2021 WSOP Day 52: Jason Koon Leads $50K High Roller

Day 52 of the 2021 World Series of Poker (WSOP) featured another full day of poker action at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in sunny Las Vegas with Nov. 18 featuring five bracelet events.

Two huge events awarded bracelets on Saturday. Adrian Mateos won his fourth piece of WSOP hardware in a huge way by winning $250,000 Super High Roller for $3,265,262. Later in the evening, Jeremy Ausmus denied Phil Hellmuth his 17th bracelet and Daniel Negreanu his seventh bracelet while winning the third of his own by coming out on top of the $50,000 PLO High Roller for $1,188,918.

Meanwhile, Jason Koon bagged the overnight chip lead after Day 1 in the $50,000 NLHE High Roller and Alex Kulev will advance to Day 2 of the $1,500 The Closer with the chip lead.

Read on to learn about what took place on Day 52 of the 2021 WSOP.

Alex Kulev Bags Day 1b Chip Lead in Event #83: $1,500 The Closer

Day 1b in Event #83: $1,500 The Closer hit the Rio on Saturday with the second of the two opening flights attracting 1,101 entrants with 166 players making the money with a minimum payout being $2,400. After a long fourteen hours of play, only 38 players remained in Day 1b.

Day 1a had a total of 802 players to bring the total field up to 1,903 for a $1,469,835 prize pool. Day 2 will witness 63 players return with 25 players surviving on Day 1a.

Alex Kulev had an impressive run on Day 1b to not only end on top of the second flight's leaderboard with 2,685,000 in chips but will also enter Day 2 as the overall chip leader.

Meanwhile, Giorgiy Skhulukhiya (2,425,000), Marc Lange (1,320,000), Leo Margets (1,300,000) and Steven Steinmetz (1,300,000) all bagged top five chip stacks on Day 1b.

The Closer Day 1b Top 10 Chip Counts

Five-time bracelet winner Shaun Deeb, recent three-time WSOP bracelet winner Chance Kornuth, two-time bracelet winner Bertrand Grospellier, and bracelet winner David Jackson all battled on Day 2 only to come up empty-handed.

All remaining players who bagged will return for Day 2 on Sunday, Nov. 21 at 12 p.m. noon local time in the Amazon room with the dinner break to be determined Sunday starting at Level 23 with blinds at 15,000/30,000 and a big blind ante of 30,000. There will be 15-minute breaks every four levels and the tournament is scheduled to play down to a winner at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino.

Jason Koon Leads Stacked Field After Day 1 of $50,000 High Roller

After 12 fast-paced 40-minute levels that saw 101 entries fill Event #85: $50,000 High Roller, GGPoker Ambassador Jason Koon finished the day atop the chip counts with 2,405,000 chips.

Ole Schemion (1,760,000), Stephen Chidwick (1,700,000), and Shaun Deeb (1,650,000) are not far behind.

Also among the 35 players finding a bag for Sunday's Day 2 were 2021 World Series of Poker Player of the Year front-runner Josh Arieh, who bagged up 570,000 chips and Michael Addamo, who built a big chip lead early before finishing the day with a more than healthy 1,145,000.

$50,000 High Roller Day 1 Top 10 Chip Counts

Plenty of stars fell by the wayside throughout the day including Fedor Holz, Scott Seiver, Adrian Mateos, and David Peters.

Day 2 will take place Sunday at 12 p.m. noon local time in the Amazon room, with the field playing down to a final table of five, which will be streamed Monday on PokerGO.

Registration will remain open until cards are in the air again, where it’s expected there will be several more last-minute entries, likely including Daniel Negreanu, Phil Hellmuth, and Jeremy Ausmus, who were still finishing up the $50,000 Pot-Limit Omaha High Roller final table as this event bagged up for the night.

The action will resume at Level 13 with blinds of 15,000 and 30,000 with a 30,000 big blind ante.