A sensational day of action took place across seven WSOP bracelet events in Las Vegas as Chris Brewer won his first bracelet for the biggest score of his poker career. It was the largest top prize yet awarded at this year’s World Series of Poker and took place in a tournament riddled with accusations of cheating, unpleasant behaviour and controversy as one man angered many in the game on Day 20 of the 2023 WSOP.

Brewer Wins $5.2 million in Super High Roller Pressure Cooker

The final table of the $250,000-entry Super High Roller Event was a thrilling one, and not only for the poker being played. With the match streamed as-live on PokerGO, fans were tuning in by their tens of thousands, and several of them were ripping into popcorn at the antics that were unfolding. Play began being beamed around the world from seven-handed play, with David Peters the first man to bust live on air. The American was all-in with the marginally better hand, holding A♠9♣ to Chance Kornuth’s A♥8♥, but the board of 4♥3♠2♥J♦3♥ gave Kornuth a rivered straight to send Peters home for $712,953.

At that stage, Kornuth was only behind Martin Kabrhel at the top of the leaderboard, with all three of Kornuth, Kabrhel and Alex Kulev sitting pretty not only having alliterated surnames but between 24.4m and 25.8 million each. Below them, Chris Brewer (11.3m), Artur Martirosian (10.2m) and Dan Smith (6.2m) were all playing catch up. Fireworks, however, were ahead. One sensational hand saw three players all dealt massive pair, with Dan ‘The Cowboy’ Smith seeing his own cowboys shot down in cruel fashion.

While viewers were thrilled by such hands, another player was attracting headlines for allegedly nefarious reasons. Andrew Robl highlighted Martin Kabrhel’s abrasive personality and potential card-marking in a post that saw many big names interact and back up such claims.

The alleged card-marking was swiftly recorded from PokerGO and presented to the world:

Dan Smith’s reaction when Kabrhel called with 10♦6♦ to bust Smith, who held A♦Q♦ and lost his stack when Kabrhel hit a six on the flop.

“Good luck, most of you.” Smith said tot the table, then aiming his finger at Kabrhel, added “I hope you get barred.”

Kabrhel wanted clarification and Smith was happy to oblige.

“Banned.” He said, clearly seething.

“Why?” asked Kabrhel.

“Your antics are the worst of anybody I’ve ever met. Everyone else is a great player.”

“Somebody must be worse.” Kabrhel sniped, as Smith left the table in an atmosphere that was fast becoming toxic.

If anything, the fireworks seemed to speed up the action. Kornuth slid to bottom stack and busted to Kulev for a score of $1.2 million when Kulev made a river pair. Throughout a period of play where only Kornuth lost his stack, Brewer got the better of Kabrhel in some crucial spots, one call with ace-ten costing the Czech player when Brwer’s ace-king got a full double.

Kulev himself was taken out in fourth when his Q♥J♦ couldn’t hit against Martirosian’s 8♥8♣.

Eventually, the crowd got what they wanted – Kabrhel gone. The Czech player’s exit completed to a wall of silence from the watching Thunderdome rail, an almost unheard of experience.

Brewer had been shortest stack with six and four players remaining, and heads-up had a mountain to climb, sitting with only 24.9 million to the impressive Martirosian’s stack of 78.4 million. The Russian player maintained his lead for some time, but a crucial flip took place after Brewer’s fightback led to a 68 million pot hanging on the toss a coin. The American’s 3♠3♥ prevailed as Martirosian’s A♥10♠ couldn’t hit when it needed to.

Five cards from the bracelet, Martirosian never saw the lead again as Brewer’s A♥7♦ won the final hand. The Russian was unlucky, as with the title on the line, his A♦K♠ couldn’t hold, the board coming K♥9♠5♠8♠6♦ for a miraculous conclusion to a truly stunning final table.

Afterwards, an obviously emotional Brewer celebrated the victory in style.

Glaser Grabs Gold

British mixed games expert Benny Glaser claimed his fifth WSOP gold bracelet after he triumphed in the $10,000 Limit 2-7 Triple Draw Championship. Winning the top prize of $311,428, Glaser got the better of the Swedish player Oscar Johansson after a delayed end to the event meant an extra day needed adding to the schedule.

Glaser’s victory not only came after a gruelling heads-up battle, but a fiercely competitive set of final table adversaries to conquer.  David ‘Bakes’ Baker was the man who busted sixth, before other stars such as Julien Martini (5^th), Sampo Ryynanen (4^th) and Michael Rodrigues (3^rd) exited, the latter who was going for his second bracelet inside a fortnight.

Glaser it was who captured gold this time, however, and he draws level with legends such as Josh Arieh, Jeremy Ausmus, Eli Elezra and Jason Mercier on five.

“I felt good coming into heads up today,” he told PokerNews in the moments after the battle concluded. “I really love heads up and I’ve played a lot of it so I was pretty confident in my game.”

Stacked Field in Poker Players Championship as Reigning Champion Ousted on Day 1

Back-to-back 2021 and 2022 WSOP Poker Players Championship winner Dan ‘Jungleman’ Cates arrived at the PPC hoping to make it three in a row in the prestigious event but was one of several big names to bust on the opening day of action as stars battle to win the Chip Reese Trophy.

While other stars such as Daniel Negreanu headed to the rail, other luminaries grappled for position at the top of the leaderboard. With a bracelet win already this series, Josh Arieh has got his eye in and topped the leaderboard at the close of play as the only player to bag up more than a million chips on 1,088,000. Phil Ivey wasn’t far behind on 944,500, which left James Obst to complete the podium places with 929,500.

John Monnette (800,500) is also going for his second bracelet this series, while Viktor Blom (784,000) and Jeremy Ausmus (737,500) guaranteed they’ll be big threats on Day 2 of “the one they all want to win”.

Johnny Chan Shooting for 11^th WSOP Bracelet

Big names continued to dominate in Event #41, with 10-time WSOP bracelet winner Johnny Chan making the final day of the $1,500-entry Big O event. Chan, whose legendary cameo in Rounders – and his two WSOP Main Event wins – helped put poker on the mainstream map,  goes for bracelet #11 tomorrow, a feat that would set him apart from everyone else except Phil Hellmuth.

It is not Chan who leads the field, however, with the 1987 and 1988 world champion down in 12^th place on the overnight leaderboard heading into the final day’s play. Gary Gwinn (4,570,000), Victor Ramdin (3,495,000) and Scott Abrams (3,200,000) are the top three, with Adam Owen (2,705,000) and Xu Zhu (2,400,000) both in the top ten.

All to play for tomorrow for The Orient Express.

Vedral Leads Monster Stack

A massive Day 2 of the Monster Stack event saw 2,715 players reduced to just 389 survivors, with David Vedral (4.35 million) top dog on the day. Proud Dad Kevin Allen (2m) and WSOP bracelet winner David Jackson (1,995,000) both featured prominently in the action and comfortably ended the day inside the top 20% of the remaining field. There is a top prize of $1.16 million up for grabs to the winner.

Chino Charms the Field in NLHE

WSOP Bracelet winner and former Poker Players Championship winner Chino Rheem is high up in Event #42 the No Limit Hold’em event which costs $800 to play. Bagging a top stack of 2,450,000 chips, Rheem finished ahead of 237 other survivors on a day that saw 3,778 play Day 1.

Anyone thinking of taking on Martin Kabrhel at the table had better prepare themselves for more counts than a Dracula convention.

It is impossible not to get all the feels from Chris Brewer’s winner’s montage, courtesy of the WSOP.

Tim Duckworth thinks he might have seen infamous ‘character’ Eden Rocks at the WSOP in person… some years ago.

Finally, a Firaldo warning about the curse of the ‘Reverse Bubble’.

This article originally appeared on PokerStake.com