The sixth day of drama in this year’s 54^th annual WSOP Concluded with two players lifting gold as Chanracy Khun conquered two legends of the game to win his first bracelet and Nick Schulman bagged his fourth on an exciting evening in Las Vegas.

Khun Beats Winter and Polk for Epic Final Day Win

“We will, we will, Polk you!”

Winning any WSOP tournament heads-up is a challenge, but winning six heads-up battles in a row against some of the best players in the world is almost mission impossible. For Chanracy Khun, that achievement is a reality this morning as he celebrated beating Sean Winter in the semifinals and Doug Polk in the final to claim gold for the first time in Las Vegas. Taking the title and $507,020 top prize, Khun’s incredible victory saw him not only topple those two great players on the final day, but over the course of the event, also beat Marko Grujic, Event #2 winner Alexandre Vuilleumier, Gabor Szabo and poker phenom Landon Tice along the way.

On the final day, Doug Polk began as favorite to take gold, and the popular YouTuber certainly had the largest rail. “We will, we will, Polk you!” they cheered as their hero battled against Chris Brewer for a place in the final. As they did so, the eventual winner Khun was beating Sean Winter, a board of seeing Winter eventually call holding for a low straight. Khun, however, had played the higher straight with perfectly and could sit back and watch as his two potential opponents battled to meet him in the final.

The second semifinal to finish was an epic, with Chris Brewer and Doug Polk battling hard as each man took the lead on mulitiple occasions. In the end, a crushing bad beat for Brewer sealed it for Polk, as almost all the chips were on the line when Brewer five-bet shoved with and Polk called off his stack with . With no flush to hope for, a board of played through the turn to leave Polk looking for a two-outer on the river to survive. Incredibly, the landed on 5^th street and Polk leapt out of his seat, doing two laps of the Thunderdome before sealing victory just a few hands later.

The final was a great match too. Polk took the lead before Khun battled back. Polk used all his experience to get himself almost 3:1 up in chips before a bluff gone wrong was hero-called by the masterful Khun with only pocket sixes. Shortly after, Polk was sitting on just ten big blinds when she shoved with . Khun made the right call with and after a board of landed, no miracle could save Polk this time. He won $313,362 in second place, but Khun’s first bracelet came at the expense of what would have been Polk’s fourth. So near, and yet so far.

Nick Schulman Captures Fourth Crown as Monnette and Deeb Fall Short

“I’ve always thought it was my best game. I grew up playing it.”

A comeback victory for Nick Schulman saw Event #9, the $1,500-entry Seven Card Stud event go his way as the American won his fourth WSOP bracelet in style. Coming into the final, Schulman was fifth of seven in chips, but he used the moments he held the better hand to devastating effect as he picked a careful path through legends of the game on his way to victory.

After the eliminations of Tim Frazin (7^th for $12,839) and DJ Buckley (6^th for $17,166), Schulman was still short-stacked. But having taken out his fellow shortie in Buckley, Schulman started making moves, increasing the pressure on his opponents and stealing valuable chips along the way. He’d more than stabilized by the time that the overnight chip leader John Monnette took out Shaun Deeb in fifth place for $23,476, and that meant Monnette was vulnerable to an attack on his stack. A crucial flush turned Schulman’s stack around and soon after, Monnette was on the rail.

Eliminating Hoejeong Lee in third place, Schulman went into the final battle against Andrew Hasdal with a comfortable lead, holding 64% of the chips in play. He used those chips to good effect, winning when his hand improved from two pair to a full house on seventh street with the defeated Hasdal unable to make his straight flush draw come good.

“I love Stud,” Schulman said afterwards to PokerNews reporters. “It’s probably my favorite game and I’ve always kind of thought it was my best game. I grew up playing it.”

That experience, coupled with a measured final table performance throughout was a devastating combination, and Schulman’s victory gives him his fourth bracelet, good enough for level par with other legends of the game such as Joe Cada, Josh Arieh, Brian Rast and Benny Glaser.

Mystery Millions Sees Both Seven-Figure Prizes Won to Cheers

Everyone plays the Mystery Million to try and win the million-dollar bounty, but this year, there were two on offer in Las Vegas, as well as a $1,000,000 prize for winning the event too. On Day 2 of this epic event with over 18,000 entries, not one but two of the million-dollar bounties were won, to quite different players.

Shant Marashlian’s reaction to finding the first million-dollar bounty was perhaps the calmest you might be able to imagine…

? Massive GOLD ENVELOPE with a shot at a $1,000,000 bounty ?

Watch what happens when Shant Marashlian opens his envelope… #poker #wsop

⚡️ https://t.co/aKuY36obji pic.twitter.com/QNdk4B3TAP

— Poker Org (@pokerorg) June 4, 2023

… while Patrick Liang’s response to winning the second of the two million-dollar bounties in the Mystery Millions was far more euphoric!

How to win $1,000,000 instantly!
Good job Patrick Liang pic.twitter.com/nHZ25UOzhK

— WSOP – World Series of Poker (@WSOP) June 5, 2023

As 1,005 players were whittled down to just 30, Guang Chen ended the day ahead of the rest on 64 million chips at the end of Day 2. He was followed by Steven Thompson (52.3 million) and Jaime Madrigal (45.2 million) in the podium places, with Chris ‘Big Huni’ Hunichen (30.2 million) and Dan Shak (14.3 million) both hopeful of using their vast knowledge of the game to bag a first-ever bracelet. Hunichen’s 63 WSOP cashes and Shak’s 69 cashes will propel them to do their very best to capture gold on tomorrow’s dramatic final day.

Eveslage Shooting for Second Bracelet in Dealer’s Choice Decider

The Dealer’s Choice Championship reached its final day as 13 players remain in contention for what would be a highly prized WSOP bracelet. Having already conquered Event #5, also a $10,000 buy-in Dealer’s Choice event, Eveslage is one day away from making it a double. On that day, Eveslage won the $131,879 top prize but if he can take down Event #10, it will be worth  over $311,000, a not insignificant increase.

To do so, he’ll need to make it past some experts in this entertaining format, not least yesterday’s overnight chip leader John Hennigan. The six-time WSOP bracelet winner has all the experience and sits ominously on 519,000 chips in the middle of the pack. Eveslage may have bagged 1,371,000 chips overnight but Ryan Goindoo (1,075,000), Ari Engel (767,000), and Mike Gorodinsky (496,000) will all be ready to step up should he put a foot wrong on his imagined path to glory.

Hellmuth Hopes for Bracelet #17 Alive in Deepstack Event

Phil Hellmuth survived a fast and furious opening day in Event #11, the $600-entry Deepstack NLHE Event on Day 6 of the WSOP. With 6,085 entries in the deepstack yet fast-paced structure tournament, the Poker Brat ended the day inside the top 100 as 340 players booked a seat in Day 2’s table draw.

Top of the shop was the American player Kevin Daily, who ended play with over 1.9 million chips, but the average is far lower at around 575,000. Hellmuth has 665,000 chips to play with on Day2 as he pursues a final day berth in the hunt for bracelet #17.

Arieh, Heath and Metaldi All Perform in $5,000 Freezeout

Put it all on the line and the cream usually rises to the top. It’s true for the $10,000 ‘freezeout’ WSOP Main Event and so it proved again on Day 1 of the $5,000-entry NLHE Freezeout Event #12. A total of 735 players took on the no-rebuy event, with only 148 of them surviving to Day 2.

The chip leader at the close of play was the Ukrainian player Artem Metaldi (796,000) whose aim of becoming the second Ukrainian WSOP bracelet winner in the first dozen events is on track after he topped Julio Delgado (728,000) and Adekunle Olonoh (709,000) in the podium places.

Elsewhere, there were strong performances from British high roller regular Ben Heath (480,000), the 2021 WSOP Player of the Year Josh Arieh (436,000) and two-time bracelet winner Michael Gagliano (391,000), all of whom finished the day inside the top 25 players.

Jack Effel took time out from directing the poker traffic at Horseshoe and Parsi casinos to let Poker.org know all about the ‘No RTAs’ rule in place and when players can expect to be punished.

World Series of Poker Vice President, Jack Effel (@JackEffel) clarifies the RTA policy put into place at this year’s @WSOP?#poker #wsop pic.twitter.com/gc9KirjQfD

— Poker Org (@pokerorg) June 1, 2023

There was a double-celebrity sighting in the form of TV star restauranteur Lisa Vanderpump at the WSOP felt. Don’t worry: her lucky charm and co-star wasn’t begging for scraps at the table.

Celebrity sighting of none other than @lisavanderpump at #WSOP.? I wonder if an of the other cast members are here…

?Maybe @twschwa is finally fulfilling his dream of playing this year.#WSOP #WSOP2023 #poker #vanderpump #scandoval #bravo pic.twitter.com/c0iVE5B6Z7

— Tight Poker (@tightpoker) June 1, 2023

Finally, we at PokerStake join the rest of the poker world in wishing Scotty Nguyen a swift and full recovery from his upcoming surgery. The first half of this year’s WSOP just won’t be the same without him, baby.

heading out today to get settled in for surgery tomorrow morning baby! i see you all for the 2nd half of the series baby! love you all baby! pic.twitter.com/pV5WyaVY7q

— Scotty Nguyen (@TheScottyNguyen) June 4, 2023

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