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 |
