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Yinan Zhou Wins Inaugural WSOP Super Main Event in Bahamas

Written by Jennifer Newell
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The World Series of Poker, in conjunction with new owner GGPoker, completed its inaugural Super Main Event in the Bahamas this week. The WSOP Paradise series, in its second iteration, offered a small-but-mighty lineup of bracelet events this December, many with guarantees, online poker components, and big poker names.

Of the numerous high buy-in tournaments, the most popular was the $25K buy-in WSOP Super Main Event with its $50M guarantee. Some players received invitations to play, and though it still missed its guarantee by $550K, the WSOP focused instead on the star-studded field and the still-massive prize pool. In the end, amidst some controversy mixed with poker history, the WSOP’s new owners can call it a success.

Super Main Event Numbers

The featured event of the 2024 WSOP Paradise series was the $25K buy-in Super Main Event. And after the online and live starting flights, these were the final numbers:

  • Total entries:  1,978 (1,378 live + 600 online)
  • Total prize pool:  $49.45M ($50M guaranteed)
  • Overlay:  $550K
  • Players paid:  297 (207 live + 90 online)
  • Minimum payout:  $50K

The overlay would have been more substantial had there not been more than 250 entries before registration ended on Day 2. Even so, the overlay was sizeable though only by about two dozen buy-ins.

Playdown and Key Moments

Day 2 played into the money, with Phil Hellmuth playing the dramatic role – one for which he has trained for many years – of the bubble boy.

That night ended with just 207 players in the tournament. Day 3 reduced that number to just 36, as players like Erik Seidel, Adrian Mateos, Stephen Chidwick, and Darren Elias exited the field. Michael Addamo sat atop the leaderboard at the end of Day 3, with players like Chris Moneymaker, Justin Bonomo, and Liv Boeree still in action.

Day 4 played to the final table, with Lou Garza the first to cash that day and Christoph Vogelsang, Rainer Kempe, Matthias Eibinger, Chris Klodnicki, Nick Maimone, Sorel Mizzi, and Ren Lin to follow. Ultimately, Chris Moneymaker busted in tenth place, bubbling the final table but still winning $500K.

That set the stage for the final table of nine players, with chip counts as follows:

  • Michael Addamo (AU) 196.8M
  • Christopher Nguyen (AT) 143.1M
  • Mustapha Kanit (IT) 141.2M
  • Liv Boeree (UK) 111.4M
  • Marcelo Aziz (BR) 105.5M
  • Yinan Zhou (CN) 88M
  • Vadzim Lipauka (BY) 66.3M
  • Justin Bonomo (US) 63.4M
  • Georg Lehmann (DE) 48.4M

Pre-Final Table Controversy

During the playdown to the final table, with just 16 players remaining, the WSOP told Bonomo that he would not be allowed to wear his scarf – a Keffiyeh, one that many Palestinians wear and that has become associated with the pro-Palestinian movement. If he didn’t take it off, he would be disqualified from the tournament.

Under the new ownership by GGPoker’s parent company, the decision was theirs to make. Bonomo made the point on social media that the WSOP Paradise series ran a charity tournament to benefit families of fallen Israel Defense Forces soldiers, but the Palestinian-made flag was not welcome at the tables. Poker fans and players took to social media to rail against the WSOP’s decision about Bonomo. Even many who vehemently disagree with Bonomo on the subject of Palestine believed he had the right to wear the scarf.

However, as is characteristic, the WSOP did not respond or rescind its decision.

Final Table History Made

Lehmann entered the action with fewer than 20 big blinds and shoved with A-9. It just so happened that Addamo had A-J and ousted Lehmann in ninth place.

Lipauka then took his shot with A-8 suited from the big blind, and Kanit called from the small blind with A-4. The latter hit a queen on the flop, and Lipauka didn’t improve, leaving in eighth place.

Zhou and Aziz collected some chips, and when Zhou challenged Bonomo on a flop of A-5-4, Bonomo called all-in with pocket threes. But Zhou had pocket jacks, which held up to bust Bonomo. He looked into the camera and said, “Free Palestine.”

Aziz took a big pot from Addamo to jump into a good spot above two million chips, not far behind chipleader Kanit. Zhou took some from Addamo, too, and Addamo didn’t have much left and shoved with Q-J suited against the K-8 of Boeree in the big blind. The board brought no flush possibilities, only T-9-3-9-6. That left Addamo out in sixth place.

Boeree wasn’t one of the larger stacks but doubled through Nguyen to stay alive. That left Nguyen short and all-in with J-T. Kanit called with queens, and Nguyen failed to improve, sending him out in fifth place.

Boeree had to move again and did so with pocket fours from the cutoff. Aziz was on the button and called with A-8. The board only brought an ace on the turn, and Boeree was out in fourth place. However, she won $2.8M for that finish, the highest single poker win for a female player in the game’s history. Boeree also moved up to fourth in the female all-time tournament rankings.

Life-Changing Money

Boeree admitted that her $2.8M win was life-changing money. That was the case for most of the players at the final table as well. While Kanit has earned millions in his poker career, Zhou had less than $90K and Aziz had little more than $250K in live tournament earnings to that point.

Zhou was the clear chipleader at that point, though Kanit doubled through him to take the lead, albeit briefly. Aziz doubled through Zhou twice to stay in action, and it was Aziz and his 9-8 that took on Kanit’s A-3 in a battle of the blinds. Aziz rivered an eight to give Kanit a third-place finish and the highest score of his career.

Heads-up play began with these chip counts:

  • Marcelo Aziz (Brazil) 528M
  • Yinan Zhou (China) 412M

Zhou came out swinging and never let up, fairly quickly taking over the lead and aggressively earning chips. Aziz was down to 200M and did double through Zhou, but the latter continued to win pots. Finally, Aziz pushed with K-6, but Zhou had A-6. Aziz took second place for life-changing money of $4.6M.

Zhou, at just 24 years old, had the experience of playing Bonomo, from whom he learned a lot of his play by watching clips and streams. He played at a table with historic amounts of money and watched Boeree make history. Zhou’s online poker experience led him to the point of playing his best game to win an enormous first-place prize.

Feature photo courtesy of WSOP/PokerNews/Tomas Stacha

Jennifer Newell

Jennifer Newell

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Jennifer Newell is a freelance writer at LegalUsPokerSites. She has two decades of experience in the iGaming industry. She is a respected poker media member, contributing to publications and websites like USA Today, PokerStars, and PokerScout. Her knowledge spans gambling legislation and the broader online gaming world. She has spent years advocating for diversity, most notably gender equity in the traditionally male-dominated poker sphere.

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