The first week of the 2023 World Series of Poker saw a number of poker players claim the first bracelets of the year, the most notable of which was Chad Eveslage. Coming off of a stellar year with the World Poker Tour, including winning its Player of the Year in 2022, Eveslage claimed his second career WSOP victory.
In the second week, Eveslage led things off by winning another event, just a few days off his first of this year’s series. And most impressive was that both WSOP bracelets in that week were in the Dealers Choice category. Other big winners that week included a mix of newer players and veterans of the industry. Rafael Reis was one of the newer faces, but poker boom favorites like Nick Schulman and Isaac Haxton took their spots in the winner’s circle as well.
The third week was some of the same, but it served as proof that the old guard was back. Players who captured bracelets in the 2000s and 2010s achieved bracelet fame all over again.
Event 18: Gladiator Simon
The Gladiators of Poker was the largest tournament of the year thus far with its 23,088 entries and $3.6M prize pool. From that massive field emerged Jason Simon of St. Louis, Missouri. He earned his first WSOP gold and a place in the history books.
The mixed game player in cash games said that his penchant for Hold’em tournaments was exactly what he needed for this win. But he also credited his friends and family on the rail. “It was awesome,” he said. “Having your friends here with you, cheering for you in the all-ins, it definitely helps.”
A solid field in this freezeout event brought a very diverse final table to the stage, one with seven countries represented among the final nine players. In the end, Bulgarian Valentino Konakchiev defeated Argentinian Andres Korn to claim his first bracelet.
“I’ve been dreaming about it since I’ve been watching poker when I was 15 on TV,” he told PokerNews. “I can’t believe it actually happened.”
Event 19
$2,500 buy-in
NLHE Freezeout
Total entries:
1,139
(752 in 2022, 896 in 2021)
Total prize pool:
$2,529,825
Players paid:
172
Minimum payout:
$4,011
Final table results:
1st place:
Valentino Konakchiev (Bulgaria) $435,924
2nd place:
Andres Korn (Argentina) $269,438
3rd place:
Alexandre Reard (France) $192,723
4th place:
Ruben Costa (USA) $139,671
5th place:
Girish Reknar (USA) $102,577
6th place:
Ankit Ahuja (India) $76,537
7th place:
Niall Farrell (UK) $57,620
8th place:
Adam Swan (USA) $44,087
9th place:
Qiang Xu (China) $34,210
Event 20: Badugi Bracelet
In the first-ever Badugi WSOP bracelet event, more than 500 entries created a solid prize pool and led to another diverse final table of six. Michael Rodrigues of Portugal came out on top. With emotion on his face and friends at his side, he happily accepted his first WSOP bracelet.
Event 20
$1,500 buy-in
Badugi 6-Handed (1 RE)
Total entries:
516
Total prize pool:
$688,860
Players paid:
78
Minimum payout:
$2,409
Final table results:
1st place:
Michael Rodrigues (Portugal) $144,678
2nd place:
Yingui Li (China) $89,415
3rd place:
Serhii Popovych (USA) $59,879
4th place:
Matt Vengrin (USA) $40,996
5th place:
Danny Tang (Hong Kong) $28,270
6th place:
Owais Ahmed (USA) $20,557
Event 21: PLO Profitable for Nahm
Another first-time bracelet winner emerged victorious in this large Pot Limit Omaha field during the third week of the WSOP. Stephen Nahm couldn’t believe that he won at first, ultimately celebrated his first WSOP gold with friends.
Not wanting much of the spotlight, Nahm simply told reporters, “Every poker player, obviously, comes here… You dream of this shit, right? I kinda made my dream come true a little bit; I’m not gonna lie.”
Event 21
$1K buy-in
PLO 8-Handed (2 RE)
Total entries:
2,017
(1891 in 2022, 1069 in 2021, 1526 in 2019)
Total prize pool:
$1,795,130
Players paid:
303
Minimum payout:
$1,602
Final table results:
1st place:
Stephen Nahm (Canada) $267,991
2nd place:
Kevin Rand (USA) $165,616
3rd place:
Amir Mirrasouli (USA) $123,060
4th place:
Zachary Peay (USA) $92,231
5th place:
Dan Matsuzuki (USA) $69,729
6th place:
Ronald Keijzer (Netherlands) $53,182
7th place:
Gheorghe Butuc (Moldova) $40,923
8th place:
Jonathan England (USA) $31,772
Event 22: Arieh at It Again
The 2022 WSOP Player of the Year has been back at it again, and in the third week of this year’s series, he captured his fifth career bracelet. He did it in a championship-level event with friends like Shaun Deeb on the rail and his fiancée at his side.
At the final table, Arieh said that he had felt a “huge rush of clarity and calmness” instead of stress. When the tournament became a three-handed game, he said, “One of us will go on a rush, and it can very easily be me. And that’s just what happened.”
Leon Sturm is known online for being a poker crusher. But his claim to fame couldn’t compete with the masses of people cheering for 75-year-old Bill Klein at this final table. Not only is Klein a likeable man in poker, he donates his winnings to charitable causes. He did win nearly $1M but it was for the second-place finish, as Sturm stormed to victory.
Sturm said that the $1.5M win felt amazing. “The bracelet is something special,” he told PokerNews. “It means more than just a trophy, I guess. … The competition was really tough, so that makes it better.”
Event 23
$50K buy-in
NLHE High Roller 8-Handed (1 RE)
Total entries:
124
(101 in 2022, 113 in 2021, 123 in 2019)
Total prize pool:
$5,921,000
Players paid:
19
Minimum payout:
$81,983
Final table results:
1st place:
Leon Sturm (Germany) $1,546,024
2nd place:
Bill Klein (USA) $955,513
3rd place:
Jans Arends (Netherlands) $694,019
4th place:
Alex Foxen (USA) $512,824
5th place:
Seth Davies (USA) $385,617
6th place:
Justin Bonomo (USA) $295,169
7th place:
Sam Soverel (USA) $230,066
8th place:
Sung Joo Hyun (Korea) $182,662
Event 24: ODB Claims Razz Gold
In a game people love to hate, David “ODB” Baker became its latest champion. His tough Razz final table included names like Dzmitry Urbanovich and Jeff Lisandro, and the “original” David Baker had to beat a formidable opponent in Justin Liberto heads-up to win. But he did it to capture his third career bracelet.
Baker was grateful just to play but, of course, to win as well. “If you polled poker players to find out who loved poker the most,” he commented, “my name would be on the top ten list. I live for this.”
Ben Lamb won his first bracelet in 2011 by way of the $10K PLO Championship. This year, the longtime poker pro known as Benba returned to the WSOP in full form. And when he played the $10K PLO-8 Championship, he won it. He bested fellow old school players like Brad Ruben and Erik Seidel as well as newer players on the scene.
As Lamb told PokerNews after the victory, "I think I am playing pretty good poker. I haven't been playing a lot, but when I have been playing, I have been more emotionally invested and focusing harder."
Event 25
$10K buy-in
Omaha-8 Championship
Total entries:
212
(196 in 2022, 134 in 2021, 183 in 2019)
Total prize pool:
$1,971,600
Players paid:
32
Minimum payout:
$16,386
Final table results:
1st place:
Ben Lamb (USA) $492,795
2nd place:
James Chen (USA) $304,571
3rd place:
Luis Velador (Mexico) $211,715
4th place:
Erik Seidel (USA) $150,445
5th place:
Robert Yass (USA) $109,340
6th place:
Brad Ruben (USA) $81,317
7th place:
Johannes Becker (Germany) $61,919
8th place:
James Obst (Australia) $48,300
Event 26: Mao Masters Deepstack
Renji Mao put himself on the map by winning his first WSOP bracelet in this NLHE Deepstack event. He also represented China with a win after beating a tough Asian-dominated final table. He faced a fellow Chinese player and two Taiwanese players, including JJ Liu, at that table, and beat them for the gold and a substantial $400K win.
Mao said that his last-minute homework regarding NLHE paid off. “I changed my strategy completely today to be on a more aggressive end,” he told PokerNews of his winning strategy.
Event 26
$800 buy-in
NLHE Deepstack (1 RE)
Total entries:
4,747
(4062 in 2022, 2053 in 2021, 2808 in 2019)
Total prize pool:
$3,341,888
Players paid:
713
Minimum payout:
$1,280
Final table results:
1st place:
Renji Mao (China) $402,588
2nd place:
Matthew Alsby (USA) $248,833
3rd place:
Anthony Potis (USA) $186,250
4th place:
JJ Liu (Taiwan) $140,442
5th place:
Ta-Wei Tou (Taiwan) $106,693
6th place:
Qiwen Chen (China) $81,666
7th place:
Jesse Rosen (South Africa) $62,984
8th place:
Vito Branciforte (Italy) $48,947
9th place:
Michael Younan (USA) $38,332
Event 27: Deeb Does Six
Shaun Deeb had just celebrated friend Josh Arieh’s fifth bracelet days before. But motivated by a promise to claim a sixth bracelet before Arieh, Deeb went on a deep run in the Eight-Game WSOP event. Amidst a massive weight loss bet and props with friends, Deeb kept his focus and won the sixth bracelet of his poker career.
“I’m going to battle super hard,” he said of the Player of the Year race that has been heating up. “Just been an awesome couple of weeks of the series. It feels like it’s almost over, and we’re not even halfway through. I’m so pumped for the rest of the events.”
Benjamin Ector became the latest poker player to win his first bracelet in 2023 when he took down a NLHE freezeout event during the third week of the series. He flew past players like Dietrich Fast and Matt Hunt, eliminating nearly every opponent at the final table to win the gold.
Event 28
$1,500 buy-in
NLHE Freezeout
Total entries:
2,046
(1772 in 2022, 1191 in 2021)
Total prize pool:
$2,731,410
Players paid:
307
Minimum payout:
$2,406
Final table results:
1st place:
Benjamin Ector (USA) $406,403
2nd place:
Adam Swan (USA) $251,158
3rd place:
Nick Palma (USA) $184,730
4th place:
Jean Lhuillier (France) $137,159
5th place:
Divyam Satyarthi (USA) $102,814
6th place:
Santiago Plante (Canada) $77,814
7th place:
Matthew Hunt (UK) $59,468
8th place:
Dietrich Fast (Germany) $45,895
9th place:
Dean Hutchison (UK) $35,773
Event 29: Arends Scores a Second
Jans Arends won his first WSOP bracelet online in 2022, and the high-stakes poker player won his second in a $100K buy-in live bracelet event. He soared past players like Justin Bonomo, Jeremy Ausmus, Chance Kornuth, and Adrian Mateos to make it to heads-up versus Cary Katz. And he got aggressive to take down the tournament.
Arends mentioned his recent hot streak after the win. “I enjoy the game a lot,” he said, “especially when I’m running hot, and this year has been absolutely crazy. I’ve never run this hot in my life.”
Event 29
$100K buy-in
NLHE High Roller (1 RE)
Total entries:
93
(62 in 2022, 99 in 2019, 64 in 2021)
Total prize pool:
$8,997,590
Players paid:
14
Minimum payout:
$171,034
Final table results:
1st place:
Jans Arends (Netherlands) $2,576,729
2nd place:
Cary Katz (USA) $1,591,539
3rd place:
Adrian Mateos (Spain) $1,142,147
4th place:
Chance Kornuth (USA) $833,854
5th place:
Jeremy Ausmus (USA) $619,919
6th place:
Biao Ding (China) $469,464
7th place:
Justin Bonomo (USA) $362,279
8th place:
Ren Lin (China) $284,979
Event 30: Monnette Makes It Five
Another player who emerged during the poker boom earned his fifth bracelet this year, and John Monnette battled back from half of a big bet to do it in the Deuce-to-Seven Triple Draw event. The mixed game specialist needed more than two hours of heads-up play in the end, but he did win the gold.
“It means a lot,” Monnette told PokerNews. “That’s why we’re here in these tournaments, just battling. Nothing’s like it. Nothing brings the energy that the WSOP does.”
A Texas firefighter played this fast-paced NLHE-PLO mix, and from the field of 2,758 entries, Scott Dulaney won it to claim his first bracelet.
He explained that he uses “aggressive firefighting tactics” at the poker table. “I’ve always done that, and now it’s paying off,” he said, as he debated about the next Omaha tournament he would play.
Event 31
$600 buy-in
Mixed NLHE/PLO Deepstack 8-Handed (2 RE)
Total entries:
2,758
(2107 in 2022, 1561 in 2021)
Total prize pool:
$1,406,580
Players paid:
414
Minimum payout:
$961
Final table results:
1st place:
Scott Dulaney (USA) $194,155
2nd place:
Sridhar Sangannagari (USA) $120,004
3rd place:
Willie Smith (USA) $89,551
4th place:
Bjorn Gravlien (Norway) $67,359
5th place:
Zachary vankeuren (USA) $51,072
6th place:
Charles Combs (USA) $39,037
7th place:
Michael Holtz (USA) $30,081
8th place:
Barny Boatman (UK) $23,371
Event 32: Worth the Wait for Ioli
Mark Ioli had been close to bracelets before, finishing second twice in online WSOP events. But this tournament was the one, outlasting numerous pro players to make it to the winner’s circle.
“It feels good to finally win,” he said after completing the task. “It’s one accolade in poker you want no matter what.” And his winner photo with the bracelet says it all.
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