2019 World Series of Poker

Day 1a, the first of three starting flights in Event 84: $1,500 The Closer No-Limit Hold'em, has come to an end and 30 of the original 463 players have progressed to Day 2.

Russian online poker pro Roman Korenev, who won Event #26: $2,620 Marathon No-Limit Hold’em earlier this series, is the chip leader with 1,198,000 in chips, but Griffen Abel (1,000,000) is close behind. Others that bagged impressive stacks at the end of play included recent bracelet winner Ari Engel (936,000), Ian O’Hara (756,000) and Fabian Gumz (628,000).

The day started off with around 135 players in their seats when the first cards went in the air, but with an unlimited re-entry format, that number grew to 463 by the time late registration closed. That final number created a Day 1a prize pool of $625,050, and after the bubble burst early in Level 18, 70 players had made the money with a min-cash worth $2,247.

Numerous players, including notables such as Allen Cunningham, Stan Jablonski, Jared Griener, Igor Yaroshevskyy and Shaun Deeb found themselves taking full advantage of the unlimited re-entries option, while others such as Michael Mizrachi, Ryan Riess, Ben Yu, Mike Leah, Kevin Song and Cary Katz, fired just one bullet, but all fell short of cashing.

However, a number of stellar names, including Allyn Shulman, Josh Arieh, Benjamin Ector, Tim Reilly, Loni Harwood, Maria Konnikova, Matt Affleck and Chris Ferguson, did find their way to the payout desk, while Kristen Bicknell (319,000), Mike Sexton (234,000) and Everett Carlton (98,000) will return to play on Day 2.

Two more starting flights remain for players to join the 30 that bagged and tagged on Day 1a. All survivors from the three starting flights will continue their quest for the gold WSOP bracelet on Monday, July 15th at noon local time. The PokerNews team will be there to cover all the action.

Play has ended for Day 1a. The end-of-day chip counts and final recap will follow shortly.

The clock has been paused and it has just been announced that the dealers will deal four more hands. The remaining players will then bag and tag for the day and return on Monday, July 15th at noon to play Day 2.

A short-stacked Joshua Weiss moved all in from middle position and was called by the big-blind player.

Joshua Weiss:
Big-Blind Player:

The board ran out and gave Weiss a very timely double-up late on Day 1a.

This will be the final level of play on Day 1a.

Mike Sexton moved all in from the button, which got a fold from the small-blind player and Chris Ferguson in his big blind. Sexton then said, "The Chris Ferguson hand" as he tabled and scooped the pot.

There were a few younger players at the table who were unaware of what Sexton was talking about, so Sexton was kind enough to let his other tablemates know that Ferguson was holding ace-nine when he won the 2000 WSOP Main Event.