Brian Yoon In the Hunt to Take Back the Crown After Day 1 of the $10,000 Seven Card Stud Championship
What the field on Day 1 of Event #42: $10,000 Seven Card Stud Championship lacked in size it more than made up for in star power, including the player that stood atop this tournament last year.
Brian Yoon became just the 33rd player in World Series of Poker history to win five bracelets when he took down this event in 2023. Yoon was back to defend his crown here today and, despite dropping a late pot to Yuval Bronshtein, bagged up a healthy stack of 130,500.
The day belonged, though, to Andrew “A.J.” Kelsall, who used a late knockout of Masashi Oya to build a stack of 294,000 and an nice chip lead over the remaining 40 players heading into Day 2. Only two other players are even above 200,000: Daniel Mayoh (220,000), who is coming off a runner-up finish in the $1,500 H.O.R.S.E. last night, and Bronshtein (203,000).
Day 1 Top Ten Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Bets |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Andrew Kelsall | United States | 294,000 | 49 |
| 2 | Daniel Mayoh | Australia | 220,000 | 37 |
| 3 | Yuval Bronshtein | Israel | 203,000 | 34 |
| 4 | Chad Eveslage | United States | 191,500 | 32 |
| 5 | Andre Akkari | Brazil | 178,000 | 30 |
| 6 | Yuri Dzivielevski | Brazil | 169,500 | 28 |
| 7 | Don Coakley | United States | 166,000 | 28 |
| 8 | Maksim Pisarenko | Russia | 155,000 | 26 |
| 9 | Naoya Kihara | Japan | 145,000 | 24 |
| 10 | James Chen | Taiwan | 144,500 | 24 |
Other big stacks include Chad Eveslage (191,500), Yuri Dzivielevski (169,500), Naoya Kihara (145,000), and Robert Mizrachi (115,500). Alex Livingston (112,000), as well as Poker Hall of Famers Mori Eskandani (103,500) and Brian Rast (81,000), also survived the day. Toward the bottom of the counts are Greg Mueller (74,000), Anthony Zinno (57,500), and John Hennigan (43,000).
Only nine players were in their seats when the day began at 2 p.m., but the field steadily grew to 74 players by the end, setting the prize pool at $668,200 and counting. Among those who came and went over the course of nine levels were Daniel Negreanu, John Monnette, Adam Friedman, Chino Rheem, and $1,500 Seven Card Stud champion Richard Ashby.
The surviving 40 players return tomorrow at 1 p.m. local time inside the Horseshoe Event Center. The action picks up on Level 10 with limits of 3,000/6,000. Late registration remains open for the first hour of Day 2, so there is still the possibility of even more big names taking their shot at the title.
PokerNews will be back tomorrow providing live updates throughout the day.