The final flight of the World Series Of Poker Main Event has traditionally been the biggest, but no one could’ve been prepared for the throng of poker players who entered Day 1d, as a new single-day record was set and last year’s record 10,043 player field is officially back in reach. Read on to find out all the news from the jumbo-sized final flight at the Horseshoe and Paris casinos in Las Vegas, as the march towards crowning a new World Champion continues.

Mcdonald and Stewart Bag Heaps on Day 1d of the Main Event

With lagging numbers through the first three days of Event #81: $10,000 Main Event, the poker public finally exploded on the scene for Day 1d, with a single flight record-breaking 4,985 players ponying up a brick of cash for a chance at carving their name in the poker lexicon. This brings the total number of entrants after the four starting flights to 9,259, already making it the second-largest Main Event in WSOP history with two more days left for prospective entrants to fire a bullet.

John Mcdonald will enter Day 2 as the overall chip leader after bagging up 496,000 chips, well ahead of the 441,000 Robert Pardo bagged up on Day 1c. Scott Stewart, known to the poker public for his beer-slamming antics in his deep 2017 Main Event run, came in second in the standings on the day with 370,200. The boisterous and fun-loving Stewart, who spun that deep run to 13th place and $535,000, is unlikely to complain about falling short of the overall chip lead with his bag of more than six starting stacks.

Phil Ivey already expanded his bracelet collection once during the 2024 WSOP, with his victory in the $10k Limit 2-7 Triple Draw Championship good for bracelet #11. The hunt for #12 is off to a fine start, as Ivey chipped up nicely before winning this key pot in the latter stages of the day. Four players contributed 1,500 to see a flop, and action checked to Ivey on the button, who bet 3,000 with . The small blind check-raised all in for 27,100 with the , and after the other two players folded, Ivey decided to take a stand with top pair, which proved fruitful after the turn and river failed to bring any help to his opponent. Ivey ended the day with 153,500, a nice start for one of poker’s biggest icons.

There were a few former Main Event champs in play today, and Joe McKeehen bagged the most of the group with 121,300. Martin Jacobson (117,800) and Scotty Nguyen (104,900) enjoyed prosperous days, while defending champ Daniel Weinman (55,600) made quads with Big Slick to get his stack up near six-figures early, but bled down through the last few levels to end the night just shy of a starting stack.

Plenty of pros accumulated mass quantities of chips by night’s end, with Brian Hastings (252,100), Aram Zobian (231,400), Ari Engel (209,400) and Anson Tsang (205,900) all cracking the 200k marker. Nick Guagenti (151,000), Stephen Chidwick (126,000), David Peters (125,800), Kristen Foxen (122,200), Paul Volpe (83,700) and Alex Foxen (83,000) also had successful days, while Brandon Steven (55,400), Tony Miles (39,900) and Benny Glaser (36,200) can take solace in the fact that they’re still in the running.

The same can’t be said for Sean Winter, who ran kings into aces in the early going and hit the rail. Chance Kornuth, Jeff Madsen, Jason Koon, Dan Sepiol and Jamie Kerstetter also saw their Main Event dreams come to a close.

Tomorrow brings back all 3,143 survivors from the first three flights under one roof, with the massive field from Day 1d coming back on Monday for their own Day 2 flight. With registration still open through the first two levels of both Day 2 flights, there’s going to be a sweat to see if this turns out to be the largest Main Event in history, with an estimated 785 entrants needed to break the record.

$1k No-Limit Hold’em Sees Olsen On Top

For those who happened to have a two-day chunk of time off between Main Event flights (or were one of those unfortunate enough to hit the rail), Event #82: $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em offered a chance at redemption, and 1,424 hopefuls took on the challenge. The final 214 bagged and tagged at the end of a brisk nine-hour day of play, all guaranteed a $2,004 min-cash, and Dan Olsen leads the field with a 677,000 chip stack, almost 34 times a starting stack of 20,000. Chance Kornuth (501,000), David Peters (62,000), and Dara O’Kearney (45,000) also bagged up chips for a chance at WSOP gold tomorrow, while Upeshka De Silva, Joseph Cheong, Preston McEwen, Josh Arieh, and Chino Rheem all fell short of the money.

With thanks to PokerGO for their official WSOP photography. The 2024 World Series of Poker is available to watch exclusively on PokerGO. Subscribe today and watch all the drama play out in Las Vegas!