The 2,053 entries $800 tournament ended with an unexpected win for Chad Norton, casually booking a win for his first ever WSOP participation.
Norton told the media: “To be honest I’ve only played in one WPT event and this was my first ever live WSOP tournament. I play mostly online but I came in on such a down swing so to be able to come in and win my first ever WSOP tournament feels amazing.”
“Winning bracelets is pretty easy right?”
Event #43: DOUBLE STACK No-Limit Hold’em
The third largest event this year with 3,991 entries now counts 17 players. The $1,000 event has gathered a prizepool of $3,5M and the top prize is $446K. Michael Wang ($3M in live earnings), holder of one bracelet, will return with the chip lead and poker commentator Jeff Platt, currently 9th in chips, will try to win his first bracelet.
Michael Wang
Event #45: Pot-Limit Omaha 8-Handed Championship
There are now 5 players left in the tournament, lead by Tommy Le, winner of the event in 2017 for $900K. Day 3 chip leader Jonathan Witz failed to qualify and ended twelfth. Our most familiar names also all fell yesterday: Mike Matusow (17th), Daniel Zack (13th) and Eli Elezra (6th – $124K) will not be able to grab the $746,477 prize.
Tommy Le
We will return to see how all these events unfold today!
The $3,000 event did not attract much as it registered only 162 entries, but Ryan Hansen really stunned the field as his online profile suggests a very recreative player. Hansen had only wrote 3 low-stakes lines on his Hendon Mob profile in 11 years until then!
To win the bracelet, Hansen needed 2 hours in heads-up to defeat the Japanese Kosei Ichinose, cashing for the 5th time this year.
The player declared: “I’m a little shell-shocked right now. I was kind of a Moneymaker-effect person. Came in after that like 2004-2005, and switched to limit hold’em. I think it’s a great game; I always liked that game the best. So I switched over to that and have been playing that ever since.”
Ryan “Limit” Hansen
A few more performances worth noting in this event:
Player
Place
Earnings
🇺🇸 Mike Matusow
16th
$6,668
🇺🇸 Daniel Zack
19th
$5,597
🇺🇸 Nick Schulman
21st
$5,597
🇺🇸 Joe McKeehen
23rd
$4,830
Event #45: Pot-Limit Omaha 8-Handed Championship
The $10k championship event has cumulated 344 entries for a large $3,2M prizepool. Eighteen players will battle for the $746,477 first prize. Some of the fan favorites include Daniel Zack (4th), Mike Matusow (11th) and Eli Elezra (14th).
A few stats!
Dan Zack, who cashed once more in event #44, became the first player this year to cash for the tenth time! Can he reach twenty?
Name
Cashes
Total Earnings
🇺🇸 Daniel Zack
10
$166,461
🇺🇸 Ben Yu
9
$138,400
🇺🇸 Shaun Deeb
9
$42,776
🇺🇸 Mike Shin
9
$17,937
🇺🇸 Jake Schwartz
8
$304,158
That’s it for today, see you tomorrow for more updates!
Kevin Gerhart converted his chip lead at 5 left into a third bracelet and $361k! Last year he won the WSOP.com Event #20: $500 PLO 6-Handed and the $1,500 Razz (Event #54) the year before, showing he’s climbing up the poker ranks. He just crossed the $1M in total live earnings by writing his biggest line up to date.
“I would consider the first one, the Razz one, the most important just because it opened the doors for me for bigger and better things. I just started playing 10ks this year so it’s something new to me and I haven’t experienced this field very much but I have played against all these guys in the $1,500’s”.
The player also added how mentally exhausting the tournament was: “It was so difficult. Playing nine-handed, anything is difficult, the hand ranges you have to play, tighten up so much and the short stacks kept doubling and doubling. By the end of the day I got home, I had no energy to think about anything and went straight to sleep for twelve hours”
Kevin “Omaha 8/B” Gerhart
Event #41: Freezeout No-Limit Hold’em
Carlos Chang achieved his biggest performance by winning the $2,500 event with a prizepool close to $2M. That’s the first bracelet for the Taiwanese considering himsef “a hobby player”, adding: “I’m probably the better non-pro out there”. Chang has 28 WSOP cashes and this was his fourth final table: “I told myself, this year if I make a final table, I will win the bracelet. And it happened! I am pretty excited. I was focused all day and yesterday.”
Carlos Chang
Event #42: Razz
Bradley Ruben total live earnings does not look that impressive with $640k compared to the usual WSOP population, but the player has just won his 3rd bracelet! He won the previous ones at the online tables in 2020 and 2021. To make it happen, he defeated a solid final table including Yuri Dzivielevski (2 bracelets), David “ODB” Baker (2 bracelets), and Matt Grapenthien (1 bracelet).
Bradley Ruben
Here are some other notable results for these finished events:
We’ve had a single winner yesterday at the world series:
#
Buy-in
Event
Player
Prize
39
$1,500
Event #39: Pot-Limit Omaha (8-Handed)
🇺🇸 Josh Arieh
$204,766
Event #39: Pot-Limit Omaha (8-Handed)
The event gathered the largest prizepool for an omaha event to date for $1,096,035 and 821 entries. In the end Josh Arieh took the win against other bracelet holders: Tommy Le (2nd – 126k) and Ivan Deyra (4th – 64k). Arieh now has 3 bracelets on his arm: his previous ones were a $2,000 Pot-Limit Omaha in 2005 and a $3,000 Limit Hold’em in 1999! The player now has more than $8M in total live earnings. Arieh particularly finished 3rd in the 2004 Main Event where he cashed $2,5M.
The player was pretty emotional in the end: “I mean I don’t know, I think I’m really good, just like everybody else,” he said. “But I haven’t won a bracelet in 15 years, I’ve come close. I think I have three or four seconds in the last six years and I f***ing dog it, like I choke, and I started feeling that pressure again right at the beginning. But I was lucky enough to hold some cards and fought through the mental weakness I guess. But it’s always good, winning money and winning bracelets is always good. I don’t know there’s part of me that like, I feel like I should, that I could be a Hall of Fame inductee. I don’t know inducted but at least a chance to be inducted. So I’ve been thinking about that for a few years, get a third bracelet and maybe I’ll get on the ballot. But now I’ll try to get four.”
AAxx holding up for Josh Arieh
Event #40: H.O.R.S.E. Championship
Kevin Gerhart will return today as the chip leader of the 5-handed final table. He’ll try to take home his third bracelet. The story is the same for Marco Johnson (4th) and Kevin Gerhart (5th) as they both hold two bracelets. Unfortunately some well known names fell close to reach to final day, especially Jake Schwartz (7th), David Benyamine (8th) and Bertrand Grospellier (10th).
Bertrand “Elky” Grospellier
Here is our updated most cashes list:
Name
Cashes
Total Earnings
🇺🇸 Daniel Zack
9
$160,864
🇺🇸 Ben Yu
9
$138,400
🇺🇸 Shaun Deeb
9
$42,776
🇺🇸 Mike Shin
9
$17,937
🇨🇦 Daniel Negreanu
8
$123,247
So who’s going to be the first to reach 10 cashes this year? Time to place your bets!
That’s it for today! See you tomorrow for more bracelets!
The biggest prize since the beginning of the series has been awarded yesterday:
#
Buy-in
Event
Player
Prize
38
$50,000
Event #38: High Roller No-Limit Hold’em 8-Handed
🇦🇺 Michael Addamo
$1,132,968
Event #38: High Roller No-Limit Hold’em 8-Handed
It almost looks as no surprise to see Michael Addamo win the tournament as he almost lead the tournament from start to finish to win his 3rd WSOP bracelet. However, the heads-up match against Justin Bonomo wasn’t decided at all as Bonomo had the lead at some point with a 3-to-2 chip advantage. In the final hand of the tournament, both players had similar stacks and Adamo finally called a 4-bet allin with KJ. Bonomo showed a speculative T9 and then the flop came QJT giving the lead to Adamo. The dealer then showed a ten on the turn giving trips to Bonomo, but an ace on the river made Adamo a winning straight, and the trophy of course.
To put the win into perspective, let’s have a look at the 6 last live cashes of Adamo:
source: hendonmob.com
Given this amazing run our winner stayed pretty down-to-earth: “Obviously there’s some skill involved, but winning this much is really attributed to luck in the end, so it’s very fortunate. I play a strategy where I put a lot of big bets in. That’s no secret. Sometimes you’re going to be out in the first level and sometimes you’re gonna build up a big stack.”
Michael Addamo now 49th on the total live earnings list with $15.5M
Event #40: H.O.R.S.E. Championship
In the $10k championship twenty players remain. Eric Rodawig is currently in the chip lead, but France has placed two of its legends in David Benyamine (3rd) and Bertrand Grospellier (7th). Many other well known names will fight for title, including Jake Schwartz (11th), Max Pescatori (12th) and Dylan Linde (17th).
Scott Seiver just making the money but losing 22nd
To close the day, let’s have a look at the top 10 earners this year at the world series: