Friday, June 9, 2023 1:23 AM Local Time
Justin Arnwine Dominates the Field on Day 1b of the 2023 WSOP Gladiators of Poker
Play has concluded at the end of Day 1b of Event #18: $300 Gladiators of Poker at the 2023 World Series of Poker (WSOP). The flight attracted 4,571 players to the Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas.
The 4,571 entries added $1,124,466 to the prize pool, and took the total attendance to over 8,500 with two Day 1s remaining. The bubble burst at 687 players during Level 16, and play continued for another six levels. When the curtain came down on Day 1b, only 151 participants bagged up chips.
After 22 levels of action Justin Arnwine emerged as the chip leader after bagging 3,080,000 chips. Arwine has 13 WSOP cashes, including one from this event, and more than $730,000 in live cashes, a figure that is set to soar if he puts together a deep run in this large-field tournament.
End of Day 1b Top 10 Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|
| 1 | Justin Arnwine | United States | 3,080,000 | 62 |
| 2 | Matthew Krieger | United States | 2,760,000 | 55 |
| 3 | Bernard Muhire | United States | 2,485,000 | 50 |
| 4 | Handrianto Minderman | United States | 2,265,000 | 45 |
| 5 | Dylon Chafin | United States | 2,245,000 | 45 |
| 6 | David Dunlap | United States | 2,230,000 | 45 |
| 7 | Lee Johnson | United States | 2,145,000 | 43 |
| 8 | Mateusz Moolhuizen | Netherlands | 2,070,000 | 41 |
| 9 | Weston Pring | Canada | 2,060,000 | 41 |
| 10 | Henry Theiling | United States | 2,030,000 | 41 |
Others that bagged and tagged impressive chip stacks at the close of play included Matthew Krieger (2,760,000) Bernard Muhire (2,485,000), Handrianto Minderman (2,265,000), and Dylon Chafin (2,245,000.)
Handrianto Minderman
Further down the chip counts, but still finding themselves in the mix going into Day 2, include Mateusz Moolhuizen (2,070,000), David Levi (965,000), Daniel Buzgon (855,000), and bracelet winner Adrian Moreno (330,000),
On the flip side, the tournament saw its fair share of high-profile casualties throughout the day. Some of these included Allen Cunningham, Kathy Liebert, Lexy Gavin-Mather, Ashley Frank, and Perry Friedman.
Day 1c of the Gladiators of Poker kicks off at 10:00 a.m. on June 9, and Day 1d starts at the same time on June 10. The surviving players from all Day 1 flights return for Day 2 action on June 11.
Stay tuned to PokerNews for live updates straight from the tournament floor of Event #18: $300 Gladiators of Poker.
Friday, June 9, 2023 12:52 AM Local Time
Official End of Day 1b Chip Counts
| Justin Arnwine | 3,080,000 | 1,880,000  |
| Matthew Krieger | 2,760,000 | 2,760,000 |
| Bernard Muhire | 2,485,000 | 2,485,000 |
| Handrianto Minderman | 2,265,000 | -85,000  |
| Dylon Chafin | 2,245,000 | 2,245,000 |
| David Dunlap | 2,230,000 | |
| Lee Johnson | 2,145,000 | 2,145,000 |
| Mateusz Moolhuizen | 2,070,000 | 2,070,000 |
| Weston Pring | 2,060,000 | 2,060,000 |
| Henry Theiling | 2,030,000 | |
| Joshua Rothberg | 2,005,000 | 2,005,000 |
| Paul Ephremsen | 1,950,000 | -350,000 |
| Arvid Vermaut | 1,940,000 | 1,120,000 |
| Artur Winstone | 1,900,000 | -450,000 |
| Hrishikesh Kulkarni | 1,895,000 | |
| Wesley Cannon | 1,880,000 | |
| Devin Cain | 1,795,000 | |
| Robert Hofrichter | 1,770,000 | |
| Torben Rauer | 1,765,000 | 465,000 |
| Kai Zheng | 1,575,000 | |
| Trey Boone | 1,545,000 | |
| Joseph Bakun | 1,525,000 | 1,525,000 |
| Ryan Caviness | 1,520,000 | -180,000 |
| Abhishek Parashar | 1,505,000 | |
| Yan Li | 1,455,000 | |
| Ebrahim Zaver | 1,435,000 | 395,000 |
| Andrew Pressler | 1,435,000 | |
| Jordan Trainor | 1,420,000 | |
| Howard Ding | 1,410,000 | |
| Imad Canawati | 1,310,000 | |
| Yasuhiro Waki | 1,310,000 | |
| Jeffrey Copeland | 1,300,000 | -50 |
| Bo Chen | 1,275,000 | |
| Larry Quang | 1,275,000 | 290,000 |
| Jon Peck | 1,265,000 | 0 |
| John Cressend | 1,200,000 | |
| Jonathan Dobbertin | 1,185,000 | |
| Enzo Rossi | 1,170,000 | |
| Hernán Creixell | 1,140,000 | |
| Abraham Obeid | 1,130,000 | |
| Corey Richardson | 1,115,000 | |
| Wanghee Lee | 1,100,000 | |
| John Ballard | 1,090,000 | |
| Vladyslav Shalimov | 1,085,000 | |
| Matthew Cohen | 1,080,000 | |
| Angela Jenkins | 1,075,000 | |
| Philip Davis | 1,070,000 | |
| Alexander Coverdale | 1,065,000 | |
| Bryan Blackmon | 1,055,000 | |
| Michael Tweedlie | 1,050,000 | 926,000 |
| Pedro Barragan | 1,050,000 | |
| James Dortch | 1,045,000 | 1,004,100 |
| Kaylan Lakkavarapukota | 1,020,000 | |
| Timothy Fuqua | 1,000,000 | |
| Marcelo Alcolea | 970,000 | 470,000 |
| David Levi | 965,000 | |
| Jerimiah Booher | 955,000 | |
| Joshua Feiger | 950,000 | |
| Miguel Pineda | 940,000 | |
| Carlos Vasconcelos | 895,000 | |
| Barbara Visher | 890,000 | |
| Alan Chute | 885,000 | |
| Yueqi Wang | 875,000 | |
| Daniel Buzgon | 855,000 | -1,045,000 |
| Thomas Reeves | 850,000 | |
| Mitchell Bank | 850,000 | |
| Anthony Del Fierro | 815,000 | |
| Yinglei Chen | 810,000 | |
| Alexandre Besse | 805,000 | |
| Lionel Delair | 800,000 | |
| Louis Panico | 790,000 | |
| Alexandra Brierton | 790,000 | |
| Joshua Mcdougall | 790,000 | |
| Gregory Alexander | 785,000 | |
| Jacob Switzer | 760,000 | 510,000 |
| Claudia Roberts | 745,000 | |
| Jariah Waring | 730,000 | |
| Keith Andrew Berman | 730,000 | |
| Hieu Le | 725,000 | |
| Patrick Beuter | 725,000 | |
| Rory Lucero | 700,000 | |
| Nicolas Spiteri | 695,000 | |
| Nataliya Iakovleva | 690,000 | |
| James Yoon | 680,000 | |
| DID NOT REPORT 2 | 680,000 | |
| Armando Figueroa | 670,000 | |
| Wang Lee | 670,000 | |
| Glen Nelson | 665,000 | |
| Justin Kieselhorst | 665,000 | |
| John Yung | 660,000 | |
| Michael Hauptman | 655,000 | |
| Rickey Mccray | 620,000 | |
| Tonino D'Amore | 620,000 | -1,110,000 |
| Dave Reno | 595,000 | |
| Jenny Buelt | 590,000 | |
| Diego Garcia | 585,000 | |
| Eduardo Freitas | 585,000 | |
| Tara Brown | 575,000 | 415,300 |
| Andrew Stirling | 565,000 | |
| Lian Liu | 555,000 | |
| Jordan Litt | 550,000 | -450,000 |
| Jen-Yue Chiang | 545,000 | -95,000 |
| Hicham El Yamani | 545,000 | |
| Chad Nissen | 535,000 | |
| Stephen Lavandeira | 530,000 | |
| Roberto Matic | 520,000 | |
| Angela Jordison | 520,000 | |
| Jonathan Giordano | 515,000 | |
| Lela Reynolds | 505,000 | |
| Mikael Bozo | 490,000 | |
| Richard Harroch | 465,000 | |
| Shunlu Kao | 455,000 | |
| David Timmons | 450,000 | |
| Jason Schmalkuche | 435,000 | |
| Kyle Miholich | 430,000 | |
| Michael Lin | 420,000 | 420,000 |
| Serbjeet Pin Ahluwalia | 410,000 | |
| Jeremiah Fitzpatrick | 400,000 | -140,000 |
| John Ruddy | 400,000 | 175,000 |
| Pavel Nemtchinski | 385,000 | |
| David Carus | 380,000 | |
| Bryce Hutchings | 375,000 | |
| Evan Coltrin | 365,000 | |
| Songkane Traymany | 365,000 | |
| Elven Espinar | 355,000 | |
| Ryan Kalb | 345,000 | |
| Adrian Moreno | 330,000 | -380,000 |
| Heinz Cordova | 330,000 | |
| Ronnie Lamb | 330,000 | |
| Andre Harder | 325,000 | |
| Joshua Ramirez | 320,000 | |
| Antonio Bucarizza | 315,000 | |
| James Parise | 305,000 | |
| Lorenzo Adams | 305,000 | |
| Sebastian Crema | 300,000 | |
| Cedric Darrett | 295,000 | |
| Jose Jaraiz | 290,000 | |
| James Rouse | 285,000 | |
| Estrella Lim | 285,000 | |
| Yoav Richter | 280,000 | |
| Frank Martin | 275,000 | |
| Orion Gallagher | 270,000 | -505,000 |
| Jacob Arguello | 255,000 | |
| Lucas Lauer | 190,000 | |
| Daniel Wloch | 190,000 | |
| Malcolm Gorse | 110,000 | |
| Robert Funk | 105,000 | |
| Wayne Werner | 85,000 | |
| Nader Isahac | 1 | |
| Ragu Nath | 1 | |
| DID NOT REPORT 3 | 1 | |
Friday, June 9, 2023 12:49 AM Local Time
Play Ends for Day 1b
The players have bagged and tagged marking the completion of Day 1b. The number of players that bagged this evening was 151 who will be returning Sunday June at 10:00 am in the Horseshoe Casino.
Full chip counts and recap to follow.
Friday, June 9, 2023 12:26 AM Local Time
Lee is Unbelievable
Jae Lee "unbelievable" pushed his chips into the pot from early position, and a late position player called.
Jae Lee:
Late position player:
The board was , and Lee lived up to his poker alias "unbelievable" as his kicker held to win the pot.
Elsewhere Ryan Caviness has amassed some more chips and is at 1,700,000
| Ryan Caviness | 1,700,000 | 1,402,000 |
| Jae Lee | 500,000 | 500,000 |
Friday, June 9, 2023 12:25 AM Local Time
Three Hands Remaining
Tournament officials have announced that players will have three more hands before bagging for the night.
Friday, June 9, 2023 12:12 AM Local Time
Pitesa Doubles
Anthony Pitesa had a quick double-up near the end of the night to stay alive when an early position player raised, and the player in the cutoff reraised, and Pitesa shoved his small stack in the pot. The early position player folded.
Anthony Pitesa:
Cutoff:
The board was , and Pitesa pulled out a full house.
| Anthony Pitesa | 300,000 | 300,000 |
Friday, June 9, 2023 12:04 AM Local Time
Level 22 started
Level: 22
Blinds: 20,000/40,000
Ante: 40,000
Thursday, June 8, 2023 11:59 PM Local Time
Four Pocket Pairs All in
Three players called the all-in raise of Robbie Hofrichter in early position.
Small blind:
Late position:
Small blind:
Robbie Hofrichter:
The board was and the aces held with a full house.
| Robbie Hofrichter | 950,000 | 950,000 |
Thursday, June 8, 2023 11:57 PM Local Time
Kings Also Work
Kalyan Lakkavarapukota found himself in late position against a player in middle position.
"I've had pocket aces eight times today and won all eight," he told PokerNews.
Middle Position:
Kalyan Lakkavarapukota:
The board ran out giving Lakkavarapukota the victory despite not having aces.
| Kalyan Lakkavarapukota | 1,300,000 | 1,300,000 |
Thursday, June 8, 2023 11:51 PM Local Time
Some Big Stacks
| Paul Ephremsen | 2,600,000 | -50,000 |
| Artur Winstone | 2,350,000 | 50,000 |
| Handrianto Minderman | 2,350,000 | 0 |
| Daniel Buzgon | 1,900,000 | 1,900,000 |
| Tonino D'Amore | 1,730,000 | 1,730,000 |
Thursday, June 8, 2023 11:46 PM Local Time
Litt Doubles his Stack
Jordan Litt raised preflop and the cutoff called. The flop came .
Litt bet 60,000, the cutoff raised to 125,000 and Litt pushed the rest of his chips in the pot and was called.
Cutoff:
Jordan Litt:
The turn was and the river was the and Litt amassed a big stack with his set.
| Jordan Litt | 1,000,000 | 1,000,000 |
Thursday, June 8, 2023 11:36 PM Local Time
Level 21 started
Level: 21
Blinds: 15,000/30,000
Ante: 30,000
Thursday, June 8, 2023 11:29 PM Local Time
Huge Two Hands for Winstone
Artur Winstone led out for 55,000 from middle position preflop and was called by the big blind.
The flop came , and both players checked. The big blind bet 45,000 on the turn, but Winstone reraised to 115,000 and was called.
The river came . Winstone bet 180,000, and after a minute of thought, his opponent called. Winstone turned over for a set, and his opponent mucked his cards immediately.
Winstone busted that same opponent in a cooler on the next hand when all of the money got in preflop with Winstone holding aces and his opponent having kings.
"Hey, you're coming for my chip lead!" said Handrianto Minderman, also at the table.
"Let's play!" said Winstone.
| Handrianto Minderman | 2,350,000 | 2,350,000 |
| Artur Winstone | 2,300,000 | 2,300,000 |
Thursday, June 8, 2023 11:23 PM Local Time
Queens Versus Ace Jack
Marcelo Alcolea raised around 250,000 in middle position and the small blind called for all of his chips.
Small blind:
Marcelo Alcolea:
The board ran and the queens won sending the small blind out of the tournament.
Elsewhere Torben Rauer has a decent stack with 1,300,000
| Torben Rauer | 1,300,000 | 1,300,000 |
| Marcelo Alcolea | 500,000 | 500,000 |
Thursday, June 8, 2023 11:04 PM Local Time
Level 20 started
Level: 20
Blinds: 10,000/25,000
Ante: 25,000
Thursday, June 8, 2023 10:45 PM Local Time
Final Break
Players have been sent on their final break of the night as tournament staff race off the yellow 1,000-value chips. The approximately 320 remaining players will return in 20 minutes to play three more levels before play ends for the day.
Thursday, June 8, 2023 10:44 PM Local Time
Straight Versus a Set
Elad Keisar pushed the last of his chips in the pot preflop, about 120,000 and a middle position player called.
Elad Keisar:
Middle position player:
The table roared after the flop came giving the middle position a set and the turn gave Keisar outs which he hit when the river dropped the .
Elsewhere Amir Soleymani has a great stack with 980,000
| Amir Soleymani | 980,000 | 980,000 |
| Elad Keisar | 285,000 | 285,000 |
Thursday, June 8, 2023 10:29 PM Local Time
Chiang Doubles Up
Preflop action opened with a player in early position raising to 50,000. Jen-Yue Chiang then moved all in for 295,000 from the button. His opponent considered for a minute before making the call, putting Chiang at risk.
Jen-Yue Chiang:
Early Poisition:
Chiang moved ahead immediately on the flop. "Right in the window!" exclaimed a player at the table.
The turn and river came and Chiang found himself with a big stack.
| Jen-Yue Chiang | 640,000 | 640,000 |
Thursday, June 8, 2023 10:26 PM Local Time
Arnwine Aims His Aggression
Justin "hellokitty" Arnwine opened under the gun to 45,000. Next to act put in the cold three bet to 115,000. Arnwine made the call and the players were off to a flop.
The flop landed and Arnwine checked. The in-position player put out a wager of 100,000 and action was back on Arnwine. Without taking too much time Arnwine check raise jammed all in for his opponents remaining chips and their tournament life.
The player went deep in the tank but after about a full two minutes in the tank, Arnwine earned the fold and chipped up in a big way.
| Justin Arnwine | 1,200,000 | 1,095,000 |
Thursday, June 8, 2023 10:23 PM Local Time
Queens Versus Jack King
A middle position player, Justin Steinman pushed in all his chips for about 180,000 and the player next to him called.
Justin Steinman:
Middle position player:
The board brought something for everyone with but Steinman's queens made the straight and awarded him a big pot.