Baitai Li Dominates Day 1 of Event #48: $2,500 No-Limit Hold'em
Event #48: $2,500 No-Limit Hold'em started down its four-day path to a winner today, attracting 996 entries. All are uniques; this tournament is an old-school freeze-out where deeper pockets prove no advantage. Many well-known players took the option to enter well after the starting whistle, including Phils Hellmuth and Ivey who came in just at the close of registration but could not spin their 15 big blind starting stacks into a Day 2 appearance.
The prize pool for this event is $2,241,000, from which the winner will receive $427,399 along with their 2019 WSOP bracelet. With 150 paid (a min-cash being worth $3,746), the bubble will come into focus quickly tomorrow as 201 players currently remain.
Leading the Day 1 survivors – by quite a margin – is Baitai Li with 354,800 chips. While the likes of Barny Boatman, Mark Radoja and Antal Mezei bagged stacks in the quarter of a million region, Li’s stack gives him 221 big blinds of maneuvering room while many will return short.
Also progressing to Day 2 are double bracelet winners Kristen Bicknell (129,500), Michael Addamo (108,300) and Humberto Brenes (26,500), while Martin Jacobson ends the day with 103,000. Of the finalists who took part in today’s $600 Mixed No-Limit Hold’em and Pot-Limit Omaha event, three jumped into Event #48 with little pause for breath – Rainer Kempe, Stephen Ma and Raghav Bansal. Bansal alone made it through Level 10, bagging 111,600 chips. Full chip counts will follow overnight.
Play resumes at 1pm; live coverage continues as the hunt for the next No Limit Hold’em bracelet whittles down a tough field over 10 one-hour levels.
flop. Boatman, under the gun, checked, the middle position player checked and Patrick Ford bet 8,000 into a pot of about 15,000. Boatman alone made the call. On the 
turn, Boatman checked and Ford bet again, this time 13,000. Boatman counted out the call and tanked for a moderate amount of time before throwing it in.
. Again, Boatman checked, and this time Ford checked behind, saying, "Aces," not as a question. He flipped the 
, Boatman said, "Good," and mucked.
and Boatman knocked them both out, saying, "Turns out you can't keep a bad man down either."
and the action checked around to the 
on the turn.
and both players quickly checked again. Yifrach turned over 
which was good enough to win the side pot against his opponent's 
. Sabat tabled 
which meant Yifrach collected the main pot as well.
and the action checked around to the 
and the action checked to the hijack. He moved all in for 7,000 which got the big blind and the preflop raiser to fold.
for a full house.
on the turn provided a small sweat but the 
on the river bricked off as he was sent to the rail.
on the river. 
for two pair and his opponent conceded the pot.
