Daily Updates from the 2023 WSOP – July 17

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Final Table Results from the 2023 Main Event

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Final Day Chip Counts for $10k Short Deck

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Upcoming Events on July 18

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

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