WSOP 2024: Phil Hellmuth Explodes After Turbo Exit, Adrian Mateos Leads Super High Roller and Pham Fulfils Dream

Seven WSOP bracelet events took place on the 26^th day of the 2024 World Series of Poker, with winners in the $1,000 Seniors Championship, the $10,000 Super Turbo Bounty and Nine Game Mix events. The $250,000 Super High Roller saw a dramatic Day 2 leave just in the hunt for one of the biggest top prizes this year’s WSOP will award.

Pham Claims Gold in Seniors Championship

Khang Pham won his first WSOP bracelet when playing at the first final table he’d ever reached as the $1,000 Seniors Championship concluded on Saturday night. The American player beat his countryman Marc Wolpert heads-up for the $677,326 top prize after a miraculous survival earlier in the event gave Pham the belief and momentum for victory.

Day 4 began with 26 players, as Pham, who survived with ace-four against ace-eight for an important pot along the way, watched as the last remaining bracelet winner Mark Seif was taken out in 12^th place. Marc Wolpert looked to be the player with all the chips when he got off to a great start at the final table. He and Pham busted plenty of the remaining players to end as heads-up opponents, and with the stacks almost level, both players held trips, but Pham had a better kicker to move into a lead he would not relinquish.

In the last hand, Pham flopped top pair and Wolpert took a shot with an open-ended straight draw. Pham made the call on the turn and had to fade just one card to be crowned winner, which he did, he raucous cheers from his rail.

“I should have got knocked in 50th but I didn’t, so it’s my moment and my tournament,” said Pham after the event as he celebrated with friends such as bracelet winner Arash Ghaneian, who had persuaded Pham to take part.

“Without him, I wouldn’t be in this event, and I certainly wouldn’t have a gold bracelet around my wrist, his support meant everything, said Pham. “I should have got knocked out at the end of Day 3, but I ended up getting really lucky against a great player.”

With his first-ever win at the World Series of Poker worth $677,326, Pham triumph in a field of 7,954 entrants, is great in itself.

Final Four Found in $5k 6-Max Event

Just four players remain in the $5,000-entry 6-Max NLHE Event #52, with the Australian player Mostafa Haidary in charge. Haidary ended play on the penultimate Day 3 with 15,375,000 chips, good for a lead over talented Bulgarian Krasimir Yankov (12,825,000). Just two other opponents stand in the way of victory for the chip leader and both will need to get off to a good start on the added fourth day of this event, with both Germany’s Bernd Gleissner (8,575,000) and home country hope Brandon Schwartz (4,300,000) on shorter stacks.

The action of the day was supposed to play to a winner but there was still plenty of drama around the final table as it began with seven players and ended with just four. A huge all-in went three ways to send the German ex-pro soccer star Max Kruse out in seventh for $115,823, as his was crushed not only by Matthew McEwen’s pocket queens but most importantly by Yankov’s pocket aces. As it happened, all three men paired up on the A-Q-4 flop but nothing else came to change matters and Kruse was knocked out.

That pot put Yankov into the lead and crippled McEwen’s stack, the rest of it going soon after. The American took a shot with but Yankov himself snap-called with [K] and an eight-high board with only a solitary spade sent McEwen to the rail with $149,989. After a quick break, five became four as Pedro Madeira slid out in fifth for $195,573 when his ill-timed shove when short with ran into Gleissner’s . The board was jack-high with no help for Madeira, who was drawing dead to the river.

At the close of play, that pot for Gleissner helped him chip up a little, but it was Haidary who ended the day with the best chance at grabbing a gold bracelet tomorrow along with the top prize of $656,747.

Poker Brat Explodes After Late Exit in Super Turbo Bounty

“The same ****ing guy from Scotland, every time!”

Phil Hellmuth already has a fourth-place finish in this year’s WSOP to his name. So when he was all-in three-ways to survive with the best of it deep into Event #57, it was always going to be dramatic. The $10,000-entry Super Turbo Bounty had 486 entries, meaning a massive top prize of $612,997 will be on the line in tomorrow’s nine-handed final. Hellmuth, however, will not be there after he busted in dramatic circumstances in 15^th place to again miss out on that elusive WSOP bracelet #18.

In a World Series where one of his closest rivals Phil Ivey has won a bracelet to move within six of the legendary Hellmuth leader on 17 bracelets, the ‘Poker Brat’ persona has largely remained under wraps. Instead, the more sanguine, reflective side of the most successful tournament player in WSOP history has been on display. That was until an epic exit here in Las Vegas in this event.

Just after the two-table redraw for the final 16 players, on a flop of , Hellmuth led out with and called when Scottish tournament pro Ludovic ‘Ludo’ Geilich shoved with . Already committed to the hand pre-flop for scraps was Noel Rodriguez with . Needing to miss diamonds, Hellmuth dodged tournament death on the turn, which also opened up the gutshot straight draw for Geilich. The Scot didn’t need it, a landing on the river for the double knockout… and an explosion from the ’Brat’!

“The same ****ing guy from Scotland, every time! F***ing idiot, 10-high, what the f***?”, ranted Hellmuth as he stalked away from the WSOP felt that so many times he has made his own personal playground.

As Geilich stacked chips, off Hellmuth went, but although that hand went well for Geilich, he will enter tomorrow’s final as the short stack with just 1.25m chips and the equivalent of eight big blinds. That’s because late stages in the event were dominated by the overnight chip leader Oliver Weis (6.5m) and his two closest challengers, Belarussian Aliaksei Boika (5.36m) and French poker professional Antoine Saout (4.28m). If Geilich is going to win from this position, he’ll need some luck and with his beloved Scotland on the brink of Euro 2024 elimination or progress, a pivotal day in his life ensues with it all on the line. As for the winner, a possible first-time victory, with only home country hero Frank Funaro (2.67m) and Japanese player Shota Nakanishi (2,100,000) having won a WSOP bracelet before.

Mateos the Master on Day 2 of Super High Roller

Day 2 of the $250,000 Super High Roller saw the total field of 75 players reduced to just 14 players, with two more players to bust before the money is reached. The Day 3 action will begin with Spanish poker legend Adrian Mateos in charge, leading the way with 16,250,000 chips. Mateos, who won this event three years ago for $3,265,262, will be attempting to win this year’s top prize of $5,415,152.

Behind Mateos, legends of the modern game and old will gather to prevent him doing so for their own gain. Indian player Santhosh Suvarna (14,950,000) isn’t far behind Mateos in chips, while Taylor von Kriegenbergh (12,050,000) also has eight-figure stack. Sean Winter (9,725,000), Matthias Eibinger (8,600,000), Jonathan Jaffe (8,075,000) and Ben Tollerene (7,375,000) all feature in the top 10 chip counts, with Chris ‘Big Huni’ Hunichen (6.4m) and Phil Ivey (5.65m) will be major threats too, with Ivey not far away from 12 WSOP bracelets, which would almost certainly put him in the frame as favorite for WSOP Player of the Year.

Others to survive included Jeremy Ausmus (5.3m) who will be hoping to grab a seventh WSOP bracelet after several near-misses this summer. Others, however, couldn’t make the cut for Day 3, with the defending champion Chris Brewer busted along with the 2022 winner of this event, Alex Foxen. Daniel ‘Kid Poker’ Negreanu lost two bullets, with no reward for hero-folding trip aces against a made full house, as the Canadian eventually moved all-in with pocket jacks and was beaten by Seth Gottlieb’s suited ace-ten which made a flush. Negreanu wasn’t the only casualty on Day 2, with stars such as Nick Schulman, Isaac Haxton, Stephen Chidwick, Danny Tang, Nick Petrangelo, Andrew ‘Chewy’ Lichtenberger and the former world champion Espen Jorstad all departing.

Dzivielevski Wins Fourth WSOP Bracelet in Nine-Game

Brazilian poker legend Yuri Dzivielevski won his fourth WSOP bracelet in five years as he booked the win in Event #53. Taking down the $3,000-entry Nine Game Mix 7-Max event, Yuri Dzivielevski beat Nicholas Julia heads-up after a protracted three-handed period of play led to Japanese player Masafumi Iijima’s elimination.

The final duel began almost level in chips, but Dzivielevski pulled away and finished off Julia with sixes and threes after the American failed to hit his open-ended straight draw with his final draw. The final table also featured great finishes from players such as Richard Ashby (9^th for $18,284), Tomasz Gluszko (5^th for $46,094) and Scott Bohlman, who came fourth for $65,654.

Two Other Events End in Excitement

Two other WSOP bracelet events took place, as Patrick Moulder (1,820,000), Shaun Deeb (1,270,000) and Chad Eveslage (1,030,000) all made the top ten counts in Event #56, the $2,500 Mixed Triple Draw event. Just 15 players remain in contention for the $177,045 top prize that will be on offer tomorrow, as a total field of 371 entries was finally whittled down to just two tables of players to play down to a winner tomorrow.

Finally, Day 1b of the $1,500 Millionaire Maker took place, with 6,523 players filling up the Horseshoe and Paris casino seats. With just under 1,500 players surviving, there were strong days at the felt for players such as Barry Hamilton (940,000), and the former WSOP bracelet winners (Rafael Reis (145,800) and Christian Roberts (134,500).

With thanks to PokerGO for their official WSOP photography. The 2024 World Series of Poker is available to watch exclusively on PokerGO. Subscribe today and watch all the drama play out in Las Vegas!