2024 WSOP Main Event Sets Final Table of Nine Millionaires
The 2024 World Series of Poker is down to the last of its summer schedule, with just a handful of live events to complete. One of those is the big one, also known as Event 81 or the Main Event or the WSOP No Limit Hold’em World Championship.
That Main Event set its final table, days after announcing that its final registration number set a new record for the tournament. It’s been a big year for the big dance, but there are still nine players who will battle it out for even bigger money and the ultimate poker title.
Record Field Beats a Record Field
Last year, the World Series of Poker made a concerted effort to break its old Main Event attendance record. The hope was to draw at least 9,000 players, but they did even better. They registered 10,043 players for a prize pool of $94,041,600.
It was kind of a big deal.
This year, they hoped to do better, but there were concerns. While the WSOP didn’t provide official entry numbers for each starting flight, PokerNews had some estimates, which showed that initial concern during registration:
- Day 1A: 915 players (1,037 in 2023)
- Day 1B: approximately 830 players (1,115 in 2023)
- Day 1C: approximately 2,518 players (3,075 in 2023)
But then things picked up:
- Day 1D: 5,014 players (4,113 in 2023)
- Day 2ABC late reg: 206 players (196 in 2023)
- Day 2D late reg: 562 players (507 in 2023)
All in all, the final numbers came to:
- Total players: 10,112 (10,043 in 2023)
- Total prize pool: $94,041,600 ($93,339,900 in 2023)
- Paid players: 1,517 (1,507 in 2023)
The min-cash remains the same at $15,000, though the WSOP adjusted payouts in various spots, including at the final table. Last year, it was important that the winner top the $12M that Jamie Gold won in 2006, so 2023 winner Daniel Weinman won $12.1M. This year, the goal wasn’t to keep topping that off. Instead, they evened the payouts a bit.
- 1st place: $10,000,000
- 2nd place: $6,000,000
- 3rd place: $4,000,000
- 4th place: $3,000,000
- 5th place: $2,500,000
- 6th place: $2,000,000
- 7th place: $1,500,000
- 8th place: $1,250,000
- 9th place: $1,000,000
Everyone at the final table will become a millionaire no matter how they play this week.
Navigating Long Days
All of the nine final tablists played eight days of poker to get there. It started with four initial starting flights and late registration on both Day 2 sessions.
Day 3 brought those survivors together – a total of 3,617 of them – and moved toward the money bubble. The action moved slightly slower than usual, however, and the staff called the night with 1,529 players remaining.
Day 4 headed into the payout stage of the tournament and thinned the field down to just 464 players. Day 5 then took the number down to 160, Day 6 down to 59, and Day 7 to just 18 players still in contention.
Finding the Final Table
Day 8 was a bit of a long night, as they had to play down to a final table of nine. It started with Malo Latinois in the chip lead, followed by Diogo Coelho, Jason Sagle, Niklas Astedt, and Kristen Foxen.
Jordan Griff had the shortest stack but doubled on the first hand of the day. Coelho and Foxen jumped into an early lead, and the second-shortest initial stack of Day 8 doubled as well.
- Andres Gonzalez busted Gerardo Hernandez in 18th place ($450,400).
- Guillermo Sanchez Otero busted Jessie Bryant in 17th place (450,400).
Joe Serock catapulted into the chip lead, and Angelov doubled again. There was plenty of action, but there were no eliminations for a bit, as Jason Sagle climbed into second on the leaderboard by the first break, followed by Malcolm Franchi. Astedt accumulated chips, as did Foxen.
- Jason Sagle busted Guillermo Sanchez Otero in 16th place ($450,400).
- Brian Kim busted Yegor Moroz in 15th place ($450,400).
Kim jumped into the lead, while Foxen lost pots to him and then to Coelho. But Sagle crept back up, as did Angelov, and the two initial short stacks were on top of the remaining two tables.
- Joe Serock busted Jason James in 14th place ($450,400).
- Joe Serock busted Kristen Foxen in 13th place ($600,000).
Kristen Foxen, ladies & gentlemen...one of the best players in the world: pic.twitter.com/03vSb015Zl
— Jeff Platt (@jeffplatt) July 15, 2024
Latinois had doubled through Sagle. But by the dinner break, Serock was sitting on 134.7M chips, with Kim in second with 111.1M and Astedt in the distance with 63.1M.
- Jason Sagle busted Gabriel Moura in 12th place ($600,000).
- Jordan Griff busted Malcolm Franci in 11th place ($800,000).
- Niklas Astedt busted Diogo Coelho in tenth place ($800,000).
Nine Millionaires to Battle for Title
And then there were nine men set to play at the final table. Each one is guaranteed a minimum payout of $1M, though they will all compete for the $10M top prize and the ultimate gold bracelet.
THE SINGLE MOST VALUABLE TROPHY IN ALL SPORTS.
— PokerGO (@PokerGO) July 8, 2024
The @WSOP Main Event Bracelet. pic.twitter.com/3kRSM3Rv3u
The nine finalists are as follows, in order of chip stacks and including their Hendon Mob live tournament earnings to date (not including the Main Event):
- Jordan Griff (USA) 143.7M chips = $47,192
- Brian Kim (USA) 94.6M chips = $7,332,360
- Niklas Astedt (Sweden) 94.2M chips = $3,031,190
- Joe Serock (USA) 83.6M chips = $4,576,760
- Jason Sagle (Canada) 67.3M chips = $1,685,165
- Boris Angelov (Bulgaria) 52.9M chips = $903,108 + $238,261 (two entries in database)
- Jonathan Tamayo (USA) 26.7M chips = $2,301,219
- Malo Latinois (France) 25.5M chips = $96,515
- Andres Gonzalez (Spain) 18.3M chips = $825,119
The action will play out on the PokerGO subscription channel at 1:30pm PT on Tuesday, July 16. The goal is to play down to the final three or four players and then play to a winner on Wednesday, July 17.
