The penultimate tournament of the 2024 World Series of Poker (WSOP) here at the Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas has reached Day 2, its final day. Some 2,401 entrants entered on Day 1b of Event #98: $1,500 The Closer, with only 277 of those starters bagging chips after the completion of the 20th level.
Denmark's Martin Stausholm (2,035,000) finished the second flight at the top of the leaderboard, over 400,000 chips more than Israel's Gal Naim (1,610,000) in second-place, and half a million more than Timur Khamidullin (1,550,000) of Russia.
End of Day 1b Top Ten Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chips | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Martin Stausholm | Denmark | 2,035,000 | 102 |
| 2 | Gal Naim | Israel | 1,610,000 | 81 |
| 3 | Timur Khamidullin | Russia | 1,550,000 | 78 |
| 4 | Jared Bleznick | United States | 1,540,000 | 77 |
| 5 | Mario Colavita | Italy | 1,525,000 | 76 |
| 6 | Aaron Mermelstein | United States | 1,500,000 | 75 |
| 7 | John Racener | United States | 1,295,000 | 65 |
| 8 | Joey Couden | United States | 1,270,000 | 64 |
| 9 | Jordan Schneible | United States | 1,265,000 | 63 |
| 10 | Han Ming Feng | United States | 1,255,000 | 63 |
Jared Bleznick became a WSOP champion yesterday after taking down the $50,000 High Roller No-Limit Hold'em event for $2,037,947. Most poker players would have called time on the rest of the WSOP after banking six figures, but Bleznick isn't like most poker players. He entered this event and bulldozed his way to fourth place in the overnight standings, bagging up 1,540,000 chips.
Bleznick wasn't the only superstar to join the action today. John Racener (1,295,000) and Joey Couden (1,270,000) finished with enough chips to occupy a top ten spot at the close of play.
Joey Weissman (1,065,000) also finished above one million chips, while the controversial Ali Imsirovic (955,000) ended Day 1b in 20th place.
Lower down the counts but still in with a chance of some late WSOP glory are the likes of Andrew Kelsall (915,000), Matthew Wantman (765,000), David Coleman (750,000), Renan Bruschi (630,000), Mike Matusow (500,000), Felipe Ramos (415,000), Davidi Kitai (230,000), and Scotty Nguyen (185,000).
Day 2 shuffles up and deals at 11 a.m. local time on July 17, with 361 players returning to their seats. July 17 is the last day of the 2024 WSOP, so this event will award its bracelet regardless of how long it takes to conclude the tournament!
Stay tuned to PokerNews to see who takes down one of the final bracelets of the season.
