More gold bracelets being snatched up at the 2024 World Series of Poker in Las Vegas with the annual festival into the halfway mark at the Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas Resorts. Among the recently minted were players taking it to the limit for the first time. Have a read down below.
Latest 2024 WSOP Winners
Chris Hunichen Long Awaited Victory at Event #47: $100K High Roller
112 entries brought the prize pool to $10,836,000 for the 2024 WSOP Event #47: $100K High Roller No-Limit Hold’em Championship. Only 17 places from the field would be part of the payout in a tournament that went on for three days of exciting poker.
Only 6 players returned for the final table on Day 3, and of the six players it was only Chris Hunichen and starting day chip leader Viktor Blom, who didn’t have any WSOP bracelets. The other pros on the final table had impressive records with the likes of Latvian pro Aleksejs Ponakovs with 2 bracelets and 30+ cashes; Justin Saliba, who had 2 WSOP bracelets and 70+ cashes; Chance Kornuth with 3 bracelets and 90+ cashes; and Jeremy Ausmus with 6 bracelets and over 130 cashes.
In fact, future Poker Hall of Famer Jeremey Ausmus was eyed as the favorite to bag his 7th WSOP Bracelet in the final heads-up vs Hunichen. However, the poker gods favored Hunichen in the final hand when Hunichen pushed all-in on a flop of 
, flopping top pair with his 
. Ausmus, however, had him dominated with a 
overpair. The turn was the 
.
Hunchen breathed a heavy sigh, saying “I can’t believe I’m going to get second in another on these fucking tournaments man,” he said to his rail. But then a 
appeared on the river, giving him a winning trips. His rail went wild, being one of the loudest final tables of the 2024 WSOP so far. Hunichen shared the victory with his rail, saying that their energy helped in getting in the heads of the other guys. “Anything to throw them f their game is a huge thing for me.”
“No one’s ever due in poker, but I feel like I was due,” Hunichen told PokerNews in a winner’s interview. “And I’ve been in this position a couple times, got unlucky, a couple seconds. It was my time.
Hunichen’s close calls included a runner-up finish in a 2022 online $25,000 High Roller worth $1.3 million and third place at the 2022 $250,000 Super High Roller for $1.9 million.
Finally, he made it all the way as a champion in the $100K High Roller, taking home his first-ever WSOP gold bracelet and a huge $2,838,389 payout.
Ausmus earned $1,892,260 for his runner-up finish while Swedish online poker sensation Blom finished third for $1,311,091. Hunichen went to social media and dedicated the win to his late father, and promised that his upcoming annual Fourth of July party may yet be the biggest of them all.
Pedro Neves Uses His Monster Stack To Win A Bracelet
Pedro Neves of Portugal started Day 4 of Event #38 $1,500 Monster Stack No-Limit Hold’em with a less than average stack of around 19 big blinds with 62 players still competing out of 8,703 entries. At one point of the first level of that day, he was even down to less than 6 big blinds, but somehow crawled his way from the bottom by doubling up through the likes of Federico Castaing and Noel Eicher.
Day 4 continued on, and when it was down to the final 19 players, Neves reeled in a monster pot of 90,000,000 chips winning a set vs set showdown over Jonas Christensen. He grew his stack even more when he eliminated both Fausto Valdez and Alex Abariotes in one hand.
On Day 5, seven players made up the final table with nearly 40% of the chips going to chip leader Neves, who had almost twice the stack of the second in chips, Aaron Johnson. He still had to eliminate his last six opponents on Day 5 to claim his first-ever WSOP bracelet, and he managed to do so, keeping his chip lead until the end.
The magical moment came during the final heads-up play when Neves limped at the button, then snap-called when Johnson moved all in for 63,400,000. Johnson showed 
versus the suited 
of Neves. The flop came 
giving Johnson a straight draw and Neves a flush draw. The turn completed Johnson’s wheel straight, bringing cheers from his rail. But it was the supporters from the rail of Neves that eventually erupted as a 
gave Neves the flush, the first place prize of $1,098,220 and his first WSOP bracelet.
Johnson took second place for $732,329. Despite having one of the shortest stacks at the beginning of the final day, Jerry Maher made it to a respectable third place for $550,920.
Among the top finishers from Asia was India’s Paawan Bansal, who earned $46,448 for a 45th place finish. Japanese players Juto Misaka and Kosei Ichinose finished 97th and 100th respectively with 1,307 players making it in the money.
Magnus Edengren Finally Bags First WSOP Bracelet
WSOP 2024 Event #43: Mixed Omaha added an unscheduled Day 4 to the tournament after a grueling Day 3, where the battle between 22 hopefuls couldn’t determine a winner. The final casualty on Day 3 was none other than Phil Hellmuth, who had to settle for fourth place and $64,324.
Only 3 players came back to the final table with Sweden’s Magnus Edengren returning as the chip leader with 10,500,000, joined by James Juvancic (6,275,000) and Tim Seidensticker (5,010,000), both of the USA.
It took only 35 minutes of action to crown a winner. Out of a field of 853 entries, it was Edengren who defeated Juvancic and Seidensticker in quick succession to earn his first WSOP Bracelet and the first for Sweden in the WSOP 2024 bracelet tally.
Edengren had made three small WSOP cashes in 2013 and 2018, and added two cashes more this 2024 by making a deep run at the earlier Event #24: $10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better Championship where he finished in 12th place for $28,891 and cashed 35th in Event #37: $10,000 Big O Championship for $20,306.
Of course, the biggest moment for Endengren was a the six figure $196,970 payout and his first WSOP bracelet. Seidensticker cashed in $131,308 for second place while Juvancic got paid $91,132 for third.
Edengren prefers playing the Omaha variants and looks to continue his success with his time in Vegas. In an interview with media, Edengren shared,
“Just four cards for me. If there are any of those tournaments while I am in Las Vegas, I will play them,” he says.
Notable cashes among the Asian players in this event include Fei Chu of China, who made the final table and busted 7th place for payout of $25,100. India’s Jay Harwood cashed $6,286 at 29th and Thailand star Punnat Punsri took home $5,346 for 35th place.
Jared Kingery Claims First WSOP Bracelet and in Event #44: $2,000 No-Limit Hold’em
1,561 players competed for their share of a $2,778,580 prize pool in the WSOP 2024 Event #44: $2,000 No-Limit Hold’em. The tournament took on three intense days of battle and a global showdown on the ten-handed final table with players representing the United States (4) (Spain (3), India (2) and Romania (1).
The final table started with Spain’s Javier Gomez (7,450,000) with a slight chip lead over Indian players Kavin Shah (7,100,000) and Yasheel Doddananvar (6,375,000) who were second and third in chips respectively.
A lot of back and forth action saw some changes in the standings, but in the end it was Jared Kingery who defeated Javier Gomez in the final heads-up hand. Both players hit their top Ace on the turn, but the Queen of Kingery outplayed the Jack kicker of Gomez to notch him first first ever WSOP bracelet and a payout of $410,359. Gomez settled for a $273,581 for his runner-up finish.
The closest Jared Kingery ever finished was as the runner-up in the 2022 WSOP of Event #5: $500 The Housewarming, which was the tournament that commemorated the WSOP’s move to Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas.
For Asia, Doddanavar finished 6th for a $79,676 prize while Shah finished 7th for $60,317. Deeper down the rung, Chinese bracelet holder Qiang Xu finished 42nd for $10,272 and James Chen of Taiwan finished 48th to take home $8,739.
Maksim Pisarenko of Russia Wins First WSOP Bracelet in Event #45: $10,000 H.O.R.S.E. Championship
Only 181 players signed up to the 2024 WSOP Event #45: $10,000 H.O.R.S.E. Championship. It may be a low turn-out for players, but there are only a few in the world who would compete in a multi-discipline poker tournament that involved a deep knowledge of Hold’em, Omaha Hi/Lo, Razz, Seven Card Stud and Eight or Better (Stud Hi/Lo).
It wasn’t an easy task for Russia’s Pisarenko, who admitted he was intimidated by the final table that seated such poker greats as WSOP bracelet winners Benny Glaser, Steve Zolotow, Lawrence Brandt and Mike Leah. Those 4 players have 10 WSOP Bracelets among them with Glaser holding 5 for himself.
At the final heads-up, Pisarenko and Leah went to battle for over three hours with Pisarenko eventually winning to claim his first WSOP gold bracelet and the $399,988 prize for the champion. Leah claimed $266,658 for his runner-up finish. Brandt, Zolotow and Glaser finished 3rd, 4th and 5th respectively.
*Article by JJ Duque
Tricia David
Tricia David has long experience as a recreational poker player and has been covering poker events since 2010 for numerous outfits in Asia. She spent one year working part time with Poker Portal Asia then became editor and lead writer for all event coverage of the Philippine Poker Tour (PPT). Under the PPT, she overlooked content for their website, and produced live updates on all their events. In addition, she served as the live and online events website content writer for the Asian Poker Tour. Currently, she does live events reporting in Asia for online news site Somuchpoker and is also one of their news contributors.
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