Doyle Brunson, Johnny Chan and Erik Seidel make one heck of a trio. With 10 WSOP bracelet wins apiece, they’re up there with the very best of all time. Phil Ivey used to be in that group, too, but as you may have seen he just graduated.
Bracelet number 11 - won in yesterday’s conclusion to the $10K 2-7 Limit Triple Draw Championship - puts Ivey in a spot all of his own. While still a few great summers behind Phil Hellmuth, who sits atop the WSOP winners list with 17, Ivey is now officially the second winningest player in the 55 year history of the World Series of Poker.
Thursday’s win was his first in the glare of the WSOP spotlights for a decade. Here’s a rundown of his bracelets so far:
- 2000: $2,500 Pot Limit Omaha
- 2002: $2,500 7 Card Stud Hi/Lo
- 2002: $2,000 S.H.O.E.
- 2002: $1,500 7 Card Stud
- 2005: $5,000 Pot Limit Omaha
- 2009: $2,500 No-Limit 2–7 Draw Lowball
- 2009: $2,500 Omaha Hi/Lo / 7 Card Stud Hi/Lo
- 2010: $3,000 H.O.R.S.E.
- 2013A: A$2,200 Mixed Event
- 2014: $1,500 Eight Game Mix
- 2024: $10,000 Limit 2-7 Lowball Triple Draw Championship
Ivey wasn’t the only one to win a bracelet on Day 17, as four events drew to a close. Let’s take a quick tour to see what went down.
Ivey climbs to victory over star-studded field
It’s the headline news: Phil Ivey won bracelet number 11. After three days didn’t get the job done, he returned for an unscheduled Day 4 along with Danny Wong and Jason Mercier for a final three-way showdown.
In 2-7 Lowball the nuts is 
, also known as the wheel, and Ivey was lucky enough to make a few of them when it counted. Coming into the last day with the shortest stack, Ivey soon hit a wheel against Mercier early on to boost his stack back up to a decent size.
When Wong eliminated Mercier ($151,412) on the turn of his last card it gave him the chip lead, putting the LA player in the driving seat to win his second WSOP bracelet. Then Ivey hit another wheel against Wong’s 9-8 to turn the tables.
A few big hands later and Wong was down to a few chips and a prayer. He got the last of his stack in holding a 10-8, as Ivey took one card for his last draw holding . That last card was a , giving Ivey another wheel, another WSOP bracelet and $347,440. Wong takes $225,827 for his great run to second place.
Ashby repeats the feat in 7-Card Stud
If Phil Ivey had to wait 10 years between bracelet wins, spare a thought for the UK’s Richard Ashby. The Englishman, known locally as ‘Chufty’, notched a previous win at the WSOP back in 2010 when he won the $1,500 7-Card Stud event for $140K. 14 years later he’s back as the winner of the… $1,500 7-Card Stud event.
Ashby, who told the WSOP he “hardly ever plays” 7-Card Stud, outran a field of 406 to pick up $113,725 and complete his matching pair of bracelets.
Heads-up was an all-British affair, as Ashby and Adam Owen ($75,805) swapped chips, and the lead, on plenty of occasions. Owen may be left cursing his luck after missing several opportunities to bag bracelet number one, but when they eventually got it all-in for the title it was Ashby who started with the strongest hand, and Owen who couldn’t catch up.
Ashby: 
/
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Owen: 
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Seward wins $3K NLH as Holskyi narrowly misses dream comeback
The final day of event #31: $3,000 NLH 6-Handed was, well, 6-handed. Those six remaining players were led by David Coleman who had built a significant chip lead over the field, but ultimately couldn’t see the job through.
Having suffered a few setbacks against Nikolaos Angelou and Akinobu Maeda, Coleman eventually got his chips all in holding 
against his good friend Nicholas Seward’s . Seward flopped two-pair and Coleman was out in fourth ($168,448), but soon joined the rail to cheer his friend on to the win.
And win he did. Japan’s Akinobu Maeda was next out ($238,886) when his dominated 
ran into Seward’s 
, leaving the latter heads-up against Konstantyn Holskyi.
The player from Ukraine was inches from pulling off an incredible comeback, going from a single big blind with five remaining to the chip leader of the final two. With stacks almost even the two both flopped top pair, this time with Seward holding the dominated hand.
Seward: 
Holskyi:
Flop: 
The chips soon got in the middle and hands were turned over. Seward had the slightly larger stack, putting Holskyi at risk, but the Ukrainian would be firmly in the driving seat if his hand would hold.
Spoiler: it didn’t. The 
on the turn gave Seward an open-ended straight draw, which came in with the 
on the river. Seward takes $516,135 for the win, while the unfortunate Holskyi wins $344,092.
Noisy rail sings Manzano to victory in PLO Deepstack
Chile’s Alex Manzano busted four of his final table opponents to win event #33, the $600 Pot-limit Omaha Deepstack. Day 2 started with 95 of 2,402 players still standing, and by the time the final table was set there was the feeling that it was all going to come down to Manzano and California’s Robert Gill.
Manzano’s rail were supporting him in full voice, while Gill was often showing his cards after his opponents folded, which made for a friendly and fun final table. Manzano and Gill eventually, and seemingly inevitably, got heads-up and it could have gone either way. In one crucial hand late on, Gill even appeared to talk Manzano out of folding the stronger hand.
As recounted by the WSOP, Gill 3-bet Manzano’s preflop raise, which sent the latter into the tank. “You can’t fold,” Gill told Manzano, and so it proved. Manzano had 
, which was ahead of Gill’s 
and stayed there throughout the 
board.
The hand was a turning point, and just minutes later Manzano was dragging the final pot for a $161,846 payday and his first bracelet win. For an impressive run to second place, Gill takes a healthy $107,874.
Photo of the day
Ivey commiserates, Wong congratulates.
Hand of the day
The wheel for the bust comes round and round…
Video of the day
As Phil Ivey told Tiffany Michelle, “You just play the stack you’ve got.”
Tweets of the day
With the European Championships starting the same day as the $2,500 Freezeout final table, Patrick Leonard is having to switch up his plans.
Meanwhile, when the man with the ‘Timex stare’ needs to hide his eyes, you know he’s up against something special.
The day in numbers
7
Bracelets Phil Ivey needs to win to take the top spot from Phil Hellmuth
2
Times Richard Ashby has won the $1.5K 7-Card Stud event, in a game he “hardly ever plays”
6
American players remaining in the final 13 of the $2.5K Freezeout
Coming up on Day #18
While four events crowned winners on Thursday, four more were whittling down their fields to a manageable size.
The $800 NLH Deepstack kicked off with 4,278, of whom 259 come back on Friday to hopefully play down to a winner. That’s still a big number, but the 30-minute levels should help move things along. Joe Couden, fresh off a deep run in the $600 Mixed NLH/PLO, is the current chip leader.
Just 13 remain in the $2,500 NLH Freezeout, including a strong ‘Euro type’ contingent featuring Patrick ‘Pads’ Leonard (UK, 2nd, 5,090,000), Juha Helppi (Finland, 5th, 3,610,000) and Johan ‘Yoh Viral’ Guilbert (France, 6th, 3,320,000). Spain’s Antonio Galiana has a decent lead at the top with 8,990,000 chips, and will doing all he can to bag the $439,395 up top.
In the $1,500 HORSE event defending champ Yuri Dzivielevski will be hoping to mount a late charge down the home straight, pushing hard from the back of the field where he will start the day 16/23. All remaining players have $7,401 locked up, but that’s some distance from the $193,545 first prize.
Another $10K Championship started on Thursday, as 300 players threw their hats in the ring to compete for the Big O title. 120 made it through to Day 2, when they’ll play 10 x 60-minute levels, with another two days scheduled to come in this 4-dayer. Dylan Weisman, winner of the $1.5K PLO, has one of the biggest stacks in play.
Three new events get started today, including the first starting flight of the $1,500 Monster Stack NLH. Three starting flights will run across the weekend before players reconvene for a combined Day 2 on Monday. Expect a monster field for this one, which starts at 10am.
Noon should see cards in the air for the $50,000 NLH High Roller, a three-day event which should draw some big names, while the $1,500 Razz begins at 2pm.
WSOP Day #17 gallery
Indulge us with a 2-7 Championship special...
Results
Event #29: $10,000 Limit 2-7 Triple Draw Championship (6-Handed)
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Phil Ivey | $347,440 |
| 2 | Danny Wong | $225,827 |
| 3 | Jason Mercier | $151,412 |
| 4 | Benny Glaser | $104,825 |
| 5 | Jonathan Cohen | $75,015 |
| 6 | Philip Sternheimer | $55,553 |
| 7 | Justin Saliba | $42,625 |
| 8 | Renan Bruschi | $33,930 |
Full results on WSOP
Event #31: $3,000 No-Limit Hold'em 6-Handed
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nicholas Seward | $516,135 |
| 2 | Konstantyn Holsky | $344,092 |
| 3 | Akinobu Maeda | $238,886 |
| 4 | David Coleman | $168,448 |
| 5 | Nikolaos Angelou | $120,672 |
| 6 | Stephen Buell | $87,846 |
| 7 | Onur Unsal | $65,003 |
| 8 | Sami Bechahed | $48,904 |
Full results on WSOP
Event #32: $1,500 Seven Card Stud
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Richard Ashby | $113,725 |
| 2 | Adam Owen | $75,805 |
| 3 | Michael Noori | $51,626 |
| 4 | Mengqi Chen | $35,880 |
| 5 | Brandon Shack-Harris | $25,458 |
| 6 | Jaycin Cross | $18,450 |
| 7 | Aaron Kupin | $13,662 |
| 8 | Hal Rotholz | $10,343 |
Full results on WSOP
Event #33: $600 Pot-Limit Omaha Deepstack (8-Handed)
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alex Manzano | $161,846 |
| 2 | Robert Gill | $107,874 |
| 3 | Kelly Kim | $78,018 |
| 4 | Damon Sita | $57,034 |
| 5 | Oziel Velador | $42,149 |
| 6 | Mitchell Hynam | $31,492 |
| 7 | Nicholas Gonzalez | $23,792 |
| 8 | Ruslan Nazarenko | $18,177 |
Full results on WSOP.com
Ongoing events
Event #34: $2,500 No-Limit Hold'em Freezeout (final 13)
| Place | Player | Chips |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Antonio Galiana | 8,990,000 |
| 2 | Patrick Leonard | 5,090,000 |
| 3 | Romain Lewis | 4,390,000 |
| 4 | Connor Belcher | 3,690,000 |
| 5 | Juha Helppi | 3,610,000 |
| 6 | Johan Guilbert | 3,320,000 |
| 7 | Brett Apter | 2,690,000 |
| 8 | David Goodman | 2,020,000 |
| 9 | Dinesh Alt | 1,890,000 |
| 10 | Jeremy Ausmus | 1,690,000 |
| 11 | David Hoffenberg | 1,510,000 |
| 12 | Eoghan O'Dea | 1,085,000 |
| 13 | Joshua Reichard | 456,000 |
Event #35: $1,500 HORSE
| Place | Player | Chips |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bryan Jolly | 3,045,000 |
| 2 | Xixiang Luo | 1,425,000 |
| 3 | Christian Gonzalez | 1,365,000 |
| 4 | Tyler Schwecke | 1,345,000 |
| 5 | Daniel Mayoh | 1,220,000 |
| 6 | Phillip Hui | 1,100,000 |
| 7 | Kevin Cote | 1,075,000 |
| 8 | Thanhlong Nguyen | 955,000 |
| 9 | David Avina | 905,000 |
| 10 | Daniel Strelitz | 880,000 |
Full chip count on WSOP
Event #36: $800 No-Limit Hold'em Deepstack (8-Handed)
| Plce | Player | Chips |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Joseph Couden | 3,280,000 |
| 2 | GJ Hu | 3,000,000 |
| 3 | Martin Zamani | 2,100,000 |
| 4 | Fabian Rolli | 2,075,000 |
| 5 | Christopher Taylor | 1,860,000 |
| 6 | Joshua Frazer James | 1,805,000 |
| 7 | Charles Revil | 1,800,000 |
| 8 | Agharzi Babayev | 1,745,000 |
| 9 | Brandon Sheils | 1,530,000 |
| 10 | Turbo Nguyen | 1,530,000 |
| Notables | ||
| 11 | Chris Brewer | 1,505,000 |
| 46 | Ari Engel | 995,000 |
| 63 | Vanessa Kade | 845,000 |
| 201 | Joe Cada | 335,000 |
| 220 | Ryan Riess | 280,000 |
Full chip count on WSOP
Event #37: $10,000 Big O Championship
| Place | Player | Chips |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Wing Po Liu | 583,500 |
| 2 | Dylan Weisman | 447,000 |
| 3 | Ryan Hughes | 419,500 |
| 4 | Farid Jattin | 417,500 |
| 5 | Yuval Bronshtein | 406,000 |
| 6 | Shiva Dudani | 360,500 |
| 7 | David Williams | 358,000 |
| 8 | Tim Seidensticker | 349,000 |
| 9 | Christian Harder | 323,500 |
| 10 | Cary Aronson | 309,500 |
| Notables | ||
| 20 | Freddy Deeb | 261,000 |
| 31 | Mike Matusow | 197,000 |
| 45 | Erick Lindgren | 161,000 |
| 101 | Brian Rast | 40,000 |
Full chip count on WSOP
Bracelet winners
- Event #1: $5,000 Champions Reunion – Asher Conniff (USA)
- Event #2: $500 Casino Employees No-Limit Hold’em – Jose Garcia (USA)
- Event #3: $500 Kickoff No-Limit Hold'em Freezeout – Daniel Willis (UK)
- Event #4: $1,500 Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better (8-Handed) – James Chen (USA)
- Event #5: $1,000 Mystery Millions - Malcolm Trayner (Australia)
- Event #6: $25,000 Heads-Up No-Limit Hold'em Championship – Darius Samual (UK)
- Event #7: $1,500 Dealer's Choice – John Hennigan (USA)
- Event #8: $5,000 Pot Limit Omaha (8-Handed) - Bryce Yockey (USA)
- Event #9: $1,500 Limit Hold'em (8-Handed) - Nick Guagenti (USA)
- Event #10: $10,000 Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better Championship - Scott Seiver (USA)
- Event #11: $1,500 Badugi - David Prociak (USA)
- Event #12: $1,500 6-Handed No-Limit Hold’em - Simeon Spasov (Bulgaria)
- Event #13: $10,000 Dealers Choice Championship - Robert Mizrachi (USA)
- Event #14: $1,000 Super Turbo Bounty No Limit Hold'em - Thibault Perissat (France)
- Event #15: $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better - Caleb Furth (USA)
- Event #16: $5,000 No-Limit Hold'em - Brent Hart (USA)
- Event #17: $800 No-Limit Hold'em Deepstack - TJ Murphy (USA)
- Event #18: $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha - Dylan Weisman (USA)
- Event #19: $10,000 Limit Hold'em Championship - John Racener (USA)
- Event #20: $300 Gladiators of Poker No-Limit Hold'em - Stephen Winters (USA)
- Event #21: $25,000 High Roller No-Limit Hold'em (6-Handed) - Brek Schutten (USA)
- Event #22: $1,500 Limit 2-7 Lowball Triple Draw (6-Handed) - Aaron Cummings (USA)
- Event #23: Event #23: $1,500 SHOOTOUT No-Limit Hold'em - Dan Sepiol (USA)
- Event #24: $10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better Championship - Sean Troha (USA)
- Event #25: $3,000 Limit Hold'em 6-Handed - Daniel Vampan (USA)
- Event #26: $25,000 High Roller No-Limit Hold'em (8-Handed) - Nick Schulman (USA)
- Event #27: $1,500 Big O - Michael Christ (USA)
- Event #28: $1,500 Freezeout No-Limit Hold'em - Evan Benton (USA)
- Event #29: $10,000 Limit 2-7 Triple Draw Championship (6-Handed) - Phil Ivey (USA)
- Event #30: $600 Mixed No-Limit Hold'em/Pot-Limit Omaha Deepstack - Alen Bakovic (Canada)
- Event #31: $3,000 No-Limit Hold'em 6-Handed - Nicholas Seward (USA)
- Event #32: $1,500 Seven Card Stud - Richard Ashby (UK)
- Event #33: $600 Pot-Limit Omaha Deepstack (8-Handed) - Alex Manzano (Chile)
