2023 WSOP Day 41: Chance Kornuth Near Lead as Bubble About to Break in Main Event

The electric buzz will continue at the 2023 World Series of Poker (WSOP) at the Horseshoe Las Vegas and the Paris Las Vegas Hotel & Casino for the next week while we wait to witness who will win the historic 11-day Event #76: $10,000 Main Event No-Limit Hold’em World Championship.

Chance Kornuth is near the chip lead with the bubble set to break early on Monday when Day 4 resumes at 12 p.m.

Meanwhile, Thomas Skaggs quietly won his first maiden bracelet after shipping Event #78: $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha Bounty and Event #77: $777 Lucky 7s No-Limit Hold’em finished its third and final opening flight.

Read more about what went down on Day 41 of the 2023 WSOP:

Antonio Mallol Heredia Leads 2023 WSOP Main Event Entering Day 4

The 2023 WSOP Main Event smashed records for the world’s largest poker tournament with 10,043 entries generating a massive $93,399,900 prize pool. The previous best record was when Jamie Gold won the $12 million top prize in the 2006 WSOP which attracted 8,773 entries for a $82,512,162 prize pool.

Gold is still among the players in contention with a below-average stack of around 20 big blinds with the bubble set to break early after the action resumes on Day 4 with 1,517 players bagging chips and 1,507 players guaranteed at least a $16,000 min-cash.

Day 4 will kick off at noon on Monday with blinds at 4,000/8,000 along with an 8,000 big blind ante. A relatively unknown Antonio Mallol Heredia will start the day with the chip lead with a 237 big blind stack of 1,899,000 with a familiar name in three-time bracelet winner Chance Kornuth just one big blind behind with 1,887,000. Kornuth came up empty thus far for a fourth bracelet despite a handful of final table runs and is looking for his fourth to be his biggest. He did find the winner’s circle once this summer but that was at The Wynn in the $2,200 Mystery Bounty.

Meanwhile, for the third day in a row Day 1d chip leader Nicholas Rigby is in the top five on the leaderboard after ending Day 3 with 1,719,000. Day 2d chip leader and 15-time WSOP Circuit ring winner Maurice Hawkins also added chips and will start Day 4 with more than triple the average with 1,028,000.

Many eyes were on Tom Dwan on Sunday. The legend known as ‘durrr’ isn’t often seen at tournaments these days. In fact, Dwan was looking to notch his first cash at the WSOP since 2011 in a big way at the WSOP. He had some chips but they all went to Brian Atchison after he jammed the turn with bottom pair and a flush draw and couldn’t complete his draw after Atchison called with an overpair with aces.

2023 WSOP Main Event Top 10 Leaderboard Entering Day 4

2023 WSOP Main Event Payouts

We will need to wait until next week when the 2023 WSOP Main Event winner will reveal themselves. What we do know, is that they will be going home with a record prize of $12,100,000 for $100,000 more than what Jamie Gold won during the previous record-breaking 2006 WSOP Main Event.

The top 1,507 players bank at least a $15,000 min-cash with the payouts jumping up fast from there. Several players including Allen “The Chainsaw” Kessler and The Chip Race podcast host and Unibet Ambassador David Lappin complained that not all nine players will bank at least $1 million. However, many players consider this to be purely cosmetics, and that $900,000 is close enough to $1 million.

Lappin is in good shape heading into the money bubble with an impressive stack of 594,000 while we should see Kessler slip in for his 110^th cash at a WSOP bracelet event and his 233^rd cash at a WSOP event.

Check out all the payouts below for the 2023 World Series of Poker Main Event:

Other Events on July 9

The three-day Event #77: $777 Lucky 7’s No-Limit Hold’em 7-Handed completed its third and final opening flight on Sunday with the field unofficially attracting 7,323 runners for a $4,991,449 prize pool. The official prize pool and the actual prizes will be announced shortly after the action resumes for Day 2 on Monday at 10 a.m. with a winner to be crowned on Tuesday. Day 1b chip leader Stepan Vinokurov leads the 317 survivors with an 83 big blind stack of 3,315,000 with Day 1c chip leader Morgan Petro not too far behind with 3,100,000.

Meanwhile, Thomas Skaggs earned his maiden WSOP gold bracelet after defeating David Hu heads-up after his top pair improved to trips to crack aces after the money went in on the flop in the three-day Event #78: $1,500 Bounty Pot-Limit Omaha to win the $171,742 top prize. The event guaranteed that a first-time bracelet winner would take home the bacon after Noah Schwartz hit the rail in eighth place for $17,069. The top 183 players banked at least a $1,501 min-cash. All of the figures mentioned exclude the $500 bounties players picked up along the way for each player they sent to the rail.

July 10 WSOP Schedule

All eyes will be on the 2023 WSOP Main Event on Monday, July 10, 2023 as it heads into Day 4 with the money bubble set to break early in the day. However, the Main Event isn’t the only game in town at the WSOP as Event #77: $777 Lucky 7’s plays out its penultimate day while two new events provide new opportunities for players to find WSOP gold with Event #79: $2,500 No-Limit Hold’em kicking off at 10 a.m. followed by the prestigious Event #80: $25,000 High Roller H.O.R.S.E. at 2 p.m.

Below is a look at today’s schedule while head to the PokerPro opening WSOP article to check out the full schedule of the 2023 World Series of Poker.

Images and hand details courtesy of WSOP/PokerNews.