A wild day 1b of Event #67: $10,000 No-Limit Hold’em Main Event Championship is in the books, as yet another chapter in this illustrious tournament’s history unfolded.
The day attracted 845 entries and ended with 611 players left.
The chip leader at the end of Day 1b was Las Vegas local Steve Foutty, who bagged 287,000 after trending steadily upwards toward the end of the night. Foutty has already had a fairly successful WSOP with five cashes so far.
A few of the other big stacks to end the night include; ClubGG qualifier Matthew Traylor who bagged 279,500 and Keegan Westover who ended with 230,700, thanks in large part to a wild hand in which he spiked a king on the flop to crack aces. He could have had even more had queens not folded preflop in the same hand.
The day included many highlights, with many well-known player's able to navigate their way to a bag. They include; Ronnie Bardah who finished with 139,600, Stephen Chidwick (124,900), Kevin Gerhart (112,400), Mike Matusow (56,500) and Justin Bonomo. The former Big One for One Drop champion had a rough go of it for much of the day, failing to gain any real traction, but nevertheless is still alive with a short stack of 18,900.
Craig Varnell also survived the day with 51,800, but this amount will feel like a lot more to him having been as low as 9,000 in the last level of the night, before spinning it back up just under starting stack.
2021 WSOP Main Event Top 10 Chip Stacks After Day 1b
| RANK | PLAYER | Country | CHIP COUNT |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Steve Foutty | United States | 287,000 |
| 2 | Matthew Traylor | United States | 279,500 |
| 3 | Maxime Canevet | United States | 277,000 |
| 4 | Justin Garcia | United States | 243,500 |
| 5 | Kayvon Shahbaz | United States | 238,500 |
| 6 | Keegan Westover | United States | 230,700 |
| 7 | Kevin Rasor | United States | 228,900 |
| 8 | Aaron Earthman | United States | 226,800 |
| 9 | Jonathan Williams | United States | 225,100 |
| 10 | Jean Guillette | Canada | 223,200 |
Even though over 60% of the field advanced to Day 2ab, there were many who could not survive and ended up hitting the rail before the end of the day. Including two-time WSOP Main Event champion Johnny Chan who was eliminated early in the day by two-pair, Ryan Depaulo and John Racener hit the rail in the middle part of the day. The last level of the night claimed the Main Event lives of Brian Rast who lost a big flip, Nick Schulman via set over set and of Shaun Deeb who could not climb out of the short stack hole he was in all day.
The survivors of Day 1b will now have a lengthy break before they return to action on Tuesday November 9th at 11 a.m. local time where they will combine with the Day 1a and Day 1d survivors for Day 2abd.
The next starting flight, Day 1c will begin at 11 a.m. local time with the same five two-hour level structure as the first two starting days. PokerNews will have all the coverage once again.
was checked through to the 
turn where Montoya bet 3,000. The other players folded and the cards were tabled. 
did not improve Deeb and he exited the tournament. 
, and Shulman check-raised a bet from Foutty all-in for his last 44,000. Foutty said he didn't love it, but he made the call.
, but the river 
brought home the flush for Foutty, sending Shulman to the exits.
. Schulman led jammed his remaining amount of about 28,000 and Wong snap-called.
but Wong said "I have kings" and showed the 
to get Schulman to rise from the table.
and Schulman briskly walked away as his main event was over just like that.
and Young made two pair to eliminate Rast, the man he was mistaken for by a fan. 
and Bardah checked to his opponent, who sprinkled out a bet of 2,400, which Bardah called.
brought more possibilities, and both players opted to check.
fell and this time Bardah led out for 6,500. His opponent didn't take long to think before putting out a calling chip and seeing that the river brought the worst possible card for hm, as Bardah showed 
for a rivered full house.
flop saw Chidwick check-call the 2,100 continuation bet from his opponent, and then check-raise to 14,000 after his opponent fired out 3,500 when the 
completed the board on the river. 
