By every metric, the inaugural WPT EveryOne for One Drop is a massive success. After three starting flights, the field swelled to 1,676 entries and a prize pool of $16,257,200 – making it one of the largest non-WSOP Main Event $10Ks in history. And at the start of Day 2, the Wynn Las Vegas poker room was absolutely packed as the 537 players who made it to Day 2 returned to battle for a shot at the more than $2.5 million first-place prize.
But the majority of those 537 players were, unfortunately, going to go home empty-handed, as just 210 runners made the money. And by the end of the day, there were just 71 players remaining to return for Day 3 with tournament crusher Bin Weng holding the overnight chip lead.
With so many notable names coming out to support this event, that also meant that meant some big-time players were going to have to bow out early on Day 2. WPT Champions Club members Erick Lingren, Gediminas Uselis, and Aaron Mermelstein all hit the rail in the first few hours and there were joined by the likes of Chris Brewer, David Peters, Jesse Lonis, Richard Seymour, Kristen Foxen, Joseph Cheong, and Landon Tice.
WPT Ambassador Phil Ivey soft-bubbled when, with just three eliminations before making the money, he moved all-in after seeing a flop of holding only to run into the pocket kinds of Eduardo Pereira. The turn and river provided no help and Ivey, who was one of the last people to enter the event, was also one of the last to leave without a payday. Ultimately, two players, Samy Dubonnet and David Dowdy, bust on the same hand to split a min-cash of $17,200, both taking home $8,600.
1. Bin Weng – 3,280,000 – For a large portion of Day 2, especially after dinner break, Weng held a massive chip lead over the field and, usually, that’s bad for news for the field. Weng is in the middle of a career year which includes grabbing back-to-back final table chip leads in WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown and WPT Choctaw, the first of which he went on to win for his first WPT title. Weng has more than $4.7 million in live tournament earnings, is currently in the lead for WPT Player of the Year, and has emerged as an elite grinder in WPT events.
2. Scott Baumstein – 3,265,000 – Scott Baumstein has plenty of experience in making deep runs in large field, big buy-in events. Back in 2019, Baumstein finished in fourth place in the inaugural $25K PokerStars Players Championship for a career-high $1,657,000 score. Additionally, he’s a WPT DeepStacks Champion, winning his title in 2018 for $220,238. He has 16 career WPT cashes for more than $545,000.
3. Niko Koop – 2,830,000 – Vienna resident Niko Koop has $1.8 million in live tournament earnings, roughly $300,000 of which has come in WPT events. His standout WPT score took place back in 2019 when he made the final table of WPT Barcelona for $241,689. His WPT Barcelona finish sat atop his poker resume until this year when he reached a new tournament high score, finishing in second place in the $25,000 NLHE Turbo at Triton Cyprus for just over $480,000.
4. Tom Cannuli – 2,625,000 – Tom Cannuli may be best known for his sixth-place finish in the 2015 World Series of Poker Main Event for $1,426,283. The New Jersey online grinder has been around for more than a decade, with three live WPT cashes for just over $28,000.
5. Mehdi Chaoui – 2,320,000 – Hailing from Morocco, Mehdi Chaoui boasts $1.1 million in live tournament earnings including a first-place finish in the 2023 €5,150 NLHE Six-Handed EPT Monte Carlo side event for $114,537 and a win in the 2022 Paris All Poker Open for $176,182, his current high score. To date, according to Hendon Mob, Chaoui did not have a single cash inside the United States, until now.
In addition to the above, there are some heavy hitters still in contention for a seven-figure payday including WPT Prime Championship winner Stephen Song (1,625,000), WPT Champions Joe Tehan (1,570,000) and Dominik Nitsche (1,040,000), Bryce Yockey (730,000), Adrian Mateos (680,000), Paul Volpe (635,000), and Darren Elias (610,000) the current record holder for WPT titles with four.
The names of those in the money but no longer in the running include Jeremy Ausmus (79th, $31,550), Nate Hill (90th, $25,360), Sergio Aido (95th, $25,360), two-time WPT champ Jared Jaffee (97th, $25,360), Anatoly Filatov (101st, $25,360), Kitty Kuo (104th, $25,360), Dan Smith (115th, $23,080), Brian Yoon (121st, $21,250), WPT Gardens champion Ky Nguyen (160th, $18,650), and Isaac Haxton (198th, $17,200) among many others.
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