At the start of Day 2 in Event #53: $3,000 Nine Game Mix at the 2024 World Series of Poker at the Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas, 139 hopefuls took their seats, all looking to navigate their way through the ten levels of play to keep their chances of victory alive.
Once the dust settled after a 12-hour day, just 16 remained, headed by Australia's Ashish Gupta, who managed to accumulate an impressive 2,629,000 to be the only player above the 2 million mark. Five-time bracelet winner Adam Friedman is his closest competitor on 1,814,000 while fellow mixed-game specialist Scott Bohlman rounds out the top three with 1,538,000.
Other well-known players remain in contention for the $215,982 top prize and WSOP gold bracelet. They include Brazil's Yuri Dzivielevski (1,361,000), Day 1 chipleader Richard Ashby (750,000) and former main event winner Koray Aldemir (552,000). Aldemir found himself at risk a couple of times later in the day, but managed to survive to return for the third and final day.
End of Day 2 Top Ten Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chips |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ashish Gupta | Australia | 2,629,000 |
| 2 | Adam Friedman | United States | 1,814,000 |
| 3 | Scott Bohlman | United States | 1,538,000 |
| 4 | Warwick Mirzikinian | Australia | 1,420,000 |
| 5 | Yuri Dzivielevski | Brazil | 1,361,000 |
| 6 | Bradley Jansen | United States | 1,337,000 |
| 7 | Tomasz Gluszko | Poland | 1,007,000 |
| 8 | Nicholas Julia | United States | 809,000 |
| 9 | Richard Ashby | United Kingdom | 750,000 |
| 10 | Phillip Hui | United States | 700,000 |
Just 57 of the 379 original entrants saw a return on their investment so the bubble had yet to be burst coming into Day 2. After a few hours of play, the tournament did reach the money when Kenny Hsiung fell in 58th place at the hands of Nick Guagenti.
From that point, the pace of the tournament, which had been slow to start the day, picked up considerably. Many notables fell by the wayside in the process, including newly anointed bracelet winner Maksim Pisarenko (48th-$6,080), six time bracelet winner Shaun Deeb (43rd-$6,080) and Robert Mizrachi (39th-$6,080).
The remaining players will return Saturday, June 22 at 1 p.m. local time for Day 3. Limits resume in Level 23 and will continue to increase at 60-minute intervals. The tournament will player down to a winner at that time so be sure to stay tuned to PokerNews as its live reporting team provides updates through to the conclusion of Event #53: $3,000 Nine Game Mix.
