Ben Jones Bags Top Stack for Day 1 of Event #78: $2,500 No-Limit Hold’em
A super-stacked field of big names and new players looking to make their mark in the poker world had the Paris Ballroom filled from one end to the other to play in the brand new WSOP Event #78: $2,500 No-Limit Hold'em.
A total of 1,364 entries were in the field and they generated a prize pool of $3,034,900. Two hundred and five places will be paid, with the min-cash earning $4,009. The top five will lock up a six-figure payday and the winner will receive the prestigious WSOP gold bracelet and a first-place prize worth $499,636. Of those players who started the day with high hopes, only 257 had chips requiring bagging and tagging at the end of the night.
Event #78: $2,500 No-Limit Hold'em Top 10 Chip Counts
| Place | Player | Country | Chips | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ben Jones | United Kingdom | 738,000 | 123 |
| 2 | Ari Oxman | United States | 685,000 | 114 |
| 3 | Leandro Vlastaris | United States | 586,000 | 98 |
| 4 | Weiming Aaron Lam | Singapore | 518,000 | 86 |
| 5 | Bryn Kenney | United States | 484,000 | 81 |
| 6 | Georgios Kapalas | Greece | 464,000 | 78 |
| 7 | Axel Hallay | France | 464,000 | 77 |
| 8 | Sergey Sergeev | Russia | 457,000 | 76 |
| 9 | Virgile Turchi | France | 452,000 | 75 |
| 10 | Emmett Rutkowski | United States | 450,000 | 75 |
The chip leader at the end of the night was England’s Ben Jones, who bagged 738,000 after 15 levels of play. Jones has multiple cashes in various events throughout the years and will be gunning for a first-place finish to add a bracelet to his already impressive poker resume.
Ari Oxman took down a big pot at the end of the night in a heads-up battle with Scott Seiver. Seiver had ace-three of spades and missed a straight and a flush draw on the river, relinquishing his chips to Oxman’s two pair. This win resulted in Oxman bagging up 685,000.
Some other big stacks to end the night included Weiming Aaron Lam (518,000), Leandro Vlastaris (586,000), Bryn Kenney (484,000), Georgios Kapalas (466,000), and Emmett Rutkowski (450,000).
Day 2 will continue on Tuesday, July 12th, with a 2:00 p.m. restart in Bally’s Red and play will resume in Level 16 where blinds are 3,000/6,000/6,000. Ten 60-minute levels will be played with a 15-min break every two levels. There will be a one-hour dinner break after Level 21.
With many top players still in the field and two more days of play ahead, it will be an exciting road to victory for the champion of this new event. Stay tuned to PokerNews for updates on all of the action in this tournament and what remains of the 2022 WSOP.
, the small blind led for 11,000. The player under the gun raised the flop to 27,000. Then action made its way to Nohad Teliani. 
turn and 
river did just that, and Teliana got more than a full double. 
hitting a pair for each but with the 
river, the pair of aces that Jacobson hit was good to take down the pot and send his opponent to the rail.
.
turn, D'Ambrosio check-called a 3,000 bet. 
and D'Ambrosio fired out 7,500 while saying some of his usual catch phrases, "Sky-high Jimmy is back!" and 
for the side pot, and the opener lost with 
turn hit, putting De Silva well in the lead. The 
, Adrian Mateos was first to act and checked to his opponent under the gun who also checked. 
showed up on the turn and Mateos check-called a pot-sized bet of 10,000.
