Daily Updates from the 2023 WSOP – July 14

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

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

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

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

2023 Main Event Final Table Seats and Chips

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

The July Nine

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

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

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

— Collin Capone (@PokerCapone) July 15, 2023

Day 7 & 8 Action

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Event #87: $2,500 Mixed

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Upcoming Events on July 15

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

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

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

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

Online Event #18: $2,000 Freezeout Championship

• Start: 3:30