Three guys walk into a bar: a young grinder, a supply chain manager, and the best online poker player in the world.
It's not a joke and there is no bar, but the story still has one hell of a punchline.
Tomorrow, one of those three men is going to win $10 million.
Just before 10pm Tuesday night in Las Vegas Jonathan Tamayo, Jordan Griff, and Niklas "Lena900" Astedt bagged up their chips as the last three players remaining in the 2024 WSOP Main Event. They are all guaranteed at least $4 million, and the last man standing will walk away with a seven-figure payday.
Astedt will begin Wednesday with the chip lead. With seven minutes left in the remaining level, Astedt sits at 223 million (74 big blinds). Tamayo bagged 197,000,000 (66 big blinds). Griff is just slightly back with 187,000,000 (62 big blinds).
Same stage, higher stakes at WSOP final table
No matter how many days the players and fans had spent at the WSOP, walking into the room on Tuesday made it clear that everything had changed. A gallery of chairs sat in front of a giant screen meant for the overflow rail crowd. Access to the main stage required a hard-to-find wristband. Fans wore matching t-shirts featuring big birds and goats. A four-person security team was at the front door, ostensibly responsible only for making sure people didn’t bring in outside booze.
Across the room, the $25,000 HORSE final table was playing out with both Scott Seiver and Phil Ivey still in the mix for a bracelet, and nobody in the convention all was paying those two titans any attention.
PokerGo had set the call time at 1:30pm, but when the clock reached that hour, the railbirds were still scattered around the room. The players were donning their mics or staring into the void while they prepared for the biggest final table of their lives. They all knew this: the only terrible thing that could happen today would be losing the opportunity to come back tomorrow.
Indeed, no one who walked in today could win, but every one of them could lose the opportunity to return. No matter how many clever railbird t-shirts they produced, no matter how many beers they tried to sneak in, no matter how many personal affirmations they could chant, every one of the remaining nine were at risk. Six of them learned that the hard way.
Latinois falls first
With 18 players remaining in the Main Event, Malo Latinois was the chip leader. By the beginning of play at the final table, he had the second-shortest stack. Within an hour of the start of play, he was gone.
By the time he reached his final hand, his stack had been reduced to less than 14 million. All he could do was shove it all in with 
against chip leader Jordan Griff's open raise. Griff called with his pocket threes and the board ran out clean for him. Latinois was gone in 9th place earning $1 million.
That quick exit might have distracted some viewers from a decidedly more aggressive Niklas "Lena900" Astedt. In previous days, Astedt seemed as though he was sitting back and letting the action come to him. As final table play began, his posture – if not his overall strategy – seemed to shift to a different gear, one that might have obscured a view of what was about to happen next.
Astedt begins ascent, Serock gets socked
Though Joe Serock had performed a pre-game stage floor lie down meditation ritual to what appeared to be perfection, his real world waking hours at the table were far less sublime due in large part to the aggressive posture Astedt assumed at the beginning of the day and a sneaky play he made from the small blind.
Facing an under-the-gun raise from Jordan Griff's pocket sevens, Astedt played pocket queens slow from the small blind and induced Serock to jam from the big blind with 
. The bad news came quickly after Griff got out of the way. Serock paired his jack on the turn, but that was the best he could do against Astedt. Just like that, Serock was gone in 8th place for $1,125,000.
Clash of the titans
At the start of play, sharp bettors would have had their money down on one of two players left at the final table winning the whole thing: Brian Kim or Astedt. They sat with two of the largest stacks at the table. They had much more high-level experience. They both had all they needed to make a championship run...unless they clashed with each other.
And that is exactly what happened.
Kim had already run into a bad spot earlier in the level when he picked up queens against Andres Gonzalez's kings, so he was covered and at risk when Kim, in his words, decided to "go for it" at the wrong time.
When Boris Angelov raised to 4.6 million from the button, Kim tied to isolate him with a 11.8 million raise from the small blind with 
. He had no way of knowing Astedt would wake up with 
in the big blind.
Astedt clicked it back and pushed Angelov out of the pot. That's when Kim played his hand like a monster and shoved for nearly 54 million. Astedt took little time before dropping a single chip in front of him for the call. He flopped a ten and then faded a club draw that came on the turn. The pot pushed Astedt into the chip lead and put him in the familiar position of the most feared man in poker. Meanwhile, Kim left in 7th place with a $1.5 million payday.
"Sometimes you go for it and it doesn't work out," Kim said to PokerGo's Jeff Platt afterward. "I'm a bit sad because it's a bit of a punt. In this lineup, you can't just sit there and wait around. I'm going to be happy tomorrow."
Short stacks rise, Astedt runs cold
In the hours that followed, the big hands didn't end with eliminations. Instead, the shorter stacks did what they could to survive. Jonathan Tamayo had 34 million left and got 
all in against Griff's 
. Tamayo spiked a nine to stay alive. Hold that thought, because we'll revisit Tamayo shortly.
In the meantime, it was Angelov's turn to get lucky. In a blind vs blind battle, Angelov shoved his last 25 million in the middle and got snapped off by Astedt in the big blind. Angelov was up against 
. That was all well and good for Astedt until Angelov flopped a five and then flopped into a sea of his adoring fans as the pair held to double him up.
As if that weren't enough for Astedt, it wasn't long before he ran up against a red hot Tamayo. Astedt's pocket tens flopped a set on the same hand Tamayo flopped a Broadway straight with 
. Tamayo played it slow and it wasn't long before all his chips were in the middle again, his straight holding up moving Tamayo up to third place in the chip stacks.
Astedt, who at one point had been sitting on a quarter-billion in chips was suddenly back down to second place in the counts, and Griff was back on top.
Long fuse, big explosion
The hours after that passed slowly. Members of the media and PokerGo crew competed in a push-up competition. Scott Seiver and Phil Ivey busted out of the HORSE event. Mike Matusow apparently started vomiting in the room next door as he played in the final WSOP event of the year.
Just as the rail's attention started to wane, the fuse reached its end. The boom blew Andres Gonzalez out in the blink of an eye, his two red jacks getting outraced by Astedt's . Gonzalez banked $2 million.
Minutes later Boris Angelov made his move for his final six big blinds. He had pocket sixes and looked good against Tamayo's 
until the board ran out with two kings and ran Angelov out of the tournament in fifth place for $2.5 million.
When the day began, most people thought play would end tonight with four players remaining. However, when Angelov busted in fifth, there were 30 minutes left on the tournament clock, more than enough time to wing the biggest bird left in the event.
With only 28 million left in his stack, Kevin Sagle had no choice but to get his pair of jacks all-in against Astedt's 
. It looked like Sagle had a good chance to stay alive another day, but the flop immediately tempered all optimism.
The board had paired Astedt's three and put out a four, a wheel card that made everything worse. Sagle seemed to know that wasn't good. He put out his hand and waggled it toward his rail in a motion that said, "We're ahead, but it's not great." The turn filled in another card to the wheel, this time a five. Sagle's hand waggled more emphatically. This is not good at all. And then the river...a deuce, the final card to the wheel that sealed his fate. While it devastated his nest of baby big birds on the rail, the $3 million fourth place payday eased the pain.
The last three standing will return Wednesday afternoon at 2pm local time to play down to a winner. As always, we'll be here for the whole thing and bring it to you on PokerOrg Instant Live.
Join us then as we celebrate the next WSOP world champion.
