2023 WSOP Day 3: Chess Master Alexandre Vuilleumier Wins $1.2M in the $25K High Roller

The 2023 World Series of Poker awarded two bracelets on Day 3 at the Horseshoe Las Vegas and the Paris Las Vegas Hotel & Casino.
 
Switzerland’s Alexandre Vuilleumier, who has only been on the poker tournament scene for about a year, defeated a star-studded field in Event #2: $25,000 High Roller Six Handed No-Limit Hold’em for $1,215,864.
 
Meanwhile, Cody “1eggadaymike” Bell won the Online Event #1: $333 No-Limit Hold’em Triple Treys Summer Tip Off for $87,666.
 
Several other events progressed to their penultimate and final days. Read on to learn more.

Alexandre Vuilleumier Wins Event #2: $25,000 High Roller Six Handed ($1,215,864)

It has been quite a year for Switzerland’s Alexandre Vuilleumier. While his The Hendon Mob profile shows cashes dating back to 2018, the International Chess Master has only been playing poker tournaments seriously for about a year according to the WSOP, and what a year it has been.
 
Vuilleumier first took third place in the EPT London £5,000 Main Event for £296,150 ($334,784), which was his largest cash until yesterday. He also won a $10,150 no-limit hold’em side event in the winter at the PokerStars PCA for $237,700.
 
Yesterday, Vuilleumier defeated Chance Kornuth heads-up to win his first taste at WSOP gold along with the biggest prize thus far this summer after claiming the $1,215,864 top prize. Kornuth wasn’t the only other big name at the final table as Vuilleumier battled with Sean Winter, Day 2 chip leader Axel Hallay, Ren Lin, and Joey Weissman en route to victory.
 
“Obviously, the World Series is just fantastic,” Vuilleumier shared with PokerNews and WSOP. “To win a bracelet is just the epitome of a poker career for sure.”
 
Vuilleumier also found some parallels between excelling at chess and at poker.
 
“There are a lot of similarities,” Vuilleumier said. “One of the best tricks that you learn in chess is to be able to concentrate for long periods. So after nine hours of concentration, I think I am still at 90 percent of my capabilities while everyone else is maybe at 60 percent, so that is certainly great. And also backward analysis. We are able to think in the air, like abstractly in chess, and reconstruct the game. And in poker, it is important to jump from, okay, what did he do preflop and on the turn, and what does it mean? That mental gymnastics are certainly very akin to what is happening in chess.”

Event #2: $25,000 High Roller Six Handed No-Limit Hold’em Final Table Results 

Shaun Davis Bagged the Mystery Millions Day 1b Chip Lead

The three-day Event #3: $1,000 Mystery Millions – No-Limit Hold’em moved ahead with the second of four opening flights with another 2,957 entries. This brings the field up to 4,980 entries when considering the 2,023 entries on Wednesday’s Day 1a with still two more opening flights to go.
 
The event will produce tons of excitement after its opening flights are completed as there is a whopping $1 million mystery bounty top prize along with another massive $1 million top prize awaiting the bracelet winner.
 
Day 1a witnessed 102 players advancing to Sunday’s Day 2 with yesterday’s Day 1b adding another 146 players to bring the total up to 248 survivors.
 
Shaun Davis advanced with the most chips out of the Day 1b players after catapulting his 40,000 opening stack into 2,475,000 in chips. Day 1a chip leader Francis Anderson still leads the way after bagging an even more impressive 2,750,000 in chips.
 
The action will continue on Friday at 10 a.m. where another 22 blind levels will be played out with the final opening flight played out at the same time on Saturday.

Event #3: $1,000 Mystery Millions Day 1b Top 10 Chip Counts

Scott Wilson Leads Event #4: Tournament of Champions

Event #4: Tournament of Champions isn’t the softest event on the schedule as it is a three-day value-added invite-only freeroll for a select group of previous WSOP bracelet and ring winners.
 
The event proved to be popular with 741 entries chasing after a piece of the $1 million guaranteed prize pool. The top 100 players secured at least a min-cash of $2,400. However, the action on yesterday’s Day 2 played down to just 36 hopefuls, each locking up $4,500 going into Friday’s final day.
 
Scott Wilson leads the pack and will kick off the final day with 144 big blinds. Brent Gregory also bagged more than 100 big blinds with Dakota Britton, Vincent Moscati, and Katelin Koper rounding out the top five players. Jason Somerville is the only WSOP bracelet winner in the mix albeit with a much shorter stack of 20 big blinds.
 
The action will resume on Friday at noon PST. Come back tomorrow to find out who won the $200,000 top prize in the Tournament of Champions.

Event #4: Tournament of Champions Day 2 Top 10 Chip Counts

AJ Kelsall Looking to Add to his WSOP Hardware Collection in Event #5: $1,500 Dealer’s Choice

Event #5: $1,500 Dealer’s Choice progressed to its final of three days with 11 players remaining out of the field of 456 entries that created a $608,760 prize pool. This is one of the more fun tournaments on the schedule, especially for mixed-game enthusiasts, as there is a secondary button that rotates once an orbit where the player on the button gets to choose from one of 20 games to play for a round.
 
Andrew Kelsall, also known as AJ around the poker community, is looking to add his WSOP hardware collection which includes three WSOP gold rings and a WSOP Online bracelet. He has yet to win a live WSOP bracelet, although he did come very close in this same event in 2021 when he finished runner-up to Jawsinder Lally.
 
Kelsall is in the driver’s seat heading into the final day with Clayton Mozdzen and James Johnson as his nearest competitors. WSOP bracelet winners Chad Eveslage and John Racener are also still in a similar hunt as Kelsall for their second WSOP bracelets.

Event #5: $1,500 Dealer’s Choice Final Day Seat Draw

Fernando Habegger Leads Event #6: $5,000 Mixed No-Limit Hold’em / Pot-Limit Omaha

Event #6: $5,000 Mixed No-Limit Hold’em / Pot-Limit Omaha is just how it is described with the action rotating between the two most popular poker variants.
 
The event attracted 568 entries on its opening day to create a $2,608,200 prize pool with 86 players guaranteed at least a min-cash of $8,000. Just 50 players survived the opening day with $10,000 locked up heading into Friday’s final day with all returning players salivating over the prospects of securing the coveted WSOP gold bracelet along with the delicious $534,499 top prize.
 
Swiss PLO poker coach and streamer Fernando “JNandezPoker” Habegger leads the way after parlaying his 50,000 opening stack into a massive pile of 1,625,000 in chips with Roman Rogovski, Michael Moncek, Michael Banducci, and poker beast Christian Harder all kicking off the final day in the top five when the action resumes on Friday at 12 p.m.

Event #6: $5,000 Mixed No-Limit Hold’em / Pot-Limit Omaha Day 1 Top 10 Chip Counts

Nicholas Goedert Leads Event #7: $1,500 Limit Hold’em

Limit hold’em is a game that many will agree is completely solved. However, players don’t have to worry about playing against GTO bots at the WSOP although we imagine many players know how to play fairly close to optimal after years of practice and millions of hands.
 
Event #7: $1,500 Limit Hold’em kicked off the first of its three days with 527 entries creating a $703,545 prize pool. The action played down to just 154 hopefuls led by Nicholas Goedert with 186,500 with WSOP bracelet winners Nick Schulman (185,000) and Adam Friedman (154,000) not too far behind.
 
The action will resume for Day 2 on Friday at 1 p.m. with the action playing deep into the money with the top 80 players securing at least a $2,400 payday. Saturday’s winner will go home with much more with a $146,835 top prize and, of course, the WSOP gold bracelet on the line.

June 2, 2023 WSOP Schedule

Two news events in the prestigious Event #8: $25,000 Heads Up No-Limit Hold’em Championship and the old-school Event #9: $1,500 Seven Card Stud kick off today. There will also be a winner crowned in Online Event #1: $333 No-Limit Hold’em Triple Treys Summer Tip Off that technically will crown a winner on June 2 as there were still three players battling it out at the time of this article. We will update the winner of the first online bracelet event in tomorrow’s recap.
 
In addition to this bracelet, we will also learn who won Event #4: Tournament of Champions, Event #5: $1,500 Dealer’s Choice, and Event #6 $5,000 Mixed No-Limit Hold’em / Pot-Limit Omaha. In other words, it is going to be a busy day so be sure to come back to PokerPro for your one-stop shop for all your important WSOP updates in one place.
 
Below is a look at today’s schedule while head to the PokerPro opening WSOP article to check out the full schedule of the 2023 World Series of Poker.

Images courtesy of WSOP/PokerNews.
Article by Jason Glatzer
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