The 2023 was one for the ages that will be remembered for a very long time thanks to record breaking numbers across the board. The amount of stories that can be written about it are countless so it was actually very difficult to pin down just a few highlights to write about but I have done the best I can to give an overview of the biggest storylines from the 2023 WSOP (outside of the Main Event and player of the year race).
Multi-bracelet winners
Let’s start with the players who won more than one bracelet during this WSOP starting with Chad Eveslage who won two of the first ten events of the series to move his career total to three bracelets. He took down both Dealer’s Choice events, the $1,500 and the $10,000 in the span of just four days in one of the most impressive starts to. WSOP ever.
Chris Brewer, was considered one of the best players out there to have never won a bracelet before. But that seems like a long time ago now as the high roller from Oregon now has two to his name. He won Event $40: $250,000 Super High Roller for his first career bracelet and then won Event #69: $10,000 No-Limit 2-7 Lowball Draw Championship only two weeks later. He made a late charge for a third bracelet as the series ended but fell just short at a final table.
The third player to win multiple bracelets in this WSOP was Josh Arieh who added his 5th and 6th career bracelets to bolster his potential poker Hall of Fame consideration for the future. He won the Limit Hold’em Championship as well the $25,000 HORSE High Roller.
Veterans adding more
One of the most clear themes of the 2023 WSOP was so many veteran players who already had several players adding even more to their career achievements as it seemed more well known players won that previous years.
Three players added their 6th career bracelet.
Jason Mercier was one of those as he won his first bracelet since 2016 with a win in Event #60: $1,500 No-LImit 2-7 Lowball Draw. It was his sixth overall and an announcement that he is not ready to give up on winning bracelets in his career.
Another player to add bracelet #6 was Brian Rast as he was able to conquer the $50,000 Pokers Players Championship for the third time. This win helped Rast be the 2023 poker Hall of Fame inductee.
And none other than Shaun Deeb also won his sixth by winning the $1,500 Eight Game mix as he continues his ambitions to climb higher and higher on the all time bracelet list.
Brian Yoon and Benny Glaser continued their ascent as they both captured fifth bracelets while Nick Schulman won his fourth bracelet and took some pretty badass winner’s photos in the process.
Mike Gorodinsky broke his 8-year bracelet drought by winning the $10,000 HORSE Championship for the third in his career. David “ODB” baker also won his third with a win in the $1,500 Razz and Ben Lamb added a second bracelet after 12 years.
And last but certainly not least, was the one and only Phill Hellmuth who incredibly won yet another bracelet. Bracelet #17 was added to his trophy case by winning $10,000 Super Turbo Bounty NLH in the Paris Ballroom after a turbo day saw him win it at nearly 6 am local time. With all the talk of someone maybe tracking Hellmuth down one day in bracelets, the man on top just seems to keep extending his lead every couple of years.
Notable first-time winners
There were also many prominent players who added their first ever bracelet to their careers who had been successful before, but just needed that one extra achievement to push it to new levels of success.
Faraz Jaka was one of the most prominent to win his first bracelet. The long time pro who has many supporters and students in the game was able to conquer the $1,500 Shootout event and won a final table which included Adam Friedman who was unable to extend his consecutive years with a WSOP bracelet streak.
One of the best young up and comer high roller NLH players, Alex Kulev also won his first bracelet after winning the $50,000 High Roller event.
The Millionaire Maker was won by longtime European crusher Pavel Plesuv from Moldova for his first bracelet.
Bracelets for country
There were three countries that had players win the first WSOP bracelet representing them. Diego Ventura won the Hall of Fame Bounty event for Peru’s first live WSOP bracelet.
Thai Hu won the first for Vietnam in the $1,500 Short Deck and the aforementioned Plesuv won Moldova’s first ever bracelet.
Also worth noting is that it was a remarkable series for China who doubled their all time bracelet wins with six bracelet wins.
The 2023 WSOP showed that poker is very much alive and well with historic numbers and great stories from all over. I personally enjoyed covering every moment of it.
