At a series where jewelry usually rains down like confetti, Monday at the World Series of Poker was a drought. There were no final tables which meant no bracelets being handed out. Instead, survival was the order of Day #28, with one eye on setting up a run for the big prizes ready to be doled out later in the week.
Obdurate Obst first again; Negreanu and Ivey sticking around
There will be no bigger prize awarded this week than the $1,178,703 confirmed for the winner of the $50,000 Poker Players Championship. This tournament, considered by many to be the most prestigious at the WSOP, closed registration with 89 entries and a prize pool of $4,249,750, slightly down on the numbers from last year.
No matter. It was, as expected, a gathering of the game's greatest, though only 29 battled through to Day 3. There was a quick hello and goodbye to two-time champ Dan Cates. Mixed games titans Benny Glaser, Shaun Deeb, Matt Ashton and John Hennigan were also among those who came and went. Likewise Phil Hellmuth, who was the last player to hit the rail on Day 2.
None could challenge the supremacy of James Obst, the Australian pro who has set up residency this year at the top of WSOP chip counts. Obst, who won his second career bracelet in the $10,000 Razz Championship last week, led at the end of the PPC's first day, and he leads still at the end of the second. With debates raging about the ethics and efficacy of late registering tournaments, Obst showed that it's possible to do it the old fashioned way: turn up early and lead from the start.
They will play into the money on Day 3, by which point Obst may have been challenged at the top of the counts by an incredibly talented chasing pack, including Jeremy Ausmus (second overnight), Joao Vieira (sixth), Daniel Negreanu (seventh), Michael Mizrachi (eighth) or Phil Ivey (14th). But then again, maybe not.
All that is certain is that the winner of this thing is once again going to be a superstar. The field is packed with them.
More than 300 continue hunt for latest million
No one ever said winning a million dollars was easy, but it rarely gets harder than in the Millionaire Maker at the WSOP. This $1,500 buy-in event attracted 10,939 entries, and after it played through Day 2 on Monday, more than 300 still remain.
The end is in sight, but it's still a long way away.
While Canada's Sebastien Sigouin took the lead after a fine showing on Day 2, bracelet winners such as Timur Margolin, Gabriel Schroeder, Chris Moorman and Joseph Cheong also bagged top 50 stacks, along with China's top talent Zhou Quan and form-player Ankit Ahuja. There's real quality among the masses in this field.
Players are in the money and guaranteed at least $7,200. The five-figure paydays don't kick in until only 161 players are left, while the top 11 will be going home with six figures. The winner and runner up will both be millionaires, with $1,250,125 and $1,001,170 on offer to the final two competitors.
At this stage, it's not entirely certain even the precise number of players still remaining. The official counts, released at the end of the night, show a few duplications in names and stacks. Suffice to say they will reach a champion - eventually.
Super Seniors fill the room
Poker is a young man's game. At least that's the conventional wisdom - but conventional wisdom is an ass. Days after the WSOP Seniors Event packed 7,954 entries into the halls of the Horseshoe/Paris, the Super Seniors rode into town, bringing another 3,362 entries, each for $1,000 apiece.
The Super Seniors event is open to players aged 60 or older, and there are far, far more of them than you might have previously believed. Enough to generate a prize pool of close to $3 million for the tournament, of which the eventual winner will claim $368,025.
Arguably the best-known name riding high in the chip counts overnight is the godfather of French poker Bruno Fitoussi, who is in sixth, while four-time bracelet winner Farzad Bonyadi is in 18th, and fellow bracelet winners Tong Li and Luis Zedan sit in the top 100.
There are 901 players left, with David Goodkin occupying the outright lead, from Paul Runge and Robert Nolen. The money bubble will burst on Tuesday, when the player in 506th departs.
Main Event champs and bracelet winners also on form
Two more tournaments got underway on Monday: the $3K No Limit Hold'em and the $2,500 Mixed: Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better; Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo 8 or Better. As one might have predicted, there were about a thousand more players in the former than in the latter, but the big names dominate in the mixed games.
Taking the $3K first: There were 1,441 entries, but registration will only close on Day 2, so expect that number to rise considerably. After the opening 10 levels, 539 players remain, with Yanfeng Wang out in front.
One of this year's breakout stars Darius Samual has once again bagged a top 10 stack, with other notable names including Roman Hrabec, Daniel Hachem and Julien Sitbon also likely happy with their first day endeavors.
On a day where some tired old opinions about women in poker were once again aired by some people who should probably know better (and some morons on social media, who never will), Jessica Teusl, Kristen Foxen, Kitty Kuo, Monika Zukowicz and Vanessa Kade were among the women who let their skills do the talking. They will return for more on Tuesday.
In the Omaha/Stud mix, three-time bracelet winner Chad Eveslage is a pip above five-time bracelet winner Robert Mizrachi in the overnight counts, though both look up to Joe Shammas who leads the 189 players remaining in this one. Eveslage and Mizrachi are second and third, respectively.
Registration is closed in this tournament, with the 507 entries putting $1,128,075 and guaranteeing $222,703 for the winner. ESPN's WSOP commentator Norman Chad is putting his money where his mouth is and finished the day in 13th place overall, one place ahead of 2004 Main Event runner up David Williams.
There are bracelets aplenty slightly further down the counts too, where Benny Glaser, David Prociak, Scott Clements, Ari Engel and Brandon Shack-Harris lurk with intent. Main Event champ Joe Hachem has also pulled up a chair to play and will do so again tomorrow, having finished the day with a stack somewhere near the middle of the survivors.
Both these tournaments will take meaningful shape through a long Day 2 on Tuesday.
Photo of the day
Everyone is happy at the end of the first day of the Super Seniors event.
Hand of the day
There are always fireworks when aces go up against kings, but when it happens in seven-card stud, and in the $50K Poker Players Championship, and with the last card delivering another hidden twist, it's in a slightly different league.
Here's a hand in which Alex Wilkinson manages to fold a pair of jacks with four cards still to come, and it's a barely relevant subplot. The main players are Michael Mizrachi and Michael Noori and what starts out intriguing, soon gets ugly.
At the very least, you can add this term to your poker glossary: the 'roll down'.
Tweet of the day
The guy peddling Norm Chad tattoos had had a rough World Series. Until he found a new customer.
Video of the day
"I don't know if they can read me with this on."
The question is, what would they learn if they could?
The day in numbers
-10
The $50,000 Poker Players Championship witnessed a surprising decrease in numbers year on year, bucking a clear trend established across the rest of the 2024 WSOP. There were 99 entries last year, when Brian Rast won, but 'only' 89 this time around.
+241
Net growth of the $1,000 Super Seniors Event at the WSOP. Last year there were 3,121 over 60s taking a shot. This year, 3,362. With an aging global population, when does the Super Super Seniors (Mega Seniors?) event begin?
0
Bracelets awarded on Day #28.
Coming up on Day #29
Three events get under way on Tuesday, with none requiring players to dig too deep, relatively speaking. Event #62 is the PokerNews Deepstack Championship No-Limit Hold'em, which has a meagre $600 buy-in and only one re-entry allowed. It's sure to pack in the players.
If anyone fancies getting a tiny bit more creative, Event #63: $1,500 No-Limit 2-7 Lowball Draw might appeal. Cigar chomping and Stetsons are optional, but surely not discouraged for this one. The third choice is to stay at home and play the $1,000 buy-in WSOP Online Event #13, which is a NLH freezeout.
It's also going to be Day 2 of the $1,000 Super Seniors, where the very youngest players in the field are 60 years old. It's Day 2 in Event #60: $3,000 NLH and Event #61: $2,500 Mixed: Omaha Hi-Lo 8/Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo 8.
Meanwhile the Poker Players Championship will play through Day 3 and the latest $1,500 Millionaire Maker is going to play down to a manageable field on its official Day 3 too.
Day 28 gallery
Results
No tournament played to a winner today.
Ongoing tournaments
Event #54: $1,500 Millionaire Maker No-Limit Hold'em
| Place | Player | Chips |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sebastien Sigouin | 2,615,000 |
| 2 | Connor Rash | 2,550,000 |
| 3 | Jeremy Surinach | 2,550,000 |
| 4 | Jason Sagle | 2,385,000 |
| 5 | Timur Margolin | 2,320,000 |
| 6 | Vitalijs Zavorotnijs | 2,305,000 |
| 7 | Gabriel Schroeder | 2,295,000 |
| 8 | Jason Hickey | 2,240,000 |
| 9 | Sasha Guerin | 2,170,000 |
| 10 | Rudy Cervantes | 2,160,000 |
| Notables | ||
| 31 | Chris Moorman | 1,695,000 |
| 37 | Zhou Quan | 1,570,000 |
| 40 | Ankit Ahuja | 1,510,000 |
| 44 | Joseph Cheong | 1,500,000 |
| 99 | Justin Pechie | 1,030,000 |
Full chip counts on WSOP
Event #58: $50,000 Poker Players Championship
| Place | Player | Chips |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | James Obst | 1,961,000 |
| 2 | Jeremy Ausmus | 1,839,000 |
| 3 | Johannes Becker | 1,764,000 |
| 4 | Jared Bleznick | 1,546,000 |
| 5 | David Benyamine | 1,531,000 |
| 6 | Joao Vieira | 1,428,000 |
| 7 | Daniel Negreanu | 1,341,000 |
| 8 | Michael Mizrachi | 1,329,000 |
| 9 | Bryce Yockey | 1,255,000 |
| 10 | Hal Rotholz | 1,055,000 |
| Notables | ||
| 14 | Phil Ivey | 815,000 |
| 21 | Stephen Chidwick | 604,000 |
| 22 | Viktor Blom | 570,000 |
| 26 | Gus Hansen | 395,000 |
Full chip counts on WSOP
Event #59: $1,000 Super Seniors No-Limit Hold'em
| Place | Player | Chips |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | David Goodkin | 349,500 |
| 2 | Paul Runge | 275,000 |
| 3 | Robert Nolen | 264,000 |
| 4 | Nicholas Bennett | 258,000 |
| 5 | Ron Fetsch | 243,000 |
| 6 | Bruno Fitoussi | 236,000 |
| 7 | Edward Harris | 234,000 |
| 8 | Thomas Mcdonald | 234,000 |
| 9 | Mark Ebner | 233,500 |
| 10 | Kevin O'Donnell | 231,000 |
| Notables | ||
| 18 | Farzad Bonyadi | 203,500 |
| 68 | Tong Li | 149,700 |
| 80 | Luis Zedan | 140,500 |
| 87 | Lee Markholt | 136,500 |
| 110 | Larry Wright | 127,500 |
| 115 | Kevin Song | 125,000 |
| 116 | Robert Williamson | 125,000 |
| 118 | Jeffrey Tomlinson | 124,500 |
| 131 | Barry Schulman | 122,000 |
| 141 | Sammy Farha | 119,000 |
| 189 | Vasili Lazarou | 105,000 |
Full chip counts on WSOP
Event #60: $3,000 No-Limit Hold'em
| Place | Player | Chips |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Yanfeng Wang | 369,000 |
| 2 | Jose Ferreira | 369,000 |
| 3 | Daniel Gagne | 363,000 |
| 4 | Yan Li | 347,500 |
| 5 | Stephen Kehoe | 333,000 |
| 6 | Homan Mohammadi | 324,500 |
| 7 | Ramaswamy Pyloore | 306,500 |
| 8 | Brian Barker | 298,000 |
| 9 | Darius Samual | 290,000 |
| 10 | Carl Shaw | 283,000 |
| Notables | ||
| 14 | Joey Weisman | 276,000 |
| 26 | Roman Hrabec | 248,500 |
| 28 | Daniel Hachem | 244,500 |
| 35 | Julien Sitbon | 224,000 |
| 38 | James Carroll | 223,500 |
| 39 | Jessica Teusl | 221,000 |
| 40 | Franciso Benitez | 219,000 |
| 55 | Joe McKeehen | 203,000 |
| 59 | Kristen Foxen | 200,000 |
| 68 | Nick Pupillo | 189,000 |
| 77 | Adam Friedman | 176,000 |
| 89 | Ben Spragg | 163,000 |
Full chip counts on WSOP
Event #61: $2,500 Mixed: Omaha Hi-Lo 8 / Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo 8
| Place | Player | Chips |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Joe Shammas | 266,000 |
| 2 | Chad Eveslage | 259,000 |
| 3 | Robert Mizrachi | 258,500 |
| 4 | Venkata Tayi | 250,500 |
| 5 | Ziya Rahim | 246,000 |
| 6 | Kevin Chance | 227,500 |
| 7 | Takehiko Nakajima | 217,000 |
| 8 | Gary Benson | 213,000 |
| 9 | Jose Ferro | 212,500 |
| 10 | Terrence Hastoo | 205,500 |
| Notables | ||
| 13 | Norman Chad | 187,000 |
| 14 | David Williams | 185,500 |
| 22 | Benny Glaser | 164,000 |
| 26 | David Prociak | 153,000 |
| 29 | Scott Clements | 149,500 |
| 38 | Ari Engel | 138,000 |
| 42 | Brandon Shack-Harris | 127,000 |
| 63 | Joe Hachem | 107,500 |
Full counts 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)
- Event #34: $2,500 No-Limit Hold'em Freezeout - Antonio Galiana (Spain)
- Event #35: $1,500 H.O.R.S.E. - Phillip Hui (USA)
- Event #36: $800 No-Limit Hold'em Deepstack (8-Handed) – Timur Margolin (Israel)
- Event #37: $10,000 Big O Championship – John Fauver (USA)
- Event #39: $50,000 High Roller No-Limit Hold'em (8-Handed) - Sergio Aido (Spain)
- Event #40: $1,500 Razz – Scott Seiver (USA)
- Event #41: $1,500 Mixed No-Limit Hold'em/Pot Limit Omaha Double Board Bomb Pot - Xixiang Luo (China)
- Event #42: $10,000 Seven Card Stud Championship - James Obst (Australia)
- Event #43: $1,500 Mixed: PLO Hi-Lo 8; Omaha Hi-Lo 8; Big O - Magnus Edengren (Sweden)
- Event #44: $2,000 No-Limit Hold'em - Jared Kingery (USA)
- Event #45: $10,000 HORSE Championship - Maksim Pisarenko (Russia)
- Event #46: $1,000 Seniors No-Limit Hold'em Championship - Khang Pham (USA)
- Event #47: $100,000 High Roller No-Limit Hold'em - Chris Hunichen (USA)
- Event #48: $1,000 Pot-Limit Omaha (8-Handed) - Chris Vitch (USA)
- Event #49: $3,000 Freezeout No-Limit Hold'em - Erlend Melsom (Norway)
- Event #50: $10,000 Razz Championship - George Alexander (USA)
- Event #51: $1,500 Super Turbo Bounty No-Limit Hold'em Freezeout - Peter Park (USA)
- Event #52: $5,000 6-Handed No-Limit Hold’em – Mostafa Haidary (Australia)
- Event #53: $3,000 Nine Game Mixed - Yuri Dzivielevski (Brazil)
- Event #55: $250,000 Super High Roller – Santhosh Suvarna (India)
- Event #56: $2,500 Mixed Triple Draw Lowball (2-7, A-5, Badugi) – Patrick Moulder (USA)
- Event #57: $10,000 Super Turbo Bounty No-Limit Hold’em – Frank Funaro (USA)
