Naoya Kihara went out on the bubble of the $100K High Roller PLO at 5:30pm on Wednesday.
The remaining 13 players were all guaranteed a very chunky min-cash of $204,938.
That was the result. How we got there was rather more interesting.
The slowest of starts
The tournament couldn't have have started any slower – the first cards weren’t even dealt in the $100K PLO until almost the end of the first one-hour level on Tuesday.
The WSOP requires seven players to start a tournament, and that happened shortly before Level 2. It meant we had almost a full level where no poker was played but the clock was counting.
Jeremy Ausmus had a view on this and posted on X to say that the WSOP – while a "game-changer" – is “partly responsible for these high rollers getting off the ground so slow. Many check the app and wait until the field looks good before they enter.”
By the end of Day 1, numbers were way down on last year, with 19 players progressing from a field of 50. Last year, 36 players bagged from a field of 88.
Daniel Negreanu did his best to get the reluctant players in on Day 2. They were on their way.
Late reg doubles field
The merits, or otherwise, of Day 2 late registration is a topic that’s been debated extensively this summer.
When the break came after the first two levels on Day 2, there were 21 players left. Tournament staff were prepared to be busy – and they were, as the field literally doubled.
These 21 players paid $100K for the ultimate spin-up:
- Naoya Kihara
- Bryce Yockey
- Yosuke Miki
- Michael Mizrachi
- Brian Rast
- Shaun Deeb
- Sean Rafael
- Jonathan Depa
- Lautaro Guerra
- Richard Gryko
- Jared Bleznick
- Biao Ding
- Brandon Wilson
- Seth Davies
- Alex Foxen
- Josh Arieh
- Nick Schulman
- Klemens Roiter
- Phil Ivey
- Jeremy Trojand
- Gruffudd Pugh-Jones
Then it was carnage. Over the next two hours the following late-reggers fell:
Gryko was first out, followed by Davies, Mizrachi, Ivey, Roiter, Trojand, Arieh, Rast, Bleznick, Deeb, Pugh-Jones, Wilson, Ding, Schulman, Rafael, Foxen.
Other players busted too, including Martin Kabrhel, Stephen Chidwick, and Bryn Kenney.
Five late-reggers survive
After just two levels from late registration closing, there were only 15 players left, with 13 getting paid. It seems crazy that you can register for a huge tournament like this and be on the money bubble just two hours later. David 'ODB' Baker agrees.
Which late-reggers had survived?
- Bryce Yockey: 3,025,000
- Yosuke Miki: 2,050,000
- Jonathan Depa: 2,015,000
- Lautaro Guerra: 1,800,000
- Naoya Kihara: 575K
Start-of-day chip leader Artur Martirosian was still at the top with 8,375,000. Yockey was seventh.
Yockey was actually next out, taken out over a couple of hands by Jeremy Ausmus.
Kihara was by far the shortest player left. Negreanu came over to check how short, patting him on the back and saying, “You’re very tight.”
Kihara followed him back to check if there was anyone short on his table. Certainly there was no one anywhere near as short as he was.
“Everyone’s waiting for you,” Negreanu said. “Double up or go home.”
Time to go home
Kihara’s hands were tied by chip leader Martirosian raising every hand. Kihara was so short that he had zero fold equity.
He called one of Martirosian’s raises but had to fold on the flop. That left him with 145K – less than three big blinds. Kihara was in the small blind next hand and committed the last of his chips to another raise from Martirosian.
“This is one of the worst hands I’ve opened in the last four hours,” Martirosian said sheepishly as he turned over 
.
Martirosian paired his six on the turn, but Kihara rivered a flush to stay alive.
“Congratulations Naoya!” Negreanu said. A round of applause burst out, even from the $10K Stud final table next door.
Then Kihara raised to 210K and Martirosian called from the big blind. The rest of the chips went in on the K-Q-9 flop. While they waited for the other table’s hand to conclude, Kihara motioned that he had top two pair. Martirosian only had a nine, but found another on the river to send Kihara home.
Shortly after, we lost Joao Simao (13th) and Jonathan Depa (12th). The rest play on in the hunt for the $2,257,718 first prize and WSOP bracelet.
$100K PLO High Roller – final 11
- Artur Martirosian: 10.6M
- Daniel Negreanu: 9M
- Jeremy Ausmus: 5.6M
- Robert Cowen: 3.4M
- Philip Sternheimer: 3.4M
- Sergio Martinez Gonzalez: 3M
- Chris Frank: 2.9M
- Lautaro Guerra: 2.7M
- Gergo Nagy: 1.9M
- Sean Winter: 1M
- Yosuke Miki: 940K
