Jans Arends Leads a Star-Studded Final Table After Day 2 of Event #29: $100,000 High Roller
Another high-stakes tournament has reached the final table and another familiar face will be returning to the spotlight with a big stack. Jans Arends has made the final six in the second straight high-roller event, but this time will enter as the overall chip leader. Event #29: $100,000 High Roller has reached its final day at the 2023 World Series of Poker and a star-studded lineup is ready to play for the $2,576,729 first-place prize.
Arends is coming off a third-place finish in Event #23: $50,000 High Roller, falling just short of his second career gold bracelet and his first one on the live felt. However, the Dutchman is back for redemption and looking to cash in on the lion's share of the prizepool that is still up for grabs. Arends is widely known as one of the best online players but has recently transferred his skills to the live felt and it's paying off for him.
He will have his work cut out for him when the final six return with many bracelet winners still in the hunt and looking to make their mark in poker history.
Final Table Seat Draw
| Seat | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cary Katz | United States | 12,775,000 | 51 |
| 2 | Jans Arends | Netherlands | 16,625,000 | 67 |
| 3 | Biao Ding | China | 8,800,000 | 35 |
| 4 | Adrian Mateos | Spain | 7,175,000 | 29 |
| 5 | Chance Kornuth | United States | 4,600,000 | 18 |
| 6 | Jeremy Ausmus | United States | 5,750,000 | 23 |
Cary Katz currently sits alone in second place with a stack of 12,775,000 after a roller coaster of a day. Katz was the chip leader along with a short stack on multiple occasions but finished on a high and will be looking to nab his first piece of jewelry at the WSOP tomorrow.
Biao Ding sits in third place with a stack of 8,800,000 and is the only other player at the table without a gold bracelet. Ding has flown under the radar thus far but has himself right in the thick of things at the business end of the tournament.
The other three players don't need any introduction. With 12 WSOP bracelets between them and tens of millions of dollars on their resumes, they will be looking to hunt down the competition when the action gets underway. Adrian Mateos (7,175,000), Jeremy Ausmus (5,750,000), and Chance Kornuth (4,600,000) are in the hunt again and by no means out of this competition yet.
Day 2 Action
There were 35 players who returned to their seats from Day 1, and they were joined by 15 late entries starting with a fresh stack of 600,000 chips. That brought the total number of entries to 93, smashing the number of 62 in the previous year. A total prize pool of just under $9 million was created, with over $2.5 million going to the winner tomorrow.
With a good portion of the field holding under 20 big blinds to begin the day, the action was furious in the opening levels. Some of the late entries included Phil Ivey, Andrew Robl, Chamath Palihapitiya, and recent $50,000 High Roller champion Leon Sturm, all of who failed to make a deep run on Day 2.
The field was dwindled down to just 26 players on the first break of the day, and the money bubble loomed upon returning to the felt with just 14 places paid. Once down to the final two tables (16 players), the hand-for-hand portion of the tournament began. Stephen Chidwick was the first to bow out when his ace-king was no match for the pocket tens of Ren Lin.
On the stone-cold bubble, there were a couple of short stacks at risk of not making the money, including Jonathan Jaffe. After a raise and three-bet in front of him, Jaffe stuck in the last of his chips from the big blind only to find himself dominated by the big stack of Arends. Jaffe was ousted on the money bubble, and the remaining 14 players were all guaranteed a min-cash of $171,034.
It was time for the short stacks to do their magic, but there were no tricks to be played on this day. In a streamline to the payout desk, 2021 WSOP champion Koray Aldemir, Yang Wang, John Kincaid, David Peters, Kristen Foxen, and Punnat Punsri all fell just short of the official final table.
Lin did most of the heavy lifting, building a stack near the top of the leaderboard just behind Mateos. However, the final table was not kind to the GGPoker ambassador as he doubled up Kornuth and was then bounced by Arends shortly after. With seven players remaining and the dinner break fast approaching, there was a discussion as to whether or not they wanted to keep playing.
Katz had a dinner reservation at Nobu and invited the remaining players to join him at the end of the level. However, after Justin Bonomo shoved all in on the button, Katz called to put him at risk and the two players were flipping. Bonomo was unable to connect with the board and Katz was able to send everyone on an extended dinner break until Wednesday, June 14, when the action will resume.
Final Table Results and Payouts
| Rank | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | $2,576,729 | ||
| 2nd | $1,592,539 | ||
| 3rd | $1,142,147 | ||
| 4th | $833,854 | ||
| 5th | $619,919 | ||
| 6th | $469,464 | ||
| 7th | Justin Bonomo | United States | $362,279 |
| 8th | Ren Lin | China | $284,979 |
The final six players will return to the felt at the Horseshoe feature table, where the action will be live-streamed on PokerGO. The cards will go in the air at 12 p.m. noon PDT while the live stream will be on a 60-minute delay. There will be roughly 12 minutes remaining in Level 21 with the blinds at 125,000/250,000 with a 250,000 big blind ante. The levels will continue to be 40 minutes in length until a champion is crowned.
The PokerNews live reporting team will be here to bring you all of the live updates in sync with the live stream to avoid spoilers, so be sure to tune in for all of the exciting action.