Since they first started dating a few years ago, Liv Boeree and Igor Kurganov have been one of poker’s “power couples”. On Friday night at the 2017 World Series of Poker, they proved that, winning the $10,000 Tag Team Championship for the first WSOP bracelets of their careers. Their win was the highlight of the first busy day of the WSOP.

Boeree and Kurganov Deny Negreanu #7

When the final six teams returned to action in the $10,000 Tag Team Championship on Friday, most people were focused on the team with the chip lead since it featured Daniel Negreanu going for bracelet #7. Negreanu’s team, which consisted of Eric Wasserson, Mark Gregorich and David Benyamine, managed to get three-handed with the chip lead but Boeree and Kurganov had other ideas.

Team Negreanu was eliminated in third place, leaving Boeree and Kurganov to battle heads-up with Ankush Mandavia and Joe Kuether. Mandavia and Kurganov battled for a little over 90 minutes before Kurganov finally eliminated his team’s last opponent.

“This is genuinely an event where I’m happier about the two bracelets that we win from it,” said Kurganov. “People always say that I want to win the bracelet, but here the ratio of bracelet-to-money is even better than usual.”

The couple also announced they would be donating half of their total winnings to Raising for Effective Giving, the charity they founded together.

“The charity was basically our third and fourth player,” said Kurganov.

Final Table Payouts

1. Liv Boeree – Igor Kurganov – $273,964
2. Ankush Mandavia – Joe Kuether – $169,323
3. Daniel Negreanu – Eric Wasserson – David Benyamine – Mark Gregorich – $119,753
4. Anthony Ajlouny – David Fong – Mike McClain – $86,237
5. Javier Gomez – Lander Lijo – $63,253
6. Martin Jacobson – Mark Radoja – $47,271
7. J.C. Tran – Nam Le – Antonio Gutierrez – $36,008
8. Connor Drinan – Mike Aron – $27,967
9. Dietrich Fast – Moritz Dietrich – Jan Schwippert – $22,156

Busquet, De Silva, Paur Highlight $3K Shootout Final Table

Just ten players remain in the $3,00 No Limit Hold’em Shootout after Day 2 and a former #1-ranked player on PocketFives is among them. Taylor Paur, who was #1 in 2011, is joined by Olivier Busquet, Jean Gaspard and Upeshka De Silva.

Jan Schwippert is also at the final table, making him the first player to make two final tables this summer. Schwippert was part of a team that finished ninth in the $10K Tag Team Championship.

The final 10 begins play at Noon.

Final Table Chip Counts

1. Olivier Busquet – 571,000
2. Jan Schwippert – 564,000
3. Casey Carroll – 562,000
4. Upeshka De Silva – 550,000
5. Jean Gaspard – 550,000
6. Mark McMillin – 550,000
7. Louis Helm – 548,000
8. Linglin Zeng – 548,000
9. Taylor Paur – 536,000
10. John Richards – 521,000

Christopher Logue Leads Final 29 of $1,500 Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better

Only 29 players remain in the $1,500 Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or better event, with Christopher Logue sitting on top with 498,000. The day started with 254 players still in contention but 10 levels of play saw 225 of them, including Day 1 chip leader Rex Clinkscales, sent to the rail.

World Poker Tour Player of the Year Ben Zamani bagged a top-10 stack. Other familiar faces that will return to Day 3 on Saturday include Marco Johnson, James van Alstyne and Jordan Rich.

Action resumes at 2 pm PT.

Top 10 Chip Counts

1. Christopher Logue – 498,000
2. Jim Collopy – 433,000
3. Kevin Gerhart – 393,000
4. Jon Seaman – 370,000
5. Benjamin Zamani – 340,000
6. James Chen – 336,000
7. Jared Hemingway – 323,000
8. Kate Hoang – 320,000
9. Jordan Rich – 299,000
10. Gary Vick – 294,000

Little Buy-in, Big Field – Colossus Kicks Off

The first two flights of the $565 Colossus – guaranteed to be the biggest WSOP field this year – saw a combined 4,783 players dwindled down to just 157 players with Mark Peters holding the overnight chip lead with 426,000.

Peters made his way through the Day 1A field of 2,756 players. Hunter Frey bagged up 400,000 after topping the 1,982 players in Day 1B. Just 157 players survived the two flights and will return on Monday for Day 2.

In 2016, Day 1A and 1B, which was on a Thursday, put a combined 5,402 players through the turnstiles – meaning the 2017 Day 1A and 1B numbers are down almost 11.5%. Given that there are four starting flights on a weekend this year, the Colossus field size could see a significant bump over the next two days.

Day 1A Top 5 Chip Counts

1. Mark Peters – 426,000
2. Jack Blair – 396,000
3. Kevon Bakhtiari – 382,000
4. Mohammad Farah – 370,000
5. William Scarsdale – 315,000

Day 1B Top 5 Chip Counts

1. Hunter Frey – 400,000
2. Ryan Buckholtz – 386,000
3. Vlad Darie – 360,000
4. Scott Bohlman – 346,000
5. Jesse Vilchez – 331,000

Jacobson, Carrel, Polk Shine on Day 1 of One Drop High Roller

While the Colossus represents one end of the WSOP buy-in schedule, the $111,111 One Drop High Roller represents the other. Day 1 action saw 119 players show up and after eight levels of play, former WSOP Main Event champion Martin Jacobson stood tall as chip leader.

Jacobson bagged up 1,677,000 to edge out Charlie Carrel. The Brit, who took down the 2017 PokerStars Spring Championship Main Event two weeks ago, ended up with 1,624,000. The top five also includes Doug Polk, Brian Rast and Dan Smith.

Leon Tsoukernik, fresh off of his Super High Roller Bowl cash, bagged up the sixth biggest stack.

Some of the players who did not make it through Day 1 included reigning champion Fedor Holz, Darren Elias, Justin Bonomo, Stephen Chidwick, Anthony Gregg and Super High Roller Bowl winner, Christoph Vogelsang.

After hearing numerous complaints from some of the players in the field, WSOP staff decided to cut the day short by two levels. Players can continue to enter until the end of the second level of play on Saturday. To match the field from 2016, an additional 64 players will have to enter before registration closes.

Top 10 Chip Counts

1. Martin Jacobson – 1,677,000
2. Charlie Carrel – 1,624,000
3. Doug Polk – 1,522,000
4. Brian Rast – 1,456,000
5. Dan Smith – 1,360,000
6. Leon Tsoukernik – 1,325,000
7. Rainer Kempe – 1,271,000
8. Adrian Mateos – 1,210,000
9. Scott Seiver – 1,199,000
10. Dominik Nitsche – 1,179,000