It began on July 3 with starting stacks of 60,000 and a big blind of 200. After a day’s rest on July 15, nine of the 10,112 players in this year’s Main Event will return to big blinds of 1.6M - 8,000 times the starting big blind. The average stack is 67M. The short stack at the table has over 300 times their starting stack. Suffice to say, it’s been a long week.
We’ve seen cash game players trying their luck, a husband-and-wife team living the dream, impressive runs from recreational players, Hall-of-Famers, octogenarians and dealers. And of course, we came close to seeing only the second woman at the final table in almost 30 years.
Great as all those stories are, they are now background to the real business at hand. Nine remain, all are guaranteed a million dollars, but only one will claim the $10 million and the title of poker’s World Champion.
From the largest to the shortest stacks, let’s take a closer look at the cast in this year’s fascinating finale.
Jordan Griff (USA): 143,700,000 chips
A resident of Schaumburg, IL, Griff comes into the final table with the most chips but the least recorded tournament earnings of $47,192.
A big chunk of Griff's stack was acquired late on Day 8 with just 10 players remaining. Griff flopped bottom set and called two streets of action from Joe Serock, who had flopped the nut straight. The river saw Griff’s set improve to an unbeatable four-of-a-kind, propelling him to the top of the chip counts.
That Griff was still in the running late on is thanks to a miracle two-outer in the very first hand of the day, when - all-in for his tournament life - he rivered a queen to make a higher set than Jesse Bryant.
“It’s insane, it’s a dream, it’s more than I ever wished for,” a visibly emotional Griff told PokerGO after the action wrapped on Day 8. “The emotions are at an all–time high. It’s been a roller coaster all day today… it’s been incredible highs, lows, but I’m here now.”
He sure is, and with a stack of that size it will take some doing to get him out of the way. The father-to-be has locked up a career-best cash of over 50x his previous biggest payout of $18,104, from a 9th place finish at a World Series of Poker Circuit event in California.
Brian Kim (USA): 94,600,000 chips
California-born Kim now resides in Sydney, Australia, and has the most recorded live tournament earnings of the group with $7,332,360.
His first WSOP cash came back in the 2012 Main Event, but the bulk of Kim’s winnings have been amassed over the past three years. In that time he’s won a WSOP Online bracelet, an Aria High Roller, and final-tabled multiple big buy-in events on the Triton tour, in the US Poker Open and more, as well as deep runs in side events during last year’s WPT World Championships.
Kim’s biggest live score to date is $954,000, from a third place finish at the Triton Poker Super High Roller Series in Jeju.
With a wealth of experience in high rollers and super high rollers, Kim is a player we expect to cope well with the pressure of the situation.
Niklas Astedt (Sweden): 94,200,000 chips
Astedt, of Goteborg, Sweden, has total live tournament earnings of $3,031,190, but it’s not his exploits in the live arena that have forged his reputation. Going by the name ‘Lena900’, Astedt is believed to be the most successful online tournament player of all time.
With online winnings of over $48 million, he has a fearsome and unmatched resume of success, racking up multiple millions of dollars on each of GGPoker, PokerStars, partypoker and bwin, as well as over a million dollars on 888poker.
His biggest live score to date came at EPT Barcelona in 2015, where a fourth place finish in a €10,300 High Roller awarded him $380,245.
With his extensive tournament experience and record-setting online winnings, Astedt is unlikely to be phased by the prize money or an unfamiliar situation.
Joe Serock (USA): 83,600,000 chips
Now a resident of San Diego, CA, Serock originally hails from New Mexico, and sits at number one on the state’s all-time money list with total live earnings of $4,576,760.
Those winnings have been accumulated across almost 20 years and in a wide variety of locations, from the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure in the Bahamas to the European Poker Tour, the WPT and the WSOP, where he has cashed literally dozens of times.
Serock has three cashes from WSOP side events in 2024, not to mention six more cashes from WSOP online events during the series, with his best result of the summer coming in the $1,500 Monster Stack event where he finished 69th for over $17K.
Serock made the final table of the WSOP Online Main Event in 2021, finishing fifth for $804,191, so is used to paying for big money at a final table. And while that was an online event, he also has experience playing under the lights: his biggest live score of $341,783 came at the WSOP in 2009, when he finished second in the $2.5K NLH event.
Serock comes across as a player who doesn’t get flustered easily. “It’s been like a normal tournament for me so far” he told us at the end of Day 8.
Jason Sagle (Canada): 67,300,000 chips
Sagle, of Niagara Falls, ON, sits in the middle of the pack heading into the final table and is another player who should be able to keep his head under the glare of the poker world’s scrutiny.
He’s previously made final tables at the WSOP, the Wynn, the PCA and the WPT, where he scored his best live score to date of $600,455 at the WPT North American Poker Championships in Niagara Falls, finishing runner-up in its C$10,300 Main Event.
With total live earnings of $1,685,165, a sixth place finish here ($2M) would more than double his career winnings, but don’t expect the pressure to get to him. “Nothing’s gonna phase me,” Sagle told PokerGO ahead of the final table, “I try to keep an even keel.”
Boris Angelov (Bulgaria): 52,900,000 chips
One of four Europeans at this year’s final table, Angelov is based in Bulgaria’s capital of Sofia and has been running up a seriously impressive tournament resume over the past three years.
His live earnings total $903,109 - all won since summer 2021 - and have come in events on the EPT, the WSOP Europe, WSOP Online and more. In the last couple of months alone he’s cashed in two WSOP live side events and three WSOP Online events, all coming hot on the heels of a runner-up finish at the EPT Monte Carlo Main Event.
That brought Angelov his biggest single live score so far of $663,565, and represents his deepest run to date as he is yet to notch a live tournament win. If ever there was a time to do it, it’s now.
Jonathan Tamayo (USA): 26,700,000 chips
Tamayo, of Humble, TX, is no stranger to the business end of a live tournament. With four wins on the WSOP Circuit - as well as previous final table appearances at the WSOP, the PCA, the PokerGO Tour and the Seminole Hard Rock Showdown - Tamayo has chops when it comes to playing for all the marbles.
He also has form playing the ‘Big Dance’. The biggest chunk of Tamayo’s $2,301,219 in live tournament winnings came with a deep run in the 2009 WSOP Main Event, where he finished in 21st spot for a $352,832 payout. He also made it to heads-up in a WSOP mixed hold’em event in 2008, and final-tabled a WSOP HORSE event in 2011.
Tamayo has experience on his side then, for sure, but with one of the shorter stacks at the table will need to make some moves sooner rather than later.
Malo Latinois (France): 25,500,000 chips
Parisian Latinois is not a tournament regular on this side of the Atlantic, with all of his previous recorded results coming either in Europe or French-speaking Morocco.
Those results - which tally up to $96,515 in total live earnings - go back less than three years and don’t yet feature a tournament win, with his deepest runs currently two third place finishes at low buy-in side events at the Winamax Poker Open in Bratislava, Slovakia.
His biggest score to date came last year in the EPT Paris Main Event, where he finished 16th on home soil for a payout of $52,951.
Wherever he ends up this week, this will be his first cash in the USA and will boost his lifetime earnings by more than 10 times. He is also now guaranteed a top 100 spot in France’s all-time money list.
Andres Gonzalez (Spain): 18,300,000 chips
Gonzalez, of Cartagena in Spain, brings the shortest stack to the final table with little more than 10 big blinds, so will need to make some moves early on to boost his chances of a career-defining win.
However things play out, Gonzalez has already enjoyed a successful series, with his third place finish in the $1,500 Freezeout ($201,518) all but tripling his lifetime earnings to $294,249.
He cashed eight times during the WSOP Online in 2020, another seven times during the 2021 online international WSOP, and has also made waves on the Estrellas Poker Tour in his native Spain.
Gonzalez’s lifetime earnings before this summer’s WSOP were under $100K; by the time the series ends he will be in the top 25 of Spain’s all-time money list with at least $1,294,249. Not bad going for a summer trip to Las Vegas.
Players are on a day’s break in the 2024 WSOP Main Event, and will be returning on Tuesday, July 16 at 1:30pm to play down to a final four. You can watch the action at PokerGO and stay up to speed wherever you are with our Instant Live coverage. Player data from The Hendon Mob.
