The total field of the 2021 World Series of Poker Main Event is set. Two levels into Day 2CEF late registration closed, and Caesars could tally up the horses. 6,650 players bought into the 2021 WSOP Event #67: $10,000 Main Event No-Limit Hold'em Championship.
Chris Moneymaker's run at the series continued to go well. He ended the day as one of the few remaining Main Event champions in the field. He certainly has the biggest champion's stack, peaking at 590,000 chips and ending the day with a stack of 531,600 in chips.
Previous champs Phil Hellmuth (25,400), Joe Hachem (50,800), Scott Blumstein (50,800), and Qui Nguyen (479,100) also survived to see Day 3.
Previous champs Scotty Nguyen and Hossein Ensan were not as lucky and busted out during the course of the day.
Other big eliminations included Erik Seidel, Vanessa Kade, Dave "ODB" Baker, Nathan Gamble, Shankar Pillai, Allyn Shulman, Farzad Bonyadi, Fedor Holz, and Scott Seiver.
Other big players who made Day 3 included Eli Elezra (74,700), Liv Boeree (289,500), Robert Mizrachi (311,300), Ted Forrest (298,100), Barry Greenstein (248,300), and event chip leader Conrad De Armas (744,000).
Fish tanks, shark tanks, George tanks
The day saw David Williams stoking controversy on Twitter, Mike Matusow fuming about late registration (again), Hellmuth talking about popping adderall, and Felipe Ramos waiting to see how his last longer bet with Natalie Ramos pans out.
Though the feature table at one point had both Erik Lindgren and Barry Greenstein on it, the real hero of the day arrived after a seat shuffle brought George Qiao to the feature table.
The big story of the day was Qiao's epic nine-minute tank. With pocket eights on a queen-high board, he spent the time pondering whether his opponent had him beat. In the end, he made the correct fold (his opponent had pocket aces).
When Jeff Platt asked why it took him so long, Qiao answered that he is a "beginner."
The man has been playing poker since 2007.
Follow the money
Day 2CEF also saw the Main Event's official payouts published. A jury-rigged affair that manages to be both too flat and too top-heavy to please anyone.
There were two competing constraints. First, the desire to pay out 15% of the field (1,000 players). Second, the desire to make everyone at the final table a millionaire.
The result is calculated to burst the gaskets of even the hardest-core of ICM nerds.
The WSOP tweeted the final table payouts:
"Main Event Payouts. 1,000 places paid.
1st: $8,000,000
2nd: $4,300,000
3rd: $3,000,000
4th: $2,300,000
5th: $1,800,000
6th: $1,400,000
7th: $1,225,000
8th: $1,100,000
9th: $1,000,000"
What the tweet doesn't mention is that 10th place earns $585,000.
Featured image source: PokerGO
