Team