China took sole possession of 2nd place in this year’s national bracelet race after the Asian nation got its third from Qiang Xu, while Scott Abrams had to battle “ghosts of the past” to take down his first bracelet. In the massive PPC event, the Terminator, aka two-time defending champ Dan “Jungleman” Cates, was terminated on Day 2 ending his bid to become the first player to win three PPC titles on the trot, but Phil Ivey is making a run for his 11th bracelet in one of the toughest events on the whole summer schedule and Brian Rast is looking to join Michael Mizrachi as the only three-time winner (though not on the trot).

Event #41: $1,500 Big O

It was like a blast from the past in many ways on the final day of the first-ever Big O bracelet event. OG legend Johnny Chan was looking to bag his 11th bracelet to stand alone in second place in the bracelet hunt, while Robert Williamson III and Victor Ramdin also figured in the endgame of the split-pot five-card pot-limit Omaha game. There were just shy of 1,500 entries for this inaugural Big O bracelet game, putting the prize pool to beat for next year at $1,946,430.

When the dust settled on all the action, Scott Abrams was the player with all the chips, the $315,203, and the bracelet. He ended up in a bit of an old versus new battle when things got heads-up as he faced down Robert Williamson III, who seemed to be everywhere on televised poker in the 2000s and early 2010s. Abrams started heads up with a small advantage in chips. but quickly picked off a bluff to take a big lead. That led to a quick finish as the money went in a couple of hands later when Williamson III flopped top two with a flush draw against Abrams’ top-top and a low draw. Abrams turned flush outs and got there on the river for his first bracelet.

For his part, Chan got a decent start on the day with an early double and made the final two tables, but ultimately was unable to finish it out for his 11th, falling in 14th place for $13,982 and his deepest run in a decade at WSOP. Ramdin did a little better, making the final table and ending his day in 4th place for $105,383 while Williamson III bagged $194,814 for second. The $315k win comes in as Abrams’ second-biggest after his 12th-place finish in the 2012 Main Event for almost $600k, and brings his lifetime earnings to more than $1.6 million.

Event #42: $800 8-Handed No-Limit Hold’em Deepstack

China is now in sole possession of second place on the national bracelet board after Qiang Xu bagged his first bracelet for China’s third so far in this series. He described the win as a “dream coming true” and said his main goal coming over from China for this trip was to bag a bracelet, but he also admitted he “ran very good from start to finish”.

Xu’s tournament life was on the line when things were four-handed, and it might have all ended right there for him if he hadn’t been able to win a crucial flip to stay alive and when things got heads-up, Xu made pretty quick work of Jason Johnson who pocketed $209,547 for second place.

There was a whopping 3,773 entries for this game, putting the prizes at $2,656,192 and 566 players got a piece of the action in the endgame. Among the other players who pocketed cash from this one were 2021 Main Event Champ Koray Aldemir, who took 12th for $21k, and Donna Stutts, who busted the final table just before the dinner break in 9th place for $33,382. Other cashers included “World Famous” Pat Lyons, Santiago Plante, Chino Rheem, and Antoine Saout.

Event #39: $1,500 MONSTER STACK No-Limit Hold’em Day 3

There are just 43 players remaining from the monster starting field of 8,317 in the MONSTER STACK game. There is $11,103,195 to play for in this game, but a lot of the prizes have already been handed out with a total of 1,248 places paid in this one. Just before Day 3 ended, Justin Hankinson busted in 44th to hit the pay jump to $30,415, and that’s what the players returning for Day 4 are all guaranteed now. One player will finish this game as a millionaire however, with the top prize slated at $1,162,681.

Xuming Qi is in a great position to book China’s fourth bracelet of the series with more than 24 million and the chip lead going into what should be the final day of play after he shot up from the bottom turning a short stack to start Day 3 into the leading stack for Day 4. No one else has more than 24 million but Marcos Exterkotter has about 23.5 million for second, while Steven Snyder has just shy of 21.3 million for third.

Nate Silver and David Vedral were both among the players to end Day 3 with a top-ten stack while 2009 Main Event Champ Joe Cada bagged just under 9 million for 21st place. Canada’s Jimmy Setna, who led for much of the Day 2 play, is still in the hunt as well with just under 11 million to start the final day.

Final day action from the MONSTER STACK starts at noon on Tuesday, and PokerGO has cards up coverage of the endgame starting at 7 pm.

Event #43: $50,000 Poker Players Championship

Ten-time bracelet winner Phil Ivey is still looking good to book his 11th bracelet and take over second place in the all-time bracelet race. He bagged the third-biggest stack after the second day of play in the $50k Poker Players Championship, but he’ll have some tough competition to turn that third-place stack into a bracelet. Above him on the chip counts for Day 3 are Daniel Alaei and James Obst, both in the 2 million range.

Bracelet winner Obst is the biggest for Day 3 with just shy of three million, but it’s no surprise that the rest of the field is littered with some of the most dangerous names in poker. One of the dangerous names that won’t be back for Day 3 is two-time defending champion Dan “Jungleman” Cates. Dressed up as the Terminator for this event, Cates had a rollercoaster ride through much of his two days of play, getting very short early on Day 1, then spinning that back up to a decent Day 2 start stack only to see it fall away again on the second day.

That means the field is open to a new winner this year, but it doesn’t mean there won’t be a repeat. two-timer Brian Rast is still sitting behind a top-ten stack and there’s little doubt he’d love to join Michael Mizrachi in the triple club. Recent five-time bracelet winner Josh Arieh, OG legend Lyle Berman, Dzmitry Urbanovich, and Nacho Barbero are just a few of the other players with top-ten stack while Matthew Ashton, Maxx Coleman, John Monnette, John Racener, past PPC champ Elior Sion and 16-time bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth are just a few of the other players outside the top ten but looking for a chance to strike on Day 3.

Entries were open for a few levels to start Day 2, and once the gates came down there were 99 entries on the board for a final prize pool of $4,727,250. See below for a look at the payouts for the PPC.

Place	Payout (USD)
1	$1,324,747
2	$818,756
3	$573,679
4	$411,824
5	$303,071
6	$228,793
7	$177,294
8	$141,125
9	$141,125
10	$115,477
11	$115,477
12	$97,209
13	$97,209
14	$97,209
15	$84,255

Event #44: $3,000 No-Limit Holdem

Argentina’s Ramiro Petrone is the chip leader after the opening day of Event #44. He led the 1,511 entries recorded on Day 1, but there will be a few more players in this one with entries open for two levels on the second day so the $4,034,370 current prize pool is expected to grow. Petrone is one of five players with 300k or more and there are a few marquee names still alive in this field including Kristen Foxen (98,000), Maria Ho (97,500) and Daniel Negreanu (72,000).

Day 2 action starts at Level 11 and players will be able to enter until the end of Level 12 with the first hand being dealt at 10 am on Tuesday.

Event #45: $1,500 Mixed Omaha Hi Low

It’s officially a trend at the 2023 WSOP for events to crush their 2022 numbers. There were 1,091 entries for Event #45 before the desk closed, more than 300 entries above the 2022 number of 771. That means the pie contains $1,456,485 and will be cut into 164 different-sized pieces. Scott Clements bagged the second-biggest stack of Day 1 with 274k, but that’s still miles behind the leader, Yusheng Lin of Taiwan with 455k.

Among the other players to bag a stack for Day 2 were Shaun Deeb, on the hunt for his seventh bracelet and second in this series alone, as well as Sam Farha, recent winner Jerry Wong, and Ben Lamb. The second day of play gets underway at 1 pm on Tuesday with bracelet winners galore littering the field.

Upcoming Events on June 20

Event #46: $500 Freezeout No-Limit Holdem

• Start: 10 am
• Late Entry: 11 Levels
• Start Stack: 25,000
• Reentries: 0

Event #47: $1,500 H.O.R.S.E.

• Start: 2 pm
• Late Entry: 9 Levels
• Start Stack: 25,000
• Reentries: 0

Online Event #8: $3,200 No-Limit Hold’em High Roller

• Start: 3:30 pm

Benny Glaser won his fifth bracelet with his second Triple Draw win and two OG legends, Johnny Chan and Phil Ivey, are fighting it out in different events to become the first player since Phil Hellmuth to win 11 bracelets. Chan bagged the final 18 in Event #41 while Ivey is second in chips after the opening day of play in the epic Poker Players Championship. Meanwhile, Chris Brewer won more than $5 million after taking down the Super High Roller game.

Event #38: $10,000 Limit 2-7 Lowball Triple Draw Championship

Benny Glaser is proving to the world in 2023 that he can handle himself on both the live and virtual felt. He just added his fifth bracelet to his poker resume after making it through 130 entries for the biggest share of the $1.209 million in prizes. Glaser’s share was $311,428 with runner-up Oscar Johansson from Sweden pocketing $192,690.

They needed an extra day to finish this one out, which hasn’t been that unusual in this series. Day 3 was called when play was still heads-up with the final two players returning to finish it out on Sunday’s Day 4. It took less than an hour once they reconvened to finish it, and Glaser, who came in to the extra day with the chip lead, never gave up the lead.

This was Glaser’s fifth career bracelet on the live felt, becoming the fourth player to reach that milestone during this series. Josh Arieh, Brian Yoon, and John Monette joined that club in recent events and now Glaser sits among them. Glaser has been making a name for himself across the poker world recently however with this accolade being just the latest in a string of them. He recently proved he is among the best in the world at the online game after he scored his 18th victory in PokerStars’ COOP games, putting him on top of the list of Championship titles in the iconic Spring and World championship series.

The win gave Glaser more than $7 million in live tournament wins but it ranks as only his fifth-best score. He won almost $3 million for second at the WPT World Championship last year for his biggest score and also has a few other scores in the $300k-$500k range above this most recent bracelet win.

Event #40: $250,000 Super High Roller No-Limit Hold’em

After three days of play in the biggest buy-in of the whole series, Chris Brewer was the player sitting behind all the chips in the game. He made his way through 69 of the best and most well-heeled competitors in this nosebleed game to win almost $5.3 million of the $17,181,000 total prize pool.

Brewer was one of the short stacks coming back for the final day of play, playing about a third of the chips that leader Chance Kornuth had, but he put on a solid show of short-stack survival to make his way through the field to the title. For his part, the leader to start the day ended up finishing fifth for the first payout of more than $1 million.

Brewer battled Russia’s Artur Martirosian in the endgame for the title and it was a microcosm of the whole day for Brewer. He was down about 2:1 to Martirosian to start heads-up play but after his treys held against Broadway overs for a double, he reversed the stage to put himself in the lead. In the final hand, Brewer was in bad with a dominated ace but managed to go runner-runner straight after Martirosian spiked his kicker on the flop to take the lead in the hand.

That gave Brewer his biggest lifetime score and added almost 50% to his total earnings. He had a bit more than $10 million lifetime going into this bracelet event and so the $5 million plus score from this one puts him well over $15 million now and is about 5 times his previous biggest win on the EPT for just over $1 million.

Event #39: $1,500 MONSTER STACK No-Limit Hold’em Day 2

They are closing in on the endgame in the MONSTER STACK game now. The monster field of 8,317 across the two starting days was whittled down to 2,715 players returning for Day 2, and after the second day of play, just 389 players remain in contention for the top prize. David Vedral ended Day 2 with the biggest bag, finishing the day with 4.35 million.

Vedral was the only stack above 4 million, with seven players bagging stacks in the 3 million range including Rayane Bouibeb from France and Canada’s Frederic Normand. Among the other players to bag a stack for Day 3 were Kyle Julius, Brian Topp, Jimmy Setna, Joseph Liberta, Jaered Besse, Drew Scott, Dietrich Fast, Barry Greenstein, Kyle Cartwright, Vincent Wong, Joe Cada, and Niall Farrell while a few of the players who bagged for Day 2 but missed the cash included Marle Spragg, Timothy Watts, Chris Da-Silva, and Veronica Brill.

Among the other players to find a Day 3 bag was poker philanthropist Gershon Distenfeld. Distenfeld famously donated the winnings from his 2021 bracelet to charity, and he pledged to do exactly the same thing with whatever he wins from this one. Day 3 action kicks off at 10 am on Monday and they’ll play 10 more levels before they bag for the final day.

Event #41: $1,500 Big O

Johhny Chan is chasing his 11th bracelet in the first-ever Big O bracelet event as the final 18 players in the game prepare for Day 3 action. The OG legend Chan famously won back-to-back Main Event titles in 1987 and 1988 before falling to the then young upstart Phil Hellmuth in 1989 as he was poised to win his third straight title. Chan went on to win 8 other bracelets tying him in the rarefied company of Doyle Brunson and Phil Ivey. If he could take down this one, he would be standing alone at 11 bracelets, trailing only the man who prevented his 3rd straight Main Event win back in ’89.

Fans looking in on the Big O might be forgiven for looking at their calendars to check the year. While it is indeed still 2023, a look at the final 18 of this one makes a fan nostalgic for aughts with names like Victor Ramdin (2nd, 3.495 million) and Robert Williamson III (7th, 2.7 million) joining Chan on the 3rd day of play. Ramdin trails the leader Gary Gwinn by a bit more than 1 million and two other players join Ramdin in the 3 million range going into Day 3.

Scott Abrams, Adam Owen, and Patrice Biton are among the other players to round out the field of what should be the final day of play. Action begins at 1 pm today, and when they finish, one player should be holding the first-ever Big O bracelet.

Event #42: $800 8-Handed No-Limit Hold’em Deepstack

Chino Rheem leads after the opening day of play in Event #42. He bagged up 2.45 million after the opening day and is one of three players with more than 2 million. “World Famous” Pay Lyons is one of those 2 million stacks, sitting just below Rheem while France’s Antoine Saout is in fifth place with 1.62 million to start Day 2.

There were 3,778 entries for this one, putting the prizes at $2,659,712. In a continuation of a trend this year, that crushed last year’s field by nearly 1,000 entries. A total of 566 players will get a piece of the pie with 566th place pocketing $1,281 and the winner looking to pad their accounts with $339,033. Some of the early cashes were paid out near the end of Day 1, as the field is down to 238 to start Day 2. That means returning players are guaranteed at least $1,976 for their efforts.

Koray Aldemir, Ryan Reiss, Martin Finger, Mike “GoLeafsGoEh” Leah, Leo Margets, and Eric Baldwin are among the other players planning a Day 2 return. They’ll get underway at 10 am with the plan being to play down to a winner on Day 2.

Event #43: $50,000 Poker Players Championship

Ten-time bracelet winner Phil Ivey is poised to move out of the three-way tie for second place in the bracelet hunt with the second-biggest stack after the opening day of play in the Poker Players Championship (PPC). He trails Josh Arieh, who recently joined the five-time winners club earlier in the series, and leads the way with 1.088 million. Ivey has just under a million to start Day 2 but it’s no surprise that the rest of the field is chock-full of some of the best players in the world. The rest of the top five are James Obst, John Monnette, and Viktor “Isuldur1” Blom, all of whom clearly know their poker.

There were 73 entries on Day 1, but registration is still open for a few levels on Day 2 so the current prize pool of $3,485,750 could well increase before it all shuts down. 54 players still had chips at the end of the starting day, and among them is back-to-back defending champion Dan “Jungleman” Cates, who became the Terminator for this event, dressing up in some pretty convincing cosplay. He was nearly terminated himself early in the day, but managed to claw his way back into it with Terminator-like persistence.

Cates wasn’t the only former champion to bag a stack on Day 1. Double-winner Brian Rast finished the day in the top 15 with a bit less than 500k, and former winner Elior Sion is in the top-ten. There are dozens of other crushers looking to win their first PPC title including Jeremy Ausmus, David Williams, Matthew Ashton, Paul Volpe, Nacho Barbero, and Scott Seiver, just to pick a few from the top 20 names.

The second day of play in this marquee game kicks off at 1 pm, and players will have three levels on Day 2 to get into the action before the field is set in stone. PokerGO will be covering the PPC live with hole cards starting on Tuesday this week, and the broadcaster plans three days of coverage from what is considered by many to be the pinnacle of poker excellence.

Online Event #6: $500 No-Limit Hold’em Turbo

• Entries: 1,203
• Prizes: $845,550
• Paid: 289
• 1st Place: $134,527
• Winner: “suited_h13”

Online Event #7: $500 PLO 8-Max

• Entries: 608
• Prizes: $504,900
• Paid: 167
• 1st Place: $93,911.40
• Winner: Joe “jimjam01” Serock

National Standings

The United Kingdom joined the list of countries with a bracelet after Benny Glaser’s fifth while the USA extended its lead. Canada has a shot at its third this series with Frederic Normand in the top ten of the MONSTER STACK with the end approaching, but there are still lots of events left in the series.

Country	Bracelets	1st Place Wins
USA	26	$15,439,838
Canada	2	$775,011
China	2	$927,365
Brazil	1	$465,501
Bulgaria	1	$435,924
Germany	1	$1,546,024
Japan	1	$221,124
Netherlands	1	$2,576,729
Portugal	1	$144,678
Switzerland	1	$1,215,864
Ukraine	1	$164,835
United Kingdom	1	$311,428

Upcoming Events on June 18

Event #44: $3,000 No-Limit Holdem

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

Event #45: $1,500 Mixed Omaha Hi Low

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

Yuan Li won the only bracelet awarded on Saturday giving China its second bracelet so far this series. Meanwhile, the Monster Stack game finished its opening days with more than 8,300 entries while Benny Glaser is looking for his fifth bracelet in the Triple Draw Championship. The very first Big O game got underway with almost 1,500 entries, the Super High Roller is now in the money and the iconic $50k Poker Players Championship, regarded by many as the pinnacle of poker achievement because of the requirement to master so many games, gets going on Sunday at 2 pm.

Event #37: $2,000 No-Limit Holdem

China has now become the third nation to earn multiple bracelets at this WSOP after Yuan Li bagged the Asian nation’s second bracelet in Event #37 Saturday evening. He had to navigate a field of almost 2,000 runners (1.962) to get his piece of the $3,492,360 prize pool.

Li returned to Day 3 play with the chip lead, and he never relinquished that on the final day. Interestingly, once the game got heads up, there was always going to be a nation adding to an existing bracelet count. Li faced off against Canada’s Jonathan Camara during two-handed play, and with Canada bagging its first bracelet in Event #8 and its second in Event #21, no matter who took down the heads up, their home country would be a multiple bracelet winner, though had Camara taken it down it would have bumped Canada’s tally to three.

This was Li’s first WSOP bracelet and his third live win in general. This win puts him over $2 million in lifetime earnings now as this was his second-best score on the live felt after about $850k for winning a super high roller game at the 2016 Asia Championship of Poker (ACOP), Macau.

Event #38: $10,000 Limit 2-7 Lowball Triple Draw Championship

With field sizes as big as they’ve been this year, extra days are becoming the norm rather than the exception. Once again, the $10k Triple Draw Championship wasn’t able to finish in its allotted three days of play, so the remaining two players will return on Sunday to finish out the heads-up phase of this Championship.

The pole position on the impromptu Day 4 is held by Glaser with 4.94 million in chips. Glaser is looking for his fifth career bracelet in this one and Triple Draw was his first bracelet back in 2015. Since then he added a razz bracelet plus two from split pot Omaha Hi-Lo, with both his O8 bracelets coming in 2016. Glaser crushes on more than just the live felt, however, as he recently became the top dog on PokerStars COOP leaderboard with his 18th title between the Spring and World Championship events, more than any other player in history. Glaser will face down Sweden’s Oscar Johansson in the final day of play, and this will be something of a David vs Goliath battle as Johannsson looks to be a relative newcomer on the live poker scene with just 14 results listed on Hendon Mob for lifetime earnings of just over $100k compared to Glaser with about $6.7 million.

Glaser didn’t have an easy field at the final table either. Once the final seven were decided, Glaser was looking across at players like Sampo Ryynanen (4th, $101,709), David “Bakes” Baker (6th, $56,528), and Joao Vieira (7th, $42,965). The final day of action in this big Championship begins at 2 pm local time, and one of the two remaining players will be wearing a bracelet at the end.

Event #39: $1,500 MONSTER STACK No-Limit Hold’em Day 1b

The starting flights for the MONSTER STACK are now complete, and the field was as monstrous as the stack for this one. In the end, 8,318 entries were recorded on one of the two starting days for a prize pool of more than $11 million. The prizes for the event haven’t been worked out just yet, but with over 8,000 entries, something like 1,200 players should get paid. There will be 2,715 players returning for Day 2 action, and the bubble is expected to burst on Day 2.

Turkey’s Tinay Aksoy bagged the biggest stack of either starting day at the end of Day 1b with almost 800k. There were two other players with 700k or more, plus another two with 600k or more. Among the notables to bag a Day 2 stack from this final flight were Kathy Liebert (575k), Frederic Normand (521k), Upeshka De Silva (454k), Jeff Madsen (452k), and Veronica Brill (62k).

Day 2 is an early start for returning players with play getting underway at 10 am and they are expected to play well into the money during today’s action.

Event #40: $250,000 Super High Roller No-Limit Hold’em

There were 69 entries in the Super High Roller before registration shut down at the start of Saturday’s Day 2. That put $17,181,000 into the middle to play for to be split 11 ways at the end of the game. The min-cash for this one will be $411,940 while the winner will take home the biggest prize to date in this year’s series at $5,293,556.

There are just nine players remaining in the game after the second day of play, and that means Ben Heath and Alfred Decarolis have already pocketed min-cashes from this game, but the top nine spots are still up for grabs. Chance Kornuth leads the star-studded field into what should be the final day of play with 22.45 million, more than 4 million ahead of the second-place stack of Martin Kabrhel. Artur Martirosian also bagged in the 18 million range for third place, while Alex Kulev, Dan Smith, and David Peters are just a few of the crushers left in action.

Final Nine Stacks in $250,000 Super High Roller

Seat	Player	Country	Chips
1	Steven Veneziano	United States	6.775 M
2	Chris Brewer	United States	8.525 M
3	Martin Kabrhel	Czech Republic	18.4 M
4	Brandon Steven	United States	3.225 M
5	Chance Kornuth	United States	22.45 M
6	Artur Martirosian	Russia	18.225 M
7	Dan Smith	United States	7.8 M
8	Alex Kulev	Bulgaria	12.6M
9	David Peters	United States	4.925 M

The biggest buy-in game of the whole series should finish on Sunday with the action kicking off at 2 pm and playing until they crown a champion. PokerGO will be streaming all the endgame action from this nosebleed game starting at 6 pm.

Event #41: $1,500 Big O

2023 is a year of firsts at the WSOP. After organizers put on the first-ever Badugi bracelet game earlier in the series, another new game was added to the schedule in the form of Big O, a five-card split-pot Omaha game played with pot limits. While it is always hard to judge the size of a new format, there were almost 1,500 entries for this one putting the prizes at just under $2 million.

A total of 219 players will be sharing in the money by the end of the game, with the winner slated to pocket $315,203 while the earliest cashers will make $2,407. Xu Zhu leads the counts after the first day with 570k and there are two other players with 500k+ stacks at the end of the day.

The opening day played to the bubble and then bagged up after Vinnie McCambridge was the last player eliminated before the money. That means all 219 returning players are guaranteed a payday of some form but likely no one will be satisfied with the minimum cash. Among the players returning in the money are Ari Engel with a top-ten stack, Mike Gorodinsky, Bruno Fitoussi, Adam Owen, Nathan Gamble, Yuval Bronshtein, and Robert Williamson III.

National Standings

There are now three nations with more than one bracelet in this series. It’s hardly a surprise that the host nation USA leads the way with the vast majority of wins so far, but both Canada and China have stepped up with two wins each.

Country	Bracelets	1st Place Prizes
USA	25	$10,146,282
Canada	2	$775,011
China	2	$927,365
Brazil	1	$465,501
Bulgaria	1	$435,924
Germany	1	$1,546,024
Japan	1	$221,124
Netherlands	1	$2,576,729
Portugal	1	$144,678
Switzerland	1	$1,215,864
Ukraine	1	$164,835

Upcoming Events on June 18

Event #42: $800 8-Handed No-Limit Hold’em Deepstack

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

Event #43: $50,000 Poker Players Championship

• Start: 2 pm
• Late Entry: 9 Levels
• Start Stack: 300,000
• Reentries: 0

Online Event #6: $500 No-Limit Hold’em Turbo

• Start: 3:30 pm

Jerry Wong made good on a heads-up prediction to win the Razz Championship while Sean Troha bagged his second PLO bracelet in as many years in the $1,500 PLO. Chris Klodnicki bagged the bracelet in the $10k Secret Bounty, but it was Ali Shahni with the $250k big bounty and Ryutaro Suzuki won Japan’s first bracelet of the 2023 Series.

Event #33: $10,000 Razz Championship

It took an extra day for Jerry Wong to make it through the 123 runners in the $10k Razz Championship to bag his first-ever bracelet at the WSOP. He pocketed just shy of $300k for the win, the biggest share of the $1,143,900 total prize pool. A total of 19 players shared in the prizes, and among the players to cash before the final day were Daniel Zack with the min-cash as well as James Obst, David “Bakes” Baker, Adam Owen, Nick Schulman and Yuval Bronshtein. John Hennigan, Tala Shakerchi, and Elior Sion all pocketed final table finishes on Day 3 before play was stopped for the night.

There were just three players left alive when they returned on Friday to decide the bracelet. Wong bagged the biggest stack to end Day 3 with just over 3 million, but double-bracelet winner Michael Moncek was close behind with about 2.75 million while Carlos Chadha rounded out the final day field with 1.6 million.

Wong had to climb a pretty steep hill to take down the bracelet. Moncek went down in 3rd place with Chadha building the big stack. Wong was down about 4:1 to start the heads-up phase, but to be as fair as possible, he served a warning to Chadha. “Not gonna lie, it’s gonna be tough for you,” Wong said after winning an early pot. “I’ve played a lot of heads-up razz.”

Wong wasn’t lying – he proceeded to chip away at the leader. Over the next couple of hours of heads-up play, Wong built back into the lead and eventually took down his first bracelet. The win brings his lifetime earnings from live poker to just over $5.8 million with about $2.8 million of that from WSOP events.

Event #34: $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha

After three days of poker, Sean Troha was the player with all the chips in the $1,500 PLO bracelet event. He had to navigate the field of 1,355 for the biggest share of the $1,808,925 prize pool. Troha was one of ten players to return for the final day of action, but he returned in about the middle of the chip counts with 3.9 million for fifth place behind the leader Robert Mizrachi.

This was Troha’s second career bracelet after picking up his first last year at the 2022 series and this second award cements his place in the PLO game as both his bracelets came in that discipline. His 2022 hardware came at the end of the $10k Pot-Limit Omaha 8-Handed Championship, and while this year’s version comes in a smaller version of the game, it’s pretty clear that Troha likes his four-card poker.

With four-time bracelet winner Mizrachi in the chip lead for the final day, the path wouldn’t be easy for Troha. Mizrachi still had the lead when the final table started, but that’s when things went south for him, ending his day in 7th place and denying him a fifth bracelet. In the end, Troha faced down Ryan Coon for the title. Coon started the day with a short stack, but caught an early double to get back into and eventually played that into the heads-up phase.

That final phase didn’t last long after Troha took a big lead with a flush double and then closed it out when his jacks held against Broadway cards. As mentioned, this is Troha’s second PLO bracelet and brings his lifetime earnings to almost $2.35 million.

Event #35: $10,000 Secret Bounty No-Limit Hold’em

The $10k Secret Bounty game is now in the books and after three days of play, Chris Klodnicki was the player holding the bracelet. He battled 568 runners in this one, winning $733,317 of the $5,282,400 total prizes. As this played out as a mystery bounty format, it wasn’t just the players at the end of the game who pocketed big money – there were also some eye-watering bounties handed out.

Big Secret Bounty Awards

• $250,000
  • Ali Shahni
• $100,000
  • Artur Martirosian
  • Tyler Cornell
• $50,000
  • Matthew Bremer
  • Sriharsha Doddapaneni
• $25,000
  • Upeshka De Silva
  • Axel Hallay
  • Uri Reichenstein
  • Eric Yanovsky

The win marked a return of sorts for Klodnicki who has been away from the live poker scene for a few years. He said he’s been playing a lot of no-limit hold’em online lately, including honing his skills in the new mystery bounty format. He credits his recent online grinding with helping to improve his poker fundamentals and simply increase the comfort he says he’s always felt at the live tables. This was his second bracelet after his first came in a $1,500 NLHE event in 2017 and brought his lifetime earnings to more than $10.85 million.

Event #36: $3,000 Nine Game Mix

Japan became the 12th nation to win a bracelet here at the 2023 WSOP after Ryutaro Suzuki took down the Nine-Game Mix for his first bracelet and $221,124. It was big news as well, with Japanese media chronicling his rise to the title and a host of his fellow Japanese on the rail to support him. While this was Japan’s first bracelet so far this year, it wasn’t the first time a Japanese player was close with Suzuki himself booking a cash in the 8-Game last week, and friend and translator for the post-win interview, Tamon Nakamura, has been making waves himself this series.

While he admitted after the win that he’s a relative newbie at mixed-game poker, it’s pretty clear he’s a quick learner. His first real taste of mixed games came at last year’s series, and, in his own words, “it was really fun for me.” As a result, he targeted the mixed games this year and spent the last year working on his games, in part with the help of Nakamura who has been close to a bracelet himself with 3 top-nine performances in the last three years including 4th place in this nine-game mix.

Suzuki was facing down some big names over the course of this tournament as well. Canadian Shawn “Bucky” Buchanan and American Scott Clements just missed the 7-handed final table, and Chris Vitch, Jean Gaspard, and Andreas Korn all figured in the payouts at the end of this one.

Event #37: $2,000 No-Limit Holdem

There were 1,962 entries in Event #37 when the gates came down on registration, meaning they are playing for just shy of $3.5 million in total prizes in this one. A total of 295 players shared in the money, and all but the top 28 spots have been paid out already. Among the players pocketing cash at some point on Day 2 were Dietrich Fast and Jose Ignacio “Nacho” Barbero ($15,423), Joe Cada ($12,807), and Christian Harder ($9,128).

Yuan Li of China is leading the way into what should be the final day of play with 5.315 million, giving him a great chance to score China’s second bracelet of the series to join Canada and the US as the only multiple-bracelet-winning countries this year. The only other player with more than 5 million is Patrick Truong of the USA with 5.22 million, and third place Jeremy Joseph has just under 4 million to start Day 3. Mark Seif and Antoine Saout round out the top five counts with more than 3.5 million each.

Cards are back in the air for the final 28 players at 10 am on Saturday and the plan is to play down to a winner before they end Day 3.

Event #38: $10,000 Limit 2-7 Lowball Triple Draw Championship

There are just 10 players remaining from the original 130 entries in the Triple Draw Deuce Championship going into what should be the final day of play. They started getting paid at 20th place and Terrance Chan was the min-casher for this one. Allen Kessler, John Monnette (who recently bagged his fifth bracelet the smaller version of this event), Daniel Negreanu, and Mike Matusow also picked up money before the final ten bagged up for the night.

The name at the top of the counts going into Day 3 should be familiar to most poker fans, especially fans of the online game. While Benny Glaser is no slouch on the live felt, after recently becoming the winningest player in PokerStars’ COOP history with 18 titles between the Spring and World championships, Glaser has proven he belongs in the top tier of online tournament specialists. With a solid lead as one of three players with more than 1 million going into Day 3, Glaser has a great shot at picking up his fifth career bracelet.

That said, Glaser isn’t facing nobodies on Day 3. Sampo Ryynanen and Joao Vieira are the two other players with seven-figure stacks, and triple-bracelet winner David “Bakes” Baker has a couple of Triple Draw bracelets already and sits fifth in chips for the final day. This could easily be the event of the day for fans, given the lineup.

Event #39: $1,500 MONSTER STACK No-Limit Hold’em Day 1a

The MONSTER STACK lived up to its name in field size as well as stack size as Day 1a topped out at 3,945, almost 1,000 entries more than this flight got in 2022. That bodes well for a monstrous prize poll as well with $5,266,575 already sitting in the bank waiting to be won. With an even bigger field expected for Saturday’s Day 1b, the prize pool in this one should easily blow past $10 million sometime during the second starting flight.

After the first flight, Bulgaria’s Pavlin Kanakikov leads the way with 593.5k. Canada’s Arun Malhotra bagged the second biggest 1a stack with 563.5k but everyone in the top ten from Day 1a has more than 500k in their bag. PokerStars ambassador Benjamin Spragg was among the notables to bag a Day 1a stack, and he was joined by Faraz Jaka, Ryan Reiss, Patrick “Pads” Leonard, and Main Event winners Greg “Fossilman” Raymer (2004) and Joe McKeehen (2015).

Players have one more shot at the MONSTER on Saturday starting at 10 am and anyone looking to play should expect the field to be massive.

Event #40: $250,000 Super High Roller No-Limit Hold’em

The $100k High Roller earlier this week played out in the endgame as a “businessman vs poker pro” battle with Jans Arends notching one up for the poker pro side over Cary Katz. It looks like the biggest game of the series could be shaping up in similar ways after the businessman Dustin Bailey was a bit of a darkhorse leader after Day 1 of the $250k Super High Roller. He bagged just under 5 million after the first day, leading Chance Kornuth and two others with more than 4 million.

$250,000 Super High Roller Day 1 Top Ten Counts

Position	Player	Home	Chips
1st	Dustin Bailey	United States	4.85 M
2nd	Chance Kornuth	United States	4.34 M
3rd	Steven Veneziano	United States	4.315 M
4th	Henrik Hecklen	Denmark	4.285 M
5th	Artur Martirosian	Russia	3.785 M
6th	Ben Heath	United Kingdom	3.72 M
7th	Alex Kulev	Bulgaria	3.625 M
8th	Koray Aldemir	Germany	3.535 M
9th	James Chen	Taiwain	3.485 M
10th	Espen Jorstad	Norway	2.8 M

There were 56 entries on Day 1 of this game, but players can jump in until the start of Day 2, so the $13,944,000 may still grow a bit before the field is set in stone. That will happen when the Day 2 action begins Saturday at 1 pm in Vegas, and the massive game will be streamed on PokerGo starting at 6 pm.

Upcoming Events on June 17

Event #39: $1,500 MONSTER STACK No-Limit Hold’em Day 1b

• Start: 10 am
• Late Entry: 10 Levels
• Start Stack: 50,000

Event #41: $1,500 Big O

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

Jans Arends bagged his biggest lifetime score after winning the $100 High Roller while a firefighter from Houston hosed down the NLH/PLO Mix bracelet and made some bold predictions in the process. John Monnette booked his fifth bracelet win and Mark Ioli got a monkey off his back with a bracelet in his third heads-up attempt at WSOP.

Event #28: $1,500 Freezeout No-Limit Holdem

Benjamin Ector had to make his way through 2,046 runners in Event #28 to win his first bracelet, and along the way, he busted seven opponents at the final table. There was $2,731,410 to play for in this one and it took them three days to play down to the $406,403 first-place prize.

Heads-up against Adam Swan was a fairly quick affair, and Ector finished it out the way he’d run through most of the final table with Swan as his eighth knockout at the final table. Ector had a great spot near the start of the final table that set the stage for his eventual win. He was at risk and racing against start-of-day leader Matthew Hunt, and his ace-king had to get there against pocket eights. Ector found his outs to survive and score a huge double to take the lead and proceeded to send the rest of the final table to the showers one by one after that.

Among the other players Ector faced were bracelet-winner Dietrich Fast, who booked eighth place in this one, as well as Nick Palma, Santiago Plante, Rocco Iati, Everett Carlton, and Dimitar Danchev. This was Ector’s first bracelet and fourth win on the live poker felt, and represents his biggest ever score, eclipsing $344,826 from a second place in 2016’s The River Poker Series, Thackerville. The win bumped his total lifetime earnings to just over $1.5 million.

Event #29: $100,000 High Roller No-Limit Hold’em

There was almost $9 million to play for in the stratospheric $100k High Roller after the field topped out at 93 entries. In the end, it was Jans Arends from the Netherlands who sat atop the pile with all the chips. It’s little surprise that a $100k game was chock-full of familiar names and faces, and just a few of the crushers Arends had to battle in this one included runner-up Cary Katz, Adrian Mateos, Chance Kornuth, Jeremy Ausmus, Biao Ding, and Justin Bonomo – and that’s JUST from the final table. Among the other high-stakes regs who cashed this one were Canada’s Kristen Foxen (nee Bicknell), David Peters, Punnat Punsari, and Koray Aldemir with the min-cash.

Arends is no stranger to big scores with just over $5 million in total wins now. However, that means this score basically doubled his previous winnings and eclipsed his previous biggest score my about $1.5 million. When he got heads-up, it was student loan mogul turned PokerGO founder Cary Katz across the table. It was pretty quick with Arends taking a big lead into the final phase. He started heads up with a lead of about 45:11 and quickly pressed the gas to get it to 50:6.

Katz got down to barely fumes before finding a double to stay alive, but in the end, the hill was just too steep for him to climb and he fell in second shortly after that. Katz is no stranger to deep runs in deep-pocket events like this one, and the heads-up here played out as yet another round of the “businessman vs poker professional” battle that is typically waged on the high-stakes felt. This time, the poker pro won the day, but Katz showed he can compete with the best on the biggest stages in poker.

Event #30: $1,500 Limit 2-7 Lowball Triple Draw

John Monnette had to come back from the felt to take down his fifth bracelet win in the Triple Draw Deuce game. He was down to half a big bet at one stage, but in one of the most dramatic comebacks of the year so far, Monnette ground that back up into a win.

Monnette had to get through 522 runners, another very solid field for a mixed-game event. That meant they were playing for just shy of $700k with $145,863 up top for the winner. While this was a $1,500 buy-in, the field was still full of familiar faces looking for hardware including Patrick “Pads” Leonard, who finished third, Benny Glaser, who is a recent 18-time COOP winner and finished 8th, Allen Kessler (9th), Tom Schneider (13th), Carol Fuchs (16th), and Thomas Taylor (17th).

This was Monnette’s fifth bracelet and brings his lifetime earnings to within $30k of $4 million, and as if anyone needed reminding, this cements his legacy as a mixed-game beast at WSOP. His fifth career bracelet also marks the fifth poker discipline he’s bagged hardware in. His previous four bracelets were in Limit Hold’em, No-Limit Single Draw Deuce, Seven Card Stud, and the 8-Game mix. With his Triple Draw bracelet added to the mix, there’s really no question that Monnette knows his poker variants.

Event #31: $600 Mixed No-Limit Hold’em; Pot-Limit Omaha Deepstack

While the big stories at the WSOP are often the stories about big names winning huge prizes for multiple bracelets, some of the best stories to emerge from the summer are always the games where a grass-roots player steps up to make a mark in the poker world for the first time. Scott “Joseph” Dulaney is one such story from this year after the Houston firefighter and Omaha lover found his way to the winners’ circle of the Mixed NLH/PLO game. It was his biggest score ever by quite a bit as he only had around $300k in registered winnings on Hendon Mob going into the event.

Dulaney was the last player standing out of another solid starting field of 2,759 entries. That put $1,407,090 in the middle to play for with $194,155 for the eventual winner and 414 players getting a piece of the pie. Among the players Dulaney had to face down at the final table was OG legend and double-bracelet winner Barny Boatman. With almost $4 million in live wins, the co-founder of The Hendon Mob was by far the most decorated player in the endgame, but he could only manage 8th place for $23,371 this time.

Dulaney made no bones about the fact that he is an Omaha lover, and he put the rest of the players here on notice – he plans to win “multiple Omaha bracelets” this year to prove his contention that the best Omaha players in the world come from Houston. While this one wasn’t strictly an Omaha bracelet, he is well on his way to making good on that promise.

Event #32: $3,000 6-Handed No-Limit Hold’em

It took two days to play through the 1,241 entries in Event #32 and Mark Ioli was the last player with chips. He bagged $558,266 out of the $3,313,470 prize pool for his first bracelet and biggest score yet after winning a heads-up duel with Colombia’s Johann Ibanez.

This was the third time Ioli has been heads-up for a bracelet, but he fell short the previous two attempts. In both of those games, he was one card away from winning before it all went south on him, but this time he managed to hold on and take it down for the win.

Among the players who cashed in this one was Alex Foxen, who busted early after Chris “Big Huni” Hunichen called him off with six-three and got there, as well as Martin Jacobson, Maria Ho, and Noah Schwartz. Hunichen started the day as chip leader, but he could only manage 8th place in the end.

Event #33: $10,000 Razz Championship

There were 123 entries in the $10k Razz Championship before entries closed at the start of Day 2. That put $1,143,900 into the prize pool with $298,682 up top for the winner. The game was supposed to finish on Day 3, but as has happened a few times so far this year, they needed to add a fourth day of play to finish it out.

19 players got a piece of the prizes in this one, and Daniel Zack was the first player to exit with cash. Joining him on the rail with money in hand were players like James Obst, David “Bakes” Baker, Steve Zolotow, Adam Owen, Nick Schulman, Bryce Yockey, John “Johnny World” Hennigan, and Talal Shakerchi.

Three Americans are still in contention for the Razz bracelet with Jerry Wong leading the Day 4 counts at just over 3 million. Michael Moncek and Carlos Chadha round out the final three players coming back on Friday to decide the bracelet. Action gets underway at 3 pm and will play down to a winner today.

Event #34: $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha

Robert Mizrachi is the chip leader after two days of play in Event #34: $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha with 5.68 million. There is one other player, Matthew Beinner, with a bit more than 5 million, while third-place Matthew Parry has just over 4 million to start what should be the final day of play.

They got a field of 1,355 entries for this one, putting $1,808,925 into the middle. There were 203 players walking away from this one with money in their pockets and among the players who cashed out on Day 2 were recent five-time winner Josh Arieh, Daniel Negreanu, John Racener, and Ronald Keijzer.

There are 10 players still alive going into Day 3 with cards going in the air at noon and the plan is to crown a champion before the day is out.

Event #35: $10,000 Secret Bounty No-Limit Hold’em

The Secret Bounty game saw 568 entries before registration closed for a final prize pool of $5,282,400. This game was played in the mystery bounty format with a top bounty prize of $250k won by Ali Shahni and it played a little quicker than expected. Initially, the structure showed bounties kicking in on Day 2, but as Day 1 played out and the field dwindled, the decision was made to play Day 1 into the money and have the bounties kick in when the bubble burst.

Winners of other substantial bounties in this game so far include:

• $100,000
  • Artur Martirosian
  • Tyler Cornell
• $50,000
  • Matthew Bremer
  • Sriharsha Doddapaneni
• $25,000
  • Upeshka De Silva
  • Axel Hallay
  • Uri Reichenstein
  • Eric Yanovsky

There are eight players left alive in the game going into Day 3 and Chris Klodnicki is the chip leader with 6.615 million. Jeremy Ausmus is close behind with 6.475 million and third-place Aram Oganyan starts Day 3 with 5.41 million. This should be the final day of play and action gets going at 4 pm on Friday.

Event #36: $3,000 Nine Game Mix

There were 361 entries for the Nine Game Mix for a prize pool of $963,870 but fans might be forgiven for wondering if it was still the 2022 event. Philip Long final tabled this game last year, ultimately finishing in third place, and he is well on his way to repeating that this year. Long still has a ways to go before he manages to go back-to-back final tables in this event with 22 players still left in the action, but he has a good chance of doing it as the chip leader and one of only two players to bag up more than 1 million chips after two days of play.

Jean Gaspard is the other player with more than a million, while Justin Liberto, Shawn Buchanan, Tamon Nakamura, and Scott Clements also bagged top ten stacks for the final day. A total of 55 players cashed out in this one, and among the names on the cashing list are Viktor “Isuldur1” Blom, Max Kruse, Todd Brunson, Craig Chait, and Roman Hrabec. The final 22 players return with the plan to finish it out starting at 2 pm on Friday.

Event #37: $2,000 No-Limit Holdem

They got nearly 2,000 entries for Event #37 with a prize pool just shy of $3.5 million. A total of 295 players will share in the prizes with 321 players returning for Day 2 on Friday. Mark Seif is among the chip leaders with more than 700k and the only player with a bigger stack for Day 2 is Lee Piniatoglou at 738k. Joshua Reichard also has more than 100 big blinds to start Day 2 with a “beastly” stack of 666k.

Among the players still alive and looking for cash are Mustapha Kanit (284,000), Steve Zolotow (276,000), Juha Helppi (201,000), Dominik Nitsche (201,000), Nacho Barbero (185,000), Bin Weng (148,000), Dietrich Fast (135,000), Brad Owen (126,000), Upeshka De Silva (108,000), and Maria Ho (57,000). The remaining players are back in action to decide the money spots starting at 10 am and the plan is to play 10 levels on Friday before they bag up for Day 3.

Event #38: $10,000 Limit 2-7 Lowball Triple Draw Championship

There were 106 entries for the razz Championship on Day 1, putting the prize pool at $985k. That will still change, however, as entries are open until the start of Day 2 meaning it’s likely the field size will increase. Michael Wagner is the chip leader with 284k at the end of Day 1, with Adam Friedman close behind in second with 279k. Ryan Leng has 273k for third place and there are six other players in the 200k range. Rep Porter was the only top-ten stack under 200k at the end of the day, and Porter is certainly one of the biggest threats at any razz table.

Mike Matusow, Daniel Negreanu, Terrance Chan, Allen Kessler, David “Bakes” Baker, Scott Seiver, Daniel Strelitz, and Alex Livingston are all among the players who put chips in a bag after the opening day of play. Day 2 begins at 1 pm on Friday, and that’s when the entries will close on this one. The plan is to play seven more levels (90 minutes each) on Day 2 before they bag for what should be the final day on Saturday.

Upcoming Events on June 16

Event #39: $1,500 MONSTER STACK No-Limit Hold’em Day 1a

• Start: 10 am
• Late Entry: 10 Levels
• Start Stack: 50,000
• Reentries: Re-entry on Day 1b

Event #40: $250,000 Super High Roller No-Limit Hold’em

• Start: 2 pm
• Late Entry: Start of Day 2
• Start Stack: 1,500,000
• Reentries: 1

Shaun Deeb won his sixth bracelet in less than a decade, putting him in some rarified company, while Ben Lamb bagged his second bracelet. Jans Arends is leading a stellar final table in the $100k High Roller and Benny Glaser is looking to add another bracelet to his resume after becoming the winningest player in PokerStars’ COOP history recently.

Event #25: $10,000 Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better Championship

The final day of play in Event #25 was a star-studded affair featuring some of poker’s best. Topping the stellar field for his second career bracelet was Ben Lamb, who battled through a final day that included James Chen, Luis Velador, Johannes Becker, and nine-time bracelet winner Erik Seidel.

There were 212 entries for this one, putting the prizes at $1,971,600, divided 32 ways. Yuri Dzivielevski was the first player to exit with cash in 32nd place, and joining him with cash on Day 2 were players like Craig Chait, Dan Shak, Jose Ignacio “Nacho” Barbero, Sammy Farha, Kyle Cartwright, John “Johnny World” Hennigan, David Williams, and James Obst.

Lamb started the final day with a small lead in chips, but knocking out all of his opponents over the course of the day helped him keep that lead. In his post-game interview, Lamb said he was “running hotter than the f***ing sun” but he also noted that he feels like he has been “more emotionally invested and focusing harder” at the tables, and it showed through in his victory. He now has more than $8.5 million in earnings on the WSOP alone with his second bracelet and has close to double that in live earnings in general.

Event #26: $800 No-Limit Hold’em Deepstack

They had to play an extra day in this one to finish it out after Day 2 was called during heads-up play. The final two players returned to the felt on Tuesday to finish it out. Mao started heads up with a deficit, stacking up ~70 million compared to the ~120 million of runner-up Matthew Elsby but it didn’t take long for that to turn around.

Shortly after the start of the impromptu Day 3, Mao found a huge spot where he rivered a flush after Elsby flopped top two pair with ace-queen. That left Elsby on about 45 million, with Mao playing almost 3x as much with 142 million. It all ended shortly after when Mao’s ace-high held to take down his first bracelet and put China on the bracelet board.

This was Mao’s second live win after taking down the HSPC Huangshan Cup Guangzhou, Guangzhou in October of 2022 but this was his biggest score by quite a bit with his previous best sitting at around $15k USD.

Event #27: $1,500 Eight Game Mix 6-Handed

It didn’t take long for Shaun Deeb to make good on his bet. His friend Josh Arieh recently won his fifth bracelet in the Limit Hold’em Championship and while they were celebrating the win, Deeb made a friendly wager with Arieh that he’d win his 6th bracelet before Arieh or Deeb would hit the showers and retire from poker. It started as a boast and turned into a promise, but it only took Deeb a few days to make good on it after taking down the $1,500 8-Game Mix last night for a score of $198,854.

Deeb’s sixth bracelet comes just 8 years after his first meaning he has won all six of his WSOP titles in the last decade. That puts him in some rarified company with only six other players managing six bracelets in a decade, including poker icons like Doyle Brunson, Phil Ivey, Layne “Back-to-Back” Flack, Johnny Moss, Phil Hellmuth and Jeff Lisandro. Of the new group of seven, only Lisandro and Deeb are not in the Hall of Fame, and Deeb isn’t eligible for a few years yet. Given his meteoric rise in the last decade, he looks to be a lock for the Hall when he is eligible.

Deeb didn’t have an easy go of it on the final table either. He had to battle through players like Daniel Strelitz, who won a Razz bracelet last year for his second, John Bunch, and Kyle Loman. Deeb now has almost $9 million in earnings from the WSOP and more than $12 million from live poker as a whole.

Event #28: $1,500 Freezeout No-Limit Holdem

Matthew Hunt has a big lead going into the final day of play in Event #28. There were 2,046 entries in this freezeout game, putting the prizes at $2,731,410. A total of 307 players shared in that prize money with Valentino Konakchev from Bangladesh taking the min-cash spot in 307th for $2,406.

Hunt leads a final-day field of 17 players returning, and he has a pretty solid lead to start the day. The second-place stack of Benjamin Ector only has about 5.7 million in it compared to almost 9.4 million for Hunt. Dietrich Fast is among the other players to bag a top-ten stack for Day 2. Cards hit the felt for Day 3 at noon on Wednesday and the plan is to play down to a winner before they stop for the night.

Event #29: $100,000 High Roller No-Limit Hold’em

Jans Arends leads the way after the second day of play in the $100k High Roller game. There are just six players remaining going into the final table, and it’s hardly a surprise that the list is full of familiar names. Arenda has 16.625 million to start the day while student loan mogul turned PokerGO owner Cary Katz is second with 12.775 million. Biao Ding, Adrian Mateos, Chance Kornuth, and Jeremy Ausmus round out the star-studded final table.

$100k High Roller Final Table

Seat	Player	Country	Chips
1	Cary Katz	United States	12.775m
2	Jans Arends	Netherlands	16,625m
3	Biao Ding	China	8.8m
4	Adrian Mateos	Spain	7.175m
5	Chance Kornuth	United States	4.6m
6	Jeremy Ausmus	United States	5.75m

Cards for Day 3 will go in the air at noon local time, and PokerGO is streaming all the final table action with cards up, on delay.

Event #30: $1,500 Limit 2-7 Lowball Triple Draw

Benny Glaser leads the final 18 players in the Triple Draw Deuce game as play goes into the final day. Glaser is on a bit of a high recently after becoming the winningest player in PokerStars’ COOP history with his 18th title across the SCOOP and WCOOP series during the 2023 SCOOP, but he is no slouch on the live felt either. He leads a pretty strong field that includes mixed-game crusher John Monnette in second place.

Monnette and Glaser are two of six players with a million chips or more to start the final day, and among the other millionaires is another player who, while better known for his online play, can handle himself on the live felt as well, Patrick “Pads” Leonard. Allen Kessler, Carol Fuchs, Thomas Taylor, and Tom Schneider are also among the players to start Day 3 with chips and could easily be dangerous in the endgame.

Players returning for Day 3 are all guaranteed at least $5,840 of the $696,870 prize pool (522 entries) and the action gets going at 1 pm local time with the expectation of a winner before play finishes for the day.

Event #31: $600 Mixed No-Limit Hold’em; Pot-Limit Omaha Deepstack

They got 2,759 entries for Event #31, continuing this year’s trend of record-breaking fields. When registration closed, there were $1,407,090 in prizes with 414 players sharing in the money. Alfred Atamian cashed out first for the min-cash of $961, and Day 1 played down to 122 remaining before they bagged up for the night.

Troy Nowlin leads the counts to start Day 2 as the only player with more than 2 million chips. There are a host of players in the 1 million range, including second-place Hassan Tahsildar with 1.86 million. Jason Stockfish also bagged a top-ten stack with 1.45 million, but only just, hitting the list in 10th place. Among the other notables to find a bag in this one were British pro Barny Boatman, who was part of the founding team for The Hendon Mob, as well as Matthew Wantman and Patrick Clarke. The Day 2 action will kick off at 10 am, and the game is scheduled to play until one of the players is wearing a bracelet.

Event #32: $3,000 6-Handed No-Limit Hold’em

There were 1,241 entries for Event #32 creating a prize pool of $3,313,470, and there are still 57 players in contention for the biggest prize of $558,266. Chris “Big Huni” Hunichen bagged the biggest stack at the end of Day 1 with 2.405 million and Asher Conniff with 2.17 million is the only other player over the 2m mark.

Ian Matakis, Roman Hrabec, and Noah Schwartz are among the other players with top-ten stacks going into Day 2 while Maria Ho, Eric Baldwin, Paul Volpe, Martin Jacobson, and Ryan Riess all bagged stacks for Day 2 and could be dangerous. Play resumes at noon and all returning players are guaranteed $8,436 at least. Play is expected to continue on Day 2 until a winner is crowned.

Event #33: $10,000 Razz Championship

There were 102 entries on Day 1 of the $10k Razz Championship for prizes totaling $948,600, but entries remain open on Championship events until the start of Day 2, so those numbers might still change a bit. With the current numbers, at least 15 players will be sharing in the prizes, but it remains to be seen how much the winner is expected to pocket.

Roy Thung was the only player to get 300k on Day 1, ending with the chip lead at 303k. There are several players in the 200k range that could be dangerous, however, including Scott Bohlman, David Funkhouser, Adam Owen, Bryce Yockey, Brian Yoon, and Daniel Zack, and other crushers like Dutch Boyd, Talal Shakerchi, James Obst, Brandon Shack-Harris, Brian Rast, and Anthony Zinno are all lurking outside the top ten waiting to strike on Day 2.

The Day 2 action gets going at 1 pm and the field will be set when the cards go in the air. There are seven levels of poker on the Day 2 schedule, after which the remaining players will bag and tag for the final day of action.

Upcoming Events on June 13

Event #34: $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha

• Start: 10 am
• Late Entry: 9 Levels
• Start Stack: 25,000
• Reentries: 2

Event #35: $10,000 Secret Bounty No-Limit Hold’em

• Start: 12 Noon
• Late Entry: 12 Levels
• Start Stack: 60,000
• Reentries: 2

Event #36: $3,000 Nine Game Mix

• Start: 2 pm
• Late Entry: 8 Levels
• Start Stack: 40,000
• Reentries: 1

Jason Simon bested the biggest field of the series so far after making it through the more than 23k runners to become the 2023 Gladiator of Poker. Ben Lamb bagged the lead for the final day of play in the $10k O8 Championship while Adrian Mateos is leading the way in the $100k High Roller event.

Event #18: $300 Gladiators of Poker No-limit Hold’em

The biggest field so far this year has finally been reduced to just one player with all the chips after Jason Simon took down the Gladiators of Poker (Event #18) for just shy of $500,000. The numbers in this one were truly eye-eatering for a $300 buy-in with the 23,088 entries combining for a total prize pool of $5,679,648, nearly double the $3 million guarantee.

The massive field was built over four starting days, with the final day hitting almost 8,500 runners. Of those Day 1 hopefuls, just 827 made it through to the second day of play but that doesn’t mean they all went home empty-handed. This was a Day 1 cash event, so, on all four Day 1 flights, a significant number of players went home with a bit of cash in their pockets late in the night.

In total, there were almost 3,200 players who pocketed cash from this one, either on Day 1 or in the final stages. Of course, most of the money was on the final days, and players who made Day 2 were playing for $3,603,162 still remaining. Day 2 ended with just 14 players left and eventual winner Simon sitting in the fourth spot in the chip counts. In the end, he ended up in a heads-up battle with the start-of-day leader Eric Trexler.

Simon got heads-up with a chip lead after making a run on the final day and took it down fairly quickly. It was Simon’s first bracelet and his biggest ever cash, which was also true of runner-up Trexler’s score of $301,097.

Event #25: $10,000 Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better Championship

It’s hardly a surprise that the final seven players in the $10k O8 Championship include a lot of familiar names and faces. The smiling face of Ben Lamb sits atop the final day standings with almost 2.55 million chips. Erik Seidel, Luis Velador, and Brad Ruben all have more than 2 million as well, while Robert Yass, Johannes Becker, and James Chen round out the final field with shorter stacks to start the day.

There were a total of 212 entries in this one, continuing a trend this year of big fields with 212 entries for this one and a prize pool of almost $2 million. While the final list of contenders is distinguished as a whole, it’s hard to ignore the gargantuan presence of nine-time bracelet winner Seidel. With the 3rd biggest stack to start the day, and just a hair behind Velador in second, Seidel will return today with a solid chance to become just the 5th player in history to win at least 10 WSOP events to draw even with greats like Doyle Brunson, Johnny Chan, and Phil Ivey.

Seidel won’t have an easy run though. Outside the chip leader Lamb, who has a bracelet of his own and more than $8.5 million in winnings on the WSOP alone, Becker, Ruben, and Chen can all be dangerous no matter how many chips they have. The final seven return to finish it out at 2 pm on Tuesday with the winner set to pocket $492,795 in addition to the Championship bracelet.

Event #26: $800 No-Limit Hold’em Deepstack

Just two players are left in the game after the end of the second day of play in the $800 Deepstack game. There were 4,747 entries for a total prize pool of $3,341,888, and one of the two players returning Tuesday will pocket $402,588 plus a gold bracelet. Matthew Elsby and Renji Mao were the only players left with chips after the second day with Elsby holding the lead with ~119m to ~71m. While that may sound like a lot of chips, they will be coming back to 1.5m/3m/3m blinds, so the 71m stack of Mao is only worth a bit more than 20 bigs meaning the heads-up phase could go pretty quickly.

Event #27: $1,500 Eight Game Mix 6-Handed

They played for 10 hours on Day 2 of the $1,500 8-Game tournament and there are still 21 players remaining in action for what should be the final day of play. Chad Campbell is the chip leader going into Day 3 with just under 2 million chips, while Daniel Strelitz is second with almost 1.8 million. John Bunch, Robert Mizarchi, and Shaun Deeb are among the other players to bag a big stack.

Outside the top ten there are a few other notables still left in this one. Four-time bracelet winner Nick Schulman (who moonlights off the table as co-commentator of Poker After Dark on PokerGO as well as commentary in the pool world and just bagged his fourth bracelet earlier in the series) has 828k to start Day 3, while three-time winner David “Bakes” Baker has a short stack of 440k.

Event #28: $1,500 Freezeout No-Limit Holdem

There were more than 2,000 entries for the $1,500 Freezeout generating a prize pool of $2,731,410. That means there will be 307 players sharing in the prizes with the earliest cashers pocketing $2,406 and $406,403 up top for the winner and when Day 1 ended there were only 188 players left in the game.

That means players returning for Day 2 are guaranteed at least $3,007. The first pay jump will happen at 170th place when the payouts jump to $3,282 and that should happen very early on Day 2. Hao Zhou leads the way with 970k but Taylor Paur is close behind in second with 876k. Dietrich Fast, Ryan Leng, Chino Rheem, Masaki Nakamura, Mustapha Kanit, and Upeshka De Silva are among the other notables to bag a stack for Day 2. Cards are back in the air at 10 am Vegas time and there are 10 levels on the schedule for Day 2.

Event #29: $100,000 High Roller No-Limit Hold’em

There are just 35 players left in the $100k High Roller game after the opening day of play and it is no surprise that the top ten reads like a poker whos-who. Adrian Mateos leads the way into Day 2 with 3,650,000, but Chris “BigHuni” Hunichen is right on his heels with 3,620,000. Chance Kornuth also has more than 3 million, while reigning Main Event champ Espen Jorstad is fourth with 2.2 million. Jeremy Ausmus, Talal Shakerchi, Cary Katz, Koray Aldemir, Justin Bonomo, and Ren Lin round out the stellar top ten.

There were 79 entries for this nosebleed game, making this another tournament to go beyond last year’s field size with 17 extra this year. That meant a prize pool of $7,643,250 making this the biggest single-day prize pool so far this year. The payouts for this one are yet to be posted, but it looks like 12 players will share in the money.

Event #30: $1,500 Limit 2-7 Lowball Triple Draw

There were 522 entries for the $1,500 Triple Draw Deuce game this year continuing the trend of 500+ fields for the mixed games. That put $696,870 into the pot to play for with $145,863 up top for the win. 79 players will share in the prizes for this one with the earliest paid exits getting $2,405 for their troubles.

Jason Gola is in a good position to take down his second bracelet as the only player to start Day 2 with more than 200k. However, he has some stiff competition in the top ten from the likes of John Monnette, Tom Schneider, Alex Epstein, and David Funkhouser to name but a few. Among the other players to continue on to Day 2 with smaller stacks are Chris Vitch, Randy Ohel, Dan Shak, Allen Kessler, Viktor “Isuldur1” Blom, and Benny Glaser, who recently became the winningest player in PokerStars’ COOP series history with 18 titles.

Upcoming Events on June 13

Event #31: $600 Mixed No-Limit Hold’em; Pot-Limit Omaha Deepstack

• Start: 10 am
• Late Entry: 12 Levels
• Start Stack: 30,000
• Reentries: 2

Event #32: $3,000 6-Handed No-Limit Hold’em

• Start: 12 Noon
• Late Entry: 12 Levels
• Start Stack: 40,000
• Reentries: 1

Event #33: $10,000 Razz Championship

• Start: 2 pm
• Late Entry: Start of Day 2
• Start Stack: 60,000
• Reentries: 0