The largest field of the summer thus far finished on the poker felt battlefield yesterday. The arena was the Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas.
The inaugural Gladiators of Poker Event saw a massive 23,088 entries take their seats at the most affordable live bracelet event ever offered by the World Series of Poker. Only 827 of those players found bags for Day 2, and by yesterday they were down to the final table as previewed by Jeff McMillan.
Outlasting the droves of bracelet hopefuls was a man his rail called "The Chisler," an ode to his playing style.
Jason Simon, of Saint Louis, Missouri, etched his way into WSOP history by becoming the first to win this special event that was a clear success. On the exact four-year anniversary of the Saint Louis Blues winning the Stanley Cup in 2019, Simon won his first WSOP gold bracelet. All that was missing was Laura Brannigan's "Gloria" playing over the speakers, the song the Blues adopted for their championship run.
The $300 event featured four starting flights, and seats were packed every one of those days. Boasting a $3 million guarantee, that number was smashed as the prize pool reached $3,603,162. Simon took home the largest share of that by earning $499,852, quite the return on a $300 buy-in.
Gladiators of Poker final table results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
| 1 | Jason Simon | United States | $499,852 |
| 2 | Eric Trexler | United States | $301,097 |
| 3 | Wesley Cannon | United States | $210,024 |
| 4 | Wade Wallace | United States | $160,818 |
| 5 | Kfir Nahum | Israel | $123,831 |
| 6 | Bohdan Slyvinskyi | United States | $95,883 |
| 7 | Jonson Chatterley | United States | $74,664 |
| 8 | Caio Sobral | Brazil | $58,466 |
| 9 | Thomas Reeves | United States | $46,051 |
Americans had a good showing at the final table, finding seven of the final nine spots and the four top spots. "The Chisler" found a way to whittle his opponents' stacks down until he was the last man standing.
Primarily a mixed-game player, the win marks Simon's largest cash by far, catapulting him into the Top-100 Missouri players according to Hendon Mob.
A man who sported a Saint Louis Blues cap in his winner's photo on the anniversary of their Stanley Cup win seemed destined to be called the ultimate Gladiator. Simon left it all on the felt, and he has his first gold bracelet to show for it.
"Get up Saint Louis, get on your feet, raise 'em high. [He] did it. The game is over...the wait is over."
Congrats to Jason "The Chisler" Simon on beating the largest field of the WSOP thus far, winning his first gold bracelet, and taking home nearly a half million dollars.
I wonder if he played "Gloria" on his way home last night.
