The second day of action in the 2024 World Series of Poker saw Las Vegas welcome players to two new events, while two others reached their final stages. The Champions Reunion saw just ten players remain in the hunt for the Event #1 bracelet, with PokerStake player Aram Zobian bouncing off the canvas to survive to Day 3 of the event along with fellow stablemate David Coleman.

In the WSOP Kick Off event, the first open $500 buy-in event of the series, Daniel Negreanu broke hearts along the way to a strong finish, with over 95% of the field eliminated on Day 1.

Fleischer Leads Final 10 in Champions Reunion

Event #1 on this year’s official schedule of 99 bracelet events was the $5,000 Champions Reunion. With legends of the game such as Phil Hellmuth and Chris Moneymaker busting on Day 1 of the event,After 493 players entered this freezeout event, which cost $5,000 to play, only 99 hopefuls began Day 2. With the money places starting at 74^th place, there was heartbreak along the way for players such as Toby Lewis, and former Main Event champions Huck Seed, Joe McKeehen and Jamie Gold.

Ren Lin bubbled the event in 75^th place before the overnight leader and the 2016 WSOP Main Event winner Qui Nguyen – who had taken out both Seed and Gold – lost his stack to Asher Coniff. There was a strong finish for Daniel Negreanu in 50^th place as ‘Kid Poker’ put himself over $1m for tournament winnings for the 14^th year of his career, a new record in poker.

Other cashers included Negreanu’s protégé Jeremy Becker (58th), mixed game specialist Robert Mizrachi (55th), the reigning world champion Daniel Weinman (52nd), female Player of the Year regular Kristen Foxen (45th), and the former WSOP Player of the Year Dan Zack (26th). After Brian Rast lost out in 17^th place the race was on for the final day, with PokerStake player Aram Zobian doubling up twice in sensational fashion late on. The American’s ace-queen beat Yuzhou Yin’s ace-jack and then, with his stack on the line, Zobian was all-in with queen-jack against Bryce Welker’s ace-king.

“I would very much like to make Day 3,” Zobian said, as much to the universe as himself and in came the assistance, a jack on the flop preserving Zobian’s chances breaking his WSOP bracelet duck in tomorrow’s finale. With $408,000 on the line up top, who would write him or fellow PokerStake player David Coleman off, with both men entering the final day with over a million chips.

Casino Employees Event Reaches Final as ‘Robin’ Falls Fowl

A modicum of controversy – the first of the 2024 World Series of Poker – could be detected around the latter stages of the $500-entry Casino Employees Event as Spanish player Jose Garcia took a huge chip lead into the final day of the event. Just four players remained in the hunt for the $79,134 top prize as Lukas Robinson, famed for being a Game of Gold legend and poker professional was one of several highly experienced players to make the final stages of the event.

The Casino Employees Event is, as it sounds, one for the behind-the-scenes staff as with several known players in the mix, the lines of staff and player were blurred perhaps to a greater extent than in recent years. That said, the element of fun and frolics that accompanies the event was still in place and Robinson’s elimination eight places short of the title was followed by several more in quick succession, with a great pace to the action.

Barry Goldberg was the architect of many bust-outs, taking out Christopher Keem in eighth and Josh Sieverding in seventh, before – following Bradley Wolfe’s elimination – Goldberg himself became the final victim of the night’s play. Doiminated in back-to-back all-in hands, Goldberg found no miracle on each occasion as he doubled Garcia into a clear lead, then exited in fifth place for $19,412.

With just under $80,000 on the line for the winner, Garcia’s lead is great, with his stack of 13.8 million ahead of everyne’s by some distance. Only second-placed Richard Rothmeier (8.7m) has over half of the chip leader’s stack with the bracelet close to being captured.

Negreanu Commands Respect in Kickoff

The $500-entry WSOP Kickoff event saw an amazing 3,485 entrants take part in the first $500 buy-in open event of the World Series. With both the Horseshoe Las Vegas and Paris casinos called on for the same event for the first time, just 523 players made it into the money places, with 151 of them making Day 2.

With a prize pool of $1,463,700 gathered in and a top prize of $175,578 on the line, the Chinese player Qiang Xu (2,130,000) led the field at the close of play, with big hitters Jason Wheeler (1,615,000), Dan Shak (730,000), and Daniel Negreanu (650,000) all roaring through the field to put themselves in with a terrific chance of grabbing bracelet gold. While those legends thrived, others suffered as ‘Team Lucky’ players Josh Arieh and Shaun Deeb joined former Main Event winners Greg ‘Fossilman’ Raymer and Joe Cada on the rail.

Chen and De Silva Star in Omaha Hi-Lo 8 Event

Last, but by no means least, the $1,500 Omaha 8 or Better Event #4 began, with 928 entries into the first mixed game event of the 2024 WSOP. A vast prize pool of over $1.2 million means a top prize of $209,350 and the world-famous bracelet will be on offer in the event. After Day 1, 275 players were left in the hunt, with just 140 places being paid.

Top of the shop after the opening day’s play was James Chen, a mixed game regular with a big WSOP runner-up score to his name already, having come second in a 2008 Omaha 8 or Better event for six figures.

Bagging up 386,000 chips, Chen was way ahead of the field, with three-time bracelet winner Upeshka De Silva (240,000), 2003 Main Event runner-up Sammy Farha (172,000), mixed game legend Robert Mizrachi (189,000), Brazilian WSOP event runner-up Felipe Ramos (175,000), John ‘Miami’ Cernuto (166,500), Jamie Kerstetter (149,000), Mike ‘The Mouth’ Matusow (106,000), and Poker Hall of Famer Brian Rast (99,500), all still hoping this will end up being their first bracelet of the summer.

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!