While all eyes were on the finales of the $300 Gladiators of Poker and $25,000 High Roller, Event #31: $3,000 No-Limit Hold'em 6-Handed quietly kicked off inside Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas.
By the time late registration had finished, 1,230 entries had been recorded, 11 fewer than last year's total. Despite that, a bumper prize pool of $3,284,100 had still been generated.
Jake Ripnick (2,680,000) ended the day in pole position and is currently best placed to make a run at the $516,135 up top along with the bracelet.
Daniel Palau (2,250,000) and Akinobu Maeda (1,920,000) also bagged stacks to put them in upper echelons of the counts. Notables such as Maria Ho (630,000), Alex Foxen (370,000), and Jonathan Little (235,000) also made it through to Day 2.
End of Day 1 Top Ten Chip Counts
Rank
Player
Country
Chips
Big Blinds
1
Jake Ripnick
United States
2,680,000
89
2
Daniel Palau
Spain
2,250,000
75
3
Akinobu Maeda
Japan
1,920,000
64
4
Nikolaos Angelou-Konstas
Greece
1,675,000
56
5
Alexandre Reard
France
1,430,000
48
6
Valentin Oberhauser
United States
1,400,000
47
7
Ryan Wolfson
United States
1,350,000
45
8
Daniel Lazrus
United States
1,325,000
44
9
Chander Jain
United States
1,275,000
43
10
Dmitry Blyumin
Spain
1,165,000
39
You Get Ace-Jack, You Get Ace-Jack, You Get Ace-Jack, Everybody Gets Ace-Jack
Chance Kornuth
The big story of the day was the bubble bursting. The top 185 players made the paid places, with the min-cash being $6,015. On the soft bubble, with 187 remaining, there were three all-in calls, with all three showdowns featuring ace-jack.
The first player to table ace-jack was Chance Kornuth and he just needed to stay ahead of Jared Ingles' jack-nine. However, that was easier said than done as Ingles hit his nine on the river to oust the high roller.
Ioannis Angelou-Konstas, with ace-jack, took out a player after hitting running jacks on the turn and river to best Big Slick.
Ken Aldridge
The final all-in and call was between Jack Sinclair and Ken Aldridge, with "Teach" being the player to find themselves on the wrong side of the rail. Aldridge had queens, but Sinclair made a wheel with his ace-jack.
After the players were in the money, the bustouts came thick and fast. Bin Weng fell to Tsugunari Toma's deuces and he joined defending champion Mark Ioli in the payout line.
Rania Nasreddine
Other big names to find themselves in line for a payout included Martin Kabrhel, Rania Nasreddine and Ana Marquez.
The remaining players have all locked up $7,567, with the next pay jump coming when 59 are left ($8,375).
Remaining Payouts
Place
Prize
Place
Prize
1
$516,135
12-17
$29,126
2
$344,092
18-23
$23,071
3
$238,886
24-29
$18,603
4
$168,448
30-35
$15,273
5
$120,672
36-41
$12,773
6
$87,846
42-47
$10,885
7
$65,003
48-53
$9,455
8-9
$48,904
54-59
$8,375
10-11
$37,419
60-71
$7,567
Day 2 will get underway at 12 p.m. on Wednesday, June 12, at Horseshoe Silver. Play will resume on Level 22, where the blinds are 15,000/30,000, with a 30,000 big blind ante. The plan is to play until the final table, which will be streamed on PokerGO on Thursday when a winner will be crowned.
As always, stay tuned to PokerNews to keep up with all the action from the 2024 WSOP.
