WSOP Online Main Event Day 1b Sees Marius Gierse & Niklas Astedt Both Survive

The World Series of Poker Online Series continued its Main Event with Day 1b, and after 679 players bought into the game for $5,000 apiece, only 105 survivors made the Day 2 chipcounts. Of the players who reached the promised land of the next day’s play, superstars such as Marius Gierse and Super MILLION$ joint-record winner Niklas Astedt managed to do so with above-average stacks.

Gierse Second in Chips Among Elite Names

Marius Gierse can rightly claim to be one of the world’s most in-form players, with a string of live and online results in the past year that put many of his peers in the shade. Starting with just 60,000 chips, Gierse used Day 1b as the opportunity to race to as many all-ins as he possibly could, banking an amazing 1,466,483 chips by the close of play.

There is a $20 million guarantee in the $5,000-entry WSOP Online Main Event, and of the 105 players who made it through Day 1b with chips, it was Canada-based player Xing He who amounted the most. Managing to top even Gierse’s giant stack with a mammoth virtual mountain of 1,505,388 chips, He will be tough to stop when Day 2 takes place on September 26^th.

Before then, of course, there are several more Day 1 flights scheduled. Here’s a breakdown of exactly which dates and at what times the remaining Day 1s take place, along with the start time and date for Day 2, which will amalgamate all the players in one seat draw in order to play down to a winner.

Other Top 10 Finishers

With a grand total of 1,136 entries now the combined Day 1a and Day 1b number, there is much excitement around this year’s iteration of a legendary event that was first born during the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020. Ryan Riess, also known as ‘Riess the Beast’ made it through last week’s WSOP Online Main Event Day 1a with flying colors and will be one of several big names who intend to attack Day 2 with big stacks.

With almost $5.4 million already in the coffers towards fulfilling that $20 million guarantee, the top two on Day 1b in He and Gierse finished the day some way ahead of their nearest challengers.

Thomas Ward played Day 1b from Thailand and the Scottish player made it through to Day 2 with 979,317 chips, good enough for a podium place after the final hand ended. Others to make the top 10 chipcounts included Argentinian player Julio Belluscio (743,159) and Polish player Mateusz Sikora (721,886).

Poker Players Who Made the Day 2 Cut

While many big names survived the melee to reach Day 2 of this year’s WSOP Online Main Event, others fell by the wayside in their pursuit of glory. Stevan Chew (697,279) sailed through with a big stack, Dutch star Teun Mulder (696,281) also made the cut, while Finnish poker powerhouse Samuel Vousden (565,536) also ended the day with way more than most.

Stefan Schillhabel (468,568) made it through with a big stack too, as did Dimitar Danchev (465,725), while the aforementioned Swedish sensation Niklas Astedt (355,382) will be a force to be reckoned with when he gets back into the action on the resumption of festivities on September 26^th.

Others such as Patrick Leonard (338,572), Rainer Kempe (286,191), Mark Radoja (272,213), Darrell Goh (247,178) and Matas Cimbolas (105,727) all made it through to Day 2 as well, albeit with varying degrees of chipstack strength, while other big names such as Chris Brewer couldn’t make the cut. In Brewer’s case, it was a particularly painful exit, busting as he did in 108^th place with only two others losing out after him before play ended for the night.

The next opening flight of WSOP Online Main Event Day 1 action is this Sunday, September 11^th. With satellites on WSOP.com from as little as $5, the action is sure to be intense as the build-up continues until the next big day of World Series action.