Daily Updates from the 2023 WSOP – June 16

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