The biggest Big Show in history is now itself history with Daniel Weinman from the US state of Georgia as the 2023 World Champion. He bested the record field for the biggest prize in Main Event history after the fastest final table in the last decade. Elsewhere, Frenchman Alexandre Reard picked up his second bracelet and a million-dollar score in the 6-Handed Championship and Canada surged ahead of China at the wire for sole possession of second place in the national standings after Kang Lee from Edmonton bagged Canada’s sixth on Monday night. There are still two more bracelets to win in the 2023 series, however, so China still has a chance to pull even or take the lead.

Event #76: $10,000 MAIN EVENT No-Limit Hold’em World Championship Day 10

The biggest Main Event in history is now in the books, and Georgia resident Daniel Weinman is the latest World Champion. He took down one of the fastest final tables in Main Event history on Day 10 after coming into the day second of three returning players.

This was the biggest Main Event and, in fact, live poker tournament of all time by quite a significant margin. When the dust settled on entries on the final Day 2, more than 10,000 entries had destroyed the 2006 record by more than 1,000 entries, putting the prizes at more than $93 million, an increase of about $13 million over the 2006 record prize pool, the biggest portion of which was won by Jamie Gold.

Because of the way payout structures have changed in the almost 20 years since the previous record was set, this year’s winner only pocketed $100k more than Gold’s $12 million record prize, but eight of nine players at the final table all walked away with $1 million or more. In total, more than 1,500 players pocketed cash at the end of their Main Event run.

When play on the final day began, there were just three players left alive, all guaranteed at least $4 million. Steven Jones came to the day with the biggest stack to start, but Weinman started to come on strong after sending Adam Walton to the rail in third with pocket aces. That hand gave Weinman a massive lead in the game with almost 450 million of the ~600 million in play.

Heads-up play lasted for about 20 hands, capping a very fast final table that went from nine players to one in just 164 hands. That was the fastest final table of the last decade, blowing past the 2015 standard of 184 and less than half as long as the epic marathon in 2018 that went almost 450 hands.

Final Table Results from the 2023 Main Event

Place	Player	Home	Prize
1	Daniel Weinman	United States	$12,100,000
2	Steven Jones	United States	$6,500,000
3	Adam Walton	United States	$4,000,000
4	Jan-Peter Jachtmann	Germany	$3,000,000
5	Ruslan Prydryk	Ukraine	$2,400,000
6	Dean Hutchison	Scotland	$1,850,000
7	Toby Lewis	England	$1,425,000
8	Juan Maceiras	Spain	$1,125,000
9	Daniel Holzner	Italy	$900,000

This was Weinman’s second bracelet after he picked up his first last year in a PLO game and this win brings his lifetime earnings to $15,857,357. It obviously represents his biggest-ever score, but getting there wasn’t without its personal pain as Weinman had to go through a friend to make the endgame. Before the final table, Weinman was seated with fellow Georgian and friend Joshua Payne but it would not be a friendly meeting. Weinman cracked Payne’s kings (along with the queens of Jose Aguilera) for a massive pot that set him on a path to the win, but also sent his good friend to the rail in brutal fashion.

That puts a wrap on the biggest live poker game ever as the WSOP draws to a close for 2023.

Event #90: $10,000 6-Handed No-Limit Hold’em Championship

France’s Alexandre Reard won his second bracelet and more than $1 million after taking down the 6-Handed No-Limit Hold’em Championship. He had the biggest stack by a mile going into the unplanned Day 4 with four players remaining, but he was facing down some tough cookies across the table on that final day.

Among them was the UK’s #1 money earner and nosebleed wizard Stephen Chidwick who both started and ended the day in second place. AJ Kelsall and Justin Liberto rounded out the deep final four while Eli Berg and Eric Baldwin completed the six-handed final table in this one.

Reard had to make his way through 550 entries in another big field for his part of the $5.115 million in total prizes. His was the biggest share of 83 paid spots and the win represents France’s first hardware of the series, adding a second bracelet to Reard’s resume after he bagged his first one in Event #47 in the delayed 2021 series. He now has almost $1.8 million in earnings from games on WSOP felt, and this biggest-ever score brings his total earnings from poker to more than $5.25 million.

Event #91: $3,000 H.O.R.S.E.

As has become something of a theme at the WSOP this year, the $3k HORSE race needed an extra length to decide the winner. There are only two players left in the game, from an original field of 331 both fighting for the biggest share of the $883,770 in prizes. A total of 48 players have already cashed out in this one, with Calvin Anderson and Barbara Enright the last players to fall before tournament staff made the call to end Day 3 and bring the final two back for Day 4.

Leading the way into the unplanned final day is Ryan Miller. He has more than twice as many chips as Leonard August, who final tabled the $10k Stud Championship earlier this series for almost $50k. Both players are fighting for the $208,460 top prize of course, but no matter what, they are both guaranteed at least $128,835 now.

This was a pretty packed field with a lot of “the usual suspects” in the cashout list including the aforementioned Anderson and Enright, along with Andrew Yeh, Noah Bronstein, Kevin Gerhart, Todd Brunson, and Nick Guagenti who all cashed out for $10k or more while double-bracelet winner Chad Eveslage pocketed the final payment of $8,939 just before it jumped to more than $11k.

The final day of this one kicks off at 2 pm and it’s likely they’ll play to a winner pretty quickly on Tuesday.

Event #92: $1,000 Freezeout No-Limit Hold’em

Oh Canada, eh! Canada jumped into sole possession of second place on the national bracelet list with its sixth after Edmonton’s Kang Lee emerged victorious in Event #92 late Monday evening. Lee had to power through a big field of 1,710 entries to win the $236,741 top prize and his first bracelet. The lesser-known of the Mizrachi brothers, Eric Mizrachi, took second in this one for $146,335 while Ivan Millian took the only other prize of more than $100k from a total prize pool of $1,521,900.

Lee topped a final table where he and Vanessa Kade were the only non-Americans on a table that included Kane Kalas and Eider Cruz among others. Kade had to settle for eighth place worth about $25k while Cruz was 9th for $20k and Kalas was 5th for $58k. Among the other players to cash out in this one were Jimmy Setna, Cole Ferraro, Kyle Chang, and Tony Gregg, who all cashed for $5,695 or more, while Mustapha Kanit just missed that pay jump with the final prize of $4,817 in 45th place.

Lee was surrounded by a solid crew of friends and tablemates from his home in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, and among the players on his rail for the win was Paul Brar, who picked up a bracelet in last year’s series, and had a couple of cashing runs deep this year as well. along with Lina Niu who won the Women’s event at last year’s WPT World Championships. In addition to being his first WSOP hardware, this was Lee’s biggest score, eclipsing a third-place finish for just over $50k in the 2019 DSPT Canadian Championship in his hometown and it marks his first recorded win on the live felt.

Event #93: $10,000 Short Deck No-Limit Hold’em

Martin Nielsen leads the final five players in the $10k Short Deck game as the only player to bag 2 million after Day 2. Registration closed on this one at the start of Day 2 and they ended with 106 entries for $985,800 in prizes, putting $270,760 up top for the winner and giving 16 players some cash by the end.

Eleven of those cashing spots have already been spoken for late in Day 2 play with Chris Brewer and Nobuaki Sasaki bubbling the final day of play. Sam Soverel, Martin Zamani, Adam Friedman, and Mikita Badziakouski were among the other players to exit the game with cash in hand already, while players like Ryan Riess and Patrick Leonard just missed out on the cashing spots.

Final Day Chip Counts for $10k Short Deck

1	Eric Wasserson	United States	1.705m	284
2	Ivan Ermin	Russia	743k	124
3	Hong Wei Yu	United States	1.596m	266
4	Martin Nielsen	Faroe Islands	2.007m	335
5	John Juanda	Indonesia	332k	55

The final five players return to action at 1 pm on Tuesday and the expectation is to hand out a bracelet before it’s said and done.

Event #94: $5,000 8-Handed No-Limit Hold’em

David Peters has almost 1.5 million in his bag after one day of play in the penultimate event in the 2023 WSOP. He leads a starting field of 813 entries that combined for $3,739,800 in total prizes with just over $700k up top for the winner. A total of 122 players will get a piece of that pie with the earliest paid exits worth $8,059.

Peters leads 60 players returning for Day 2 play with 1.49 million, but Japan’s Nozomu Shimizu is close behind with the only other stack above 1.4 million. Matthew Su, Rafael Reis, Alex Keating, and Punnat Punsri are among the other top-ten stacks, all of whom have at least 1 million in their bags to start Tuesday’s Day 2.

More than 60 players have already cashed out for some money in this one, and among them was the expected Player of the Year winner Ian Matakis who bagged a min-cash of just over $8k and 59 more PoY points for what looks to be an unassailable lead of some 800 points over Shaun Deeb. There are still two bracelets to award, including this one, in the 2023 series, but Deeb didn’t figure in the results of this one, so he and others chasing Matakis have very few chances left to narrow the gap.

Joining Matakis at the cash cage on Day 1 were Niall Farrell, Adam Friedman, Patrick Leonard, Morten Mortensen, Jon Van Fleet, and Ari Engel while Phil Laak is among the players to bag after the opening day and lurks just outside the top ten. Joining him on Day 2 with shorter stacks are Pat Lyons, Mark Seif, Christian Harder, Ryan Tosoc, Matt Vengrin, and Felipe Ketzer who all have at least 500k when the cards go in the air for Day 2 at noon.

Upcoming Events on July 18

Event #95: $1,000 Super Turbo No-Limit Hold’em

• Start: 10 am
• Late Entry: 12 Levels
• Start Stack: 20,000
• Reentries: 1
• Final Event of the 2023 Series!

There are just three players left in the biggest Big Show ever with Steven Jones leading the way into what should be the final day of play on Monday. Action will be streamed on PokerGO starting at 3 pm with cards-up coverage. Canada also scored its fifth bracelet of the series after Bradley Smith took down the Mixed split pot game, while Pierre Shen bagged his first bracelet in his first EVER poker tournament.

Event #76: $10,000 MAIN EVENT No-Limit Hold’em World Championship Day 9

They are down to just three players left in the biggest Big Show in history after the ninth day of play on Sunday. Steven Jones has the lead to start Day 10, which looks likely to be the final day of play for this year’s Main Event, after bagging up 238 million at the end of the night. Daniel Weinman is just shy of the 200 million mark while Adam Walton will be playing 165.5 million on Day 10.

Day 9 action kicked off with nine players still in contention for the $12.1 million top prize, not to mention the bracelet attached to the biggest Main Event ever, but one by one, six of those players hit the cage for a payout before the night concluded. Five of the six pocketed seven-figure payouts, but the ninth-place finisher Daniel Holzner had to settle for just $900k for his nine days of work at the felt.

Day 9 played a bit more than 100 hands to decide the final three players but it took a while before Holzner and start-of-day leader Juan Maceiras ended their runs in ninth and eighth places within a few hands of each other. That happened almost halfway through the day. Toby Lewis, Dean Hutchison, Ruslan Prydryk, and Jan-Peter Jachtmann were the other players to hit the rail on Day 9.

Day 9 Cashouts from the Main Event

Place	Player	Home	Prize
1			$12,100,000
2			$6,500,000
3			$4,000,000
4	Jan-Peter Jachtmann	Germany	$3,000,000
5	Ruslan Prydryk	Ukraine	$2,400,000
6	Dean Hutchison	Scotland	$1,850,000
7	Toby Lewis	England	$1,425,000
8	Juan Maceiras	Spain	$1,125,000
9	Daniel Holzner	Italy	$900,000

Final Three Stacks for Day 10 of the Main Event

Seat	Player	Home	Stack	Big Blinds (2m)
1	Steven Jones	United States	238m	119
4	Adam Walton	United States	165.5m	83
5	Daniel Weinman	United States	199m	100

Event #87: $2,500 Mixed

Canada is now tied with China again for second place in the national bracelet standings after Bradley Smith won his nation’s fifth bracelet this series in the Mixed split pot game. Most impressive, Smith entered the final day of play last in chips by a fairly significant margin.

Smith started the day with just 2.655 million with big stacks Nick Pupillo (6.045m) and Nghia Le (7.4m) towering above him. But that didn’t faze the Canadian who hails from Thornhill, one of the satellite communities around Toronto, Ontario. That stack was already good enough to equal Smith’s best WSOP finish, third in the 2019 $1,500 HORSE, but he was hungry for more and said after the game that, although a bit of a newcomer to the mixed games, he loves them a lot.

He said he didn’t start playing mixed games until 2017, but they quickly grew on him and the 2019 finish showed he was a contender. “Omaha-8 and Stud-8 are my two favorite games,” he said, adding “I was super focused for every single second … I think I played every single hand in this tournament to the best of my ability.”

It was the second-place stack of Pupillo that would be the first to exit from the final day after he was unable to get anything going. Smith and Le then battled heads-up for some three hours. Smith jumped into the lead quickly, but Le powered back and had 70% of the chips in play at one stage. Smith stay focused though, doubling after a scoop in O8, and took the lead shortly after. While it wouldn’t end quickly, Smith stayed in the lead for the rest of the game, but it was about 40 minutes later before he finally had Le on the felt.

This was Smith’s first bracelet and biggest score ever, and brings his lifetime earnings to just shy of $625k.

Event #88: $1,500 The Closer

There are always stories in the poker world of players who enter their first poker tournament and end up booking a win, but it’s much rarer for that first-ever game to be a bracelet event at the WSOP. Yet, that’s what Pierre Shen did in the Closer on Sunday night for a prize of $606,810.

Shem’s life was on the line late in heads-up when he got into a massive race against runner-up Peter Nigh. Nigh had ace-eight for overs to the pocket fours of Shem, but the eventual winner flopped a set and turned quads to double into the lead. It was only about 20 minutes later when Nigh got the rest of his money in good with ace-eight again, this time against a suited queen-deuce, but Shem was on the run of his life and smashed the flop with two queens to end it all.

He had to make it through 3,531 entries to claim his big share of the $4,713,885, and among them was Chris Moorman, who bagged a 15th-place score in this one. Among the other players to get some cash out of the closer were Oliver Biles, Benson Tang, Erwann Pecheux, and Jason Wheeler who all cashed for $10,760 or more.

Event #90: $10,000 6-Handed No-Limit Hold’em Championship

There are just four players left from the 550 original entries in the final $10k Championship game of the series. There is $5.115 million to play for in this one with the winner expected to pocket $1,057,663 on Monday. Alexandre Reard of France has a huge lead going into the unplanned Day 4 action after bagging up 18.45m.

That is more than the other three players bring to the table combined, so he is well-positioned for his second bracelet. That said, the other three players on Day 4 are certainly no slouches at the game of poker, with Stephen Chidwick sitting on just shy of 7 million, AJ Kelsall playing 4.5 million, and Justin Liberto bringing 3.1 million to the final day. While Reard has all the chips to start the day, it can’t be comforting to look at those names on the list.

This event was full of big names, as is always the case for Championship games, but among the players who hit the cage for money were Eric Baldwin, Fabrice Bigot, Phill Hellmuth, Felipe Ramos, and Taylor Paur, all with $40k or more. The final day of this one rolls at 1 pm on Monday with action beginning in Level 31.

Event #91: $3,000 H.O.R.S.E.

They are down to 18 players in the $3k HORSE race now with Leonard August leading the way with just under 2 million. He leads a star-studded top-ten that includes Nick Guagenti, Calvin Anderson, Todd Brunson, Barbara Enright, and Chad Eveslage. The top five players all have 1 million or more, but the 10th place stack coming back has just 10 big bets, so the game will be pretty short on Day 3.

Andre Akkari bagged the big stack from the opening day of play, which saw 331 entries for a prize pool of $883,770, and he is still alive, but with one of the shorter stacks going into the final day. They are all eyeing the $208,460 up top for the winner on Monday, however, and the home stretch from the $3k HORSE gets going at 1 pm.

Event #92: $1,000 Freezeout No-Limit Hold’em

Ian Steinman is the chip leader after the opening day of Event #92. As the series draws to a close, the numbers are still strong with 1,710 entries for this one making a prize pool of $1,521,900 split 257 ways. With just 124 players left alive for Day 2 of this game, a good chunk of those payouts have already been claimed. Among the players to cash out of this one were Jeff Madsen, Nick Marchington, Kenny Hallaert, and Kathy Liebert.

Steinman leads a top-ten list that includes Dylan Wilkerson in second and John Riordan in fifth, and they all have players like Kane Kalas, Vanessa Kade, Levi Berger, Tony Gregg, Naoki Matsumoto, and Mustapha Kanit sniffing at their heels with shorter stacks for Day 2. Phil Laak is another name to watch out for in the ranks when action gets underway on Monday at 10 am.

Event #93: $10,000 Short Deck No-Limit Hold’em

Ivan Ermin of Russia leads the way after the opening day of the $10k Short Deck game. Entries are still open in this one, but Day 1 saw 84 entries with 31 players advancing to Day 2. Among the players with big stacks for Day 2 are two Japanese stars, Nobuaki Sasaki and Shota Nakanishi, and Eric Wasserson, John Juanda Dong Chen, Dario Sammartino, and Chris Brewer all have top-ten stacks as well.

Farther down the list of stacks for this star-studded game are players like Danny Tang, Sam Soverel, Mikita Badziakouski, Patrick Leonard, Brian Rast, and Felipe Ramos, so there will be very few easy spots in the game on Day 2. Cards go in the air for Day 2 at 1 pm Monday, and the field will be set at that time with new entries allowed right up until the start.

Upcoming Events on July 17

Event #76: $10,000 MAIN EVENT No-Limit Hold’em World Championship Day 10

• Start: 1 pm (streamed on delay on PokerGO starting at 3 pm)
• Entries: 10,043
• Remaining: 3
• Total Prizes: $93,399,900
• Guaranteed: $4,000,000

Event #94: $5,000 8-Handed No-Limit Hold’em

• Start: Noon
• Late Entry: 12 Levels
• Start Stack: 50,000
• Reentries: 1

Poker coach Faraz Jaka bagged his first bracelet in the shootout event while Diego Ventura won the first bracelet ever for his home country of Peru in the Hall of Fame Bounty game. Dong Meng was the third first-time winner on Saturday after taking down the Flip & Go game. Also, after a day of rest on Saturday, the final table of the biggest live MTT ever is set to begin on Sunday at 2 pm with 9 players left and everyone guaranteed at least $900k.

Event #85: $1,500 SHOOTOUT No-Limit Hold’em

Faraz Jaka put a checkmark beside another live poker achievement on Saturday after taking down his first bracelet in Event #85. He had to make his way through 987 total entries to take his $237,367 share of the $1,317,645 in total prizes. Along with Jaka, there were 100 players who got a piece of the cash in this one with prizes ranging from $5,759 to the top prize.

Jaka, who spends a lot of his time lately as a poker coach, had a pretty solid run at the final table. He was the chip leader for most of the final phase of this game, taking about a 2:1 lead into heads-up against Michael Finstein after he sent third-place finisher Olga Iermolcheva to the cage in third for $109,780.

That set up a bit of a battle between Jaka and Finstein that went on for about 30 minutes. While Jaka retained the chip lead throughout, Finstein proved to be a sticky customer, getting the stacks back to about 1.4:1, but that was about as far as he was able to go after Jaka rivered a straight and caught a big bluff from Finstein to take it down.

Money-wise, the win was a middling prize for Jaka, who now has about $7.3 million in total earnings from live MTT poker. While this win wasn’t even close to his biggest score of about $775k, his first bracelet will surely make this a special one. “Pretty great and just taking it all in,” was how he described the feeling after the win.

Event #86: $1,979 Poker Hall of Fame Bounty No-Limit Hold’em

Peru bagged its first-ever bracelet on Saturday when Diego Ventura made it through a field of 1,417 entries to win the biggest share of almost $2.5 million. They weren’t your average entries either, as the game he mastered was the Poker Hall of Fame Bounty where Hall of Fame members who enter the game get a bounty on their heads equivalent to the year they were inducted into the Hall. Among the HoF members to play this time around was the newest inductee, Brian Rast, who got the nod this year after winning the Poker Player’s Championship for the third time, but his $2,023 bounty went early in Day 1.

Ventura had to get through Thomas Kysar heads-up to take down his country’s first Gold Bracelet and $402,054. Kysar took home $248,502 for his runner-up finish, and two other players in the game, Jason James of Canada and Francis Anderson of the USA, took home scores of $100k or more. Among the other players that scored one of the 213 paid spots included final tableists Jose Nadal, Martin Jacobson, and Jimmy Setna, as well as Martin Zamani, Phil Hellmuth, Jim Collopy, Roman Hrabec, Rayan Chamas, and Marton Czuczor who all scored top-50 finishes.

While this was the first bracelet for both Ventura and his home country of Peru, it was not his best result on the live felt. That came in 2015 at the PCA when he was runner-up in a $10k game for $907k, but this score marks his second-best cash prize ever and pushed his Hendon Mob earnings over $2 million. It also cemented his position atop the Peruvian money list, extending his lead over Martin Carnero to almost $700k.

Event #87: $2,500 Mixed

There are still three players left with chips in the Mixed split-pot game after they were unable to finish it out on Saturday’s Day 3. Nghia Le bagged up the most chips from the final three, but the recent winner of the Mixed Triple Draw Lowball, Nick Pupillo is hot on his heels in second. Canadian Bradley Smith rounds out the top three with a significantly smaller stack than the big dogs.

Day 3 started with 37 players left in the game and a bit more than 20 payouts already awarded. Renan Bruschi, Todd Brunson, Patrick Leonard, and Karina Jett were among the players who fell on Day 3 before the final table. Yuval Bronshtein and Philip Sternheimer were among the other players to make it to the final table but fall before the endgame.

They had planned to finish this game out on Day 3 and award the bracelet, but as has been the case a few times this series, the 460-entry field size (for a prize pool of just over $1 million) conspired against them to force a fourth day of play. The final three players will hit the felt at 1 pm on Sunday, and they will finish it out on Day 4, no matter what.

Event #88: $1,500 The Closer – No-Limit Hold’em – Day 1b

Chen Feng Wen leads the counts after the second starting day in The Closer. Between both starting flights, there are 259 qualifiers for Day 2 from a starting field of 3,531, all of whom are now guaranteed some part of the $4,713,885 in total prizes. This event is a Day 1 pay structure, so many players who exited late on a Day 1 did so with money in hand already.

Wen’s stack of 1.75 million from 1b puts him fourth overall going into Day 2 with Benson Tang leading the way as the only stack with more than 2 million in it. Alan Hamza bagged just over 1.9 million for second, while Jeffrey Tanouye bagged just under that figure for third. Among the other players who will be in action when Day 2 kicks off on Sunday at 10 am include Jack Duong, Niall Farrell, Samuel Gagnon, Matt Glantz, and Massoud Eskandari. The full Day 2 prizes for this one aren’t published yet, but everyone returning to Day 2 is guaranteed a payout.

Event #89: $1,000 FLIP & GO No-Limit Hold’em Presented by GG Poker

The Flip & Go event is now in the books, and Dong Meng took down Wenzhi “Westside Wesley” Fei in the heads-up phase for his first bracelet and $160,490. For his part, Fei bagged $100,120 for second place. They were the top dogs out of 1,022 total entries and took the only two six-figure shares of the $911,360 prize pool.

The unique format event began with a series of flip rounds where the results were down to the flip of the cards alone. Once those rounds were complete, players who won a flip table during one of those rounds earned a spot in the Go portion, which featured regular MTT poker through to a winner.

There were 128 players to make it through the flip phase but only 18 of them remained at the end of the first day of regular play. Pete Chen led the way into Day 2 while eventual winner Meng brought the 5th-place stack to the final day. Runner-up Fei was even farther down the list to start the final day, but they both spun it up to the top spots. This was Meng’s best result by far with his total Hendon Mob earnings at $255k AFTER this win. His previous best before the bracelet win was just over $20k for a Circuit final table result last year, so this win certainly padded out his live results.

Event #90: $10,000 6-Handed No-Limit Hold’em Championship

The field for the $10k 6-Handed Championship hit 550 entries before cards went in the air for Day 2 on Saturday. That meant the prizes ended up at $5,115,000 with the winner expected to pocket $1,057,663. There are a total of 83 paid spots for this one, and more than 50 of them were spoken for before they bagged up on Saturday.

Among the players to fall short of the final day of this last live Championship game of the series were Tommy Chen, Steve Zolotow, Alex Keating, Elliot Smith, Victor Ramdin, Cliff Josephy, Rainer Kempe, Renan Bruschi, and David Peters, but they all pocketed at least a bit of cash as they left the game. Last year’s Main Event winner, Espen Jørstad, was the first player to hit the cage for the min-cash in 83rd place.

Ireland’s Jamie O’Connor leads the way into Day 3 as one of two players with more than 2 million with AJ Kelsall right behind. Fabrice Bigot has the biggest bag with less than 2 million in it at 1.975 million, and Stephen Chidwick has a stack of 1.615 million for the final day of play. Bruno Volkmann, Justin Liberto, Alexandre Reard, Yueqi Zhu, and Phil Hellmuth are among the remaining 30 players who return for Day 3, which should be the final day of play. The action get going at 1 pm on Sunday, but it’s worth noting that with 30 players still alive, it’s not impossible this one will require a Day 4.

Event #91: $3,000 H.O.R.S.E.

Brazil’s Andre Akkari is leading the way after the opening day of play in the $3k HORSE race. He leads Matthew Schultz, the only other player to bag 200k or more after Day 1. They got 332 entries for this one for a prize pool of $886,440. The winner is scheduled to pocket $208,460 of that as the biggest share of 50 paid spots starting at the min-cash of $4,873.

Among the other big names with big stacks after the opening day is Chad Eveslage. He bagged the fourth place stack and has shown this year that he knows the mixed games after winning the first two Dealers Choice bracelets on offer this year. Craig Chait and Byron Micon are also among the top ten, while Viktor Blom, Paul Sokoloff, Victor Ramdin, Brandon Shack-Harris, Patrick Leonard, and Allen Kessler all bagged stacks of at least 100k and will be looking to pounce on Day 2. Among the horses put out to pasture on Day 1 were Jason Stockfish, Andres Korn, Tom McCormick, Nacho Barbero, Yuri Dzivielevski, John Esposito, Roland Israelashvili, recent Hall of Fame inductee and three-time PPC Champion Brian Rast, and David ODB Baker.

Day 2 play resumes at 1 pm on Sunday with action planned to continue until the end of Level 20. The day picks up with a bit of time left in Level 10 as Day 1 ended a bit early after a player collapsed late in the day.

Upcoming Events on July 16

Event #76: $10,000 MAIN EVENT No-Limit Hold’em World Championship Day 9

• Start: 2 pm (streamed on delay on PokerGO starting at 4 pm)
• Entries: 10,043
• Remaining: 9
• Total Prizes: $93,399,900
• Guaranteed: $900,000

Event #92: $1,000 Freezeout No-Limit Hold’em

• Start: 10 am
• Late Entry: 9 Levels
• Start Stack: 20,000
• Reentries: 0

Event #93: $10,000 Short Deck No-Limit Hold’em

• Start: 2 pm
• Late Entry: Start of Day 2
• Start Stack: 60,000
• Reentries: 1

Online Event #19: $500 NL Hold’em Summer Saver

• Start: 3:30

Online Event #20: $777 No-Limit Hold’em Lucky 7’s

• Start: 4:30

The final table of the Main Event is now set, but they get a day off on Saturday before action resumes on Sunday. There were several first-time bracelet winners in the last couple of days, including Alex Kulev who took down the $50k High Roller game for his biggest score ever.

Event #76: $10,000 MAIN EVENT No-Limit Hold’em World Championship

The final table of the record-breaking 2023 Main Event is now set with Adam Walton leading the way by a significant margin. He is the only player returning with more than 100 big blinds or more than 100 million in chips as he bagged an astonishing 143.8 million at the end of Day 8. That was more than 50 million above the second-place stack of Steven Jones with just over 90 million while third-place Daniel Weinman bagged up 81.7 million after eight days of Main Event poker.

There were 15 players in action when Day 8 began and it was a fairly quick run to the final table, which was always scheduled to be the end of the day. In total, they played for about six hours to get from 15 down to 9 with Spain’s Jose Aguilera ending up as the official final table bubble in 10th place, but they had already broken down to the 10-handed unofficial final table at that point. Conscious Poker founder Alec Torelli was the player who bubbled the unofficial final table in 11th place and both bubbles pocketed $700k for their troubles.

2023 Main Event Final Table Seats and Chips

Seat	Player	Home	Chips	Big Blinds (1.2 million)
1	Steven Jones	United States	90.3m	75
2	Juan Maceiras	Spain	68m	57
3	Daniel Holzner	Italy	31.9m	27
4	Adam Walton	United States	143.8m	120
5	Ruslan Prydryk	Ukraine	50.7m	42
6	Dean Hutchison	United Kingdom	41.7m	35
7	Toby Lewis	United Kingdom	19.8m	17
8	Daniel Weinman	United States	81.7m	68
9	Jan-Peter Jachtmann	Germany	74.6m	62

The July Nine

The field for the 2023 “July Nine” is now set, but unlike years past, there will be very little waiting for the final table action. From 2008 until 2016, the final nine players in the Main Event got a few months off to prepare for the biggest one-table sit&go of their lives, returning to Vegas in November to finish out the game. This year, the final tableists will still have a bit of time off, but it won’t be anywhere near the four months they used to get off.

Instead, after a day off on Saturday, the final nine will be returning to the felt on Sunday for the first of three days of final table action, with one of the remaining players holding the bracelet and pocketing $12.1 million before the end of play on Tuesday.

At least we don't have to wait until November! Even though the November 9 was pretty cool. #WSOPMainevent https://t.co/pOSNSgyw7a

— Collin Capone (@PokerCapone) July 15, 2023

Day 7 & 8 Action

They returned to the felt on Thursday for Day 7 of the Main Event with 49 players still hoping for the biggest prize in live MTT poker. Joshua Payne led the way into Day 7 with almost 50 million chips, but he ended the day almost 20 million down from his start-of-day total while Juan Maceiras shot up the list to be the only player to bag 100 million on Day 7 with FT leader Adam Walton in second. Among the players to fall by the wayside on Day 7 were Daniel Vampan, Day 4 chip leader Ryan Tosoc, Gabi Livshitz, Circuit Ring leader Maurice Hawkins, Raj Vohra, Alexander Villa, and Masato Yokosawa.

With Maceiras leading to start Day 8, the final 15 players reconvened on Friday to find the final nine. Jack O’Neill was the first to exit the game, followed by Day 6 chip leader Joshua Payne. The action was fairly fast on Day 8, with about one player eliminated per hour of play throughout the day. They set up the unofficial final table just before the final 10 players went out for a break, and it took just a few hands after the break to finish it out when Jose Aguilera vacated the 10th chair to set the final nine players.

Event #81: $600 Ultra Stack – No-limit Hold’em

Joseph Roh was the player with all the chips in the Ultra Stack, and as the name suggests, it was quite a stack he collected by the end with more than 430 million worth of chips in play in this one. They got 7,207 entries for this one, putting the prize pool for the $600 bargain bracelet at $3,675,570. That meant Roh’s first bracelet was also worth $401,250, more than six times his previous best score of about $65k for 34th place in the Wynn Summer Classic in 2021. This was his first win on the live felt according to Hendon Mob, and while he has results going back as far as 2008, the majority of his entries are from 2020 and later.

There were just nine players who returned for the final day action in this one, with John Fagg leading the way in an almost exclusively American final table. Min-Sung Lee from South Korea was the only non-American in the group, coming into the day in 3rd place but being forced to settle for 7th and a payout of $62,450. Denny Lee came to the final table last in chips with just 20 million, compared to 91 million for leader Fagg, but he managed to spin that up nicely into a heads-up run against Roh for second place and $250,120. Chip leader Fagg, for his part, ended his run in third place for $184,720.

Event #82: $3,000 6-Handed Pot-Limit Omaha

There was no sign of Ross, Rachael, Monica, or Joey, but Chandler Bing’s namesake Mattew Parry was still with his Friends after winning his first bracelet in Event #82 on Friday night. He had to make his way through 1,013 entries for his $480,122 share of the $2,704,710 in total prizes. This was Parry’s second final table of the series after he came oh-so-close to his first WSOP hardware in mid-June in the $1,500 PLO game.

This was Parry’s second live win and biggest score ever by about a factor of two. His previous best was $240,965 for 4th place in the 2017 edition of WPT Borgata Poker Open, and this win brings his lifetime earnings to just over $1.75 million. Parry took down the win heads-up against Dustin Goldklang who pocketed $296,746 for his finish.

There were just five players who returned to the felt for the final day of play in this one, and among them was the hottest player of the summer, Ian Matakis. Matakis is leading the Player of the Year standings right now by quite a margin. He managed third place in this one for $205,696 and, perhaps even more importantly, 509.6 PoY points to give him just shy of 4,600 points this year so far, about 800 points ahead of second-place Christopher Brewer who narrowly leads a three-way battle for second with perennial PoY candidate Shaun Deeb and six-time bracelet winner Josh Arieh, who is having a pretty hot series of his own with two bracelets so far.

Event #83: $1,500 Short Deck No-Limit Hold’em

Thai Ha is the Short Deck champ after the final day of Event #83: $1,500 Short Deck No-Limit Hold’em. He pocketed $111,170 for his first bracelet but that was far from his biggest lifetime score. Ha has more than $2.5 million in earnings on Hendon Mob, but is a relative newcomer at WSOP play with this result as his only live WSOP cash, though he had five cashes in 2022 online events.

Ha was up against David Prociak in the heads-up phase of this one, with Prociak booking his third and best cash of the series so far. The bracelet winner picked up his hardware in 2016 in Seven Card Stud, but he fell just short of number two in this one, being forced to settle for the $68,712 consolation prize.

They got 363 entries for the Short Deck game with 55 players sharing in the $484,605 prize pool. Among the other players to pocket a piece of the money were Ryan Laplante, Dario Sammartino, Anson Tsang, Patrick “Pads” Leonard, Roland Israelashvili, Alex Epstein, and Nick Marchington.

Event #84: $50,000 HIGH ROLLER No-Limit Hold’em

Alex Kulev picked up his first bracelet on Friday and it was a big one – he took down the $50k High Roller game for $2,087,073. He was one of 176 entries in this big game, putting the prize pool at $8,404,000 with two players pocketing $1 million or more at the end of the game.

Gergely Kulcsar was the runner-up and the other player to bag at least $1 million, but they led a star-studded field that saw players like Jake Schindler (3rd – $957,491), Koray Aldemir (5th – $533,561), Henrik Hecklen (10th – $132,181), PokerGO founder Cary Katz (13th – $101,149), and Daniel Negreanu (14th – ($101,149) cash out in this one by the end of the game.

Kulev’s first bracelet comes after a couple of other close calls. He was 5th earlier this year in an even bigger game, the $250k Super High Roller, and in 2021 he was heads-up for hardware in The Closer but fell just short of the big prize. Kulev is no stranger to big prizes, but even by his standards, this was a big one. He had two previous scores of more than $1 million going into this one, but this win was his first cash of more than $2 million and brought his lifetime earnings to $6,630,310. It’s also worth noting that all of Kulev’s $1 million plus scores have come in 2023, so it’s been a pretty big year for the Bulgarian who lives in Ireland.

Event #85: $1,500 SHOOTOUT No-Limit Hold’em

Adam Friedman leads the final 10 players in the Shootout game now, but as is usually the case in this format, the stacks are very close going into the final table as every player now has about ten starting stacks after the opening rounds. Friedman and Mo Zhou both bring the full 10 stacks to the final table, while the remaining players all have slightly less, owning to different table sizes throughout the event.

Among the other players joining Friedman and Zhou on the final day are Faraz Jaka and Yuri Dzivielevski, who has been having a pretty good series so far. He’s here playing with his brother, who has a final table of his own this summer, but this marks Yuri’s 11th cash, and third final table so far this summer. One of his final table appearances resulted in his 3rd bracelet when he binked the $1,500 H.O.R.S.E. race.

The final day of action in this one kicks off at 11 am with blinds resuming for 15k/30k/30k and the plan is to award a bracelet before they end the day.

Event #86: $1,979 Poker Hall of Fame Bounty No-Limit Hold’em

Diego Ventura has about a quarter of the chips in play coming into the final nine players in the Poker Hall of Fame Bounty. This unique event puts a bounty on Hall of Fame members who enter the game, equivalent to the year they were inducted. A total of 1,417 entries combined for $2,495,776 in prizes with the winner on Saturday expected to pocket $402,054.

Most of the 213 paid spots are already spoken for and among the players to hit the rail with a deep run on Day 2 were Martin Zamani, 17-time bracelet leader Phil Hellmuth, Melanie Weisner, Jim Collopy, and Roman Hrabec who all pocketed at least $11,298 on their way out the door. The final nine players returning are all gunning for the $402,054 top prize, but they can all rest easy knowing they already have at least $32,897 in their pockets no matter what.

Ventura has a big lead for the final day, but he’ll be in tough against ME Champ Martin Jacobson among others. The final day of play will start at noon on Saturday to see if Ventura can turn a quarter of the chips in play into all of them.

Event #87: $2,500 Mixed

Nick Pupillo is one of three players with 1 million or more going into Day 3 of the Mixed split-pot game. Combining Stud8 and Omaha8, the game requires a keen eye on two ends of every pot as players try to make both the best and the worst hand for a scoop. Yuval Bronshtein and Jeffrey Trudeau join Pupillo in the millionaires club while Ari Engel and Patrick Leonard are among the dangerous players lurking in the shadows of the top ten.

Of the 460 original entries, just 37 remain going into Day 3 action. The prize pool of just over $1 million was divided 69 ways and more than 20 spots are already spoken for by players like Dan Heimiller, Phillip Hui, and John Esposito. Players returning for Day 3 action are all guaranteed at least $5,762, but they are all salivating over the $221,733 up top.

Day 3 starts at 1 pm Vegas time and the plan is to finish the game on Day 3. Among the other players still alive to fight for the big prize on Day 3 include Alex Livingston, Todd Brunson, David “Bakes” Baker, Renan Bruschi, and Brad Ruben

Event #88: $1,500 The Closer – No-Limit Hold’em – Day 1a

There were 1,141 entries on Day 1a of the Closer for a prize pool so far of $1,523,235. There is still one more starting flight to go on Saturday before the final field is set, but after the opening day, Benson Tang leads the way as the only player with 2 million. He leads 18 other players between 1 million and 2 million with just 76 players left. This is a Day 1 pay event, so many of the players who exited late on Day 1a did so with a min-cash in their pockets while bagging players are guaranteed money on Day 2.

The second starting flight goes at 10 am on Saturday with 22 levels planned.

Event #89: $1,000 FLIP & GO No-Limit Hold’em Presented by GG Poker

The flip phase is finished and it’s GO time in the FLIP & GO game. Pete Chen has the chip lead with almost 3 million, miles ahead of James Bullimore in second with 1.84 million. Jack Salter, Eric Wasserson, and Jesse Lonis are among the other top-ten stacks after the flip rounds.

There were 128 players to make it through the flip phase competing for total prizes of $1,182,810 and $160,490. The field is now down to 18 players remaining with the final day of action planned for noon on Saturday.

Event #90: $10,000 6-Handed No-Limit Hold’em Championship

There were 495 entries for Event #90 on Day 1, but the field is still open until the start of Day 2, so the $4,603,500 in prizes so far is set to grow still. After one day of play Tobias Schwecht leads the wat as one of three players with 500k or more in their bags. Frank Lagodich and Justin Liberto join him in the half-million club, while Cliff Josephy also has a top-ten stack.

Joey Weissman, Fabrice Bigot, Andre Akkari, Alexandre Reard, James Chen, and Nick Marchington were among the other players to bag at least a quarter million on Day 1. Day 2 kicks off at 1 pm on Saturday, and the field will be set when the cards go in the air.

Upcoming Events on July 15

Event #88: $1,500 The Closer – No-Limit Hold’em – Flight B

• Start: 10 am
• Late Entry: 12 Levels
• Start Stack: 50,000
• Reentries: 1 per flight

Event #91: $3,000 H.O.R.S.E.

• Start: 2 pm
• Late Entry: 8 Levels
• Start Stack: 40,000
• Reentries: 0

Online Event #18: $2,000 Freezeout Championship

• Start: 3:30