2023 WSOP Main Event: Shiina Okamoto, Victor Chong, Punnat Punsri, Anson Tsang, Lok Chan among Asian survivors of Day 2D; 11 remain for the Survivor Promo

A crowd of over 3,200 players returned to Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas ballrooms for Day 2D of the 54th Annual World Series of Poker $10,000 No Limit Hold’em World Championship aka WSOP Main Event. They were joined by around 500 new entries to surpass the 10,000 entry mark. The official announcement was made by WSOP Circuit Tour Director, Dennis Jones,

“History has unfolded today with 10,043 entries, $93,399,900 prize pool! Thanks to every player, dealer, staffer, partner, and poker fan who paved the way and thanks to everyone who is here for the biggest one ever.”

By the end of the scheduled five 2-hour levels, more than half the field fell with 1,660 players remaining. Day 1D chip leader Nicholas “Dirty Diaper” Rigby continued to dominate as he bagged up the second largest stack of 368 bb. He was outranked by Maurice Hawkins who racked up 376 bb. Also making it through were Tom Dwan (170 bb), Chance Kornuth (20 bb), Barry Greenstein (94 bb),  and WSOP Main Event champions Chris Moneymaker (126 bb) and Joe Hachem (131 bb).

55 players from Asia advance

Shining the spotlight on Asia, 55 players survived the day’s onslaught. Korea’s Kwanghwan Park (244 bb) and Taiwan’s Nai Hu (231 bb) closed the day in the top 10. Down the rung was Japan’s Shiina Okamoto who finished 2nd at the Ladies Event. Okaomoto closed the heat strong with a healthy 171 bb.

Malaysia’s Victor Chong and 3x bracelet holder Anson Tsang from Hong Kong both entered Day 2D with 18,000 (22 bb) and 15,700 (20 bb). Mimicking the 2023 Main Event champion Espen Jorstad‘s rise from just 17K at the end of Day 1, both players spun it up to survive the day. Chong racked up one of Asia’s top stacks of 409,500 (164 bb). This put him 9th in the Asia Day 2 survivor list while Tsang closed with a healthy 170,000 (68 bb).

Other notables making the cut were Thailand super star Punnat Punsri (141 bb), Soo Jo Kim (87 bb), bracelet holder from Hong Kong, Lok Ming Chan (61 bb), China’s decorated pro Xixiang Luo (46 bb), and Taiwan’s Hung-Sheng Lin (40 bb).

On the flip side, among the Asian fallouts were bracelet holders Mike Takayama, Jiyoung Kim, and Kartik Ved. Also missing the mark were highly decorated Malaysian high roller Michael Soyza, Indian pro Aditya Agarwal, and Taiwan’s Zong Chi He. 

Asia stats

End of Day 1: 305 players
End of Day 2: 148 players

Top 10 players at the end of Day 2D

Rank	Player	Flag	Stack	BB
1	Kwanghwan Park	Korea	610,500	244
2	Nai Hu	Taiwan	577,500	231
3	Kojiro Mizukami	Japan	571,000	228
4	Shiina Okamoto	Japan	428,500	171
5	Victor Chong	Malaysia	409,500	164
6	Punnat Punsri	Thailand	353,000	141
7	Hajime Watanabe	Japan	338,500	135
8	Dongyan Wang	China	290,500	116
9	Atsushi Takeuchi	Japan	255,000	102
10	Nana Sanechika	Japan	248,500	99

Top 10 players from Asia – end of Day 2 (combined)

#	Player	Flag	Stack	BB
1	Kwanghwan Park	Korea	610,500	244
2	Nai Hu	Taiwan	577,500	231
3	Nikita Luther	India	572,500	229
4	Kojiro Mizukami	Japan	571,000	228
5	Sebastin Kolman	India	504,000	202
6	Shota Nakanishi	Japan	500,500	200
7	Satoshi Isomae	Japan	443,000	177
8	Shiina Okamoto	Japan	428,500	171
9	Victor Chong	Malaysia	409,500	164
10	Abhishek Paul	India- Canada	407,000	163

End of Day 2 Chip Counts – Asia and Pacific players

Top 5 players from Pacific region

12 players from the Pacific region survived Day 2D, among them was bracelet holder James Obst who overtook Gary Benson for the top spot. As mentioned above, also through was 2005 WSOP Main Event champion Joe Hachem with 131 bb.

#1	Player	Flag	Stack	BB
1	James Obst	Australia	593,000	237
2	Gary Benson	Australia	572,000	229
3	Daniel Neilson	Australia	421,500	169
4	Jesse Mason	Australia	370,500	148
5	William Jia	Australia	368,000	147

Flag race – end of Day 2D

At the end of Day 2D, 55 players from Asia advanced. Below is the flag breakdown. Japan powered through with a strong force of 26 survivors out of 54 Day 2 qualifiers.

Bangladesh	1
China	8
Hong Kong	2
India	1
Japan	26
Korea	6
Malaysia	1
Philippines	2
Singapore	2
Taiwan	4
Thailand	1
Vietnam	1

[Update] Somuchpoker Survivor Promo

11 players remaining for the Somuchpoker Survivor Promo $10,000 cash prize. Aroha Ngata said she plans to take it up to 800K today! We’ll keep tabs and post profiles on those that survive the day.

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
Jose Drilon	Philippines	97500
Aroha Ngata	Australia	81,500
Anton Lu	Australia	66,500
Vincent Li	Hong Kong	37,500
Keng Yong Tan	Singapore	28,000