Racener Leads; Negreanu Moves on After Day 2 of Event #23: $5,000 6-Handed No-Limit Hold'em
The second of four days is in the books and John Racener holds the chip lead of Event #25: $5,000 6-Handed No-Limit Hold’em at the 2021 World Series of Poker. Racener leads a returning field of 31 players that will come back for Day 3 to continue their quest for WSOP gold. The 604 entrants generated a prize pool of $2,785,950 and the top prize will pay $562,667.
Racener is looking for his second WSOP title. The 2010 Main Event runner-up broke through in 2017 when he won the $10,000 Dealer’s Choice Championship in 2017, and he has cashed at the WSOP 81 times.
Among the returning players are Bin Weng, Vanessa Kade, Jonathan Jaffe, and Brazil’s Yuri Dzivielevski. Also returning is Daniel Negreanu, who will try to make a run at his seventh bracelet. Day 1 chip leader Scott Drobes also qualifies for Day 3 at the top part of the leaderboard again after going on a late run to bag over 1.8 million.
Negreanu steadily built his stack over the day and reached 2.2 million at one point before Anthony Spinella found a double through the six-time WSOP champion. Spinella’s ace-eight made two-pair to beat the pocket fours of Negreanu and send him back below 2 million. The late levels brought more trouble for Negreanu and he will return tomorrow with 773,000 in chips to make another run at the gold bracelet.
Remaining Payouts
| Place | Prize |
|---|---|
| 1 | $562,667 |
| 2 | $347,757 |
| 3 | $234,781 |
| 4 | $161,756 |
| 5 | $113,775 |
| 6 | $81,736 |
| 7 | $60,001 |
| 8-9 | $45,028 |
| 10-12 | $34,563 |
| 13-18 | $27,150 |
| 19-24 | $21,838 |
| 25-30 | $17,995 |
| 31 | $15,200 |
The 604-player field was a mosaic of stars from all around the poker world. Chance Kornuth, Cary Katz, and Ryan Laplante made their way through the bubble but did not survive to qualify for Day 3. Other notables to bow out before the money on Day 2 include Brent Hanks, Nick Schulman, and Kitty Kuo.
Day 3 will resume on Thursday, October 14 at 2 p.m. with around 35 minutes left in Level 20. Blinds in Level 20 are at 10,000/20,000 with a 20,000 ante. Play will continue on Day 3 until five players remain to return on Friday, October 15 for a final table that will be streamed on PokerGO.
That does it for Day 2 coverage of Event #23: $1,500 6-Handed No-Limit Hold'em. Be sure to keep it here with the PokerNews live reporting team for updates on all of the action from the 2021 WSOP.
on the board, Ryan Laplante bet 170,000 from the big blind. Yuri Dzivielevski called from the cutoff. 
and Laplante bet 125,000. Dzivielevski called quickly and turned over 
for a pair of aces. Laplante showed 
and also had a pair of aces, but Dzivielevski's jack-kicker was good.
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and Kliper checked again. Negreanu threw in a bet of 225,000 and Kliper snap-called again.
landed on the river and Kliper checked for the third time. Negreanu put together a bet of 675,000 and Kliper had to think about it this time. A minute passed and Kliper slid his cards to the muck, allowing Negreanu to drag in a huge pot and move atop the leaderboard.
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and Yifrach sent Stewart packing with three of kind fours.
but was up against the 
and Cheong was unable to come from behind, thus being eliminated.
but ran into the 
cemented his position in front. The 
on the turn nor the 
