The $300 + $30 Closer is Event #5 in the 2018 WSOP-C Playground. The tournament featured four Day 1s with unlimited re-entries permitted until the beginning of level 9 on each Day 1. The Closer has a $300,000 guaranteed prize pool.
Day 1D, the last Day 1, is currently running in the Tournament tent with 193 players still in and more than 90 minutes still left in the late registration period. Players can try to qualify through multiple flights, and if a player does qualify twice, the largest stack will go through to Day 2.
Day 1C just ended as the players bag their chips, and gets some rest before Day 2. A total of 374 entries were logged today in Day 1C, including 85 re-entries. Out of all those entries only 58 players qualified for Day 2 tomorrow.
Very early in the tournament today Hai Ut Phuong Le got on the leader board, only 50,000 chips behind leader Julius Roque, after 8 levels. That was the last time he was not in the lead. By level 12 Hai Ut Phuong was not only in the lead, but had almost twice the chips of his closest competitor. This ratio would prove constant throughout the day.
When all was said and done, Hai Ut Phuong Le bagged an incredible 719,000 chips for his efforts today. This sum is by far the most chips of all Day 1s combined. Gary Farrel bagged 470,000 chips on Day 1A, and yesterday Rami Hammound bagged 555,000 chips for Day 1B.
Hai Ut Phuong’s stack is not only big compared to other Day 1 leaders, but twice the stack of 2nd place leader today Pierre-Olivier Adam, who bagged 360,000 chips.
A thumbs up goes to Timothy Deering who did manage to bag 25,500 chips after suffering a gut-wrenching loss in the last 3 hands of play. We’ll see how he manages tomorrow – will he make a comeback?
See the Event #5 – Closer – Combined Closer Day 1 results page for an updated list. In total 35 players qualified Friday, and 52 made it on Saturday. With today’s 58 players we currently have 145 players setup for Day 2.
Here are a few pictures of the players taken during the last few hands of play.
