James Little Leads The $1,000 Freezeout Field Going Into Day 2
James Little was chip leader as Day 1 of Event #18: $1,000 Freezeout NLHE, in the 2022 World Series of Poker at Bally’s and Paris Las Vegas drew to a close. Little bagged up a stack of 765,000 and with the Day 2 blinds starting at 5,000/10,000/10,000 ante, he finds himself in a great position to win his first bracelet. Little finished second in a $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha event in 2019 for $184,424, and is in a prime position to do one better this year. As things stand, Little currently leads the 203 players moving on to Day 2 on June 10th.
Some 2,663 players competed on Day 1, creating a $2,370,070 prize pool, of which $330,057 is earmarked for the eventual winner. Only 203 players remain in the hunt for this event's gold bracelet.
Event #18: $1,000 Freezeout No-Limit Hold'em Top 10 Chip Counts
| Place | Player | Country | Chips | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | James Little | United States | 765,000 | 76 |
| 2 | Lily Lofty | United States | 755,000 | 75 |
| 3 | Thomas Stocker | United States | 720,000 | 72 |
| 4 | Paul Lee | United States | 695,000 | 69 |
| 5 | Jordan Griff | United States | 690,000 | 69 |
| 6 | Dustin Cullimore | United States | 675,000 | 67 |
| 7 | Ryan Yu | Canada | 635,000 | 63 |
| 8 | Jason Reels | United States | 635,000 | 63 |
| 9 | Austin Farmer | United States | 630,000 | 63 |
| 10 | Amirpasha Emami | Canada | 625,000 | 62 |
Other leading stacks include Lily Lotfy (755,000) and Thomas Stocker (720,000), Jordan Griff (690,000), and Paul Lee (695,000).
A handful of notable names managed to survive to Day 2. Shaun Deeb (395,000), Ben Yu (270,000), Yaser Al-Keliddar (185,000) and Ismael Bojang (375,000) are all in contention to add to their current bracelet tallies.
The bubble burst a couple of hours before Day 1 concluded. The unfortunate soul who burst the bubble got the last of their chips in with ace-king only to run into the pocket aces of Ismael Bojang. The surviving 400 players each locked in at least $1,601 for their efforts.
Some of the players who cashed in this event but failed to progress to Day 2 included, two-time bracelet winner Steven Wolansky (398th - $1,601), Maria Ho (304th - $1,751), Kevin Rabichow (270th - $1,751), Tristan Wade (241st - $2,002), Brock Parker (225th - $2,209), and Justin Liberto (215th - $2,209).
Play resumes at 12:00 p.m. local time and continues until a champion is crowned. Join us here at PokerNews as we bring you all of the action, as it happens, from this exciting event.
while his opponent begrudgingly tabled 
did not help his opponent and Bojang scooped to burst the money bubble.
landed on the flop and Steinman quickly check-called his opponent's continuation bet for 5,000. The same action happened on the 
turn, this time for 16,000. 
and Steinman checked one last time. His opponent tanked for a while before firing 50,000. Steinman eventually made the call after some thinking, but only to see 
in his opponent's hand for a set of jacks, and mucked his cards.
and it was checked to the initial raiser who continued for 5,500. Lamers and the players in the blinds called again. 
and was checked around to see a 
for the nut flush and the winning hand, as his opponent turned over 
. The Pokernews reporter is now seated with a confortable stack of more than 200,000.
and it checked to the hijack who continued for 5,000. Both May and the big blind called to see a 
fell on the river and it checked again to the hijack who sent 5,000 in the middle. May took a minute and raised it to 15,000. The big blind folded but the hijack made the call with 
, only to discover 
in May's hand for the flush. 
