For many people, Friday is known as payday, that held true yesterday for poker players at the Rio as four of the remaining bracelets were handed out to new champions.
| # | Buy-in | Event | Player | Prize |
| 75 | $1,111 | Little One for One Drop | 🇺🇸 James Anderson | $690,686 |
| 78 | $1,500 | Pot-Limit Omaha Bounty | 🇩🇰 Maximilian Klostermeier | $177,823 |
| 79 | $3,000 | No-Limit Hold’em | 🇫🇷 Ivan Deyra | $380,090 |
| 81 | $1,500 | 50th Annual Bracelet Winners Only No-Limit Hold’em | 🇺🇸 Shankar Pillai | $71,580 |
Event #75: $1,000+111 Little One for One Drop No-Limit Hold’em
Defeating a record field of 6,246 entries was James Anderson who took home his very first bracelet along with a $690,686 first place prize. Fernando Karam battled Anderson heads up but was denied his third bracelet of the Summer in the end. Although no stranger to success in poker tournaments having already surpassed the two million dollar mark on Hendon Mob, this marks Anderson’s largest score of his career.
Event #78: $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha Bounty
Vegas first-timer Maximilian Klostermeier claimed his first bracelet yesterday walking away a score of $177,823 in addition to all of the $500 bounties he collected for eliminating some of the 1,130 entries. He defeated David Callaghan heads up who also walked away with a six-figure score of $109,844. Klostermieier has only been playing poker professionally for a short time and in his first ever trip to Las Vegas, he found his name engraved in WSOP gold.
Event #81: $1,500 Bracelet Winners Only Event
In the only event of the Summer that was guaranteed to see someone add to their bracelet collection, Shankar Pillai took it down for $71,580. Pillai defeated a stacked field of 185 entries on his way to donning his second bracelet. It had been a gap of over a decade since his first bracelet win back in 2007 in a $3,000 No Limit Hold’Em event. This was a first-time event at the World Series this year and drew one of the smaller fields of the Summer, however, when everyone in the tournament has already won before the path to victory is certainly much more challenging.
Event #79: $3,000 No-Limit Hold’em
Ivan Deyra saw himself hit multiple milestones of his poker career as he not only took home his first WSOP gold bracelet and $380,090 but also surpassed the one million dollar mark in tournament earnings. Deyra had to go through 671 entries in order to achieve his life long dream of owning a bracelet, eventually defeating David Gonzalez heads up who had the misfortune to bluff for all his chips when Deyra held a full house.
Event #83: $100,000 High Roller
The biggest buy-in event of the Summer played down to the final six of the 99 entries yesterday with Keith Tilston bagging up the chip lead after his pocket kings cracked Sergi Reixach‘s aces late in the day. Fans will see an exciting final table of all notable pros battle it out for the WSOP gold and $2,792,406 that lies in wait for the champion today. In the hunt include Nick Schulman, day one chip-leader Brandon Adams, Dominik Nitsche, Igor Kurganov, and Daniel Negreanu who comes in today with a short stack of thirteen big blinds.
Event #80: $1,500 Mixed No-Limit Hold’em/Pot-Limit Omaha
Players not only swap chips but entire games in this tournament as every 8 hands they rotate from playing No-Limit Hold’em to Pot Limit Omaha. Ayaz Mahmood bagged the chip lead and is aiming for his second bracelet in addition to the $304,793 prize. A large field of 1,250 entries required extending this tournament an extra day as now only 7 remain to play for the bracelet. One of the notables in the field David “ODB” Baker who already claimed a bracelet this summer saw his final table hopes crushed as he exited in tenth place.
Event #82: $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em Double Stack
Day two of this new event ended with 6 players looking to don their first WSOP bracelet. Freek Scholten leads the final table and has already cashed four events this Summer will look to close out on the elusive bracelet and $530,164 first place prize. This event drew a massive field of 2,589 entries including many notables who saw their way to rail yesterday including Kristen Bicknell and Ryan Laplante.
Event 84: $1,500 The Closer No-Limit Hold’em
Day 1a of the three starting flights yesterday drew to a close with online poker pro-Roman Korenev bagging the chip-lead. 463 entries in the starting flight show signs of yet another large field as the two remaining flights are expected to draw even larger numbers. The field is not without notables either as recent bracelet winner Ari Engel, Ian O’Hara, and Fabian Gumz all found bags to advance to day two.
Event #85: $3,000 Pot-Limit Omaha 6-Handed
After an action-filled day one saw 901 entries pony up the $3,000 to play the four card game, Paresh Doshi leads the remaining 173 survivors coming into today. $475,033 is what everyone will be eyeing as the field will condense down significantly today through ten hours of play. Two-time bracelet winner Keith Lehr, Anton Morgenstern, Martin Zamani, bracelet winner David Williams, and bracelet winner Leif Force all were able to bag healthy stacks and will look to build upon them today.
Event #73: $10,000 No-Limit Hold’em MAIN EVENT – World Championship
The main event is officially down to the final table as nine players remain of the 8,569. In addition to a million dollars, the players have also earned a day off today before play resumes tomorrow. Hossein Ensan holds a massive chip lead on the table of 177 big blinds well over Gary Gates also healthy stack of 99 big blinds. Despite the big stacks, the most feared player at the table might be poker pro-Dario Sammartino. He has already amassed over eight million dollars in tournament winnings and is one player the others certainly don’t want to see gain any steam off his 33 big blind stack. Sammartino got involved in a sticky situation with 11 players left when he faced a shove Nick Marchington. After asking for a count of what he thought was a little more than 20 big blinds he made the call. However, the dealer had miscounted and the shove was for much closer to 30 big blinds. The floor ruled Sammartino was committed to call off the full amount and his tens failed to improve against Marchington’s queens.
| Player | Place | Earnings | # | Event |
| 🇺🇸 Justin Bonomo | 22nd | $10,387 | 79 | $3,000 No-Limit Hold’em |
| 🇺🇸 Ryan Riess | 26th | $2,520 | 81 | $1,500 50th Annual Bracelet Winners Only No-Limit Hold’em |
| 🇦🇺 Jeff Lisandro | 28th | $4,254 | 78 | $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha Bounty |
| 🇨🇦 Daniel Negreanu | 42nd | $3,553 | 78 | $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha Bounty |
| 🇺🇸 Daniel Zack | 44th | $3,553 | 78 | $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha Bounty |
Day 46 today will feature five events and two final tables, stay tuned here for updates on how they all unfold!