The 2024 WPT World Championship has been on fire at the Wynn Las Vegas. More than 2,000 entries have already entered, with their $10,400 entry creating a prize pool of approximately $20 million and counting.
At the time of this writing, the action is early on Day 1c, with the final opening flight already attracting 572 entries on Level 2. Late registration does not close until the start of Level 8, and 11 blind levels of one hour each are featured during all three opening flights before players bag chips.
The structure for the rest of the festival will become deeper as the action moves ahead. Surviving players will compete for five more days under a 90-minute clock, with 12.5 percent of the field scheduled to earn a payout. The blinds will decrease to 45 minutes once the action is heads-up on the televised official final table on Saturday, December 21.
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Phillip Lee Leads WPT Championship After Bagging Day 1a Chip Lead
The first opening flight kicked off with a bang on Saturday with tons of satellite qualifiers and those ponying up the $10,400 buy-in poised for action to create a field of 751 players, with 245 players finding a bag after 11 blind levels of one hour each.
Phillip Lee had the honor of the title of overall chip leader heading into today’s action of the WPT World Championship after bagging the chip lead on Day 1b with his stack catapulting from the 100,000 opening stack to 1,102,000 for 220 big blinds on Day 2.
WPT Prime Slovakia champion Fabian Gumz was the only other chip millionaire to emerge from the first opening flight and will begin Day 2 with 1,013,000. Gumz told the World Poker Tour he nearly ended the day with the chip lead himself.
“I folded pocket jacks against two all-ins with ace-queen and ace-king,” shared Gumz. “It would have been another four hundred (thousand).”
Ricardo Martinez (925,000), Rabah Abdelmalek (900,000), and Gary Miles (860,000) all bagged top five stacks on Day 1a, while 2022 WPT World Championship winner Calvin Anderson narrowly missed out on making the top 10 on the leaderboard but is in good position for his chance to repeat his success after advancing with 721,000 in chips. Anderson isn’t the only former champion hungry for another chance at WPT glory. The defending champion Dan Sepiol bagged a smaller stack of 258,000 to end the day just below the average stack.
Several other players advanced with healthy stacks, including the likes of Mateusz Moolhuizen (720,000), Michael Wang (671,000), John Riordan (616,000), Kevin Rabichow (614,000), and WPT Global Poker ambassador Jon “Apestyles” Van Fleet (490,000).
Meanwhile, two WSOP Main Event champions want to add a coveted WPT World Championship title to their resume, with Martin Jacobson (386,000) and Joe McKeehen (328,000) advancing with more than triple a starting stack.
Check out the top five chip stacks from Day 1a below and head to the World Poker Tour website to see the full chip counts from the first opening flight.
| Place | Player | Chips | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Phillip Lee | 1,102,000 | 220 |
| 2 | Fabian Gumz | 1,013,000 | 203 |
| 3 | Ricardo Martinez | 925,000 | 185 |
| 4 | Rabah Abdelmalek | 900,000 | 180 |
| 5 | Gary Miles | 860,000 | 172 |
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Yifu He Bags Day 1b Chip Lead
Sunday’s Day 1b brought in a slightly smaller field of 681 entries, bringing the total to 1,432 before the start of Monday’s final opening flight. Just 227 players found a bag, bringing the total survivors up to 472 players and counting.
Day 1a chip leader Phillip Lee held onto the chip leader despite three more chip millionaires knocking on his door for the lead advancing from Day 1b.
Yifu He advanced as the Day 1b chip leader with 1,065,000 in chips, just slightly ahead of the other two chip millionaires in Qiang Xu (1,050,000) and Gabriel Kiflu (1,027,000). Glen Keogh (929,000) and Igor Kurganov (866,000) found out the top five on the Day 1b chip leaderboard.
Many notable players advanced from Day 1b, including WPT Poker Commentator Vince Van Patten (386,000), former WPT anchor Lynn Gilmartin (329,000), poker vlogger Ethan “Rampage” Yau (313,000), and WPT legend Tony Dunst (66,000) were among those who found themselves putting chips in the bag.
The 2024 WPT Prime Taiwan Championship champion Jerald Sam is looking to put his final stamp on 2024 with even more prestigious WPT hardware advanced with 570,000.
Meanwhile, Dylan Smith is on track in his quest to win a second huge title with 424,000 in chips after shipping the WPT Seminole Rock ‘N’ Roll Poker Open Championship earlier this year for $662,200.
Check out the top five chip counts below and head to the World Poker Tour website to view all the chip counts from Day 1b.
| Place | Player | Chips | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Yifu He | 1,065,000 | 178 |
| 2 | Qiang Xu | 1,050,000 | 175 |
| 3 | Gabriel Kiflu | 1,027,000 | 171 |
| 4 | Glen Keogh | 929,000 | 155 |
| 5 | Igor Kurganov | 866,000 | 144 |
Stay tuned at Poker.Pro as we are on the seen at the Wynn Casino. In about 12 hours, we will update again with the results from Day 1c and the outlook ahead to Day 2 and beyond.
* Photos courtesy of the World Poker Tour.
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