WPT World Championship Bubble Bursts: 480 Hopefuls Chase the $5.6 Million First Place Prize
3 minutes
Last Updated: January 25, 2024
Day 2 of the WPT World Championship is behind us, and it was one for the history books, as a star-studded field of seasoned poker pros and up-and-coming hopefuls filled the Encore Ballroom from the early morning hours in hopes of making a deep run in one of the biggest poker tournament this year.
The initial plan was to play five full 90-minute levels, but action ended up being stopped shortly before, as the money bubble burst with some time still on the clock, and 480 players going on a well-deserved break a bit earlier than anticipated.
While many big names fell along the way, and many massive stacks got decimated by coolers and bad beats, numerous notables still remain in the ever-shrinking field of the WPT World Championship, all looking to make their way to the televised final table, scheduled for Thursday.
Today, the remaining 480 players will reconvene at the tournament venue at 12:00 pm sharp, with blinds starting at 10,000/20,000 and all eyes on the prize, as everyone left in the field is already in the money and will be going home with at least some return on their $10k investments.
Italian Alessandro Siena Leads a Stacked Field
The massive field of 3,835 players who showed up to play the WPT World Championship over the four Day 1 flights included visitors from every corner of the globe, including plenty of satellite winners who made their way into the event via both online poker and live satellites at various locations.
Out of all of those, it was Italian players Alessandro Siena, who managed to climb to the top of the chip rankings on Day 2 and go to bed as the overall tournament chip leader with 3,035,000 in chips, ahead of Brazilian Mateus Carrion, some 400,000 chips behind.
Images courtesy of WPT.com
While plenty of players move into the third day with more than one hundred big blinds, it will be names like Igor Kurganov, Chance Kornuth, and Hossein Ensan that the remainder of the field will be most worried about during today’s action. Their big stacks and incredible poker talent and experience make them truly formidable contenders.
It was a big day yesterday for the ladies in the field as well, as the likes of Kristen Foxen, Allisson Hollander, Aubrey Williams, Lynn Gilmartin, and Maria Konnikova will all be back in action this Sunday afternoon.
Numerous other notables have survived Day 2 with varying stack sizes, as the likes of Bryn Kenney, Phil Laak, Huck Seed, David Williams, Andrew Lichtenberger, and countless others are all coming back to work their way towards Day 4 today.
Millions to Play for as Prize Pool Is Revealed
With registration officially closed at dinner break on Day 1D, we now know exactly what the remaining players are playing for and how the payouts will look over the following several days.
Everyone still in action will receive a minimum payout of $18,700, a min-cash worth nearly two times the initial buy-in of $10k, providing a hefty profit for those who only entered the event once.
As usual, the pay-jumps will be coming slowly, leading up to the bigger payouts reserved for those who make the deepest of runs.
The $100k mark is broken at 48 players, as everyone who makes it past this line will get at least $111,300, and the top 12 all getting in excess of $456,000.
Here is a quick look at the final table payouts and the cashes that the final nine players will be receiving:
| Place | Payout |
| 1st | $5,678,000 |
| 2nd | $3,772,200 |
| 3rd | $2,798,700 |
| 4th | $2,095,300 |
| 5th | $1,583,100 |
| 6th | $1,207,000 |
| 7th | $928,900 |
| 8th | $721,600 |
| 9th | $566,900 |
A Week of High Rollers Ahead of Us
As the WPT World Championship continues to rage on, and the field continues to dwindle, all the high stakes poker players who made their way to Las Vegas for the festival will have plenty of chances to improve on their results after busting the Championship event.
Today marks the start of the official $25k World Championship High Roller, an event guaranteed to attract a field made up of many of the world’s best poker players, who are already in town having played the Championship.
This will be only an introduction to the bigger and better things, as the $1,000,000 buy-in Big One for One Drop tournament makes its official WPT debut tomorrow, with the most elite players in the game like Phil Ivey in the mix.
Finally, the $50k WPT Alpha8 event will give all the high rollers one last chance to get something out of the festival on the 20th, before the conclusion of yet another super successful WPT festival in Las Vegas.
Stay tuned for more updates from the WPT World Championship, as we bring you live reporting from both the Main Event and all the biggest high rollers and side events over the remainder of the festival.
