Excitement continues at the ongoing 2024 World Series of Poker with more players minted. Among them was Scott Seiver who locked up his third bracelet in this series. We’ve got those winning stories below including the deep runs by Asian players Yang Wang, Jin Hoon Lee, Naoya Kihara, and Ryutaro Suzuki. The festival has now awarded 73 winners out of the 99 bracelets up for grabs at Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas.
Scott Seiver On Cloud 9 After Winning 3rd Bracelet
The 2024 WSOP $10,000 No-Limit 2-7 Lowball Draw Championship (7-Handed) is a special event that brings some of the most skillful and respected poker players from all over the world. A look at the registration sheet and over 50% of the field.- maybe even a lot more – are WSOP bracelet holders and legends in the game of poker.
The event was scheduled for three days with late registration open for 12 levels. Day 1 saw 129 players grind it out with another 57 taking advantage of late registration in Day 2. This built a prize pool of $1,729,800 with the top 28 earning a cut. Among the big names in action were Asian bracelet winners Naoya Kihara, Motoyoshi Okamura, and Xixiang Luo. The latter two failed to reach the money round while Kihara went on to cash in 12th place for $25,575.
Jeremy Ausmus, who currently sits atop the WSOP Player of the Year Leaderboard extended his lead, but fell short of his 7th bracelet, finishing 4th. After the elimination of David Lin in 3rd place, it was heads up between Jonathan Krela and Scott Seiver.
It looked as if it might last long as both had equally big stacks of 50 blinds. However, 15 minutes into their duel, Seiver made a correct call that sent Krela tumbling in 2nd place. Krela pocketed a consolation of $274,217 while Seiver took the grand prize of $411,041 and the WSOP bracelet. In a post-win interview with WSOP, Seiver expressed,
“I feel very satisfied right now, I can’t really describe it. I’m like on Cloud Nine right now. This just means so much to me, and it also is a step in a personal journey I’ve made for myself where I’ve had an eye in the sky dream where I want to win one bracelet in every single discipline there is.”
The victory was Seiver’s third bracelet in the 2024 WSOP. He is currently the only multi-winner of the series. Seiver won the Event #10: $10,000 Omaha Hi-Lo or Better Championship (8-handed) and Event #40: $1,500 Razz. This was Seiver’s 6th WSOP bracelet overall.
Colin Robinson Not Denied This Time; Bracelet Holder Jinhoon Lee Goes Deep
Another popular event to conclude was Event #68: $2,500 No-Limited Hold’em with 2,229 entries for a prize pool of $4,959,525. The event played over 3 days. Among the notables were series only double bracelet winner Scott Seiver, John Juanda, Phil Ivey, and global soccer sensation Neymar of Brazil. Although Neymar played well enough to triple up, he fell short of the money.
One of the most impressive runs was by South Korea’s Jin Hoon Lee who reached Day 3 in search for his second bracelet and first in US soil. Lee won his first gold merch at a WSOP Event in Paradise Island, Bahamas back in December 2023. However, Lee’s hunt came to an end in 21st place for a decent $25,319 payout.
An even deeper finish was by Vietnam’s Ky Nguyen in 10th place. Other Asian players cashing in were Japan’s Sho Homma (39th) and China’s Zhiyuan Xu (44th). For Xu, it was his 7th series cash.
The final race to the title ended with USA’s Colin Robinson locking up his first gold bracelet and a payout of $667,963. This was redemption for Robinson who was denied the gold at last year’s Monster Stack event where he finished one spot short. This time, it was Carl Shaw who had to settle for runner up, just missing his second gold.
Ryutaro Suzuki of Japan Goes Deep in 10th as Nikolay Fal Grabs First Bracelet in Stud
The 2024 WSOP Event #69: $1,500 Seven Car Stud Hi-Lo 8 or Better gathered 611 entrants to create a prize pool of $815,685. Among the 92 players that reached the money was Russia’s Nikolay Fal who took it all the way to the finish line for his career first bracelet and a payout of $153,730. He defeated bracelet winner Christian Roberts at heads up.
Although not many Asian players joined this event, mixed game poker specialist Ryutaro Suzuki of Japan delivered the goods with a 10th place finish. Suzuki is a bracelet holder having won his first at the 2023 WSOP Nine Game Mix (7-Handed). Earlier in the 2024 WSOP, Suzuki came close to locking up gold #2 with a 3rd place finish at Dealers Choice Championship. In addition to Suzuki, only one other Asian cashed in, China’s Fei Chu in 52nd place.
Some highlights of Day 2 involved 17-time WSOP bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth, who dragged in a massive pot with a straight flush. Peter Levine also made a straight flush in a massive four-way two-bet pot. It’s rare enough to catch a straight flush, but two in a day! Despite their memorable hand, Hellmuth and Levine cashed out at 87th and 64th respectively.
Yang Wang Lands First WSOP Final Table; David Eldridge Wins Career Second Gold
China’s Yang Wang had never reached a WSOP final table ever in the many times he’s played in the WSOP both online and live. Out of his previous 11 WSOP cashes, his best was a 13th place finish at last year’s $100K High Roller No-Limited Hold’em. However, in this 2024 WSOP Event #73: $25,000 High Roller Pot-Limit Omaha, Wang broke past the barrier for his first WSOP final table. Wang ended his run in 4th place to earn a career high payout of $731,819.
Upon his departure, three Americans remained on the hunt for the title. Poker Hall of Famer Brian Rast was seeking his 7th bracelet, Ethan Cahn was eyeing his first, and David Eldridge was vying for his second gold. Cahn was ousted in 3rd place and walked away a millionaire with a career high $1,038,097 payday.
Heads-up play lasted over two hours with Rast unable to finish off Eldridge despite his 5:1 chip advantage. Razz had to settle for the $1,497,824 runner-up prize while Eldridge banked the big kahuna $2,246,728 and his second WSOP bracelet.
The event drew a total of 476 entries for a prize pool of $11,186,000. The top 72 players earned a minimum $50,211.
*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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