'I can’t hide anymore' – Main Event winner Jonathan Tamayo uncut

Mo Afdhal
Posted on: July 26, 2024 11:29 PDT

"I’m probably not going to change my life that much. I kind of want to get back to as much normal as I can. But Joe [McKeehen] told me it’s not going to be that way, at least for six months or a year, and to a lesser degree, pretty much for life. He said, ‘get used to it’. 

"If I sit down at the Colossus, I probably can't keep to myself any more. It’s going to be nine other people at a ten-handed table, plus the dealer going, ‘Oh my gosh, it’s the Main Event winner at my table!’. 

"I can’t hide any more."

– Jonathan Tamayo, July 2024


The 2024 WSOP Main Event final table has been talked about a lot. Not all of it has been positive. But champion Jonathan Tamayo was gracious enough to give us a full interview a few days after he won $10,000,000, and he was happy to answer all the questions we put to him. 

We ran an edited version of this interview on Thursday, but there was a lot we couldn't fit in the piece. The video above is the unedited interview that gives a fascinating insight into the mind of a Main Event champ and what happens next.  

A lot of people have made snap judgments about what happened last week in Las Vegas and the people involved, but life is never black and white. So, while the controversy rages on, we'd recommend taking 30 minutes out of the fray to find out more about the 2024 Main Event winner, in his own words.