Nikita Luther, Shota Nakanishi, Lester Edoc, Pakinai Lisawad among top 10 from Asia into 2023 Main Event Day 3

 

Another mind-boggling scene at the 54th Annual World Series of Poker as nearly 4,000 players returned for Day 2 of the $10,000 No Limit Hold’em World Championship aka 2023 WSOP Main Event. 

Ongoing at the Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas ballrooms, it was without a doubt the largest gathering of players for this heat in history. And with registration open for the first two hours, it added 196 more into the mix. According to Pokernews, the total head count is now around 9,500 and prize pool over $90 Million. We will have the final tally once registration closes at 4:20pm on Day 2D, Saturday, July 8, 2023.

Among the sea of contenders was late-comer triple crown champion Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier who closed with over double the starting stack while bracelet winner Christopher Brammer emerged as heat leader with a massive 879,000 (351 bb). In total, 1,877 players advanced to Day 3.

Asia performance at Day 2ABC

From the Asian dugout, 190 returned from the Day 1A, 1B, and 1C flights with Japanese bracelet holder Shota Nakanishi backed by the biggest stack. Nakanishi continued from where he left off, chipping up to finish the day strong with 200 bb, placing him in 3rd rank out 93 Asian qualifiers. Stealing Asia’s top spot was Indian bracelet holder Nikita Luther who spun up her stack six times over during the last level of play to bag up 229 bb.

Luther and Nakanishi were two of six Asian bracelet holders that advanced to Day 3. Also making the cut were Jinho Hong (107 bb), two time bracelet winner Pete Yen Han Chen (68 bb), Yueqi Zhu (61 bb), and newly minted Yang Zhang (23 bb).

In addition to the winners, found in the top ten Asia lineup were Abhishek Paul (163 bb) and Lester Edoc (144 bb), both were contenders of the Somuchpoker Survivor Promo. Thailand’s Pakinai Lisawad also kept his big stack growing to finish with 154 bb. China’s Quan Zhou ranked the highest among the 29 Chinese survivors with 133 bb bagged. He  is headed for his 9th cash in this series.

Other notables down the rung were John Tech (99 bb), Eric Ting-Yi Tsai (95 bb), Masato Yokasawa (94 bb), James Mendoza (86 bb), Xuming Qi (71 bb), William Ysmael (70 bb), Phachara Wongwichit (70 bb), Nishant Sharma (68 bb), Yohwan Lim {53 bb), Natalie Teh (33 bb), Reiji Kono (29 bb), and Yuri Ishida (23 bb). For the complete list, click the link provided:

Complete Asia & Pacific Chip Counts

Top 10 Asian players – end of Day 2ABC

#	Player	Flag	Stack	BB
1	Nikita Luther	India	572,500	229
2	Sebastin Kolman	India	504,000	202
3	Shota Nakanishi	Japan	500,500	200
4	Satoshi Isomae	Japan	443,000	177
5	Abhishek Paul	India- Canada	407,000	163
6	Kenji Harada	Japan	407,000	163
7	Haneol Song	Korea	392,500	157
8	Pakinai Lisawad	Thailand	385,500	154
9	Lester Edoc	Philippines	359,000	144
10	Quan Zhou	China	333,500	133

Number of qualifiers by Flag (alphabetical)

A total of 93 Asian players advanced to Day 3 of the Main Event. Here is the breakdown per flag. China topped this heat with 29 out of 53 flag-bearers through to the next round. Japan was not too far behind with 26 out of 57 flag-bearers advancing.

Bangladesh	1
Bhutan	1
China	29
Hong Kong	3
India	8
Japan	26
Korea	7
Malaysia	2
Philippines	6
Taiwan	3
Tajikistan	4
Thailand	2
Vietnam	1

Top 5 Pacific players – end of Day 2ABC results

In the Pacific region, 23 players from Australia advanced. Topping the lineup was bracelet holder Gary Benson with 229 bb.  Both Aroha Ngata (33 bb) and Anton Lu (27 bb) held on both are contenders of the Somuchpoker Survivor Promo.

#1	Player	Flag	Stack	BB
1	Gary Benson	Australia	572,000	229
2	Daniel Neilson	Australia	421,500	169
3	Jesse Mason	Australia	370,500	148
4	Jarrod Thatcher	Australia	298,000	119
5	Yita Choong	Australia	280,000	112

Guy Fieri presents the 2023 WSOP Championship bracelet

Just before the second break of the day, American restaurateur Guy Fieri strutted in with an entourage of ladies to display this year’s WSOP Championship gold bracelet.

“42-carats, over 2,300 stones, this is going to the big winner of 2023. What an unprecedented record-breaking event we’re having here in Vegas at the Horseshoe and the opportunity to bring this out and present it and stack it on the cash, what an honor!”

Quite a number of WSOP Main Event champions were in the field at that time including the 2023 champion Espen Jorstad. However, Jorstad will not be bringing home a back to back as he was eliminated shortly after the presentation. Here is the list of champions that made it through the day.

Year	Champion	Stack	BB
1987-88	Johnny Chan	372,000	149
2006	Jamie Gold	248,000	99
2009	Joe Cada	241,500	97
2015	Joe McKeehen	220,000	88
2013	Ryan Riess	151,000	60
2020	Damian Salas	147,500	59
2014	Martin Jacobson	128,000	51
1963	Tom McEvoy	20,000	8

[Update] Somuchpoker Survivor Promo – end of Day 2ABC

Player	Flag	Result
Abhishek Paul	India -Canada	407,000
Lester Edoc	Philippines	359,000
William Ysmael	Philippines	176,000
Loic Muller	Vietnam-France	167,500
Cezar Quiambao	Philippines	131,000
Trent Fechter	Cambodia-USA	100,500
Aroha Ngata	Australia	81,500
Anton Lu	Australia	66,500
Vincent Li	Hong Kong	37,500
Keng Yong Tan	Singapore	28,000