The money bubble has officially burst in the 2023 World Series of Poker $10,000 buy-in no-limit hold’em main event. The tournament drew a record turnout of 10,043 entries this year, creating a prize pool of $93,399,900 to be split among the top 1,507 finishers and $12.1 million for the eventual winner. Now, heading into day 5, just 441 are left with a shot at becoming this year’s world champion.
Day 4 began with just 1,517 players remaining, which meant that just 10 eliminations were needed to make the money. It didn’t take long for hand-to-hand play to arrive. The bubble finally burst nearly two hours after cards got into the air thanks to three eliminations that occurred during a single round: Yueqi Wang ran her flopped pair of aces into quad sixes, Peter Nigh lost a flip with A-K suited versus pocket queens, and Jeppe Bisgaard found himself on the wrong end of the most brutal preflop cooler with pocket kings against pocket aces.
The three eliminated players split the $30,000 in prize money that would have gone to the first two to bust inside the money, taking home $10,000 each. There was then a flip for a free seat into next year’s main event, which was won by Bisgaard. With that, the remaining 1,505 players locked up at least $15,000 each.
More than a thousand contenders hit the rail inside of the money before action was halted for the night. When the dust settled, bracelet winner and World Poker Tour champion Ryan Tosoc emerged as the chip leader going into day 5. The 2018 WSOP online $1,000 buy-in event winner knocked out David Eldridge late in the evening to help propel him to a final stack of 5,120,000. The 2017 WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic main event winner has more than $5.3 million in prior tournament earnings, and is well positioned to add to that total in a big way with a deep run in this event.
Other notables that bagged huge stacks included bracelet winner Mitchell Halverson (5,100,000), bracelet winner Gabi Livsh*tz (3,800,000), 2010 WSOP main event runner-up and bracelet winner John Racener (3,710,000), Nicholas Rigby (3,655,000), bracelet winner Nikita Luther (3,550,000), three-time bracelet winner and WPT champion Chance Kornuth (3,200,000), and bracelet winner Raj Vohra (3,100,000).
There are now only two prior champions of this tournament still in contention with a shot at a second main event title: 2005 winner Joe Hachem (1,485,000) and 2003 winner Chris Moneymaker (435,000).
Full chip counts for the remaining 441 contenders can be found by clicking HERE.
Previous champs who hit the rail on day 4 included 2009 winner Joe Cada (1,358th – $15,000), 2006 winner Jamie Gold (1,082nd – $17,500), ten-time bracelet winner and two-time main event champion Johnny Chan (1,067th – $17,500), and 2017 winner Scott Blumstein (782nd – $25,000).
Among the 1,064 players to be eliminated during day 4 action were content creator and chess player Alexandra Botez (1040th), six-time bracelet winner Jason Mercier (940th), two-time bracelet winner Justin Saliba (781st), two-time bracelet winner Barny Boatman (676th), three-time bracelet winner Doug Polk (674th), bracelet winner and two-time Card Player Player of the Year award winner Stephen Chidwick (606th), five-time bracelet winner Michael Mizrachi (596th), and high-stakes cash game regular Patrik Antonius (587th).
David Botfeld finished 1,166th for $17,500. His daughter Amanda Botfeld, author of A Girl’s Guide to Poker, joined him in making the money on day 4 and is still in contention with 910,000. Card Player caught up with the Botfelds, who final tabled the WSOP tag team event together in 2021, to learn about the experience of cashing in the largest WSOP main event ever held.
The final 441 players will return for day 5 at noon on Tuesday, July 11 with blinds of 10,000-25,000 with a 25,0000 big blind ante for level 22. The average stack of 1,366,394 will represent just shy of 55 big blinds when action resumes.
Here is a look at the top ten chip stacks heading into day 5:
| Rank | Player | Chip Count |
| 1 | Ryan Tosoc | 5,120,000 |
| 2 | Mitchell Halverson | 5,100,000 |
| 3 | Aditya Systla | 5,075,000 |
| 4 | Scott Berko | 4,700,000 |
| 5 | Bradley Moskowitz | 4,145,000 |
| 6 | Juan Maceiras Lapido | 3,985,000 |
| 7 | Jon Cohen | 3,815,000 |
| 8 | Gabi Livsh*tz | 3,800,000 |
| 9 | John Racener | 3,710,000 |
| 10 | Quan Zhou | 3,705,000 |
Remaining payouts up for grabs in the 2023 WSOP main event:
| Place | Payout |
| 1 | $12,100,000 |
| 2 | $6,500,000 |
| 3 | $4,000,000 |
| 4 | $3,000,000 |
| 5 | $2,400,000 |
| 6 | $1,850,000 |
| 7 | $1,425,000 |
| 8 | $1,125,000 |
| 9 | $900,000 |
| 10 – 11 | $700,000 |
| 12 – 13 | $535,000 |
| 14 – 17 | $430,200 |
| 18 – 26 | $345,000 |
| 27 – 35 | $280,100 |
| 36 – 44 | $229,000 |
| 45 – 53 | $188,400 |
| 54 – 62 | $156,100 |
| 63 – 71 | $130,300 |
| 72 – 80 | $109,400 |
| 81 – 89 | $92,600 |
| 90 – 98 | $78,900 |
| 99 – 161 | $67,700 |
| 162 – 224 | $58,500 |
| 225 – 287 | $50,900 |
| 288 – 309 | $44,700 |
| 310 – 350 | $44,700 |
| 351 – 413 | $40,000 |
| 414 – 476 | $37,500 |
Visit the Card Player 2023 World Series of Poker page for schedules, news, interviews, and the latest event results. WSOP coverage sponsored by Global Poker.
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Tags: Poker Tournaments, 2023 WSOP, 2023 World Series of Poker, main event, day 4, money bubble, in the money, cash, bracelet, Las Vegas, Nevada, chip leader, chip counts
