Andrew Brokos finished Day 2C of the 2019 WSOP Main Event with the third best stack. (WPT photo).

Sunday at the 2019 World Series of Poker Main Event saw 344 last-minute registrations put an exclamation point on the second-largest WSOP Main Event of all-time. The 8,569-player field means that sometime next week, one player will walk away with $10,000,000 and the title of World Champion.

Day 2C saw the highly-anticipated arrival of Phil Hellmuth and the emergence of a fresh batch of names atop the end-of-day chip counts.

Julien Milliard Inches Toward 1 Million Chips, Leads Day 2C Survivors

Florida’s Julien Milliard almost cracked the seven-figure stack code on Sunday. Milliard finished Day 2C with 947,900 to edge out Czech player Vlastimil Pustina, who ended up with 930,700. Andrew Brokos, co-host of the Thinking Poker podcast, rounded out the top three Day 2C stacks after ending the day with 895,400.

The day started with 344 players taking advantage of the last chance to register to push the total Day 2C field to 4,008 players. Just 1,793 of those players made it through the five two-hour levels of play on Saturday. That group will combine on Monday with the 1,087 players who got through Day 2AB as the entire remaining field of 2,880 players will play on the same day for the first time.

Eventual Champion Will Earn $10,000,000

Registration closed as the first card was dealt on Sunday and the final numbers show another year of growth for the Main Event and made this year’s Main Event the second largest of all-time. A total of 8,569 players generated a total prize pool of $80,548,600. The eventual champion will win $10,000,000 and every player at the final table will earn at least $1,000,000.

READ: 2019 WSOP Main Event Second Largest of All-Time, $10M to Champ

Phil Hellmuth Arrives, Departs

One of the 344 players who registered on Sunday morning was 15-time bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth. Just back from his vacation to Machu Picchu and the Galapagos Islands, Hellmuth didn’t take his seat until well into the first level of play. He didn’t sit long. Hellmuth was part of one of the secondary feature tables on the ESPN broadcast and gave fans at home and his tablemates a little taste of The Poker Brat before busting at the hands of Timothy Stanczak‘s pocket fives.

Familiar Faces Stay Alive on Day 2C

Three-time bracelet winner Adam Friedman bagged up 549,600 on Sunday to advance to Day 3 with a top 50 stack. Sam Greenwood snuck into that top 50 with 535,800. Mike McDonald continues to apply pressure to those who bet against him, finishing Day 2C with 516,700.

Other notables still in include Dario Sammartino (522,700), Jeff Madsen (488,600), Bertrand Grospellier (428,200), David ‘ODB’ Baker (418,700), Joseph Cheong (354,500), Chino Rheem (286,500) and Nick Schulman (278,000).

Defending champ John Cynn battled back from just 24,800 chips to finish with 248,900 at day’s end.

All-time online poker tournament earnings leader Peter Traply finished with 234,800.

Holz, Antonius, Imsirovic Headline Big Names Busting

Hellmuth wasn’t the only big name who didn’t make it through Day 2C. Former #1-ranked PocketFiver Fedor Holz, Patrik Antonius, James Obst, Ali Imsirovic, and Adrian Mateos were all sent to the rail on Sunday. They were joined by John Racener, Ismael Bojang, Matt Berkey, John Monette, John Juanda, Denis Strebkov, Ben Heath, Jonathan Little, Shawn Buchanan, Sam Soverel, Joe McKeehen, Niall Farrell, Maurice Hawkins, and Sam Trickett.

Nate Silver was also one of the Day 2C casualties.

A Half Dozen Former #1s March On

Kevin Saul leads a group of talented poker players who once held onto the #1 ranking on PocketFives.com. The Illinois native finished Day 2C with 623,900. Saul has cashed three times in the WSOP Main Event, most recently in 2016 when he wound up 466th.

Saul is joined by fraternity brothers Calvin Anderson (459,400), Cliff Josephy (402,000), Fabrizio Gonzalez (328,800), Chris Hunichen (307,500) and Tim West (130,400).

34 Keystone State Players Survive Day 2C

Chad Power leads 34 Pennsylvania poker players who managed to find a bag at the end of Day 2C. Power finished with 401,300 for the 97th-best stack on Sunday. Ralph Wong finished with 344,300 for the second-best PA stack. Kenneth Smaron, Jason Loehrs, and David Vasil round out the top five.

Top 10 Chip Counts

  1. Julian Milliard – 947,900
  2. Vlastimil Pustina – 930,700
  3. Andrew Brokos – 895,400
  4. Aleksa Pavicevic – 867,700
  5. Nai Hu – 798,300
  6. Kainalu McCue-Unciano – 765,600
  7. Dapeng Mu – 762,700
  8. Hugo Torres – 720,400
  9. Cody Brinn – 708,800
  10. Tom Cannuli – 667,000