The field of 15 will be reduced to nine today on Day 8 of the 2023 World Series of Poker. The action has been incredible and the anticipation is growing as we can now put a face to the name of the future Main Event champion, who will take home a Main Event-record $12.1M.
At this stage of the tournament, we have a number of notables and a number of players you probably have never heard of before. We can’t blame you, neither have we.
Here are the standings going into the day:
- Juan Maceiras, Spain, 108,000,000
- Adam Walton, USA, 75,475,000
- Jan-Peter Jachtmann, Germany, 70,775,000
- Steven Jones, USA, 67,900,000
- Toby Lewis, UK, 50,050,000
- Ruslan Prydryk, Ukraine, 45,750,000
- Jose Aguilera, Spain, 37,600,000
- Joshua Payne, USA, 31,000,000
- Sachin Joshi, UK, 27,775,000
- Daniel Weinman, USA, 21,750,000
- Dean Hutchison, UK, 17,500,000
- Daniel Holzner, Italy, 14,750,000
- Alec Torelli, USA, 14,275,000
- Jack O’Neill, UK, 11,700,000
- Cong Pham, USA, 8,700,000
The A-Team
Toby Lewis
Widely known under his online moniker “810ofclubs”, Toby Lewis is arguably the most dangerous player left in the field. Lewis has won several millions online in addition to his $8,213,474 in live earnings. Back in 2011, 810ofclubs was ranked as the second-best online player in the world.
Lewis also knows how to get the job done in large-field live events. He’s won an EPT Main Event title, the Aussie Millions Main Event, two WSOP Circuit rings and finished third at the $10,000 2021 Wynn Millions.
Lewis, 153rd on the all-time money list, will be looking to further write his name in the history books and the majority of the top pros in the world will be cheering him on.
Alec Torelli
Torelli is one of the most famous high-stakes cash game players in the world and has always had a reputation for greatness.
In fact, back in 2009, Torelli was hand-picked by Doyle Brunson as one of the first three players in the “Brunson 10” to represent DoylesRoom.com.
The 36-year-old is the founder of Conscious Poker and, despite not having won a tournament outright since 2008, has $1,517,085 in career earnings. Torelli nearly won a bracelet in 2008 in the 256-player $10,000 heads-up tournament, falling to Kenny Tran. So, if Torelli can go deep, he has the tools to go the distance.
Daniel Weinman
The only other top-500 player on the all-time money list in the field, Weinman is about as established as anyone across all games. A WSOP bracelet winner and a WPT Champions Club member, Weinman has $3,757,357 in career tournament earnings and is looking to smash his personal-best score of $892,433 he won at the WPT Borgata Winter Poker Open back in 2017.
Weinman isn’t just limited to two-card poker either. He finished 9th at last year’s Poker Players Championship after winning a bracelet in the $1,000 PLO event. His 83 WSOP cashes rank top amongst the remaining players and Weinman knows how to play all the games. That extensive knowledge and experience could come in very handy late in the Main.
Jan-Peter Jachtmann
Despite only labeling himself a semi-pro, Jachtmann’s strong play once earned him a partypoker sponsorship.
While he isn’t a grinder, Jachtmann has still earned himself nearly $2M in career tournament earnings and has a bracelet to his name, winning the 2012 $10,000 PLO event for $661,000.
Unfortunately for Jachtmann, nicknamed “Mr. Omaha”, the bracelet only remains to his name as it was stolen in a home burglary back in 2014, which he said hurt him more than losing five-figures worth of cash. Jachtmann described it as “the worst Christmas of his life.”
The German marketing professional has so much pride for the game, he once established a German poker magazine called “Poker Blatt.”
The Solid Poker Resumes
Juan Maceiras Lapido Jr.
While your Day 7 chip leader is no slouch, he doesn’t play that many tournaments anymore. In fact, the proud Deportivo La Coruña fan doesn’t have a single tournament cash to his name since 2018.
But poker is in Lapido’s blood. The Spaniard is the son of online poker legend Vietcong01, who famously won the PokerStars Sunday Million for $192,000 one week in July 2007 and won the Sunday Warm-up the very next week for $83,000. In total, Vietcong01 would profit $484K for the year, with an insane ROI of 200%.
Lapido himself made three EPT Main Event final tables between 2007 and 2011, so don’t rule him out. He doesn’t have $1.1M in career tournament earnings for no reason.
Adam Walton
Adam Walton will have a star-studded rail and for good reason. The Seattle-born player comes into the day second in chips and knows how to handle the pressure of the Main Event, having finished 41st just two years ago.
Walton has several tournament wins in smaller events and nearly $1M in career tournament earnings, notably finishing second for a career-high $283,072 in last year’s $3,000 WPT World Championship side event.
Walton is the original Jeremy Becker, having won four events outright from February 15th to February 23rd two years ago, going on to win a total of 8 of his 10 career titles that year.
Jack O’Neill
Nottingham’s own Jack O’Neill has $1,241,332 in live tournament cashes and is coming off a WSOP Circuit ring victory in March.
This isn’t O’Neill’s first time running super-deep in a major event with buku bucks up top, as O’Neill finished 19th in the 2019 PokerStars Players Championship.
O’Neill has four outright wins to his name, including a €2,200 Deepstack event in 2018 at EPT Barcelona.
O’Neill will have his work cut out for him today, as he starts in 14th place with just 14.6 big blinds.
Dean Hutchison
Scotland’s own Dean Hutchison came to prominence in his home country in 2014, when he won Scotland’s biggest tournament, UKIPT Edinburgh, for $154,000, beating Liv Boeree in heads-up play.
Nicknamed ‘Sat-Nav’ by his friends because “he always seems to get there”, Hutchison is ranked 12th on Scotland’s all-time money list and is almost certain to have a rowdy rail.
This isn’t Hutchison’s first rodeo going deep at WSOP this year, having made the $1,500 Freezeout final table, finishing 9th from a 2,046-entry field.
With 83 results totaling $723,865, Hutchison is undoubtedly a true grinder.
Cong Pham
Pham is almost certain to not let the pressure of big money get to him. The large majority of Pham’s $668,878 in career tournament earnings have come from playing in some hefty buy-ins. In fact, Pham only has 18 results on his resume.
In spite of not having a result since 2019, Pham should be respected as he knows how to use his rungood. Pham has a 2013 Heartland Poker Tour title to his name in addition to a 3rd-place finish for $301,225 the same year at the WPT Borgata Poker Open Main Event.
He’ll need to activate his rungood immediately as he comes into the day last in chips, starting with less than 11 big blinds.
Ruslan Prydryk
With $461,758 in career tournament earnings, the Ukrainian isn’t going to just roll over. He’s dabbled in a large number of EPT Main Events, making a pair of final tables.
Prydryk has four outright titles to his name, including a 2014 EPT Deauville €1K side event.
He’s got his daughter on the rail, who admitted that a deep run would be huge for Prydryk and his family.
Hopefully, Prydryk can dodge the Jeff Platt curse.
Steven Jones
The Phoenix native has $235,040 in career tournament earnings to his name and knows what it’s like to run super-deep in ridiculous WSOP fields.
In 2018, Jones finished 9th in the 13,070-player Colussus, taking home a career-high $57,425, well short of the $1,000,000 top prize.
If Jones’ face looks familiar, that’s because he was also involved in the 2021 Tag Team final table, where he and partner Zachary Erdwurm finished 8th.
Sachin Joshi
The England native has $190,267 in career earnings, notably finishing 3rd in the 2019 GUKPT Luton Main Event for $41,833.
While Joshi’s live poker resume is limited to just 29 recorded cashes, an incredible 15 of those have been final-table scores, so watch out. Joshi can run deep.
The Out-of-Nowhere Types
Jose Aguilera
- Spain
- $12,377 in career tournament earnings
- $0 in tournament earnings before this summer.
Joshua Payne
- Atlanta, GA
- 23-year-old engineering student
- Day 6 Chip Leader
- High-Stakes $50/$100 cash player
- $28,283 in career tournament earnings
- 553rd-place finish in the 2022 WSOP Main Event ($25,500)
Daniel Holzner
- Italy
- $25,517 in career tournament earnings
- Plays mostly low-stakes tournaments in Austria
- Previous high-score of $5,944
