The march to the WSOP Main Event final table continued on Saturday, as Day 7 saw the field shrink to the final two tables. The Horseshoe and Paris casinos in Las Vegas buzzed with excitement over the final Saturday on tap, and the biggest news aside from Calvin Anderson joining the five-time bracelet winner’s club was Kristen Foxen’s march to become the second woman to ever final table the Main Event. A total of eight events were in action on Day 47 of the 2024 World Series of Poker, with only five more events left to go on this year’s docket.

Foxen Chases History in Main Event

The last time a woman made the final table of the WSOP Main Event was all the way back in 1995, when two-time WSOP bracelet winner Barbara Enright finished in sixth. Four times, a woman has been the final table bubble, most recently Gaelle Baumann in 2012. Kristen Foxen has a chance to forever etch her name alongside them in Main Event lore, as she commands a Top 5 stack with just 18 players remaining after Day 7 drew to a close.

Foxen, who already holds four WSOP bracelets of her own, had to endure a roller coaster of a day that led her dangerously close to elimination multiple times. In Level 34, she was down to her last five big blinds and at risk with against the of Gabriel Moura, and a flop and turn left her with just three outs to survive. Fate was on Foxen’s side, as the drilled the river, sending her rail into a frenzy as she gained a tiny bit of breathing room.

Foxen rode the short stack for a while before earning another double with kings, bringing her close to average, and she turned on the jets from there, bluffing Yegor Moroz off the best hand with a big bet with on a board, forcing Moroz to lay down. A few hands later, Foxen picked up another healthy pot with Big Slick, and suddenly the former short stack was contending for the chip lead. Her final major hand of the night saw her flop a set and turn a boat, and she overbet the river into Gerardo Hernandez, who paid her off with queens-up. Foxen’s 47,400,000 chip stack is good for fifth place out of the final 18 players, and history awaits if she can continue her spectacular play and make it to the final table.

Malo Latinois will enter Day 8 as the tournament chip leader, and his 61,300,000 stack sits nearly ten million more than Diogo Coelho (51,500,000) in second. Online phenoms Niklas “lena900” Astedt (50,000,000) and Joe “floes” Serock (46,300,000) both managed healthy bags, and former bracelet winners Jason James (45,800,000) and Brian Kim (42,400,000) also had successful days on the felt. The only two stacks with seven digits to their name belong to Boris Angelov (8,300,000) and Jordan Griff (8,300,000) with just over ten big blinds each, and while they (along with the other 16 remaining players) have locked up a $350,000 payday, one of them is in serious danger of being the first player out on Sunday and missing out on a $100,400 pay jump.

The field of 59 returning players started thinning out quickly, with Day 5 chip leader Stephen Song included in the early eliminations. Alex Keating was ousted by a cruel river from Guillermo Sanchez Otero, and the man with the ducking crazy rail, Jesse Capps, quacked his last quack after running his tens into Jason Sagle’s kings. Kevin Davis started Day 7 as the chip leader, but found the mother of all coolers waiting for him, as his kings were bested by the aces of Gerardo Hernandez.

The other woman left in the field on the start of Day 7 was Shundan Xiao, and she found herself short after losing around 80 percent of her stack to Latinois’ flopped two pair. Left with just over six big blinds, she managed to ride her short stack to a pay jump before ultimately falling in 28th place, just short of the three table redraw. Brian Rast, a Poker Hall of Fame member with six WSOP bracelets, fell soon after, calling off his stack of 22 big blinds with ace-queen, but failing to find an ace against the kings of Jonathan Tamayo to bust in 24th. From there, Elliot Kessas, Luis Vazquez, Kyosuke Nagami, Yake Wu and Charles Russell all busted out to reduce the field to the final 18 players.

Day 8 will see those 18 players reduce their ranks by half, with the final table of nine the goal on everyone’s mind. With an average stack of just over 42 big blinds, there’s still plenty of play left on the table. Will Foxen become just the second woman in WSOP Main Event history to reach the Main Event final table? Will Latinois avoid the curse of the chip leaders before him and survive and thrive? Will Astedt continue showing the world the power of “lena900” on the physical felt? And will Kim’s second deep run in the Main Event in three years culminate with a final table appearance? There’s plenty of questions on every poker observer’s mind heading into the monumental day; all we know for certain is that it’s going to be one of the most talked about Day 8’s in WSOP Main Event history if everything goes right for one Kristen Foxen.

Anderson Notches Bracelet Five in 8-Game Championship

Calvin Anderson’s four previous bracelets came in a wide variety of games; Stud Hi-Lo, Razz, PLO and No-Limit Hold’em. His fifth featured those four games and four more, as he took down Event #88: $10,000 Eight-Game Mixed Championship (6-Handed) for $413,446 and his fifth career WSOP bracelet. This was his ninth cash of the 2024 WSOP season, and third top three performance in one of the $10k Championship events. Anderson told PokerNews how much the win meant to him, saying that this particular bracelet “is worth three to me, probably.”

Anderson returned for Day 4 with just one opponent between him and the title. Dai Ishibashi was at a considerable chip disadvantage to start play, and he never came close to retaking the chip lead. A hand of PLO ended matters just 90 minutes into the day, as Ishibashi got his last chips in with [ against Anderson’s on a flop. Neither player improved on a turn or river, leaving Anderson’s ace-high good enough to take the title.

Vogelsang and Bleznick Lead $50k High Roller

A total of 28 new entries brought the total field to 178 in Event #92: $50,000 High Roller, and only five players will return for the final day of play. Christoph Vogelsang (19,250,000) and Jared Bleznick (12,800,000) will return with the only eight-figure stacks, and both players are seeking their first WSOP gold bracelets (and the hefty $2,037,947 payday as well), which given their extensive poker pedigrees may come as a shock. A trio of former bracelet winners will return with short stacks, as Jesse Lonis (7,500,000), Nacho Barbero (6,950,000) and Justin Saliba (6,900,000) all hold stacks under 20 big blinds.

Eric Wasserson was the unfortunate bubble boy in the event, ripping his last chips in with Big Slick only to find Paulius Vaitiejunas waiting with a pair of aces. A total of 27 players made the money in the event, with poker luminaries such as Ben Lamb, Chris Brewer, Day 1 chip leader Joseph Cheong, and David Peters all earning a payday. Brynjar Gigja was the final elimination of the day, with his falling to Saliba’s when Saliba managed to flop a queen.

Sanders Ships $1.5k 6-Handed PLO Title

A fitting six players returned to crown a champion in Event #90: $1,500 6-Handed Pot-Limit Omaha, with Mike Leah on the hunt for bracelet number two. It was Joseph Sanders who wound up with the WSOP gold bracelet and $269,530 for his victory. Sanders hadn’t recorded a cash during this year’s WSOP, but was able to spin up his fourth-place stack at the start of play to earn his maiden piece of gold.

Leah’s quest for his second bracelet fell short in fifth after running into Alfred Karlsson’s aces. Heads-up came down to Sanders and Anatoliy Zlotnikov, and while Sanders started with a 2:1 chip deficit, it didn’t take long for him to turn the tide. The final hand came when Zlotnikov committed his stack with aces on a 9s] flop, but Sanders held a nine and stayed on top the rest of the way to take the victory.

Shimizu Racks Stacks in Mid-Stakes Championship

By the time registration closed early in Day 2 of Event #89: $3,000 Mid-Stakes Championship, a total of 3,177 players had entered the tournament between the two flights and Day 2. Only 149 remained after another full day of action, with Takao Shimizu running over the field with a 3,155,000 stack, nearly a million more than second place Lucas Reeves and his 2,320,000. Jack Salter (1,660,000) and Scott Blumstein (1,240,000) managed healthy bags, while Chance Kornuth, Angelina Rich and Jeff Madsen all earned a cash but failed to make it through the day.

Extra Day Needed in $3k H.O.R.S.E.

A field of 17 returning players in Event #91: $3,000 H.O.R.S.E. (8-Handed) failed to reduce to one, as John Racener (10,050,000) and Gary Bolden (4,275,000) will need a bonus day of pay to determine a winner. Tom McCormick, Ismael Bojang and Adrienne Carter missed the official final table, and Wooram Cho, who started the day as chip leader, never found much traction and was eliminated in eighth. Jeremy Ausmus reached his record-tying seventh WSOP final table, ultimately bowing out in seventh.

Lucky 7’s and 10k Six-Max Start Day 1 Action

In Event #94: $10,000 6-Max No-Limit Hold’em Championship, 418 hopefuls fired a bullet into the fast-paced six-handed action, and just 162 made it through the day’s play. James Chen (502,500) leads a talented group in the top of the counts, with Adrian Mateos (360,000), Hossein Ensan (314,000) and Andrew Moreno (306,500) all bagging healthy stacks.

Event #93: $777 Lucky 7’s No-Limit Hold’em saw 1,444 entrants pony up a lucky bullet, with 588 of them still alive at press time.

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