WPT World Championships 2023

WPT World Championship at Wynn Las Vegas Day 1b Update

By Jonathan Raab

14 Dec 2023

Jonathan Raab 14 Dec 2023

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Day 1b of WPT World Championship concludes with 265/730 entrants reaching day 2
Lynn Gilmartin makes day 2 with big stack
Peter Neff holds day 1b chip lead

Photos Courtesy of WPT

WPT World Championship Day 1b Report

On Wednesday a further 730 poker players ponied up the $10,400 buy-in and took their seats in the WPT World Championship at Wynn Las Vegas, with 265 remaining by the end of the day. In total, there have been 1,339 entries from the first two starting days, with 467 securing passage into day 2.

Gilmartin Well Stacked

Amongst today’s contenders were the WPTs very own Tony Dunst, Lynn Gilmartin and Jamie Kerstetter. While Tony didn’t make, both Lynn and Jamie are through. Lynn bagged a very healthy 556,000 chip stack, the 12th largest of the day, while Jamie, the WPT’s chief content creator, posted 118,000.

Chip Leader

The day 1b chip leader is Peter Neff on 899,000, with Kharlin Sued sitting in second on 735,000 and Colton Blomberg in 3rd on 704,000.

There were mixed fortunes for two WPT Global package winners. Canadian Gylbert Drolet made it through with an above average 464,000, however popular UK blogger Matthew Pitt (aka YorkyPuds) was eliminated in the final level, having been card dead for most of the latter half of the day.

The UK’s Jack Sinclair is through, as is WSOP main event champion Martin Jacobsen and WPT Champions Club member David Baker. Brian Hastings and Ireland’s Chris Dowling also made it, but with below average chip counts.

One player who will be all shook up about making day 2 is Elvis Lopez, who’s biggest live cash to-date is $1,500. He will resume play on Saturday with a 360,000 stack.

Benny Glaser and Erik Seidel, who each played and busted yesterday have unsurprisingly fired again today and this time they both made it, Erik posting 272,000 with Benny on 170,000.

WPT World Championship Day 1b Survivors

Top 10 chip leaders and other notable survivors of Day 1b of the $40m guaranteed WPT World Championship.

Position	Player	Chip Count
1st	Peter Neff	899,000
2nd	Kharlin Sued	735,000
3rd	Colton Blomberg	704,000
4th	Asher Neaman	684,000
5th	Ankit Ahuja	652,000
6th	Eli Berg	648,000
7th	Josue Aguirre	589,000
8th	Ray Brint	577,000
9th	Victor Dong	575,000
10th	Claude Codru	567,000
12th	Lynn Gilmartin	556,000
15th	Andrew Lichtenberger	530,000
34th	Jack Sinclair	466,000
35th	Gylbert Drolet	464,000
79th	Elvis Lopez	360,000
119th	Erik Seidel	272,000
189th	Benny Glaser	170,000
197th	Chris Dowling	159,000
199th	Brian Hastings	157,000
235th	Martin Jacobsen	109,000

The remaining two starting days are expected to have much larger fields than the first two. Whether they are large enough to smash through the $40m guarantee remains to be seen, but TD Matt Savage and his team won’t be worrying at this stage. History suggests it will get there. Day 1c once again starts at 11am in the Encore Ballroom at Wynn Las Vegas.

Tomorrow’s update will be very personal, as I will be taking my seat in the competition today. Hopefully I’ve now kicked the last of the jet-lag into touch and can get on with the serious business of playing poker for a multi-million dollar prize pool. I’ve only ever dreamt of this before, let’s hope the reality doesn’t become a nightmare.