After seven long days, it all comes down to simple math. Nine players will make it through Day 8 of the 2023 World Series of Poker Main Event, guaranteeing themselves $900,000 and a shot at $12.1 million. Six players will come agonizingly close, just to fall on the doorstep of history.
Still, they fared better than the 34 players whose WSOP Main Event journey came to an end on Thursday. While Americans made up the bulk of the field entering Day 7 – 37 out of 49 – only six of the remaining 15 players hail from the United States.
Great Britain is well-represented with four of the final 15. Two remaining players are from Spain, and the Day 8 field is rounded out by one player each from Germany, Ukraine, and Italy.
What We Saw on Day 7
Japanese vlogger Masato Yokosawa started the day on a short stack, but after picking up a double early, Yokosawa seemed poised to climb back into contention as he got all in with 
against Daniel Vampan’s 
. But the 
was the door card, and despite picking up a straight draw Yokosawa could not recover, and his tournament was over in 45th place.
All-time WSOP Circuit ring leader Maurice Hawkins was lining up quite a flourish for his first career WSOP bracelet, were he to win, but Hawkins ran head first into pocket aces in 35th – but not before securing a pay jump of over $51,000 for lasting one spot longer. Hawkins fared better than most of the players who have held the Day 3 chip lead in the WSOP Main Event over the last decade, lagging behind only Valentin Vornicu (23rd in 2016) and Gaelle Baumann (10th in 2012).
It was a big day for Ukraine’s Ruslan Prydryk, who started Day 7 in 17th place and ended in sixth chip position. One of the hands that helped his stack shoot up happened when Eric Schneider kept the price cheap enough with a flopped set of 10s for Prydryk to stick around to the turn with a gutshot straight draw. It did not end well for Schneider.
Who are the Day 7 Chip Leaders?
1. Juan Maceiras Lapido – 108,000,000 – It was a magnificent day for Lapido, one of two players left in the field from Spain. He started the day in second place and became the first player in 2023 to cross the 100 million-chip threshold – giving him nearly 18 percent of the total chips in play. As we recounted following Day 6, Lapido’s best career performance was a fifth-place finish in the EPT Grand Final in Madrid in 2011, for which Lapido won $467,532. He also final tabled EPT Warsaw in 2008.
Lapido is already guaranteed $430,200 for making the top 15, and two more eliminations from this field will lock in a new career best.Â
2. Adam Walton – 79,475,000 – Walton, who hails from Thousand Oaks, California, was in the middle of the pack when Day 7 began, but thanks to a run of cards that culminated with his elimination of Anirban Das on the final hand of play early Friday morning, Walton has positioned himself well for a chance at the 2023 WSOP Main Event final table. Walton’s no stranger to WSOP Main Event success, with a 42nd-place finish in 2021. His career-best cash of $283,072 was a runner-up finish in a $3,000 side event during the WPT World Championship series at Wynn Las Vegas back in December. With this result, Walton will move well clear of $1 million in lifetime live tournament earnings.
3. Jan-Peter Jachtmann – 70,775,000 – Jachtmann is one of only two remaining WSOP bracelet winners in the field, having won the $10,000 Pot Limit Omaha Championship back in 2012. That $661,000 payday makes up about one-third of his career live earnings, but his big final table experience separates him from all but a few of his remaining opponents. Any time you can almost 5X your stack over the course of a single day deep in the WSOP Main Event it’s a good day, and that’s exactly what Jachtmann pulled off on Day 7.
4. Steven Jones – 67,700,000 – Jones has proven to be adept at digging his way through massive live tournament fields. The Phoenix, Arizona native fought through a field of 13,070 entries in the 2018 WSOP Colossus event, ultimately finishing in ninth place. There are four players left in the field with smaller career earnings totals, but Jones is already positioned to exceed his career winnings in a single payday, no matter where he ultimately finishes in the 2023 WSOP Main Event.
5. Toby Lewis – 50,000,000 – Lewis is far and away the most decorated player remaining in the 2023 WSOP Main Event. He has $8.2 million in lifetime live tournament earnings, to say nothing of his online poker exploits that had him ranked as high as the No. 2 online tournament poker player in the world back in 2011. He won the Aussie Millions in 2018, EPT Vilamoura in 2010 as a 20-year-old, and has made seven other major final table appearances, including a runner-up finish at the 2018 WPT LA Poker Classic.
Who’s In, Who’s Out
Start of Day 6 chip leader Joshua Payne finds himself dead center in the chip counts in 8th place as Day 7 begins, with 31 million. Daniel Weinman, who has both a WSOP bracelet and a WPT title to his credit, is 10th overnight with 21.75 million.
Alec Torelli, a cash game specialist who has made several major final tables over the course of his career, including a runner-up finish in the 2008 WSOP $10K Heads-Up Championship, has some fighting to do as he’ll be in 13th to start the day, with 14.275 million.
Day 6 was less kind to several of the notables who made deep runs. 2011 WSOP bracelet-winner Sam Stein went out in 46th place, for $188,400. Three WPT Champions Club members were also eliminated on Thursday: Matthew Wantman (29th, $280,100), Ryan Tosoc (25th, $345,000) and Andrey Pateychuk (17th, $430,200). This was Pateychuk’s second top-20 finish in the WSOP Main Event; he was the 15th-place finisher in 2011.
Tosoc was the Day 5 chip leader of this event, and his 25th-place finish is about par for the course for those who held that distinction over the last decade. In fact, he’s the second player (joining Barry Hutter in 2018) to finish exactly 25th, and he’s one of four Day 5 chip leaders in that grouping to finish in the 20s.
Vampman may have knocked out Yokosawa early in the day, and immortalized himself with an all-time bluff during his deep run in the 2023 WSOP Main Event. But he, too, would see the payout line by the end of Day 6, coming in 24th place ($345,000).Â
What They’re Playing For
1st – $12,100,000
2nd – $6,500,000
3rd – $4,000,000
4th – $3,000,000
5th – $2,400,000
6th – $1,850,000
7th – $1,425,000
8th – $1,125,000
9th – $900,000
10th-11th – $700,000
12th-13th – $535,000
14th-15th – $430,200