2024 WSOP Latest Winners: Christopher Vitch, Erlend Melsom, George Alexander, Peter Park, Mostafa Haidary, Khang Pham, Yuri Dzivielevski

The 2024 World Series of Poker continues to crown champions everyday at the Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas. Out of the 99 coveted gold bracelets up for grabs, 53 have been claimed. Here are the latest winners.

2024 WSOP Latest Winners

Christopher Vitch Locks Up Career 3rd WSOP Gold Bracelet

2,212 poker hopefuls entered the 2024 WSOP Event #48: $1,000 Pot-Limit Omaha. After two days of exciting poker action, only 8 players returned for the final table on Day 3 to fight for the lion’s share of the $1,946,560 prize pool.

Only a few hands into the start of Day 3, German high-roller Christopher Frank fell short-stacked as he ran into the boat of two-time WSOP bracelet winner David Prociak. With only two big blinds left, Frank was taken out by Canadian pro Thomas Taylor on the next hand. From then on, it became all about Christopher Vitch, who began taking down pot after pot, engaging in as many pots as possible while playing aggressive poker. 

Prociak and Vitch took part in a hand that eliminated Kharlin Sued, although Vitch loss to Prociak with a smaller full house. He would come back at the beginning of level 30, when his Jacks full house would dent Prociak’s stack significantly. From then on, Vitch’s aggressive onslaught had him eliminate both Ioannis Angelou Konstas at 6th and Jay Harwood at 5th. Joe Firova was eliminated in 4th place.

As three-handed play began, David Prociak and Thomas Taylor had similar stacks while Vitch remained the dominant chip leader. Prociak began rebuilding his stack but was ultimately denied his third bracelet when his wrap couldn’t overcome Taylor’s pocket kings.

Taylor began heads-up play as a nearly three-to-one underdog, initiating a back-and-forth battle. Taylor seemed to be making a comeback after winning a few pots, but his run ended when he rivered a queen-high flush against Vitch’s king-high flush.

Vitch is better known for his skills in mixed-game varieties of poker, and confesses. “I’m not as experienced in PLO, so I just relied on my instincts.”

“It’s a strange day,” Vitch explained, as two years ago on this day his mom passed. “It feels kind of incredible, that it worked out that I won a random tournament on this day.” 

Among the Asian pros, Hong Kong’s WSOPE bracelet winner Hokyiu Lee had the best showing with a 13th place finish, Filipino-American Moses Saquing finished 15th, and China’s Biao Guo earned his first WSOP cash for 21st place.

First Bracelet for Erlend Melsom And Over Half A Mil

1,252 players registered for the 2024 WSOP Event #49: $3,000 Freezeout No-Limit Hold’em. The event collected a prize pool of $3,342,840 with many familiar names and previous bracelet winners vying for another bracelet and the top prize. Among them were the likes of Christopher Brewer, Joey Weissman, Martin Jacobson, and 2023 WSOP bracelet holder from China Weiran Pu who was the top performer among Asian players, finishing at 19th for $18,225. While they managed to make it in the money, all but one of the final 13 players, Maxx Coleman, made their way to Day 3, all hunting down their first ever WSOP gold bracelet.

The poker action was intense in the first level of play with Andjelko Andrejevic, Neil Warren, Ivan Ruban and Clemen Deng being eliminated from 13th to 10th respectively. Norwegian Erlend Melsom took out Andrejevic and Ruban which jumped him up to a sizable chip count and the confidence to believe that he could win it all. 

“I had a good start today; I started with around 5,000,000 chips and was able to get to around 12,000,000 chips, and that was the moment I felt like maybe I can win,” Melsom confessed.

It was Melsom that ultimately emerged victorious. After three long days of play, Melsom, who is not a frequent tournament or no-limit hold’em player, was able to take down the $523,195 first prize, the biggest live tournament cash of his life by about half a million, and his first WSOP bracelet.

Final Table action

With the final table of 9 underway, it was Morgan Petro who was the first to bust out in ninth place. The action quieted down a bit with small pots being exchanged between players, and just when the final table was getting ready to set up for livestream in the fourth hour, there was a succession of eliminations within just half an hour of each other. Uri Reichenstein, Joseph Carden and Maxx Coleman finished in 8th, 7th and 6th respectively. David Stamm and Jonathan Schwartz played a good game despite being on the short stack for most of the final table. Stamm was unlucky to be eliminated in fifth place despite holding the best hand preflop. His AK was not able to catch anything against the KQ of Schwartz. A few rounds later Schwartz jammed his remaining chips from the small blind to lose to Ben Hoy.

While Melsom was the chip leader going into the final table of 9, the chips were passed around as he lost a big hand against Hoy, who had been the tournament chip leader entering Day 2 and Day 3. Melsom, however, was able to bounce back and eventually eliminate Hoy in third place.

The Bulgarian Nikolay Yosifov started the final table 8th in chips, but worked his way to the chip lead during the last hours of the tournament, and entered the final heads-up versus Melsom as a slight favorite, and even took a 2-1 lead early in their clash. Melsom eventually was able to take the lead when a showdown of Melsom’s vs Yosifov’s gave Melsom a broadway straight on the river. If he missed the 5-outer, the WSOP bracelet would’ve gone to Yosifov.

A few hands later, Melsom’s would hold against the of Yosifov to bring him his first WSOP bracelet and his first cash for $523,195. Yosifov would earn $348,784 for his runner-up finish, marking his biggest cash and tallying his total WSOP cashes to 25.

George Alexander Wins First Gold At Razz Championship

“It’s been 15 years. I think I’ve made nine final tables.”

Those were the first words George Alexander said after he won the 2024 WSOP Event #50: #10,000 Razz Champiosnip, earning his first ever WSOP gold bracelet and a payout of $282,443 to go with it.

Prior to this win, George Alexander had a record of 24 WSOP cashes with seven top-ten finishes in WSOP events. His best result so far was a third place in the $1,500 Dealers Choice in 2018 with several final table appearances throughout his career.

In this 2024 World Series of Poker, Alexander cashed in Event #19: $10,000 Limit Hold-em Championship (16th), Event #35: $1,500 H.O.R.S.E. (119th) and more significantly, a seventh place finish in Event #13: The Dealers Choice Championship (6-handed).

Of course, nothing tops the cake like finally making it all the way to the top and winning the tournament with a WSOP bracelet and all.

“Quite emotional. I’ve been locked in all day. Didn’t want to think about how many chips I had or what was going on. I tried to play every hand as well as I could. It all just hit me at the end,” Alexander said.

”I’ve been playing in the World Series for about 15 years, so many final tables, but never quite got one so it’s a huge sigh of relief to finally get one.”

And it wasn’t an easy feat either. While the event only saw 118 entries, the players who enter this unpopular tournament are some of the best poker players in the world. Some of the big poker pros including the likes of Phil Ivey, John Racener, Denis Strebkov, Todd Brunson, Scott Seiver, Brian Yoon, Brandon Shack-Harris and Daniel Negreanu. It’s a challenge that Alexander relishes and makes his win all the more meaningful.

“Razz is one of my favorite games. A lot of people dismiss it. They say Razz is simple, boring, but I love the nuance in it. I think it has a lot of room for creativity. I’m quite happy that it came in Razz.”

Dzmitry Urbanovich of Poland was the runner-up and won $188,296 for his efforts. The very entertaining and flamboyant Ren Lin of China earned $130,447 for his third place finish. New Yorker Hal Rotholz bagged 4th for $92,744. 

Two-time WSOP Bracelet Winners Brandon Shack-Harris ($67,783), John Racener ($50,915)  and Denis Strebkov ($31,317) ended their journey at 5th, 6th and 8th respectively while Jared Bleznick ($39,350) came in at 7th to complete the final table.

Chinese poker pro Ren Lin had an amazing run and his fun antics at the felt certainly made for great entertainment during the livestream, but it wasn’t enough to win him a bracelet as he settled for a very respectable 3rd place, considering the top level of players in the field for this tournament.

Peter Park Races To Triumph At Super Turbo Bounty Freezeout

2,110 players registered for the 2024 WSOP Event #51: $1,500 Super Turbo Bounty for a chance to claim a share of the $1,761,850 prize pool, and a $500 bounty for every player they get to knock out of the tournament.

Naturally, with a faster-than-normal pace due to the turbo structure of the tournament, the action was rather intense with a lot of all-in shoves echoing through the Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas poker tournament hall.

The tournament opened at 10AM and was set to be finished within the day. Eventually, it took 16 hours before Peter Park emerged as the champion, to overcome Mark Dube heads-up and earn his first ever WSOP gold bracelet and a grand prize of $240,724 and some change from the bounties he picked up along the way. Mark Dube took home $160,474 as a runner-up on top of his bounties.

Peter Park has recorded some ITM finishes in the WSOP, but his most significant win recorded by The Hendon Mob was as a champion in the 2018 Hustler Casino Player Appreciation Series in 2019. Park used to be more active in the poker scene, but took a step back after he concentrated on a job that he really liked for an aviation company.

Qing Liu was the big chip leader entering the final table, but his stack was hit big when Mark Dube limped in from small blind and Liu attempted on a bully play shoving . Despite the live cards, Dube led all the way from the flop and strengthened with an Ace on the river to leave Liu with the short stack among the final four. Dube eventually forced Liu all-in for his chips, pushing with an vs Dube’s . Dube flopped a pair 5, Liu had hope for a straight on the river, but it didn’t happen and Liu busted at 4th place, earning him $86,821.

Park chipped up on the final table with his pocket rockets busting Zhigang Yang in 7th, and another pocket aces taking out Jose Rodriguez in 6th. Dube also knocked out Jungyang Lin at 5th place and Adria Diaz of Spain at 3rd place.

Entering the heads-up battle, Dube had 30,000,000 in chips and a slight lead over Park’s 21,000,000. The hand that turned the tide was Park’s full house over bottom pair. A couple of hands later, Dube moved all-in for his remaining stack with Queen-high that fell to Park’s Ace-high as both missed the board. 

Notable finished from Asian players in this tournament include a 20th place finish by Steve Yea of South Korea, who took home a $9,107 prize on top of his bounties, marking over 30+ WSOP cashes. 

Mostafa Haidary Brings Australia Another Gold

Another one for Australia! 817 players registered for the 2024 WSOP Event #52: $5,000 6-Handed No-Limit Hold’em, generating a prize pool of $3,762,800 with 123 players guaranteed to be in the money. The event brought together some of poker’s most talented from all over the world with several WSOP bracelet holders among them, such as recent 2024 WSOP $50,000 High Roller No-Limit Hold’em Winner Sergio Aido of Spain and two-time bracelet winner Joao Vieira of Portugal, who also won this same event back in 2019. There was also Josh Arieh, Jeremy Ausmus and Scott Seiver, who each have 6 WSOP bracelets to their names, and 2015 Main Event Champion Joe Mckeehen. 

The events was scheduled for an exciting 4 days of No-Limit Hold’em Poker. Day 1 saw over 700 entrants, although that number was expected to increase on Day 2 with late registration and re-entries allowed up to level 11. 

WSOP Bracelet winner Julien Sitbon of France had the biggest stack entering into Day 2, not far behind was Krasmir Yankov of Bulgaria. The bubble burst when Taiwan’s Pete Chen was knocked out of the tournament after a cooler with Jake Schwartz. 123 players secured a minimum $9,963. 

37 players came back for Day 3 with Turbo Nguyen sitting on top as the chip leader closely followed by Lucas Blanco. After some back and forth poker action on Day 3, only 4 comprised the final table on day 4.

Haidary made a great run on Day 3 to see him make a commanding lead on the last day. Far away on second place was Bernd Gleissner followed by Brandwon Schwartz and Krasmir Yankov. Haidary eliminated Schwartz in 4th place for $209,606. A level later, Gleissner took down Yankov, who took home $300,293 for a 3rd place finish.

The heads-up battle between Haidary and Gleissner went back and forth with Gleissner even managing a slight overtake from Haidary at one point. However, Haidary was able to gain a huge chuck of chips when his two pair held up.

The final hand saw Gleissner push with pocket 3’s, Haidary’s flopped the 9 and never looked back. Haidary bagged his first ever WSOP bracelet and a payout of $656,747. He became the third player from Australia to win at the ongoing series following Malcolm Trayner and James Obst. 

Notable finishes by Asian players include a Chinese contingent with the likes Yang Zhang at 8th, Xuming Qi at 16th, Dong Chen at 27th, Yushu Wang at 33rd. Lester Edoc of the Philippines also cashed in at 41st.

Yuri Dzivielevski Makes it Five For Five

Yuri Dzivielevski of Brazil bagged his fifth WSOP Bracelet by winning the 2024 WSOP Event #53: $3,000 Nine Game Mixed cementing his status as one of the greats in mixed-game poker. 

With 98 cashes to his name, including this last victory, Dzivielevski won his first bracelet in 2019 at the $2,500 Mixed Omaha Hi/Lo 8 or Better, Seven Card Std Hi/Lo 8 or Better. He then grabbed his second at the 2020 WSOP Online $400 PLOSSUS; his third at 2023 at the $1,500 H.O.R.S.E.; and his fourth at the 2023 WSOP Online $10K PLO Championship.

On this latest $3,000 Nine Game Mixed event, Dzivielevski had to overcome a super talented field of 379 players over 3 days of varied poker.  Mixed-game poker events usually bring out the most talented poker players who have a keen knowledge and understanding of all kinds of poker strategy given the variety of games played.

Some of the bigger names include 17-time WSOP bracelet winner and WSOP Hall of Famer Phil Hellmuth, six-time bracelet winners Shaun Deeb and Josh Arieh, and other multiple WSOP bracelet winners like Scotty Nguyen, Adam Friedman, Robert Mizrachi, David “Bakes” Baker,Brad Ruben and Greg Mueller to name a few.

The 379 registered players boosted the prize pool to $1,011,930 with 57 players to earn a payout of at least $6,080. The first day thinned out the field to just 139 returning players for Day 2 with the United Kingdom’s Richard Ashby leading the pack and Australia’s Antonio Seremet at second.

Recap at ITM stage

The bubble busted on Day 2 and the intense action left the event with just 16 players leading into Day 3. Australian Ashish Gupta managed to jump to the top of the leaderboard with second place Adam Friedman threatening from a distance.

Just a little over three hours into Day 3, the final table was formed with Masafumi Lijima of Japan leading the chip count. Nicholas Julia climbed his way to the second biggest stack while Gupta wasn’t too far at third.

More than 6 hours of poker and a much-needed dinner break, the final four returned to the final table. Yuri Dzivielevski had maintained his slot in the top ten of the leaderboard in each day and found himself with the chip lead among the final four.

When play resumed, Scott Bohlman got himself involved in a three-way pot involving Dzivielevski and Lijima on stud hand. Dzivielevski’s pair 10 eventually bested Bohlman and made a slight dent on Lijima’s stack.

Meanwhile, Julia was able to build off the stack of Lijima in Omaha Hi-Lo and Seven Card Stud. Lijima built some momentum to crawl back but it was Julia who stormed into the lead. Julia eventually eliminated Lijima on a Razz hand, earning Lijima $95,587 for his third place finish. Heads up was even keel until Dzivielevski improved on stud to finish off Julia in 2nd place. The ecstatic Dzivielevski took down his 5th WSOP Bracelet and a grand prize of $215,982. A rail of Brazilian supporters cheered on as the champion took it all in.

Dzivielevski’s epic comeback can be attributed to some brilliant decision-making.

“Each hand is a puzzle, and I just give my best with what I have. I just try to solve each puzzle,” he explains.

Apart from Masafumi Lijima’s 3rd place finish, other notable finishes in this event among Asian players include Japan’s Tamon Nakamura (31st), China’s Yingui Li (38th) and Kuenwai Lo (46th).

Khang Pham Wins First Gold Bracelet At Seniors Championship

The 2024 WSOP Event#46: $1,000 Seniors No-Limit Hold’em Championship was made exclusive to those seniors aged 50 and above. There were 2 Day 1 flights to accommodate the large number of participants, including a re-entry for those who didn’t fare well in Day 1A and wanted another chance at Day 1B. 

All in all, a total of 7,954 entries were registered bringing the prize pool to a substantial $6,999,520 with the top 1,194 survivors guaranteed at least a $2,000 payout for their efforts. Day 1A brought in 647 competitors into Day 2 with Brent Nelms as their chip leader. The 914 survivors of Day 1B led by chip leader William Elliot. 

A total of 1,558 players competed in Day 2. Some of the notable players include Hall of Famer John “Johnny World” Hennigan who won his 7th bracelet earlier this series in the $1,500 Dealer’s Choice tournament. Bracelet holders James Calderaro and Julio Belluscio have rather healthy stacks going into Day 2. 2002 WSOP Main Event Champion Greg Raymer was still in the mix as was 4-time WSOP bracelet winner Mike “The Mouth” Matusow and 3-time WSOP bracelet winner Sam Farha. The bubble eventually burst just a few hands after the first break of Day 2 and the relentless action continued on, thinning the field to just 208 players returning for Day 3. 

Canada’s Nathan Henry was the big chip leader entering into Day 3 with Marc Wolpert not far behind. Two-time WSOP bracelet winner Mark Seif held the third spot in the leaderboard. Other notables included recent Swedish bracelet winner Magnus Edengren  and a special mention to the 94-year old Samuel Kobrinsky, who was the oldest player in the field, finishing at 97th and won $6,565. More poker action on Day 3 saw the field dwindle down to just 26 players for Day 4.

Wolpert held a commanding lead entering Day 4 followed by the United Kingdom’s Andrew Bradshaw. Action resumed with 3 tables. When it reached the final table, Wolpert still maintained his huge chip lead. 

As it further downsized to five-handed,, Khang Pham ramped up the aggressive play but was still way behind the massive chip leader. Remmel Liu was able to put a dent into Wolpert’s stack, but Pham eventually took a chunk out of Liu then ended Liu’s tournament life at 3rd place. This gave Pham a slight lead over Wolpert entering heads up. 

Pham slowly grinded down Wolpert’s stack to widen his lead. On the final had, Wolpert shoved pair on a turn board , Pham called with . The river sealed Pham’s golden victory for his first ever WSOP bracelet and a healthy $677,326 payout on top of it.

Pham reflects that he should have been knocked out at the end of Day 3, but got lucky and gained momentum from there. Pham’s biggest supporter was bracelet winner Arash Ghaneian, who encouraged Pham to join the event.

“Without him, I wouldn’t be in this event and I certainly wouldn’t have a gold bracelet around my wrist. His support meant everything,” Pham confessed.

Tongguang Sun of China finished at 35th place for a payout of $23,077 while Ko Isayama of Japan bagged at 39th place payout for $18,860 to wrap up some of the worthy finishes of the Asian senior players.

*Article by JJ Duque