Cosmin Joldis Lightyears Ahead at Day's End of Event #66: $1,000 Mini Main Event No-Limit Hold’em
Day 2 of Event #66: $1,000 Mini Main Event No-Limit Hold'em has come to an end. The event started at noon with 478 players out of a starting field of 5,382. Only five players remain, each locking up a guaranteed payout of at least $158,488 with a first-place prize of $593,985 paired with the coveted WSOP gold bracelet.
Romanian player Cosmin Joldis is commanding the final table with 180,000,000. Joldis jumped to the top of the leaderboard midway through the day and then won a huge pot against Young Sik Eum, where he flopped a set against Eum's top pair to take a massive lead. He was in full control through the rest of the night and will be a big favorite going into the final day.
Rounding out the final five are Sik Eum (33,500,000), WSOP bracelet winner Kartik Ved (58,500,000), Kei Nitta (49,200,000), and Phillip Lee (28,400,000).
Event #66: $1,000 Mini Main Event Final Table Seat Draw
| Seat | Player | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
| 1 | Kei Nitta | 49,200,000 | 16 |
| 2 | Phillip Lee | 28,400,000 | 10 |
| 3 | Cosmin Joldis | 180,000,000 | 60 |
| 4 | Young Sik Eum | 33,500,000 | 11 |
| 5 | Kartik Ved | 58,500,000 | 20 |
A few notables who busted earlier in the day were, five-time bracelet winner Allen Cunningham, two-time bracelet winner Steven Wolansky, and Women in Poker HoF Kathy Liebert. Five-time bracelet winner Shaun Deeb made a deep run but was knocked out in 18th place ($23,148) when Theodore Lee's pocket nines beat his ace-three offsuit.
The final five players will return on Sunday, July 3 at 2:00 p.m. local time to the feature room at Bally's to play down to a winner. The event will resume at Level 42 with blinds of 1,500,000/3,000,000 with a big blind ante of 3,000,000.
Stay tuned for more coverage of this event and the 2022 World Series of Poker from the PokerNews Live Reporting Team.