There were 6,869 players who sat behind a Colossus II starting stack on Friday (@jr_plante photo)

As the 2016 World Series of Poker wrapped up its third day of play, the third and fourth starting flights for Colossus II brought out barely 7,000 more entries bringing the total field in the $565 buy-in event to 12,271 with two more starting flights to come.

To break last year’s record for largest live tournament in history, flights E and F will have to bring in a combined 10,103 players – something not out of the realm of possibility given the number of recreational players who work Monday – Friday jobs and will play their first day Saturday.

Biggest Starting Flight Yet as Colossus II Stumbles Towards 2015 Field Size

Flight 1C became the largest flight this year, bringing out 3,770 players to play through 18 levels. Only 139 players made it through the night including Ben Lindemulder who bagged up the biggest stack of the flight with 362,000.

Marvin Rettenmaier (307,000), former WSOP Asia-Pacific Main Event champion Scott Davies (134,000) and Ylon Schwartz (68,000) are among the notables to advanced to Day 2.

At least four former Main Event champs were in the field for Flight 1C. Greg Raymer, Carlos Mortensen, Joe Cada and Phil Hellmuth all showed up to take their shot at the $1,000,000 guaranteed prize pool.


None of the former champs were able to make it through the day and Cada was the only one of the four to make it into the money before being sent to the rail.

Flight 1C Top 10 Chip Counts

  1. Ben Lindemulder – 362,000
  2. Daniel Needleman – 325,000
  3. Severin Schleser – 323,000
  4. Roman Dohnal – 322,000
  5. Benjamin Dobson – 317,000
  6. Louis Salter – 310,000
  7. Samitti Eksarunchai – 309,000
  8. Michael Bratovich – 308,000
  9. Marvin Rettenmaier – 307,000
  10. Hayden Glassman – 273,000

Marco Johnson Sitting Near Top of Flight 1D Stacks

As more and more of the weekend crowd made their way into Las Vegas, the field size for Flight 1D continued to climb. A total of 3,099 players made their way into the field with only 105 advancing to Day 2.

The survivors from Flight 1D includes some players with previous WSOP success. Marco Johnson finished with 412,000 chips, good enough for the second biggest stack from the flight and only 4,000 behind leader Brian Graham. WSOP bracelet winner Craig McCorkell squeaked into the top ten with 296,000.

Other notables to make it onto Day 2 include James “ODB” Baker (242,000), and Michael Mizrachi (259,000).

Like the champions that they are, Hellmuth, Mortensen and Raymer all found their way into Flight 1D after busting from 1C earlier – but again, none of the three were able to make it through the 18 levels.

Flight 1D Top 10 Chip Counts

  1. Brian Graham – 416,000
  2. Marco Johnson – 412,000
  3. Jonathan Borenstein – 386,000
  4. Brian Fairfax – 338,000
  5. Darrel Dier – 323,000
  6. Andrew Mackenzie – 317,000
  7. Vitor Coelho – 314,000
  8. Anthony Spera – 300,000
  9. Kevin Killeen – 296,000
  10. Craig McCorkell – 296,000

Looking Ahead to Saturday

It could be an all-time record for busiest WSOP day ever on Saturday with the final two flights of Colossus II getting underway at 10 AM and 4 PM PT. Both fields should be in the 5,000-player range.

And while the low buy-in event has attracted amateurs from around the globe, the first $10,000 buy-in Championship event gets underway at 3 PM with the $10,000 Seven Card Stud event. Last year the event drew 91 players and was the first of Brian Hastings’ two bracelet wins last summer.