2023 WSOP: Asia Highlights – July 3, 2023

MAIN EVENT Day 1A closes with 22 Asian players advancing; Shota Nakanishi leads

After five levels of 2-hour play each, Day 1A of the 54th Annual World Series of Poker MAIN EVENT concluded. Based on the WSOP / Pokernews reports, 721 survived however the official player entry count has yet to be confirmed.

From the Asian front, 23 players bagged up chips, 8 of them were from Japan, led by Japanese Short Deck pro / WSOP bracelet holder Shota Nakanishi with a huge 600 bb stack. Nakanishi finished second in the overall Day 1A chip counts. Also powering through was Yuri Ishida with a very healthy 313 bb stack.

Rank	Player	Flag	Stack	BB
1	Shota Nakanishi	Japan	360,100	600
2	Hai-Chi Ho	China	297,400	496
3	Pete Yen Han Chen	Taiwan	189,700	316
4	Yuri Ishida	Japan	187,600	313
5	Yilu Yuan	China	165,600	276
6	Nishant Sharma	India	133000	222
7	Bawoo Yun	Korea	117,500	196
8	Kenji Harada	Japan	115,000	192
9	Dae Hyung Lee	Korea	114,400	191
10	Zhiyuan Xu	China	93,400	156
11	Linglin Zeng	China	89,000	148
12	Tomoki Terashima	Japan	82,000	137
13	Ying Chan	Hong Kong	70,700	118
14	Paawan Bansal	India	56,100	94
15	Guoliang Wei	China	54,000	90
16	Dilip Ravindran	India	48,800	81
17	Tongguang Sun	China	47,900	80
18	Teruhiro Aritake	Japan	38,700	65
19	Asako Kitamura	Japan	34,500	58
20	Masao Watanabe	Japan	31,500	53
21	Yuichi Sumida	Japan	26,800	45
22	Xiaoqiang Yuan	China	15,200	25

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22:20: Main Event resumes after final break

The last break of Main Event Day 1A has ticked away and players are now back for the last level. Pete Yen Han Chen made quick work of boosting his stack. Also in action is Korea’s Namhyung Kim who is sporting the Somuchpoker patch.

Asia – top stacks

Shota Nakanishi – Japan – 336,000 (560 bb)
Pete Yen Han Chen – Taiwan – 195,000 (325 bb)

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22:00: Dawoong Song finishes in 2nd place

Shortly after the break, Daewoong Song was all in with top pair while Moshe Refaelowitz had a small pair and diamond flush draw. A diamond landed on the turn and with no help on the river, Song had to settle for 2nd place. Song earned his 6th cash of the series and a career high payout of $300,410.

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21:45: COLOSSUS Update: Daewoong Song doubles up

Daewoong Song celebrated his double up with dominating Moshe Refaelowitz’s . However he is still behind 18.5 bb to 45.1 bb.

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21:15: COLOSSUS Update – Pete Yen Han Chen finishes in 3rd place

Taiwan’s hope for a gold vanished when Pete Yen Han Chen fell in 3rd place at the COLOSSUS event. Returning from a break, Chen lost a chunk of his stack to Daewong Song then fell shortly after the elimination of Darrick Arreola in 4th place. Chen risked his stack with but missed against Moshe Refaelowitz’s . Despite missing the gold, Chen still turned his $400 buy in into a sizable $216,320 payout.

Chen jumped in the Main Event. Daewoong Song is still in contention for his first gold and first win for Korea in this series.

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18:00: Asian update on Event 70: $400 COLOSSUS

Over at Event 70: $400 COLOSSUS No Limit Hold’em, only five players remain out of 15,894 entries. Among the finalists are Korea’s Daewoong Song and Taiwanese pro Pete Yen Han Chen. Chen already has a WSOP bracelet which he won at the 2021 WSOP.com Online Event NLH Ultra Deepstack event. Chen and Song are both seeking their first live WSOP title.

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16:00: Random stack update of Asian players at the end of Level 2

Player	Flag	Stack	BB
Dennis Ng	Hong Kong	25,000	83
Nishant Sharma	India	140,000	467
Rintaro Kagawa	Japan	39,600	132
Yuichi Sumida	Japan	67,000	223
Pogeidon Ho	China	109,300	364
Namhyung Kim	Korea	60,000	200
Hamza Wajawat	Pakistan	63,000	210
Paawan Bansal	India	90,700	302
Dae Hyung Lee	Korea	77,000	257

End of Level 2: 200-300 ante 300

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14:00: Asians seen in action

Among the Asians seen entering the first level of play are Nishant Sharma, Edward Yam, and Dennis Ng who came up and told SMP he has already had a deep run. Ng arrived last week and entered Event 65: $5,000 NLH 6-Handed. He finished 64th out of 1,194 entries for a $12,694 payout. At the first break of the day, here are chip counts of a few players in the field.

Player	Flag	Stack	BB
Dennis Ng	Hong Kong	40,000	200
Nishant Sharma	India	40,000	200
Rintaro Kagawa	Japan	67,100	336
Yuichi Sumida	Japan	52,500	263
Pogeidon Ho	China	73,000	365
Edward Yam	Hong Kong	48,200	241
Asako Kitamura	Japan	67,000	335

End of Level 1: 100-200 ante 200

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12:00: Jamie Gold delivers speech and customary “Shuffle up and deal!”

The 2023 WSOP Main Event is underway with two ballrooms seeing wall to wall action!  Before the cards started flying, 2006 Main Event champion Jamie Gold delivered a welcome speech,

“I know I am up here to do the shuffle up but I really feel compelled to say that what has been put on this year and every year here at the World Series of Poker is such a herculian feat that what the entire team has done, all the dealers, all the staff, what they put on for us, the players, we are so lucky to be able to play at the highest level in a $10,000 buy in and break the record of the biggest Main Event of all time, which I was so lucky and fortunate to win. I am just so happy to be here, so proud to be here, and I am so excited to get into this event. I wish everyone all the good fortune that I’ve had, all the good run that I’ve had, all the luck, except for the last person at the final table against me then I do not wish you so well. So everyone, ‘shuffle up and deal!'”

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2023 WSOP Main Event info – Day 1A

The 54th Annual World Series of Poker opens today with the $10,000 No Limit Hold’em World Championship aka WSOP Main Event! This is the first of four Day 1 starters. Players can also sign up on Day 2 with late registration open for two levels.

As always, buy in for this iconic tournament stands at $10,000. This is a Freezeout No Limit Hold’em format which means you bust you’re done. No rebuys nor re-entries allowed.

Starting stack: 60,000
Starting time: 12:00pm
Opening blinds: 100-200, 200 bb ante
Level duration: 120 minutes
Dinner break: 75 minutes after Level 3
Day 1 bagging time: end of Level 5
Late registration: end of Level 7

Somuchpoker is on-site to capture the action, with special focus on the Asian contingent. Cards in the air at 12pm!