WSOP 2024: Nacho on Top as Two New Bracelet Winners Claim Gold

Nine events took place on Day 32 of the 2024 World Series of Poker, with bracelet wins for Mark Checkwicz and Hector Berry along the way. With the $1,000 Ladies Championship in action as well as the $10,000 PLO Championship, there was something for everyone at Horseshoe and Paris casinos in Las Vegas.

Berry Binks Deepstack Bracelet

British poker player Hector Berry took advantage of the deepstack format, winning Event #62, the $600-entry PokerNews Deepstack Championship for a career-high score of $282,876. After five players returned on the final day, Berry, who had earlier in the event doubled from nine big blinds, doubled 15 bigs early on to put himself back in contention before the early exit of the experienced Darryll Fish.

Fish lost to the overnight chip leader, Branden Shimamoto, whose turned flush ejected him from the competition. But four-handed, deepstack poker went deep and it was a long time before anyone busted. Heads-up, Berry ended up playing Canadian Luke Varasso, who fell slightly behind then got his stack in against Berry when dominated. The British player managed to fade straight outs from the turn to seal an emotional victory.

“I was a little emotional seeing all the messages coming in,” he said to PokerNews afterwards. “Heads-up I was just so engrossed in the moment, it’s so draining. I came here for three weeks last year and played about twenty tournaments. Played about five this year and won one, which is kind of insane! Very lucky, very fortunate. I don’t know where I go from here. It’s a lot of money for anyone.”

Having toppled Luke Varasso heads-up to top the 5,110-strong field, the juice was well worth the squeeze for Hector Berry.

Checkwitz the Champion in Seniors High Roller

Mark Checkwicz won Event #65, the Seniors High Roller, as he parlayed the $5,000 entry fee into a top score of $573,876. With just ten players left, two players were female, but Judith Bielan lost with ace-nine to Bruno Lopes’ ace-jack to be eliminated before popular pro Angela Jordison was busted just minutes later. She had battled bravely for two days but in the end ran pocket kings into the pocket aces of Kevin Nathan before then busting to Checkwicz in ninth place.

Winamax Pro Bruno Lopes was hoping that his experience would pay off but the French player lost most of his chips to Checkwicz too, eventually departing in sixth place for $99,203. Play progressed until Arie Kliper made it heads-up against the dominant Checkwicz for a battle that would go both ways for almost two hours. Eventually, Checkwicz flopped the nut straight to win against the missed draw of the Israeli player. Afterwards, Checkwicz dedicated the win to his wife.

“I promised my wife [who’s] been a schoolteacher for twenty-four and a half years; she’s got nine more years to work. I promised her if I won this tournament, I would buy her a year more of retirement. She now has eight years more to work! It’s awesome.”

It’s always great to speak to winners and Checkwicz eulogised on the magic of poker the instant after winning big at it.

“Poker is just so beautiful and really there has to be a winner and a loser and I appreciate both sides of the equation. That’s what makes it work.”

Asked if he would be playing any more WSOP events, Checkwicz said his daughter was visiting so it was unlikely.

“I think I’m done, man. What more can I ask for? I can’t find another reason to play another tournament right now.”

Joshua Adkins Leads Last Five in PLO Championship

The penultimate day of action in Event #66, the $10,000-entry Pot-Limit Omaha Championship saw just five players remain from the total field of 811 as a top prize of $1,320,945 and the WSOP gold bracelet is just four eliminations away from the lucky winner.

With a massive stack of 27,085,000 chips, Joshua Adkins has almost three times the stack of his closest rival Elie Nakache (9,505,000), with Jonathan Bowers (5.93m), Manh Nguyen (4.66m) and Oshri Lahmani (1,425,000) trailing some way behind. It was a busy day of action where big stars busted, such as Jerry Wong (45^th), Michael Mizrachi (44^th) Niklas Astedt (22^nd) and Stephen Chidwick (17^th).

Dramatic Day 2 Fields Include Nacho on Top

Three events made it to Day 2 and enjoyed bumper days as events played into the money places and towards their conclusion. In Event #67, the $500-entry Salute to Warriors event, 678 players returned to their seats to battle towards Day 3. At the close of play, just 17 of them were left, with Paul Serrate the leader on 27.53 million chips. His closest rivals are Tolga Gesli (24m) and Rafael Takeda (21.8m), with other stars such as Ben Collins (15.8m) and Vladas Tamasauskas (15.6m) chasing hard too. None of the remaining players have ever won a bracelet before, so whoever wins will get that magical feeling for the first time.

Day 2 of the $2,500-entry NLHE Event #68 saw 335 players start the day and just 23 remain at its close. Top of the shop is Argentinian poker crusher Nacho Barbero on 9,935,000 chips, with Ivan Stankov (6.4m) and Andre Akkari (5.05m) both inside the top five. Other luminaries to survive to the third and final day include WSOP 2024 Peter Park (4.54m) and Carl Shaw (4.5m), after players such as Phil Ivey, Joao Simao and both Kristen and Alex Foxen all busted on a dramatic penultimate day of the event.

Event #69, the $1,500 Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo 8 or Better event saw 157 players return to action, 92 make the money and just 17 remain in contention for the final day’s play and potential $153,730 top prize tomorrow. Christian Roberts (2.38m) was the chip leader when bags were handed out, while Jon Turner (1.73m) was his closest rival. Yuval Bronshtein (1,135,000), Joey Couden (970,000), and the Poker Hall of Famer Eli Elezra (450,000) will all come back attempting to win gold.

Day 1 Drama as Colossus and Ladies Events Begin

The opening day of action in Events #70, #71 and #72 began. In Event #70, the $400 Colossus field reached epic numbers of over 4,600 players on Day 1a. Of the 600 or so survivors, Dohang Na (1,659,000) was right at the top of the chipcounts, with Daniel Lowery (1,037,000) another of six players to top a million chips by the end of play. Bracelet winners Craig Varnell (740,000), Jason Simon (621,000) and Kartik Ved (521,000) all survived to Day 2 with well above the average stack.

Event #71 saw the $1,000 Ladies Event kick off, with 1,245 total entries and 309 players surviving, with Irene Carey (413,500) on top. Last year’s winner Tamar Abraham survived to Day 2 with 68,500 chips, while the previous year’s winner, PokerStake player Jessica Teusl did even better. The Austrian bagged up (154,000) after a late hand with pocket kings gave her stack a boost. Others to make the cut included WSOP bracelet winner Kathy Liebert (105,000), Loni Hui (91,500), Lexy Gavin-Mather (61,000) and Ebony Kenney (52,000), while other such as Kyna England, Melanie Weisner, Christina Gollins, Robbi Jade Lew and Nikki Limo all left the field on Day 1.

Finally, Event #72, the $10,000-entry No-Limit 2-7 Lowball Draw Championship drew to a close on Day 1 with 129 entries and just 47 survivors. Japanese player Naoya Kihara (379,000) leads the remaining players, with Team Lucky’s Matt Glantz (365,000) and two-time bracelet winner Taylor Paur (360,000) both close by. Others such as Shaun Deeb (327,000), Alex Foxen (303,500), Robert Mizrachi (272,500), Erik Seidel (178,500), Dario Sammartino (176,000), and Nick Schulman (165,000) all have a great chance to win, but Chance Kornuth, Jared Bleznick, Jeremy Ausmus, Calvin Anderson and Maxx Coleman all busted on Day 1.

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!