The 2023 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Event No.83: $1,500 Short Deck No-Limit Hold'em tournament featured 363 players. But only nine of them advanced to Day 2. Thai Ha was the last player at the final table after beating David Prociak to make a $111,170 score.
The Top Players' Payouts
- Thai Ha from Vietnam – $111,170
- David Prociak from the United States – $68,712
- Wai Kiat Lee from Malaysia – $45,866
- Robert James from the U.S. – $31,307
- Ryan Laplante from the U.S. – $21,863
- Moses Alosh from Israel – $15,629
- Matan Gabay from Israel – $11,443
The Last Day's Action
Day 2's action kicked off at noon and had deeper stacks compared to those of Day 1. Adam Adler was the first poker player to exit the tournament after losing a preflop confrontation to Ryan Laplante's pocket queens. Still, the remaining players battled it out for more than an hour before another elimination took place.
Marcos Exterkotter had a great run in the day's first level. He used pocket aces to double up Ha and later doubled through Matan Gabay when they made a straight flop. Unfortunately, the odds turned against Exterkotter when Ha turned a straight and cracked his pocket kings before busting him.
The official final table was set after Exterkotter's exit. Still, Gabay was the first finalist to leave the table after losing to Ha's pocket kings. Yet, Moses Alosh followed him in sixth place after using pocket sixes to put his remaining stack in preflop against Robert James' ace-king.
The latter rivered a king and busted the former. Laplante's run didn't last for long as his pocket tens lost a preflop battle to Ha's pair of queens hence finishing fifth despite being a previous bracelet champion.
James was the second player on the leaderboard when the day started.
But, he lost a few coolers which made him drop his position and be a short stack. James clashed with Prociak's pocket aces in a preflop after making a two-pair improvement by the turn.
Prociak landed a set and eliminated James in fourth place. The former used ace-king to wager his chips against Wai Kiat Lee's ace-jack. But, Prociak's dominant hand had the upper hand and busted Lee in third place.
The former had a more than 2:1 chip lead over Ha when their heads-up battle began. The latter didn't give up fast despite having the short stack for an hour. Luckily, a crucial hand earned him the stack lead after beating Prociak in a nut-straight flop.
Ha used two pair to call Prociak's bluff in the next hand. Then, the former used pocket-queens to put the latter's remaining stack in a preflop confrontation against his suited king-ten.
Prociak finished second with $68,712. Ha celebrated his victory and hinted that he will compete in Event No.93: $10,000 Short Deck No-Limit Hold'em scheduled to kick off on July 16.
