Australia bagged its first bracelet of the series with Hassan Kamel’s PLO8 victory, and he was railed by some Australian poker royalty for the event. Bradley Gafford ended up the winner of the Mini Main, but the big news at this point of the series is always the Main Event. With two flights in the books there are more than 1,500 players waiting for Day 2 action already, and Wednesday is all Main Event, all the time with flight 1c as the only scheduled action on Wednesday.

Event #74: $1,000 MINI Main Event No-Limit Hold’em

The Mini Main is now in the books and Bradley Gafford added another bracelet to the host country’s total after making his way through the 5,257 entries for the win. His $549,555 was the biggest share of the $4,678,730 prize pool, but there were a total of 789 players who took some cash home after this event.

This was perhaps one of the best comeback stories of the series so far as Gafford came into the final day dead-last in chips. He came into the day determined to double quickly, and he did just that against Jennifer Abad, who had her own rail of supporters handing out T-shirts reading “Jenny in the Mini” that had been hastily created at an all-night T-shirt shop on the strip. That helped send the only woman in the final day home in 4th place and put Gafford on a mission.

Things shifted for good when Gafford doubled twice in three hands through runner-up Josh Reichard. He found flopped quad threes first then found aces over kings to give Gafford momentum that couldn’t be halted and a few hands later Gafford was holding the bracelet amidst a group of his friends. This score was his first bracelet and biggest cash by far. Coming into this event he had about $130k in wins on Hendon Mob, but that total is now up to almost $700k.

Event #75: $10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better Championship

Australian Hassan Kamel had a pretty powerful rail for his, and Australia’s, first bracelet on Tuesday night. Among the players on hand to watch the spectacle were double bracelet winner and 2019 Player of the Year Robert Campbell as well as bracelet winner and mixed-game beast James Obst.

It took three days of play for Kamel to work his way through the 247 entries for $598,613, the biggest share of the $2,297,100 prize pool. Along with Kamel, 41 other players finished the day with money in their pockets, and among them were Anton Smirnov, Dylan Weisman, Dzmitry Urbanovich, Paul Volpe, Calen “BigWheel” McNeil, Ben Yu, and Patrick “Pads” Leonard. McNeil was looking for his second O8 bracelet and despite coming up short had nothing but praise.

Thanks for all the support everyone . Always painful to come close but played my heart out . This game can be brutal, but this was the funnest time I’ve had playing cards and am so happy to be able to compete with the best ✌🏼

— Calen McNeil (@BigwheelMcNeil) July 5, 2023

The game was scheduled to finish at five players to return for a Day 4 on Wednesday, but Kamel had most of the chips in play when they got to that point, so it was decided they would play it out on Day 3. The endgame action went quickly with the heads-up phase between Kamel and Ryan Hoenig lasting just a few hands before it all ended with Kamel holding the bracelet among the Australian poker royalty on his rail.

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

The second starting flight of the Main Event is now in the books and South African Jean-Pierre van der Spuy leads the day with 287k in his bag. Four-time bracelet winner Julien Martini of France bagged the second-biggest stack and Finnish high-stakes crushed Patrik Antonius had the 7th biggest bag at the end of Day 1b.

There were 1,118 entries for Day 1b on Tuesday and when the end of the Beer Level finally came, there were still 819 bags to collect. Added to the Day 1a qualifiers, that puts more than 1,500 entries into Day 2abc on Friday so far with Day 1c still to come on Wednesday.

Among the other players to advance to Friday’s second day were former Main Event champions Greg Raymer and Johnny Chan. Chan has been sniffing at his 11th bracelet all series with a couple of deep runs already and is looking invigorated and eager for his first bracelet since 2005.

Among the other players to bag chips at the end of 1b were Ramiro Petrone, Giuseppe Galluzzo, Kamran Malekpour, Anthony Ribeiro, Kyle Chang, Chris Brewer, Dinesh Alt, Andy Frankenberger, and Matt Glantz, who all ended the day in the top 100 bags. The third of four shots at the Main Event goes on Wednesday starting at noon, while qualifiers from 1b will join 1a and 1c qualifiers in Day 2abc on Friday.

Upcoming Events on July 5

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

• Start: 12 noon
• Late Entry: 7 Levels
• Start Stack: 60,000
• Reentries: 0

There were two first-time bracelet winners on Monday, and both of them also bagged their country’s first hardware in this series. Both the Mini Main and the PLO8 Championship go into their final days, while the iconic Main Event is now underway with almost 1,100 entries after the first starting flight. The highs and lows of the biggest game in poker continue with the second of four starting flights on Tuesday, and the entire facility is dedicated to Main Event action as Day 1b is the only tournament on the schedule for Tuesday.

Event #70: $400 COLOSSUS No-Limit Hold’em

The field in The Colossus was colossal with almost 16,000 total entries that combined for a prize pool of $6 million even, divided 1,986 ways. After three days of play, Israel scored its first bracelet of the series with the victory of Moshe Refaelowitz in The Colossus worth $501,120.

This was his biggest score by quite a bit, with his WSOP total cashes reading $570,232 after the win. His Hendon Mob page showed a total of $184,800 prior to this first bracelet win so this win makes up the bulk of his cash results at this point. However, don’t let the slim results fool you – Refaelowitz had confidence coming into the series, promising his wife he’d bring home some hardware. She was the first person he called after the win, and the Florida resident who plays under the Israeli flag dedicated the win to his partner in life.

There were quite a few solid players in this one, with names like PokerStars streamer Benjamin “Spraggy” Spragg and GGPoker streamer Kevin Martin both bagging money in this one, as did five-timer Allen Cunningham. There were a few other bracelet winners on Day 3 that missed out on the final table as well including James Dempsey, John Gorsuch, Jason Wheeler, and Ashkan Razavi.

In the final hands, it came down to heads-up between Refaelowitz and South Korean transplant Daewoong Song with the eventual winner going into heads-up with the lead. Song was able to even it up and even pull slightly ahead, but then lost a big pot on what the Israeli winner said was an all-in bluff that might have ended the game right there. Instead, Song gave it up and left himself short and after a short break, the game finished very quickly with Refaelowitz holding the bracelet.

Event #73: $2,500 Mixed Big Bet Event

Argentina joined Israel with its first bracelet of the series on Monday after Julio Belluscio took down the win worth more than $190k. He had to make it through 377 entries for his share of the $838,825 prize pool. Belluscio was the biggest share of the 57 paid spots with the earliest cashing players pocketing just over $4k for their efforts.

There were 11 bracelets at the final table, so it wasn’t like Belluscio had a free ride to the bracelet. Anthony Zinno came to the final table last in chips and couldn’t spin it up ending his day in 7th place, while Day 1 chip leader Erick Lindgren fell in 5th. Five-timer Benny Glaser made it as far as 3rd place, but couldn’t quite make it through to his sixth bracelet. Instead, it was two players both competing for their first bracelet who would meet in the endgame of this one.

Heads-up was a very quick affair, lasting just three hands before Belluscio took it down Costa Rica’s Federico Quevedo. Belluscio came to Vegas this year full of confidence, saying after the bracelet that he expected to win one this year. He credited his rail with a big assist in the win as well, acknowledging that having friends and family there to cheer him on is huge and he made a pledge – ” If I make the Main Event final table, then you will see a real rail. I will spend $100,000 to fly all my friends and family from Argentina here, and they will be making too much noise.”

Event #74: $1,000 MINI Main Event No-Limit Hold’em

After two days of play, France’s Jérémy Oleon has the most chips with almost 100 million in his bag for Day 3. That is almost 20 million ahead of Jennifer Abad in second, who bagged 80 million even. Joshua Reichard, Oliver Berens, and Bradley Gafford round out the remaining five players in this one with stacks ranging from 63.3 million down to 18.4 million.

There were 5,257 entries for the Mini Main this year, putting $4,678,730 into a prize pool that was divided 789 ways. Among the players to bag a decent cash on Day 2 of this one were Marc Halverson, Ramiro Petrone, John Reading, Kyle Chang, Tom Fuchs, Marc Macdonnell, Levi Berger, Ben Underwood, Sunny (Gurpreet) Lubana, Jason Mann, and Erwann Pecheux.

The final five players return to the felt on Tuesday at noon to finish this one out with blinds resuming from Level 42 at 1.5m/3m/3m and they’ll play down to a winner for sure.

Event #75: $10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better Championship

The field for Event #75 ended up at 247 total entries, making a prize pool of $2,297,100 with 42 players pocketing a piece of it. After two days of play, Stephen Deutsch leads the field with 2.11 million, just a hair ahead of John Holley, the only other player above 2 million to end Day 2. Hassan Kamel, Ryan Hoenig, Maxx Coleman, and Martin Zamani all bagged 1 million or more while Dzmitry Urbanovich and Chris Vitch are also lurking with top ten stacks.

Some big names hit the rail empty-handed in this one. Phil Ivey, Stephen Chidwick, Chad Eveslage, Ben Lamb, and Brian Rast all made a run but fell short of the money on Day 2. Phil Hellmuth, Dan Shak, Felipe Ramos, Daniel Negreanu, Dan Heimiller, and Day 1 chip leader Michael Banducci all managed to find some money at the end of Day 2, but no bags.

There are 19 players left in the action for what should be the final day of play on Tuesday. While there are a lot of top names in the top ten of this one, there are a few players with smaller stacks who could easily be dangerous on Day 3. Canada’s Calen McNeil won the $1,500 version of this event for his first bracelet back in 2013 and he bagged 525k at the end of Day 2. Joao Simao, Dylan Weisman, and Paul Volpe all have middling 500k+ stacks for Day 3, while Patrick “Pads” Leonard has the short stack with 170k.

Cards go in the air for what should be the final day of play at 1 pm on Tuesday with the action beginning in Level 21 and blinds of 10k/25k/25k.

Online Event #13: $5,300 No-Limit Hold’em High Roller Championship – Hybrid Event

• Entries: 304
• Prizes: $2,040,000
• Paid: 60
• 1st Place: ???
• Yuval “Larrybird84” Bronshtein Leads Final Six Players Returning for the Live Final Table on July 5

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

The WSOP is full of events, but there is only one event that is top of everyone’s mind as the series draws to a close – The Main Event. The opening flight of the biggest game in poker got underway on Monday, July 2 with all the highs and lows expected from the Big Show. Israel’s Idan the One was an example of the lows, showing just how cruel poker can be in possibly the biggest event of his career. Early on his Day 1a run, he ran kings into the aces of Ruben Correia to lose about half his stack. Not very long after that, the Israeli player woke up with kings again and the rest of his money went in, only for Correia to wake up with aces again and send him to the rail. It took a while for the young player to process the gross beat in poker’s premier showcase.

His was just one story of more than 1,000 entries on Day 1a of the iconic event. With some of the biggest prizes in the game, and serious poker prestige on the line, the Main Event is serious business for players but it’s also a chance to have some fun at the tables with peers from all over the world. Podcaster and heads-up specialist Doug Polk was in the game looking to make some serious money in a few days, but he wasn’t taking it so seriously he couldn’t enjoy an adult beverage or two during the day’s action and in the process, he bagged the day’s 4th biggest stack. Around the room, big names were showing up everywhere, including Jamie Gold who ended up seated under the banner he got for winning the biggest Main Event ever in 2006.

After the first starting flight, Israel’s Yehuda Dayan bagged the chip lead of 389k with Polk sitting in 4th at 281.9k. Canada’s Christine Do also bagged a top-ten stack on the opening day and among the other players to bag shorter stacks were Poker Hall of Famers John Hennigan and Billy Baxter, four-timer Dominik Nitsche, six-timer Shaun Deeb, poker coach Faraz Jaka, poker author Jim McManus, and high rollers David Peters, Sean Winter, and Jake Schindler.

Day 1a was just a taste of what is to come in this year’s Main Event. There are still three more flights for players to try and bag a stack, but one of the things that make the Main so iconic is that it’s a traditional freezeout format. The “one and done” format means players have but a single shot at the Big Show, and players who busted Day 1a won’t be able to take another shot in future flights. That said, there is no shortage of players in Las Vegas right now who didn’t fire on Day 1a, and the remaining flights for the Main Event are sure to be packed to the rafters. With many events this year breaking previous records for field size, there’s every chance this could be the year the 2006 record falls and there are three more shots to make it happen.

Upcoming Events on July 4

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

• Start: 12 noon
• Late Entry: 7 Levels
• Start Stack: 60,000
• Reentries: 0

Phil Hellmuth extended his lead in the bracelet race with his astonishing 17th win on WSOP felt in a marathon $10k Super Turbo Bounty. Canada and China battled for second in the national bracelet standings with China staying ahead after both countries bagged bracelets on the weekend, with Canada’s David Guay appropriately bagging his on Canada Day. Tamar Abraham took the Ladies bracelet while Jesse Lonis crushed the field in the $50k PLO and Chris Brewer took the $10k Deuce Championship. To top it off, Monday marks the opening flight of the Main Event as the series rounds the final bend into the endgame.

Event #64: $600 Deepstack Championship No-Limit Hold’em

Oh Canada, eh! It was pretty appropriate for David Guay to bag Canada’s fourth bracelet of the series on Saturday, as July 1 is Canada Day, the day when the northern nation was founded back in 1867. He made it through a big field of 4,303 to briefly tie Canada for second place in the national bracelet standings with China, but China then pulled ahead later in the weekend with their fifth, as detailed below. However, the fourth bracelet keeps Canada in sole possession of third in that race.

There was $2,194,530 to play for in this one, with the winner’s share set at $270,972, but they had to play an extra day to get to the winner. That meant this bracelet wasn’t originally supposed to be awarded on Canada Day, but rather the day before, so it makes the Canadian victory all the sweeter.

In the end, it took around 3 hours on the final day to decide the bracelet between the final three players and the eventual winner was nearly on the rail in 3rd place. He snapped off a four-bet shove from chip leader John Taylor but found himself in a gross spot with jacks into aces. The Canuck spiked his jack on the flop, however, and doubled into second place.

Three-handed play took most of the final day, with the heads-up phase lasting just a few hands after Steven Stolzenfeld ended his run in third. The final two players took a short break before heads up, then promptly finished it almost immediately upon their return to the felt. Taylor got his money in good but Guay spiked a six for a pair and held for his first bracelet. Guay now has a bit more than $1.5 million in total earnings from poker with almost $1.2 million of that from WSOP events.

Event #65: $5,000 6-Handed No-Limit Hold’em

There is a fierce battle for second place in the national bracelet standings developing between Canada and China. Within hours of David Guay bringing Canada even with China at 4, Weiran Pu upped the ante with China’s fifth, keeping the Asian powerhouse ahead of the Great White North. Pu had to best 1,199 entries in this one for his share of the $5,515,400 prize pool.

Pu’s share was almost $1 million for the win after he defeated Hungarian Norbert Szecsi heads up. Among the other players to make the final day of this one was one half of a brother act. Vitor Dzivielevski was looking to join his brother Yuri as a bracelet winner but came up short after being the first exit from the final day of play. Another notable to make the final table was Circuit ring winner Angelina Rich making her first WSOP FT and bringing her total earnings up to just shy of $900k.

This is Pu’s first bracelet and pushes his WSOP cashes to just over $1 million while his total lifetime earnings sit at almost $1.65 million. Pu said he only really started traveling for live poker this year and while he has Hendon Mob results going back as far as 2017, the bulk of his entries have happened since 2020, so Pu looks like a player on the rise.

Event #67: $1,000 LADIES No-Limit Hold’em Championship

The Ladies event was another game that took an extra day to complete but on the fourth day of play, American and Women’s Poker Association (WPA) member Tamar Abraham won nearly $200k and her first bracelet from the all-female game. She defeated a hot-running Shiina Okamoto in the heads-up phase to bag the bracelet, leaving the Japanese runner-up with $118,768.

There were 1,295 entries in this game, continuing a trend this year of record field sizes and prize pools. There was a total of $1,152,550 to play for and 195 ladies split up that money between them. There were just seven of them left on Sunday when they returned for the final day to decide the winner.

Early on, it looked like Okamoto might run away with the game. She was very aggressive on the final day, but found herself at quite a disadvantage to Abraham when they got heads-up. Abraham had about a 4:1 lead on the Japanese player, but she managed to hold on and survive for around an hour of two-handed play. She was able to double a few times to claw some back, but never managed to get closer than about 2:1 down before Abraham took it down for her first bracelet. The win marks her first win on the live felt and her biggest score by a large margin.

Event #69: $10,000 No-Limit 2-7 Lowball Draw Championship

Event #69 was yet another game with a big field that required an extra day to complete, but on the fourth day Chris Brewer was the player holding the bracelet, his second bit of WSOP hardware so far. He bagged his first bracelet earlier this series in Event #40, the $250k Super High Roller. That bracelet marked the biggest score of his career, but this one barely made the top ten. Still, the $367,599 top prize brings his lifetime earnings to almost $16 million.

There were 154 entries in this one by the time the desk closed meaning they were playing for $1,432,200 with 24 paid spots. Just three players survived that field to start the fourth day and Brewer was the meat in a sandwich between leader David “ODB” Baker and third-place Alex Livingston.

Despite being one of the best mixed game players in the world, “ODB” wouldn’t have the cards on his side for Day 4. He gave up the lead early to Brewer when he called Brewer’s shove but had to concede the pot to the ninety-seven. Just one level later, the rest of Baker’s chips were in the middle, and once again Brewer got there with an eighty-seven while Baker paired up to hit the rail.

Brewer had a decent lead on Livingston to start heads up, but the Canadian bracelet winner is no slouch when it comes to poker. They traded some early pots during heads-up, but Livingston was unable to put together a run and he had to settle for $227,193 for second place.

Event #70: $400 COLOSSUS No-Limit Hold’em – Day 2

When the dust settled on entries on Day 1b, there were nearly 16,000 total entries in the Colossus, putting more than $5 million into the prize pool. The winner of the game can expect to pocket just over half a million dollars and six players will pocket six-figure payouts at the end of this one with a total of 1,986 getting some money either late on Day 1a, or on later days.

At the end of the opening flights, there were still 1,980 players that returned to the felt for Day 2 on Sunday, but just 80 bags were collected at the end of the day. Jesse Kertland has more than 26 million in his bag for the lead, while Colin Robinson also bagged a 20+ million stack for Day 3. Among the other players to find a bag at the end of Day 2 were Francesco Micucci, who had two final table appearances in Calgary late last year, Prabakaran Sivabalasundaram (aka Praba Siva), and Ashkan Razavi while players to cash out on Sunday included Michael Bosma, GGPoker streamer Kevin Martin, Allen Cunningham, and Benjamin “Spraggy” Spragg.

The final 80 players return to the felt at 10 am on Monday to compete for the bracelet and the $501,120 top prize.

Event #71: $50,000 HIGH ROLLER Pot-Limit Omaha

There were 200 players even for the $50k PLO High Roller game, putting $9,550,000 into the pot with 30 players carving out a piece for themselves. When the final 11 players returned for Day 3, Jesse Lonis went on a tear, crushing the final day for his second bracelet. Lonis sat down for Day 3 and then proceeded to dispatch every single one of his 10 opponents on the final day for the decisive victory.

After the win, he admitted this was his first $50k event. “I can’t start better in the high rollers,” he understated. Lonis started the final day second in chips, but that didn’t last long as he dominated from the very beginning of the day. With play at the final table, he and runner-up Tyler Smith controlled more than half the chips in play, but it was really all Lonis, all the time on the final day.

It was 44 million to 16 million once Lonis dispatched the rest of the table and faced down Smith heads up. In the end, it took a bit more than half an hour for Lonis to take the final chips in play when he spiked two pair against top-top for Smith to take it all down. This was Lonis’ best cash by far and was his seventh live win recorded on Hendon Mob, bringing his total earnings to $5,366,397. This was his second bracelet after he won some online gold last year.

Event #72: $10,000 Super Turbo Bounty No-Limit Hold’em

What can you say about Phil Hellmuth? After winning his astonishing 17th bracelet very early Sunday morning, Hellmuth extended his lead over some of the best in the game. No other player in the history of the game has managed to win more than 10 bracelets, with greats Phil Ivey, Doyle Brunson, and Johnny Chan sitting on the decade, so Hellmuth’s achievement isn’t just a case of “leading the field” but instead nearly lapping some of the best in the game.

In this event, the unquestioned king of WSOP events had to make it through 642 entries for his first NLHE bracelet since 2018. In 2012 he won the WSOP-E Europe, making him the only player in history to win both versions of the Main in their career, but those two bracelets are his only NLHE hardware prior to this one since 2007. Before 2007, he was seen as a hold’em specialist, with all of his first nine bracelets coming in some form of two-card poker. However, since 2007, he’s been scoring more often in mixed games including razz and deuce.

Hellmuth won $803,818 to bring his lifetime earnings to just shy of $30 million and it ranks fifth on his list of top scores. He defeated Justin Zaki heads-up for the title, but he also had to get through Tom Kunze and Phil Ivey at the final table, as well as players like Joseph Liberta, Tom Middleton, Maxx Coleman, and Andre Akkari, to name a few. There are still a few more events left in the series, and no doubt Hellmuth already has a cap with #18 on it waiting in his bag. With bracelets in each of the last five decades and two already in the 2020s, Hellmuth shows no signs of slowing down, which is an ill omen for all the greats watching him pull away in the distance.

Event #73: $2,500 Mixed Big Bet Event

There are just 24 players left in the Big Bet Mix after two days of play, and Jon Turner is an unsurprising leader going into what should be the final day. There were 377 total entries for this one, combing for prizes of $838,825. A total of 57 players will share in the money with 57th place pocketing $4,021 late on Day 2.

The final 24 players are all guaranteed at least $5,938, but there will be a pay jump to $7,199 after the first elimination on Day 3. Two players will bag six-figure payouts, while 9 players will get five digits with 10th and 11th paying $11,398.

Turner is facing some stiff competition in the final 24. Joining him in the top ten are Erick Lindgren, Benny Glaser, and Hye Park while Jon Shoreman, Steve Zolotow, Anthony Zinno, and Bryce Yockey are among the players lurking with a smaller stack for the final day. Day 3 action goes at 2 pm on Monday and the plan is to finish the game with a winner decided.

Event #74: $1,000 MINI Main Event No-Limit Hold’em

The Mini Main saw a huge turnout of 5,257 entries before entries closed on Day 1, putting $4,678,730 into the kitty. A total of 789 players got a share of that, and more than 300 payouts were recorded before they bagged up for the night after the opening day of play.

Avneesh Munjal leads the way into Day 2 with 3,250,000 and he is the only player with 3 million or more. The rest of the top ten stacks are all in the 2 million range with Liran Betito bagging the second stack with 2.785 million. Ramiro Petrone, JJ Liu, Stephen Song, Kyle Chang, and Ben Underwood bagged stacks for Day 2 as well.

They come back to the felt at 10 am on Monday with the plan to end the night with five players remaining, so there will be a lot of poker to get through on Day 2 of this one.

Event #75: $10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better Championship

There are 247 entries in Event #75 when Day 1 closed, but entries are still open until the start of Day 2, so none of the numbers are set yet. Right now, there is about $2.3 million in prizes, but that will certainly increase before cards go in the air later today for Day 2.

Michael Banducci leads 116 players to bag chips after the opening day with the biggest of four stacks in the 300k range. Taylor Paur is another one of those 300k+ stacks while Cliff Josephy, Dylan Weisman, and Dzmitry Urbanovich are among the players looking to strike from 250k or more. Maxx Coleman, Scott Bohlman, Paul Volpe, Phillip Hui, Jared Jaffee, and Scott Baumstein are among the players lower down the list of Day 2 stacks.

The field will be set when cards go in the air at 1 pm on Monday. They’ll play ten levels on Day 2 before they bag up for what should be the final day on Tuesday.

Online Event #12: $500 No-Limit Hold’em Deepstack

• Entries: 1,754
• Prizes: $1,210,950
• Paid: 371
• 1st Place: $176,919.79
• Thomas “lultaxpayers” Hall

Upcoming Events on July 3

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

• Start: 12 noon
• Late Entry: 7 Levels
• Start Stack: 60,000
• Reentries: 0 per flight

Online Event #13: $5,300 No-Limit Hold’em High Roller Championship – Hybrid Event

• Start: 3:30 pm
• Late Entry: 5 Hours
• Start Stack: 25,000
• Reentries: 1
• Final Table: Jul 5 at Noon live in Las Vegas

There were a flurry of first-time winners on Friday with Klaus Ilk winning the Super Seniors, David Simon taking down the mixed two/four-card game, Ryan Miller taking down Bryn Kenney in the big Stud8 game, William Kopp joining his sister as a bracelet winner, and Gabriel Schroeder bagging brazil’s third in the Super Turbo Bounty. Meanwhile, the brothers’ Dzivielevski are both deep in events on Saturday and the Ladies event returns with 47 players left alive. Details on these stories and more are below in the latest recap of WSOP action.

Event #61: $1,000 SUPER SENIORS No-Limit Hold’em

It took four grueling days of poker for the oldest player field in the series to make it through to a winner, but Austria’s Klaus Ilk survived the marathon and ended up with all the chips at the end. He had to make it through 3,121 entries in another record-breaking field for his $371,603 share of the $2,777,690 in total prizes.

This was a monster cash for Ilk, with his previous best score at just $11k and lifetime earnings on Hendon Mob of around $31k. The $310k first prize in this one was basically a 10x bump on his lifetime earnings before the game and now gives him a little more than $400k in total winnings. This was Ilk’s first bracelet and only his second outright win on the felt according to Hendon.

The final day of play in this extended Super Seniors game saw 13 players return to the felt with everyone guaranteed at least $22,148. The final day lasted about 7 hours before the winner was showing off his new bracelet, and the endgame was pretty interesting. Ilk actually started the final day dead last in chips with just 8 big blinds to his name. He managed to ladder up with a few early busts and then hold on to the bottom rung until a big hand five-ways when Ilk spiked Barry for a bigger two pair and a huge pot to send Kevin Danko to the cage for fifth-place money.

That put gas in Ilk’s tank and he never looked back. At that point, Farhad Davoudzadeh was still in the lead, but that would change when he ran ace-jack into runner-up Ronald Lane’s pocket kings three-ways which gave Lane a huge lead going into heads-up play. That’s where Lane’s run would end, however, as Ilk rarely lost a pot during the heads-up phase, Ilk spiked cards when he needed to, chipping up into the lead, and the money eventually went in with Ilk on the big stack holding pocket nines on a flop that gave Lane a double-gutty draw that bricked, sending the pot, the win, and the bracelet over to Ilk.

Event #62: $1,500 Mixed No-Limit Hold’em, Pot-Limit Omaha

David Simon had to make it through 2,076 entries to take down his first bracelet in the Mixed PLO/NLH game, and in the process, he pocketed $410,659 out of the $2,771,460 total prize pool. That crushed his previous biggest score of around $18k and he noted that his friends in the poker community helped him with his confidence.

“I’ve played with a lot of people who have always been super positive with me and just been like, ‘It’s gonna happen for you at some point,'” said Simon. “I don’t know if I myself really believed that, but during this event in particular I just felt incredibly calm and locked in.”

There were just five players left in the game for the final day of play after the exits of players like Bart Lybaert, scandal-plagued Martin Kabrhel, recent winner of the Mixed O8 bracelet William Leffingwell, Pushpinder Singh, and Upeshka De Silva on the penultimate day of action. The final exit before the last day was a player that likely everyone was happy to see hitting the cage, Robert Mizrachi.

That set up a final five that started very similarly to how it ended. David Prociak and David Simon were one-two in chips going into the day, and ended up finishing two-one in the standings. The final phase started as the day had, with Prociak holding a two-to-one lead, and at one point, he was all in at risk for his final 8 million needing to hit a river to survive. The river salvation came for a double-up and Simon was able to reverse the start of day standings.

Event #63: $10,000 Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo 8 or Better Championship

There were 141 entries in the Stud8 Championship game and Ryan Miller outlasted them all to take down his first bracelet and $344,677, the biggest share of the $1,311,300 that was split 22 ways. It wasn’t an easy run for him either as the game was chock-full of top poker talent.

Miller had to face down Bryn Kenney’s bracelet and nearly $60 million in wins heads-up, but that was far from his only challenge. Among the other players on the final day were Maximilian Schindler, Andres Kron, and Chino Rheem, while Joao Vieira, Mike Matusow (who was already heads up for a stud bracelet this year and is looking for his fifth bracelet), Bruno Fitoussi, Calvin Anderson, Craig Chait, “Crazy” Mike Thorpe, Dzmitry Urbanovich, and Daniel Negreanu figured in the earlier cashing spots. And that’s just a selection of the big names that were in the hunt for this bracelet.

The final day started with six players, and action went quickly with Eddie Blumenthal exiting on the first hand while Chino Rheem quickly followed during the first level of play. Things slowed down a bit after that, with the rest of the final table taking about nine hours to finish.

The truth is, most of that time was spent heads-up between Miller and Kenney. Maximilian Schindler ended his stellar run in third just before 5 pm, and it would be after 10 pm when Miller finally held his new bracelet. Kenney came to heads-up with a two-to-one lead. Miller managed to chip into the lead, but the two then clashed with the lead moving back and forth, but Miller eventually ground the 2nd-highest earning poker player ever to the felt for his first bracelet.

Event #64: $600 Deepstack Championship No-Limit Hold’em

They couldn’t quite make it to the end on Day 3 of Event #64, so there are three players coming back to finish it out on Saturday. John Taylor leads the way with 48.225 million but David Guay is close behind with 46 million even. Steven Stolzenfeld rounds out the final-day field with 35.2 million.

There were 4.303 entries in this one which combined for prizes of $2,194,530. Most of that has already been handed out but the three payouts that remain are the only ones with six digits in them. Among the standout players on Day 3 were Jonathan Fhima (5th, $93,773), Paul Hindmarch (8th, $32,324), Cade Lautenbacher (12th, $15,827), and Erik Cajelais (19th for $10,247).

The final three players return for an unscheduled Day 4 at noon on Saturday and they’ll play to a winner for sure.

Event #65: $5,000 6-Handed No-Limit Hold’em

Just six players are left in the game now as the six-handed event goes into an unscheduled Day 4. The game started with 1,199 entries and a prize pool of $5,515,400 and as the final day dawns, Norbert Szecsi has the chip lead with 18.6 million. He leads second-place Angelina Rich, making her first WSOP final table appearance, by about 4.5 million. Weiran Pu of China is the only other player with more than 10 million to start the final day while Tyler Cornell, Vitor Dzivielevski, and Pedro Garagnani. If the name Dzivielevski sounds familiar, that’s because Vitor’s brother is Yuri Dzivielevski, who has already bagged a bracelet in 2023, and now his brother is looking to match him.

Among the big names to fall during Day 3 play were Ian Matakis, Artur Martirosian, David “Bakes” Baker, Ren Lin, Leon Sturm, and Scott Seiver. The remaining six players are all fighting for the top prize of $938,244, and they’ll be back in action looking for it starting at 4 pm Saturday afternoon.

Event #66: $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better

William Kopp bagged his first bracelet on Friday night, joining his sister, Katie Kopp, as a bracelet winner. She won last year’s Casino Employees event, and now her brother has picked up the PLO8 bracelet for a family pair. Kopp won $259,549 along with the bracelet, the biggest share of the $1,501,875 that was created from the 1,125 entries.

The third day of action started with a few big names vying for the title, including Anthony Zinno and Loni Hui. Zinno ended up bowing out in 8th, while Hui managed to ladder a short stack up to 6th place for a score of $44,391.

Kopp started heads-up play against Michael Rodrigues with the chip lead and never looked back. In a key heads-up pot, Kopp quartered Rodrigues when he hit a six high straight and the nut low and it all came to an end for Rodrigues a few hands later.

This was Kopp’s best live score by about $100k, but he had more than $1 million in wins going into this event so he’s no stranger to winning money in poker MTTs. This bracelet marks his first win in full WSOP action, but he was already the proud owner of two Circuit rings and this win marks his 49th cash in WSOP-branded events.

Event #67: $1,000 LADIES No-Limit Hold’em Championship

Mary Dvorkin from the UK is leading the final 47 ladies as they go into Day 3 of the Ladies Championship. Day 1 leader Bernice McLennan is still alive and kicking with the fifth-best stack to start Day 3 and the biggest bag with less than 1 million in it. Eunji Park, Shiina Okamoto, and Talia Fligelman round out the top-five spots between Dvorkin and McLennan.

Among the other players still fighting for the bracelet on Day 3 of this record field will be Jessica Teusl, Priti Patel, Maria Lampropulos, and Samantha Abernathy. They are all fighting for $192,167 for first place along with the bracelet and all players coming back for Day 3 will earn at least $3,860. They’ll get underway again at 10 am on Saturday and the plan is for play to continue until there are five players left in the game with the bracelet expected to be handed out on Sunday.

Event #68: $1,000 Super Turbo Bounty No-Limit Hold’em

Brazil is now tied with Canada for third place in a national bracelet count, behind China and the USA, with both countries on 3 bracelets after Gabriel Schroeder outlasted a field of 2,824 for the win in the Super Turbo Bounty. Schroeder is primarily an online player whose biggest live score previous to this was about $142k, but he also recently bagged almost $100k after fourth place in a Venetian tournament.

Schroeder got a heads-up against Joel Wertheimer after about two hours of play, and the final two players didn’t last long as the big action happened three-handed. Irish crusher Andy Black was among the nine players to return and he managed to chip up into the lead three-ways but then took a brutal beat when his dominating king lost out to Schroeder when the latter smashed his kicker and held. That left Black on fumes, and he exited in third shortly after, before immediately rushing over to enter the Colossus.

Heads up lasted for only a few hands as Schroeder never gave up the lead he picked up from Black. Immediately after the win, Schroeder’s first response was to kiss a picture of his wife and daughter, who are scheduled to join him in Vegas next week.

Event #69: $10,000 No-Limit 2-7 Lowball Draw Championship

There were 154 entries for the Deuce Championship before the cards got in the air on Day 2 and there are now just 18 players left vying for the bracelet in the game many consider the purest form of poker. Leading the way into the second day of play is Yuri Dzivielevski, who is half of a brother act here at WSOP this year as his brother Vitor is currently deep in Event #65.

Brother Yuri is the one leading #69 though, with 1.288 million in his bag after two days of play. He leads two other players, Young Ko and Alex Livingston, with more than 1 million to start day 3. Ryan Riess, James Chen, Daniel Negreanu, Christopher Vitch, Eli Elezra, Galen Hall, and Brad Ruben round out the top 10 of this stellar field that also includes the winner of the $1,500 version of this event, Jason Mercier, as well as Chris Brewer, Matt Vengrin, John Monnette, and David “ODB” Baker to name but a few and essentially every name still on the list has a long resume of poker success and could easily emerge the winner of this game.

Day 3 is expected to be the final day of play, and with just 18 players returning, that seems like a decent bet. But given the way previous events have gone, don’t be surprised to see a few of these players coming back for the endgame on Sunday.

Event #70: $400 COLOSSUS No-Limit Hold’em – Flight A

The opening flight of the Colossus certainly lived up to its name with 7,705 entries for the first flight, and just 965 of those entries left alive at the end of the day. Chengtzu Lai bagged the big stack for Day 1a with just under 1.5 million but there are 15 players with 1 million or more after the opening day.

While the total prizes are still yet to be determined for this one, some players will still be getting paid on Day 1 flights. Small min-cashes will be handed out at the end of both starting flights, while the bulk of the prizes will move forward to the final phase. When the game is over, cashers from both starting days, as well as the rest of the game, will be combined for a final results sheet.

Among the players to catch a Day 1a cash was Marle Spragg, who was in this one with her husband Benjamin “Spraggy” Spragg. Spraggy managed to find a bag with just over 600k in it at the end of the night, so he’ll be moving on, while Mrs. Spragg can take another shot in Saturday’s Day 1b.

Event #71: $50,000 HIGH ROLLER Pot-Limit Omaha

There were 167 entries on Day 1 of the PLO High Roller and that puts nearly $8 million into the prize pool so far. Neither of those numbers is final however as entries remain open into Day 2 for this one. Alex Foxen bagged the biggest stack after Day 1, and it was a monster compared to the rest of the field. Foxen’s bag swelled to 2.868 million, while second-place Krasimir Yankov has just 1.786 million. Jesse Lonis, Jeremy Ausmus, Adam Hendrix, and Michael Moncek are among the other top-ten stacks after the opening day.

Robert Cowen, the defending champ of this event, also bagged a top-ten stack, though just barely while Dylan Weisman and Shaun Deeb are also still in the hunt. The final numbers for this one will be set when the cards go in the air for Day 2 at 1 pm on Saturday.

Upcoming Events on July 1

Event #70: $400 COLOSSUS No-Limit Hold’em – Flight B

• Start: 10 am
• Late Entry: 12 Levels
• Start Stack: 40,000
• Reentries: 1 per flight

Event #72: $10,000 Super Turbo Bounty No-Limit Hold’em

• Start: 12 noon
• Late Entry: 8 Levels
• Start Stack: 60,000
• Reentries: 0

Event #73: $2,500 Mixed Big Bet Event

• Start: 2 pm
• Late Entry: 8 Levels
• Start Stack: 35,000
• Reentries: 2

Jason Mercier bagged his first big result of the series, and it was his sixth bracelet in the $1,500 Single Draw after defeating Canada’s Mike Watson heads-up for the second time in a big deuce bracelet event. They are down to 13 left in the Super Seniors, while the Ladies Event saw a record turnout with Canada’s Bernice McLennan leading after the opening day. Those stories and the rest of the action from Thursday at WSOP is below.

Event #60: $1,500 No-Limit 2-7 Lowball Draw

Single-draw deuce is considered by many players as poker in its purest form as players get no board information and have to rely entirely on draw patterns and physical reads for information on their opponent’s strength. And when the endgame of this one played out, it involved some of the best players ever to sit down with a stack of chips.

There were 548 entries to this massive turnout meaning they were playing for a total of $731,580. That was divided 83 ways with the earliest paid exits pocketing $2,404 and $151,276 up top for the winner. There were quite a few big names in this one, and among the notables to pocket some money before the final day were Barry Greenstein, Benny Glaser, Robert Patterson, Scott Bohlman, Alex Epstein, Daniel Tafur, Brian Hastings, Ryan Depaulo, Taylor Paur, Koray Aldemir, Jon Shoreman, Phil Hellmuth, Matt Vengrin, Robert Campbell, Maria Ho, and Ryan Moriarty who was recently runner-up in the mixed triple-draw game.

The final day of this one was a star-studded affair, so much so that rather than finishing the game out on Day 3 as was originally planned, once organizers saw the final field they decided to bag it up to return for a streamed final table. There were 18 bracelets seated in the final five players, though to be fair, Eric Seidel had 9 of them on his own. Jason Mercier was on five going into the final table, while Brad Ruben had four. And while neither Jon Turner nor Mike Watson have won a bracelet yet, a fairly incredible fact in the case of both of them, they would be routinely mentioned in the “Best without a bracelet” discussion, especially in a mixed game like deuce.

Seiel was the first to fall from the final five, earning just over $31k but falling short of bagging #10. Jon Turner and Brad Ruben followed afterward, setting up a reboot of the 2016 $10k Single Draw bracelet game where the same two players battled heads-up for the bracelet. After the game where Mercier bested Watson for the fourth time in late-stage play, the winner noted that he seems to have a good record against the Canadian. “I’ve been three-handed with him four separate times in major events and I’ve won all four. So he’s gotten second twice and third twice. But in particular, we played heads up for the no-limit deuce bracelet in the $10K in 2016. So it was definitely a bit of déja vu.”

Mercier hardly needs a bio as he has been one of the hottest players in the last decade and a half since crushing his first EPT title in 2008 with a sick hero call. He now has more than $20.7 million in wins on poker tables of all kinds with $5,469,749 of that coming from tables emblazoned with WSOP logos. This was his sixth bracelet is what looks to be his first major result from this year’s events, and given past indications, it’s very likely this isn’t the last we’ll hear from Mercier in this series.

Event #61: $1,000 SUPER SENIORS No-Limit Hold’em

There are just 13 players left in the Super Seniors game now after three days of play. It was another record field for this one, continuing the trend this year of both year-over-year increases and outright record field sizes. With 3,121 entries, they were playing for a total of $2,777,690 with 469 players getting some piece of that.

With just 13 players left, most of the paid spots have already been claimed, with late Day 3 exits including Elizabeth Bennett-Martin (who bubbled the final day), Kevin Durgin, David Icke, Jeanclaude Perrot, Dennis Underwood, and Jeffrey Mermelstein. Rassoul Malboubi is king of the hill going into the final day of play as the only player with more than 10 million. Farhad Davoudzadeh bagged up exactly 9 million for second while Ronald Lane and Arnon Graham each bagged slightly more than 6 million for Day 4.

The Super Seniors have an early-bird start time at 10 am on Friday for the final day and they’ll play to a winner for sure. Play resumes in Level 31 with blinds at 100k/200k/200k.

Event #62: $1,500 Mixed No-Limit Hold’em, Pot-Limit Omaha

There are just five players left in the Mixed NLHE/PLO action after three days at the felt. David Prociak has a huge chip lead going into the final day with almost 21.5 million while the next biggest stack, belonging to David Simon has just shy of 12 million in it. Eric Pfenning, Tsuf Saltsberg, and Eran Carmi (who bagged the chip lead to start Day 3) round out the final five players.

One player that everyone returning is likely glad not to see on the final day was Robert Mizrachi. He’s been deep in a few games this year, sniffing at his fifth bracelet, and is one of the names players don’t want to see in their seat draw even when he’s not on a hot streak. No doubt all five of the players coming back for Day 4 were happy to see the elder Mizrachi brother bubble the final day of play. Among the other notables that came close to the final day were Upeshka De Silva, Pushpinder Singh, and recent Mixed Omaha winner William Leffingwell.

The final day of play kicks off at 4 pm and PokerGO will be streaming the endgame action live on delay with hole cards exposed. All the remaining players are guaranteed six-figure payouts with the earliest exit on Day 4 expecting to pocket $102,173.

Event #63: $10,000 Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo 8 or Better Championship

There are just six players still vying for the $10k Stud Championship bracelet after three days of play. A total of 141 entries combined for prizes of more than $1.3 million with 22 players pocketing a piece of it. Ryan Miller has the biggest bag going into Day 4 on Friday with 2.23 million, but Bryn Kenney (who is one of a few players in action at this series who have had recent cheating allegations involving ghosting leveled against them) also bagged more than 2 million for second place. Maximilian Schindler, Andres Korn, David “Chino” Rheem, and Eddie Blumenthal round out the top six players in this one.

Among the players who came close to the final day but fell short was Mike Matusow, who finished 9th for $28,797. Matusow was heads-up for his first bracelet in a decade in the $1,500 Stud8 game earlier in the week and has now added another deep stud run to his resume, hinting that he could still have that fifth bracelet in him for this year. Also falling before the final day were Joao Vieira, Bruno Fitoussi, Calvin Anderson, Craig Chait, and “Crazy” Mike Thorpe.

The final six players in action will play down to a winner on Day 4.

Event #64: $600 Deepstack Championship No-Limit Hold’em

There are 44 players still alive in the $600 Deepstack Championship out of the 4,303 original entries. They returned to action in the money with some of the earliest min-cashes paying out at the end of Day 1. Cade Lautenbacher leads the way into Day 3 as the only player with more than 7 million in a bag and Jonathan Fhima is second as the only player in the 6 million range. Four players bagged in the 5 million range while the remaining players in the top ten all bagged between 4 and 5 million.

Kristen Deardorff (427th for $1,200), Conrad Simpson (398th for $1,200), Martin Zamani (336th for $1,299), Matt Affleck (293rd for $1,418), and Daniel Sepiol (112th for $2,217) were among the players to cash out on Day 2 while Erik Cajelais, David Guay, and Sacha Choen were among the players to find final day bags.

Day 4 action gets going at 10 am on Friday, and the expectation is to play down to five players before they end the day and return to finish out the game on July 1.

Event #65: $5,000 6-Handed No-Limit Hold’em

When entries closed on Day 2 of this one, they ended with 1,199 total for a prize pool of $5,515,400 Those prizes were split 180 ways, and among the players to cash out early in this one were Eric Wasserson, Andrew Kelsall, Ryan Laplante, Taylor Paur, Alejandro “Papo MC” Lococo, Stephen Song, Santiago Plante, Jeff Platt, James Obst, Jack Hardcastle, Eliot Hudon, Punnat Punsri, Kenny Hallaert, Tom Middleton, and Matt Berkey.

Vitor Dzivielevski of Brazil is the chip leader going into Day 3, and fellow Brazilian Pedro Garagnani is the only other player with more than 3 million. Cody Jones and Chuanshu Chen both bagged more than 2.5 million for 3rd and 4th respectively. Danny Tang also bagged a top ten stack, while Leon Sturm, Nozomu Shimizu, Ian Matakis, Martin Finger, Fabrice Bigot, Kyle Julius, Scott Seiver, and David “Bakes” Baker are all among the Day 3 bags.

Day 3 action kicks off at 1 pm on Friday, and they’ll play as far as the final table on Day 3 with the final day of action and the bracelet expected to be on July 1.

Event #66: $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better

William Kopp bagged up the chip lead at the end of two days of play in Event #66, and in part it was on the back of a bit of a controversial floor call. Kopp was heads up on the river against Mike Linster with Kopp holding the yacht against the smaller boat for Linster. Linster was facing a pot bet of 845k and he slid out a stack worth two million before verbally announcing call. As the stack was big enough to be deemed a raise, and the verbal declaration came late, the floor was called for a ruling with the final decision being call rather than raise. While that decision may have cost Kopp a few extra chips in that specific hand, he still ended as the massive leader with 7.5 million, more than 4 million ahead of second-place Michael Rodrigues.

For his part, the other half of the controversial hand bagged up a fourth-place stack of 3.1 million just behind John Goyette at 3.41 million. Yuval Bronshtein, Loni Hui (nee Harwood), and Anthony Zinno also bagged top ten stacks while Robert Campbell, Connor Drinan, and start-of-day leader Nick Guagenti were among the players to pocket cash.

There are 12 players returning to the action for Day 3 at 1 pm Friday, and they expect to award the bracelet when play stops.

Event #67: $1,000 LADIES No-Limit Hold’em Championship

The record-breaking fields continued in the Ladies Event as 1,295 entries swelled the prize pool to $1,152,550 and after the first day of play Canada’s Bernice McLennan has the chip lead with 276.5k. Katrina Lim, Talia Fligelman, Sharon Liss, and Tia Dulaney round out the top five counts for Day 2 play.

There are 331 ladies returning to the felt on Friday with only 195 of them expected to get paid when they leave. Among the notables McLennan will have to contend with on Day 2 are Veronica “Angry_Polak” Brill, Samantha Abernathy, Vanessa Kade, Kimberly Mcclymont, Maria Lampropulos, and Cindy Kerslake, all of whom have top 100 stacks and could easily be dangerous on Day 2.

The second day in the Ladies event gets going at 10 am on Friday with 10 levels on the schedule before they bag for the final day. It’s likely they’ll take a bit of time to play into the money spots today, but they’ll likely get there a few levels into Day 2 play.

Event #68: $1,000 Super Turbo Bounty No-Limit Hold’em

This was supposed to be a one-day event, but another huge field meant that they couldn’t quite make it in a single day. There were 2,842 entries putting more than $2.5 million into the prize pool. A total of 424 players got a piece of that and there are just 9 spots still unspoken for. The player with the best shot at the top prize of $228,632 and the bracelet going in is Gabriel Schroeder from Brazil with 13.675 million. Jordan Jayne is the only other eight-figure stack with 12.1 million, but Irish great Andy Black, who was fifth in the Main Event in 2005, is lurking near the bottom of the list and is always dangerous with chips.

The final 9 players will be back in action at 2 pm at the Horseshoe feature table and they’ll decide a winner for sure. With 20-minute levels and a big stack of just 34 big blinds to start the day, expect this Day 2 to live up to the Super Turbo name.

Event #69: $10,000 No-Limit 2-7 Lowball Draw Championship

There were 126 entries at the end of the opening day in Event #69 but as with all Championship events, entries are still open for this one. The final field will be set when cards go in the air for Day 2, but right now there is already $1,171,800 in the prize pool. A total of 54 players bagged a stack at the end of the day, and the biggest of them belonged to Michael Moncek who bagged 542k, more than 150k above the second-place stack of Galen Hall. Jon Turner, Ryan Reiss, Jason Mercier (fresh off his $1,500 win in this discipline), and Paul Volpeare also among the top ten stacks in another star-studded field.

Day 2 of this Championship game kicks off at 1 pm on Friday, and the prize pool will be set when play begins. No doubt a few more crushers will add their names to the list vying for the Championship bracelet in a game many consider the purest form of poker.

Upcoming Events on June 30

Event #70: $400 COLOSSUS No-Limit Hold’em – Flight A

• Start: 10 am
• Late Entry: 12 Levels
• Start Stack: 40,000
• Reentries: 1 per flight

Event #71: $50,000 HIGH ROLLER Pot-Limit Omaha

• Start: 2 pm
• Late Entry: Start of Day 2
• Start Stack: 300,000
• Reentries: 2

The Millionaire Maker made two millionaires with Pavel Plesuv the biggest winner. That was Plesuv’s first bracelet and he joined two other first-timers on Wednesday with hardware after Ka Kwan Lau bagged the PLO High Roller bracelet and Robert Schulz took down the $3k Freezeout game. There is a deeply sick final table on deck Thursday in the $1,500 Single Draw Deuce game as Brad Ruben leads a stellar final five, the Super Seniors get into Day 2 action, and the Ladies Championship kicks off Day 1 on Thursday.

Event #53: $1,500 MILLIONAIRE MAKER No-Limit Hold’em

The Millionaire Maker is now in the books, and in the end, they not only made one millionaire, they made two. Pavel Plesuv from Moldova was the big winner, taking down the top prize of $1,201,564 and his first bracelet, but Florian Ribouchon also bagged a million with his second-place score of $1,003,554.

This was a massive field of nearly 10,500 entries over two starting days, which put $13,905,360 into the prize pool to be split up 1,563 ways. The earliest players to bust pocketed $2,400 while the top 11 players all got at least six-figure payouts when the game ended for them.

This was Plesuv’s biggest score to date and his first bracelet, but he’s no stranger to earning money at the poker table. This win pushed his WSOP earnings to about $2.2 million while his Hendon Mob results show a total of $7.2 million won now. His previous biggest score was a partypoker LIVE runner-up finish in 2018 that netted him about $925k while this win marks his sixth time amassing all the chips in a tournament.

Event #57: $25,000 High Roller Pot-Limit Omaha

The record-setting field of 449 entries in the PLO High Roller game created the biggest live PLO MTT prize pool in WSOP history of more than $10.5 million. A total of 68 players got a piece of those prizes and Gergo Nagy was the first player to walk out with cash to the tune of $40,179. Among the other players to cash out before the final day were Isaac Kempton, Kane Kalas, Sean Winter, Sam Soverel, Paul Volpe, Josh Arieh, Joao Vieira, Dylan Smith, Ben Lamb, Chad Eveslage, Isaac Haxton, Dylan Weisman, Chance Kornuth, and Jeremy Ausmus.

For his part, Weisman’s day ended on one of the biggest pots of the tournament to that point when the money went in on the turn with Weisman holding a straight with redraws to a boat against Sergio Martinez Gonzalez with a spade draw. The clean spade hit the river to send Weisman to the cage, and after the beat, he took to Twitter to discuss the final hand and the toll high-stakes poker takes.

Took the worst beat of my career to be out in 10th. Not gonna lie I’ve never been in this much pain from poker before. These high stakes tournaments are so intense in the body. Gonna take a few days off and get myself in a good place for the $50k

— Dylan Weisman (@Dweisman13) June 28, 2023

Five players returned for the final day of play, and Lau was the biggest of the bunch by quite a margin. He was playing more than 10 million more than the second-place stack of Sergio Martinez Gonzalez going into the final day, and he held that lead for the win. While this was Lau’s first bracelet, he was one spot away from the same bracelet in 2021. The win brings his WSOP earnings to almost $3.8 million with his Hendon earnings sitting just a hair under $5 million.

Event #59: $3,000 Freezeout No-Limit Hold’em

Robert Schulz was the last player with chips in Event #59, taking down his first bracelet for a prize of $675,275. He had to make his way through 1,598 entries to win the biggest share of the $4,266,660 prize pool, and he shared those prizes with 239 other players.

Schulz came into the final day of play seventh in chips, but over the seven-hour final day he managed to chip back up to the win after taking down Julien Sitbon heads up. Sitbon, for his part, bagged his sixth cash so far this series and second final table after a fifth-place finish in Event #32. Among the other players who stood between Schulz and the bracelet on the final day were Dario Sammartino, James Mendoza, and Barak Wisbrod.

This was Schulz’ biggest win by quite a margin and brought his lifetime Hendon Mob earnings to just over $1.75 million while about $1.1 million of that has come from WSOP events. Schulz came close to his first bracelet in 2018 at the European Series when he bagged second place in a 6-handed deepstack event.

Event #60: $1,500 No-Limit 2-7 Lowball Draw

They are down to the final five players in the single-draw deuce game now, considered by many to be the purest form of poker. Four-time bracelet winner Brad Ruben is leading the final five by more than 1 million going into the final day of play, but OG GOAT Erik Seidel is sniffing at his heels in second place. Jason Mercier, who is making his first appearance in the results so far this year, bagged the 3rd place stack for Day 4. With Canada’s Mike Watson and Jon Turner from the US rounding out the final five players, it’s a star-studded field of some serious poker talent.

They were actually supposed to award a bracelet on Wednesday in this one, by the schedule. But once the depth of the final five in this field was recognized, they elected to call the game with five remaining and bring them back Thursday for a streamed final table on PokerGO. This could easily be one of the best final tables of the whole series, and it kicks off at noon on Thursday. Ruben has the advantage going into the final day, but he can’t feel comfortable looking down at the names farther down the list – this is going to be a great one!

Event #61: $1,000 SUPER SENIORS No-Limit Hold’em

There are 109 players returning for Day 3 action in the Super Seniors game, and the starting field was pretty stellar. The year of the records continued in this one with 3,122 total entries for a whopping prize pool of $2,777,690. Last year, this event saw 2,669, putting the year-over-year increase at about 17%.

There were 468 paid spots in this one with the earliest cashing exits pocketing $1,600 for their troubles. There were 810 players that returned for Day 2, so almost half of them were scheduled to go home empty-handed. It took about three levels of poker on Day 2 to make it into the money. The brisk pace continued and after 10 levels of play there were just 109 players left vying for the bracelet. Massoud Eskandari, Kevin Song, Jeffrey Mermelstein, David Icke, and Martin Kohler are all among the players still in the bracelet hunt.

Day 3 action gets going at 10 am and, once again, there are 10 levels on the schedule for Thursday.

Event #62: $1,500 Mixed No-Limit Hold’em, Pot-Limit Omaha

There are a few names in poker – Deeb, Mercier, Lamb, Seidel, almost anyone named Phil – that most players dread seeing in their table draw or the chip leaders’ table in a tournament they are playing. The name Mizrachi is likely high on that list as well, but that’s the situation players in Event #62 face going into Day 3. While Robert Mizrachi isn’t the leader after two days, he is sitting sixth in chips with a dangerous stack of 3.1 million.

Eran Carmi is the leader going into the third day with 4.255 million but among the players they’ll have to face down are Upeshka De Silva, Bart Lybaert, Guofeng Wang, and Eric Pfenning, in addition to Mizrachi. All those players are coming to Day 3 with top-ten stacks, and only Pfenning has less than 3 million. Rounding out the field farther down the list are players like Barny Boatman, Shaun Deeb, Jared Jaffee, and Brandon Shack-Harris. We can only assume this is the real Boatman in this one – there’s been some confusion recently after Patrick “Pads” Leonard trolled the OG Hendon Mob co-founder by using his name in recent a tournament.

Dear @Pokernews that puckish little prankster @padspoker has been giving my name to your reports again. I know we both have ginger beards but we’re otherwise quite different. For reference, that’s me on the left. pic.twitter.com/eHlYvLhZYf

— Barny Boatman (@barnyboatman) June 27, 2023

Day 3 gets underway at 1 pm with the plan being to play down to a winner, and one of the other players that will be in the mix is the controversial Martin Kabrhel. Kabrhel was accused of cheating in the recent Super High Roller and his attempts to clear his name since have been met with some skepticism, but he’s still in the action and will be playing just over a million on Day 3.

Event #63: $10,000 Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo 8 or Better Championship

With entries open in Championship events until the start of Day 2, the numbers for this game were set at 141 entries when cards went in the air. That put $1,311,300 into the prize pool and 22 players are expected to pocket a piece of that before the end of their tournament.

Some of those payouts have already been spoken for with just 17 players returning to the felt for Thursday’s Day 3. Matt Grapenthien scored the $16k min-cash and Chad Eveslage, who has won two Dealers Choice bracelets this year, took the other $16k score while Mark Gregorich, Dylan Linde, and Brian Hastings all made $17,500 before the end of Day 2.

Maximilian Schindler is the chip leader for what should be the final day of play. He is the only player who bagged more than 1 million after Day 2 with Andres Korn bagging 926k for second. Joao Vieira, Bryn Kenney, Craig Chait, Bruno Fitoussi, and Dan Coploys are among the big names returning for Day 3. The final day kicks off at 2 pm.

Event #64: $600 Deepstack Championship No-Limit Hold’em

There were 4,303 entries recorded for Event #64 before registration closed on Day 1. Interestingly, that was exactly the same field size as the Salute to Warriors game got, but the slightly higher buy-in for this one meant the prizes were slightly higher at $2,194,530. A total of 645 players shared in that prize pool, and some of the money has already been awarded before Day 1 bagged up for the night.

There are just 543 players left in the game now with all returning players guaranteed at least $960 and the first pay jump just five spots away at 538th. Steven Stolzenfeld and Adel Kabbani bagged the top two stacks after Day 1 and they are the only players with a million or more in their bags. Jaime Kaplan and Milan Timko both have 900k or more while Neel Joshi rounds out the top five with 843k.

Matt Affleck, Martin Zamani, Aram Oganyan, Kyna England, and Kathy Leibert are among the other players to make it through the opening day with chips, and they’ll all come back for another 10 levels of play on Thursday starting at 10 am.

Event #65: $5,000 6-Handed No-Limit Hold’em

There were 1,097 entries on Day 1 of Event #65, putting $5,046,200 into the prize pool for the moment. However, entries are still open into Day 2 of this one so those numbers are certain to rise before the final tally is set.

There were 381 players still alive at the end of the first day and Bulgaria’s Yuliyan Kolev leads with the only 500k+ stack in the game so far. Ting Yi Tsai and Punnat Punsri are playing stacks in the 400k range while Matt Berkey and Ren Lin round out the top five with bags bigger than 350k. Among the other players to bag a stack after Day 1 was Vanessa Selbst who tops the list of female poker winners with close to $12 million in live tournament earnings, nearly double Kathy Leibert’s second-place total.

The field will solidify today after the Day 2 action kicks off at noon, and there are ten more levels of poker on the schedule for Day 2.

Event #66: $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better

Nick Guagenti is the top dog after the first day of play in Event #66. There were 1,125 entries for this one, putting the prizes at just over $1.5 million. Exactly one of the 169 paid spots was spoken for before they bagged at the end of Day 1 with Louis Werman picking up the min-cash at the end of the night.

The remaining 168 players are all guaranteed at least $2,409 now as they return for 10 more levels of poker on Day 2. There are some big names still alive in this one including 2019 PoY winner Robert Campbell and Amon Filippi in the top ten stacks. JJ Liu, James Chen, Erick Lindgren, and Anthony Zinno were among the other players still alive in the money.

Day 2 kicks off at 1 pm on Thursday with the action starting in Level 16 and 3k/6k/6k blinds.

Upcoming Events on June 29

Event #67: $1,000 LADIES No-Limit Hold’em Championship

• Start: 10 am
• Late Entry: 8 Levels
• Start Stack: 20,000
• Reentries: 1
• Event Entry is $10K Ladies Discounted Price is $1K

Event #68: $1,000 Super Turbo Bounty No-Limit Hold’em

• Start: 12 noon
• Late Entry: 12 Levels
• Start Stack: 20,000
• Reentries: 0

Event #69: $10,000 No-Limit 2-7 Lowball Draw Championship 8 or Better

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

The Salute to Warriors game raised more than $200k for veterans with Steven Genovese winning his first bracelet. Jason Daly got his first bracelet in the 6-handed limit game while records were crushed in the Super Seniors field and a stellar field is amassing in the Stud8 Championship game with play going into Day 2.

Event #53: $1,500 MILLIONAIRE MAKER No-Limit Hold’em

After four days of play in the Millionaire Maker, Moldovan Pavel Plesuv leads the way into the final seven players in the game. There were 10,430 entries to start this game over two starting days that combined for a prize pool of $13,905,360. Plesuv bagged up more than 70 million at the end of Day 4, nearly 25 million more than second-place Florian Ribouchon, and one other player, Myles Mullaly, has more than 40 million.

The remaining seven players are all guaranteed at least $222,749, but two of the players from Day 5 will walk away with seven-figure payouts as both first and second place are worth more than a million. Plesuv is looking for his first bracelet in this one, and with such a big lead, it seems likely he could get there today.

The final day of play is expected to be streamed on PokerGO with live action kicking off at 1 pm and the stream picking up the action on a 30-minute delay starting at 1:30.

Event #56: $500 SALUTE to Warriors – No-Limit Hold’em

Steven Genovese was the last player standing in the Salute to Warriors game, bagging his first bracelet and $217,921 in the process. He bested the starting field of 4,303 for the biggest share of the $1,936,350 prize pool. He defeated Canadian Kelly Gall heads up for the title after some pretty quick action throughout the game.

Day 1 ended less than 20 off the 646 paid spots, and it blistered through the money bubble and raced down to the final 14 players before the second day ended. The final day took less than 6 hours to decide a winner from the final 14 players but heads up lasted for barely two hands.

With play still three-handed, there was a massive all-in that involved all three players and all the chips. Genovese found himself in a dream spot holding pocket queens after a raise from third-place William Butcher and a shove from runner-up Kelly Gall. Genovese called to set up a huge confrontation where his queens were looking to hold against ace-king for Butcher and ace-ten for Gall.

Hold they did, and Butcher was sent to the rail in third place while Gall was left on fumes with around three bigs to work with. That lasted for just a couple of hands after Gall was able to double back once, but couldn’t climb the steep hill. Genovese has been playing poker for many decades since he was a teenager, and he was emotional about the win. When asked what it means to him, his response was simple – “Everything”.

In addition to making Genovese’s poker dreams come true, the tournament raised more than $200k for veterans, so no matter how you slice this pie, it was a good few days.

Event #57: $25,000 High Roller Pot-Limit Omaha

With 449 entries, this $25k PLO High Roller has set a record for the biggest live PLO MTT prize pool in WSOP history with $10,551,500 in total prizes. A total of 68 players got a piece of those prizes and Gergo Nagy was the first player to walk out with cash to the tune of $40,179. Among the other players to cash out so far in this one are Isaac Kempton, Kane Kalas, Sean Winter, Sam Soverel, Paul Volpe, Josh Arieh, Joao Vieira, Dylan Smith, Ben Lamb, Chad Eveslage, Isaac Haxton, Dylan Weisman, Chance Kornuth, and Jeremy Ausmus.

With five players returning to the felt for Wednesday’s final day, it is Ka Kwan Lau that leads the way with 28.2 million. He has more than 10 million more than second-place Sergio Martinez Gonzalez while Mads Amot, Roger Teska, and Andjelko Andrejevic round out the final five players. The record-breaking prize pool in this one means that the winner of the game today will pocket $2,294,756, while second place can expect $1,418,270 and everyone who returns for the final day is guaranteed at least $505,588.

The final day of play resumes at 4 pm on Wednesday and they’ll play down to a winner for sure. PokerGO will have cards-up coverage of the event starting at 5 pm on delay for fans of nosebleed PLO tournament action.

Event #58: $3,000 6-Handed Limit Hold’em

Jason Daly was the last player standing out of a starting field of 263 entries in this one. That put the prize pool at $702,210 with $165,250 reserved for the winner and 40 players sharing a piece of it. Daly came back to face 17 challengers on the final day of play and among them were recent bracelet winner Nick Pupillo, mixed game beasts David Bach and Tom Koral, Dan Shak, Daniel Idema (who was runner-up in the $10 Limit Hold’em Championship earlier in the series) and former Main Event winner Joe McKeehan.

Daly was the chip leader to start the final day of play, and he basically went wire-to-wire to take down his first bracelet, but this wasn’t his first close call. Last year, he was third in the $1,500 HORSE and earlier this year he booked a ninth-place finish in the O8 Championship and he had another deep run in Mixed Triple Draw Lowball in 2021, so it’s clear Daly knows how to manage games other than no limit hold’em.

The win pushed him to more than $400k in WSOP earnings and his Hendon Mob earnings to more than $900k.

Event #59: $3,000 Freezeout No-Limit Hold’em

There are still 18 players left in contention in Event #59 with play entering the third day. A total of 240 players came back for Day 2, which was exactly the number of players that got paid from the starting field of 1,598. That field put the total prizes at $4,266,660 with $675,275 reserved for the winner.

Barak Wisbrod is leading the pack for Day 3 play with 6.4 million, almost a million ahead of Ilija Savevski’s second-place stack. Canada’s Frédéric Normand, who has had a couple of deep runs already this series, also bagged a top-five stack for the final day. Jesse Lonis and Julien Sitbon are among the other players to bag in the top ten while Dario Sammartino and James Mendoza will bring smaller stacks to Day 3.

The returning players are all guaranteed $28,739 now but the top six finishers will all get six-figure payouts, so there is still a lot of money left to be won in this one. Action from what should be the final day of play starts at noon on Wednesday with play in level 28 and blinds at 60,000/120,000/120,000.

Event #60: $1,500 No-Limit 2-7 Lowball Draw

No limit Deace to Seven Single Draw is considered by many to be the purest form of poker, and some lowball GOATs came out to play in Event #60. The huge field of 548 entries combined for $731,580, and Ryan Moriarty is sitting pretty to take the $151,276 winner’s share after two days of play. He was the only player who bagged up seven figures at the end of the day, though second-place Nick Guagenti came very close with 990k.

Moriarty is showing his lowball chops recently, coming second to Nick Pupillo in the recent Mixed Triple Draw Lowball game, and it appears he’s just as familiar with the single draw variety of deuce as he apparently is with triple. That said, he has some serious contenders facing hin down for the bracelet on Wednesday, not least of whom is Erik Seidel, the nine-time bracelet winner who already has two no-limit deuce bracelets in his collection.

Joining Seidel with their sights set on Moriarty’s stack are five-time winner Adam Friedman, former PoY Champion Robert Campbell, Chad Himmelspach, Maria Ho, Jason Mercier, Brad Ruben, Matt Vengrin, and Mike Watson. Action for Day 3 will get going at 1 pm and they expect to play down from the 24 returning players to a winner before they end the day.

Event #61: $1,000 SUPER SENIORS No-Limit Hold’em

It seems to be the year of the records so far in 2023 with the Super Seniors, reserved for players 60 years of age or older, blowing past 3,000 entries for a record 3,122 and a prize pool worth $2,777,690. That means the winner of this game will have an extra $371,603 in their pockets after play is complete, and 469 of the Super Seniors will end up with some sort of cash in hand when they leave.

After the opening day, there are still 808 players remaining in the game, quite a ways from the money spots. Kevin Durgin leads the way into Day 2, but he’ll need to navigate through almost 400 players before they are even in the money, so there’s still a lot of poker to be played in this one. Among the other players with stacks for Day 2 are Michael Thorpe, Farzad Bonyadi, Raymond Dube, Daniel Orr, Barbara Enright, Humberto Brenes, and runner-up in the Seniors event, Billy Baxter. Dan Heimiller, third in the recent Seniors event, tried but failed to bag.

They return to the felt for ten more levels of poker starting at 10 am Wednesday, and no doubt the money bubble will burst at some point on Day 2, but with more than 800 players returning and just 469 cashing spots, don’t expect them to get there quickly.

Event #62: $1,500 Mixed No-Limit Hold’em, Pot-Limit Omaha

It was another record field in Event #62 with more than 2,000 entries. With the previous record at 1,234, that didn’t just set a new record, but obliterated the old one. There will be 312 players sharing in the $2,771,460, and some of those early payouts have already been awarded as there are 259 players returning to action on Wednesday’s Day 2.

Justin Jones bagged the big stack after one day of play as one of two players in the 700k range. Philip Wiszowaty joins him in that range, while the next biggest stack is Eric Pfenning’s 585k. David Prociak and Bart Lybaert also bagged top ten stacks in this one while Motoyoshi Okamura, Jay Harwood, Christian Harder, Dan Heimiller, and Brandon Shack-Harris are among the top 40 stacks for Day 2.

Cards go in the air for Day 2 of this one at 1 pm on Wednesday, and while all the returning players are guaranteed at least $2,628, they will all be salivating over the $410,659 up top.

Event #63: $10,000 Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo 8 or Better Championship

There were 123 entries on the opening day of the Stud8 Championship, but that number isn’t fixed yet as Championship events remain open until the start of Day 2. A total of 57 players bagged a stack after one day and at the moment, they are looking at a prize pool of $1,143,900 but ultimately there will be more than that once the cards are live.

Daniel Negreanu is among the chip leaders to start Day 2 with a fourth-place stack of 264,000, but as can be expected from a Championship event, he’s far from the only familiar face in the crowd. Bruno Fitoussi leads the way into Day 2 with 355k and Max Schindler also has more than 300k. Dan Coploys is in third just above Negreanu, and Connor Crinan is sniffing at the Canadian/Romanian’s butt in fifth with 246k. They head a top ten that also includes Ryan Miller, Qibang Cheung, Eric Rodawig, Scott Seiver, and Dzmitry Urbanovich. Plus there are boatloads of crushers below the top ten like Jen Harman, Todd Brunson, Chad Eveslage, and John Monnette to name but a few.

Day 2 kicks off at 1 pm on Wednesday, and the prizes will be set once cards are in the air. The plan is to play 7 levels of poker on Day 2 before bagging up to return for Day 3 on Thursday.

Online Event #11: $888 No-Limit Hold’em Crazy 8’s

• Entries: 1,050
• Prizes: $1,343,200
• Paid: 248
• 1st Place: $227,000.80
• Winner: “Suki_The_Sav”

Upcoming Events on June 28

Event #64: $600 Deepstack Championship No-Limit Hold’em

• Start: 10 am
• Late Entry: 9 Levels
• Start Stack: 30,000
• Reentries: 1

Event #65: $5,000 6-Handed No-Limit Hold’em

• Start: 12 noon
• Late Entry: Start of Day 2
• Start Stack: 30,000
• Reentries: 1

Event #66: $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better

• Start: 2 pm
• Late Entry: 9 Levels
• Start Stack: 25,000
• Reentries: 2