Martin Kabrhel came close to winning his fourth WSOP bracelet in the chaotic one-day $10,000 Super Turbo Bounty in the early hours of Saturday morning.
Kabrhel has been a big figure in Vegas this summer, with seven cashes, three final tables, and lots of noise — but a summer bracelet still eludes him. He finished fifth in the Super Turbo Bounty, with only the chip leader boasting a stack of (just) over 10 big blinds.
Kabrhel still had energy to burn, despite the tournament running until 3am. He was alternating between playing his hands and strutting over to the final table of the $50,000 Poker Players Championship, leading the rail in applause for Michael 'The Grinder' Mizrachi. Kabrhel took $212,926 for his latest deep WSOP run.
You can see and hear a sample of Kabrhel in the video below. This is after 12 solid hours of play, and whatever you think of him, you've simply got to admire that stamina.
German pro Rainer Kempe went on to win the bracelet and the $892,701 first prize.
Enright stars, Okamoto aims for back-to-back
Eighteen years ago, Barbara Enright became the first women to enter the Poker Hall of Fame -- a testament to her trailblazing work on behalf of all women in poker, as well as her three World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelets. The women's game has boomed since Enright first emerged on the scene, but bafflingly she remains the only female player to have made the final table of the WSOP Main Event. There have been plenty of near misses, but Enright's fifth-place finish in 1995 is still the best performance by a woman in the Big Dance.
At 75, Enright is still a force to be reckoned with, and tomorrow she will take a seat among the final 50 players in the $1,000 Ladies Championship at this year's WSOP, aiming for bracelet No 4. This field had a huge 1,368 entries, further underlining the popularity of the women's game, with Enright justified in taking a large amount of credit for that.
The Day 3 field also includes the two most recent former Ladies Event champions -- Tamar Abraham, who won in 2023, and chip-leading Shiina Okamoto, who won last year -- as well as online Ladies Event winner Jessica Marks. Seniors Champion from 2012 Allyn Shulman still has chips too, as well as Susan Faber, who won the Salute to Warriors event in 2019.
Enright is in the top half heading into Day 3.
A word, though, about Okamoto, who is once again riding high in this tournament. Okamoto finished second to Abraham in 2023 and returned the next year to take down her maiden bracelet. And, once again, the Japanese player heads the field in the deep stages of this event, with only fellow pro JJ Liu for close company at the top of the counts.
Further reading: Craig Tapscott talked to Farah Galfond and Angela Jordison about the Ladies Event.
Grinder eyes up fourth $50K PPC title
The remaining players in the $50K Poker Players Championship endured another late night as all-ins went the way of the short stacks again in the early hours of Saturday morning.
The plan was to play down to six, but that last player proved elusive to shake, and they bagged all seven at around 3am.
One thing is certain: we will have a winner tomorrow, and it might be Michael Mizrachi for the fourth time. He is the big chip leader and has almost double the chips of Andrew Yeh in second. It could also be a woman for the first time after Esther Taylor finished ahead of Ben Lamb, who brings the shortest stack back tomorrow for a 3pm restart.
You can read our full end-of-night report here.
Schulman shoots for eighth bracelet on Saturday
Nick Schulman won his seventh bracelet in the $10,000 2-7 Single Draw Championship a couple of weeks back. He's also made the shortlist for the 2025 Poker Hall of Fame, and if he wins his eighth bracelet tomorrow, the calls for him to be inducted will get louder.
Schulman is second in chips with nine players left in the $10,000 Limit 2-7 Triple Draw Championship. Matthew Schreiber is the only player with more chips, but Yuri Dzivielevski is third. That resumes at 1pm tomorrow.
Gonzalez Tops Last 16 in $3K
Uruguay's Fabrizio Gonzalez leads the final 16 players of the 2,338-entry field in the latest $3K No Limit Hold'em event, with former bracelet winners Romain Lewis (6th - 7.225 million) and Yuliyan Kolev (7th - 7.2 million) also in the top 10 overnight. Gonzalez's stack of 11.525 million is significantly clear of the chasing pack, with China's Yilong Wang second holding 8.375 chips.
There's an incredibly cosmopolitan make-up to the late stages in this one, with seven countries represented in the top seven: Uruguay, China, Lithuania, USA, India, France and Bulgaria. Further down, players from the UK and Israel also remain.
Two of the best-known contenders still involved -- the ever-vocal Ren Lin and the significantly quieter Olivier Busquet -- are both seeking their first WSOP bracelets, despite glittering careers and multiple wins elsewhere. Lin is ninth, with 4.925 million, and Busquet is 13th, returning to a 3.575 million stack.
The champion, due to be crowned Saturday, will win $830,685.
Zerjav Blazes to Second Bracelet
Young Slovenian star Blaz Zerjav further burnished his growing reputation with a second tournament win of the summer, adding victory in the $1,500 Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo 8 or Better to his earlier success in the $25,000 No-Limit Hold'em Six-Handed High Roller. In doing so, he denied Huck Seed a fifth career bracelet, which would have been his first since 2003.
Zerjav first made his name online, where he is known as 'Scarmak3r' and has secured numerous high-profile accolades, and over the past five years has emerged as a dangerous talent on the European live scene. But after a runner-up finish in the WSOP Paradise series last year, this breakout WSOP performance this year will introduce him to a wider audience. The second tournament win came from his seventh WSOP cash this time around, and came with a prize of $153,487. Zerjav becomes the second player to win two bracelets this time, after Benny Glaser.
As for Seed, the hunt for the elusive fifth title will continue through its 22nd year.
There was also a near miss for Michelle Konig in this one, who was knocked out in fourth. Sergei Tolkachov was third and another online mixed-games phenom Denis Strebkov was sixth.
"It's more thrilling than the first one," Zerjav told PokerOrg in the aftermath of his win. Read the rest of the interview with the winner in Mo Afdhal's full tournament report.
Weitzel Races to Super Seniors Win
The surrounding gangways might have been strewn with snail-paced accessibility scooters, but the $1K Super Seniors event provided one of the speediest final tables of the WSOP so far. While it's tempting to crack further wise about the need to get to the Early Bird restaurant specials, the haste of the final table was largely owing to a clinic in chip-lead conversion from overnight leader Lonny Weitzel.
Weitzel's cheering section was led by his wife Bonnie, and PokerOrg's Matt Hansen met both the new champion and his biggest fan for his tournament recap. The Weitzels are $356,494 richer thanks to Lonny's performance here, and he's the proud owner of a first WSOP bracelet after defeating a 3,338-entry field.
