PMA’s Weekly WSOP wrap: Aussies in the mix as 2023 WSOP Main Event becomes largest of all time

Seventeen years after Jamie Gold famously won the biggest World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event of all time, the record books have been rewritten again.

As the dust settles on a massive few days in Las Vegas, the early count after Day 1D of the 2023 Main Event has the number of entries sitting at 9,337 – shattering the previous record of 8,773 set when Gold was victorious back in 2006.

“This is a colossal day not only in the history of the WSOP but for poker itself,” said WSOP Senior Vice President and Executive Director Ty Stewart. “It’s particularly special to make history in our first year at the new Horseshoe Las Vegas. 

“I think today is a huge testament to the passion of the entire poker community who rallies around this event every year. We’re hoping this record is short lived and we’ll be ready for another monster turnout next summer.”

It had been a memorable week at the Horseshoe even before this year’s Main Event kicked off, highlighted by the “Poker Brat” Phil Hellmuth also breaking records in winning his 17th career WSOP bracelet in the $10,000 Super Turbo Bounty. Not only did Hellmuth bank US$803,818 for his efforts, he also extended his lead over his nearest rival on the all-time list to seven bracelets (Phil Ivey, Johnny Chan and Doyle Brunson all have 10).

Meanwhile, Australia finally scored its first WSOP bracelet of 2023 with Melbourne’s Hassan Kamel taking down the US$10,000 PLO Hi-Lo 8 or Better Championship for $598,613. Kamel’s victory over a 277-strong field came after a plethora of final table finishes for the Aussie contingent, including most recently Sydney’s David Sebesfi who finished 7th from a field of 4,303 starters in the $600No Limit Hold’em Deepstack Championship.

But all eyes are now firmly on the Main Event where there are plenty of Aussies through to Day 2 – all of them hoping to match Joe Hachem’s 2005 WSOP Main Event success. 

Leading the way for the Aussie contingent is no other than Daniel “Robinson Crusoe” Neilson with a stack of 218,400, just clear of Tom Rafferty with 214,300. Other notables to have enjoyed a solid Day 1 include David Sebesfi (200.300), Jarrod Thatcher (166,200), James Broom (157,000), six-time WSOP bracelet winner Jeff Lisandro (149,500), Yita Choong (141,200) and Joe Hachem himself with 125,300. A total of 7,068 players will return for Day 2 including 69 Aussies.

The full list of Australians to have made it through to Day 2 is below:

Name	Chips
Daniel Neilson	218,800
Tom Rafferty	214,300
David Sebesfi	200,300
David Luong	184,100
Jarrod Thatcher	166,200
Jesse Mason	157,200
James Broom	157,000
Jeff Lisandro	149,500
Ken Demlakian	148,700
Yita Choong	141,200
Nurlan Boobekov	131,600
David Stubbs	128,900
Joe Hachem	125,300
Adrian Salter	123,000
Terence Clee	120,400
Gary Benson	118,900
Andrew Batey	117,900
James Obst	111,900
John Lombardo	110,300
Mitchell Watson	110,100
William Jia	106,400
Anton Lu	101,600
Adam Kharman	97,700
Michael Higginson	94,200
Ertem Osmanoglu	89,300
Hristivoje Pavlovic	86,500
Edward Hatzakortzian	84,900
Minh Nguyen	84,800
Alex Lynskey	82,200
Tu Tran	81,900
Stevan Chew	81,900
Dominic Coombe	78,400
Bilal Javaid	76,300
Ricky Kroesen	74,900
Daniel Murphy	73,600
Richard Davis	73,500
Zachary Duce	68,900
Tristan Bain	65,100
Pellegrino Marotta	64,200
Joel Cohen	64,000
Sean Ragozzini	63,700
Daniel Hinh	63,200
Mark Montague	59,700
Ashish Gupta	58,600
Joshua Foster	57,200
Joshua Duce	54,900
William Wong	54,600
Nazih Sibaei	52,300
Paul Birman	51,000
Hussein Hassan	49,600
Pratik Mehta	47,900
Michael Gloess	45,900
Justin Cohen	41,400
Sasha Skalrud	41,200
Josh Mitchell	41,000
Martin Ward	40,400
Thomas Amir	36,600
Gregory Gardiner	36,000
Sean McKenzie	30,000
Jason Pritchard	30,000
Yang Lei	29,500
Ante Kutlesa	29,100
John Corr	27,100
Robert Damelian	25,000
Heather Hardie	24,800
Daniel Hachem	22,600
Danielle Noja	18,000
Daniel Gabriel	14,900
Nikhil Autar	12,700