2019 WSOP Opens with Negreanu, Conniff, Imsirovic Making Final Table
After months of the build-up for the 50th annual World Series of Poker, poker players and fans alike finally got to hear those four magic words on Wednesday that marked the beginning of seven weeks of poker at the Rio Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas: “Shuffle Up and Deal!”
Two events kicked off Day 1 on Wednesday: the $565 Casino Employees event, and the first open event of the year, the $10,000 Super Turbo Bounty, which featured many of the world’s best No Limit Hold’em players.
Asher Conniff Bags Lead in $10,000 Super Turbo Bounty; Daniel Negreanu Makes Final Table
Daniel Negreanu has been telling anybody and everybody that he was going to have a great WSOP. Wednesday he took the first step towards making that a reality by making the final table of the $10,000 Super Turbo Bounty (Event #2) with a chance at bracelet #6 on Thursday. He’s got his work cut out for him though. Negreanu bagged just over 1,000,000 chips which puts him behind Ali Imsirovic (2,180,000), Loren Klein (3,130,000), and overnight chip leader Asher Conniff (4,215,000).
“First WSOP event, first final table, so far so good,” joked Conniff. “It’s 20-minute levels, so I basically just ran really well. Guess I didn’t play terribly, but in these things you have to run incredibly well, win your all ins.”
Conniff, who won the World Poker Tour World Championship in 2015, has never made a WSOP final table in Las Vegas. He gives some of the credit to things going well for him away from the felt.
“I’ve been working on my game, but not crazy-crazy – I’ve also been enjoying life and doing some other stuff,” said Conniff. “Life is really good otherwise and that’s always a good bellwether for success in poker when you have your affairs sorted.”
The two-day event attracted a 204-player field for a total prize pool of $1,917,600. This represents a 17% drop over the 243 players who played in 2018.
Kenny Hallaert suffered the indignity of being the first player to bust on the bubble of a 2019 WSOP event. The Belgian was eliminated by Klein in a classic race situation as Klein’s 
outran Hallaert’s 
.
Some of the notables who were eliminated post-bubble included Pennsylvania poker player Thai Ha, Erik Seidel, Byron Kaverman, Nick Schulman, Darren Elias, Ben Yu and Ben Lamb.
Play resumes at Noon PT with action streaming on PokerGO.
Final Table Chip Counts
- Asher Conniff – 4,215,000
- Loren Klein – 3,130,000
- Ali Imsirovic – 2,180,000
- Daniel Negreanu – 1,015,000
- Ping Liu – 990,000
- Brian Green – 720,000
Bracelet Winner Jon Friedberg in Contention in Casino Employees Event
The first official event of the 2019 WSOP was the $565 Casino Employees which saw 686 players enter. That’s up 21% over the 566 players that entered last year and represents the biggest field since 2016 when 731 players entered.
Cosmo Andoloro, out of Woodinville, Washington, ended Day 1 with the biggest stack at 650,000. Right behind him Christopher Bowen with 633,00.
Jon Friedberg, who won a WSOP bracelet in 2006, finished with the eight best stack, putting 360,000 in the bag.
The event, which is open to anybody who works for a casino, included PokerNews reporters Mo Nuwwarah and Chad Holloway, Dutch Boyd and poker media icon Kevin Mathers.
Day 2 starts at Noon Thursday.
Top 10 Chip Counts
- Cosmo Andoloro – 650,000
- Christopher Bowen – 633,000
- Miguel Cardenas – 512,000
- Stephanie Otteson – 479,000
- Bradley Helm – 465,000
- Jorge Ruiz West – 426,000
- Jesse Kertland – 398,000
- Jon Friedberg – 360,000
- Jeffrey Fast – 324,000
- Austin Roberts – 324,000
Day 2 Schedule
Along with the Noon restarts for Events #1 and #2, Thursday’s action also brings the first flight of the Big 50. The $500 buy-in event is expected to attract a massive field over the fours starting day. Action begins at 11 AM PT. The $1,500 Omaha Hi/Lo 8 or Better (Event #4) starts at 3 PM PT.
