Saturday, March 25, 2023 1:14 AM Local Time
Deeb Dominates Day 1B to Take Turning Stone Main Event Overall Chip Lead
Day 1B and Overall Main Event Chip Leader Shaun Deeb
A total of 309 entries filled the Turning Stone Event Center on Friday, but almost wire-to-wire one player stood above them all to bag the chip lead, and it’s five-time WSOP bracelet winner, Shaun Deeb.
Deeb, who hails from Troy, NY, and cut his teeth in the Northeast US poker scene is back at one of his original home casinos and is well on his way to challenging for his first WSOP Circuit ring to go along with those five bracelets. He’ll send 897,000 chips into Sunday’s Day 2, over 150,000 more than Day 1A chip leader Scott Hosbach’s total.
Several players made a run at Deeb’s spot atop the chip counts, but no one could quite get there by night’s end.
Finishing the flight in second place was James Campbell, who won a massive pot on the stone bubble to burst that bubble and put himself into contention for the chip lead, but his 722,000 chips couldn’t quite catch Deeb.
With 545,000 chips is a familiar name to poker fans in Matt Matros. The three-time bracelet winner and author battled back from a short stack late in the night to eventually bag the day’s third-largest stack.
Another interesting story that sits near the top of the counts is Patrick White, who bagged the day’s fifth-largest stack with 470,000 chips.
White busted his first entry of the day in a big pot to Deeb midway through the day, but quickly ran his new stack up and was actually in close contention for Deeb’s chip lead before fading a bit at the end of the night.
With a much quicker bubble than Day 1A, eliminations occurred quickly afterward, leading to an early night once just 31 players remained early in level 17, which represented ten percent of the field and a necessary hard stop.
For a look at the counts of all 31 survivors, click here.
While those 31 join the 21 survivors from Day 1A, several notables will need to try a final time Saturday to advance including eight-time ring winner and all-time WSOP cash leader Roland Israelashvili, WSOP bracelet and ring winner Jean Gaspard, and ring winners Blake Napierala and Timothy Russ to name a few.
The final opening flight takes place Saturday at 11 a.m. local time and is expected to be the largest starting field yet which will significantly boost the already huge prize pool, which currently sits at $769,620.
Stay close to WSOP.com for all the excitement of the final opening flight of the main Event here at the beautiful Turning Stone Resort Casino.