2016 World Series of Poker Daily Update: More Exciting Colossus Action

June 4th, 2016 | by Kaycee James

After three days at the 2016 World Series of Poker, one bracelet has been awarded and over 12,270 players have taken a shot as of this writing at the $1 million first place prize in Event #2: Colossus II.

Colossus II is on track to become the biggest tournament field in poker history. And the new Copag cards in play (also a Series sponsor this year) are proving to be a big hit with entrants. (Image: pokersites.com exclusive)

The final two Day One flights take place on Saturday (E and F) and it will be interesting to see if enough players sign-up to set the live tournament poker record which was set in last year’s Colossus (22,374).

Breaking records isn’t the only focus of Colossus players thus far. Many have been raving about the brand new playing cards the WSOP is using. The Modiano brand cards last year received harsh criticism from poker players. Not this year. The Copag brand cards are a big hit already.

Flight 2C Recap

Flight 2C of the Colossus on Friday had 3,770 initial players, with 566 of those getting paid, and 139 moving on to Day Two. The player with the biggest stack out of this group is Ben Lindemulder with 362,000. If that name doesn’t ring a bell, that isn’t a surprise, considering he only has two other small cashes in his WSOP career.

David Polop, who played in Flight 2A, remains the overall chip leader (513,000). Polop hails from London, across the pond in the slightly-less-sunny-than-Vegas English capital.

There weren’t many recognizable names from Flight 2C to make it to Day Two. Allen Cunningham is one of the few top pros to accomplish this task. Known as one of the best players in the world about a decade ago, Cunningham finished the day with 75,000, but will need to accumulate some chips early on in Day Two on Sunday in order to survive. Players will be coming back to 4000/8000 (1000 ante) blinds on June 5 at 2 pm PT.

Flight 2D Recap

Friday’s action concluded with Flight 2D which began at 4 pm in Las Vegas. Play continued until a little after 2 am. There will be 105 players moving on to the tournament’s second day on Sunday out of 3,099 entrants. And 465 players have earned a guaranteed payday from this flight.

Brian Graham of Bakersfield, California holds a slight chip lead over another California resident, Marco Johnson (416,000 to 412,000).

A few big name pros had bagged up decent stacks by Friday night. Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi left with 259,000 chips. He has three career WSOP bracelets and has won nearly $7 million lifetime tournament cashes in the Series.

David “ODB” Baker is another talented pro who finished the day with chips. The Texas resident has a stack of 242,000 and will be chasing his second career gold bracelet.

But perhaps the biggest name throughout the Colossus so far to advance to Day Two is the legendary Scotty Nguyen. His 137,000 chip stack will need to grow quickly on Sunday, but poker fans will definitely be paying attention to one of the most popular and colorful players in the game’s history.