WSOP 2024: Bryce Yockey and Nick Guagenti Win Second Bracelets, Seiver and Deeb Close to the Gold

The sixth day of action in the 2024 WSOP saw two more bracelets won as Bryce Yockey and Nick Guagenti became double bracelet winners, while Shaun Deeb and Scott Seiver both ended the penultimate day of the Omaha hi-Lo Championship in a position to challenge for gold on tomorrow’s final day. With Day 1d f the Mystery Millions and the first Badugi bracelet event of the WSOP taking place, it was a full day’s action at both Horseshoe and Paris casinos in Las Vegas.

Yockey Makes it a Double

Bryce Yockey conquered the final table of the $5,000-entry PLO 8-Max Event #8 as the American sealed a victory worth $606,654 in the process. Beating Colombian Farid Jattin heads-up, Yockey also outlasted a final day field including Zach Schwartz, Joao Vieira and Joao Simao.

Play began in the eighth WSOP event of the series with 11 players still in the hunt but after exits for Gabriel Andrade (11^th for $29,145), the Poker Hall of Famer Brian Rast (10^th for $36,526) and the Japanese professional Naoya Kihara (9^th for $36,526), the final eight reached the last table of the tournament.

At that point, Yockey began his ascent to the throne as he eliminated two players in one hand, Joao Simao sliding out in seventh, Paul Radcliffe going in eighth as Yockey won with a jack-high straight. Farid Jattin was the only player with over half of Yockey’s stack and from that moment, the two leaders were in total control of the action. Jattin took out Vieira in sixth, snatching the lead. Yockey evened it up at the top by busting Jason Berilgen in fifth.

Yockey continued the aggression, eliminating Aditya Sadhu in fourth place, before then removing Zach Schwartz in third to move heads-up with a 4:1 chip lead. Those two most recent eliminations meant Yockey never lost the lead heads-up, having the stack to deal with minor setbacks. Those conquered, Jattin’s Q♠ 10♠ 4♥ 3♦ couldn’t overcome Yockey’s  A♣ Q♥ 8♣ 6♠ when the latter made a pair of eights on the turn and the Colombia Jattin missed his draws on the river.

“I had to be really cautious with him because he was clearly willing to play more hands than ICM would suggest,” Yockey told PokerNews after the event. “I kind of treated him like a chip leader and gave him a lot of free opportunities. I felt like I would find chances to get chips in other places.”

Having taken his second WSOP title, Yockey – who expressed shock at only being worth $13 in the $25 Fantasy Draft – said he’s shooting for the 2024 WSOP Player of the Year title.

“I’m never going to be like Shaun Deeb or Daniel Negreanu; I’m never going to play two tournaments at the same time unless it’s a really unusual situation. But I always play 40 events anyway. If I play another ten, it’s really not that different. I’ll be in here every single day.”

Who would bet against Yockey’s chances after the start he has made?

Nick Guagenti Doubles Up as Helppi Heroics Fall Short

Nick Guagenti followed Bryce Yockey onto the list of players to win two WSOP bracelets as he took down the $1,500 Limit Hold’em Event #9 for $121,074. Holding off the late challenge of the only other bracelet winner at the final table, Finnish great Juha Helppi, Guagenti then dominated the later stages to bag a second bracelet in the 9^th event of this year’s WSOP.

Guagenti’s win, which is his second bracelet after winning an Online Series event in 2020, comes four years after his first victory and it obviously meant a lot more to the American to win at the live felt in 2024.

“I’m only here to win bracelets,” Guagenti told reporters after the victory. “I was planning on playing 50-55 events this summer regardless. I could still end up stuck on the Series despite this win, so I’ll be playing!”

Juha Helppi had started as the short stack, but the two-time WSOP winner who was shooting for his third win in five years got off to a great start, winning with flush over flush against Bradley Carter, who left first in sixth place. Guagenti continued to crush, taking out Qinghai Pan in fifth before Helppi finally lost, losing to George Chen’s two-pair. Chen himself busted in third when Q♠ Q♣ failed to win against Guagenti’s K♦ J♦ when all the money went in on a board showing J♣ 5♥ 5♠ J♠ and no queen came on the river.

That pot meant Guagenti went into the final battle against Joseph Brodsky with a chip lead of 7.7m to Brodsky’s 3.3m. Dominated in the final hand with 8♠ 4♠ losing to Guagenti’s Q♥ 8♦, Brodsky earned $80,717 for his runner-up finish but it was Guagenti who won his second bracelet, denying his heads-up opponent his first WSOP title as a result.

Seiver, Anderson and Deeb Chase Omaha Hi-Lo Glory

Event #10 looks set to come to a terrific conclusion, with Scott Seiver (1,055,000), Calvin Anderson (810,000) and Shaun Deeb (610,000) in the top seven stacks of 26 remaining players. With a top prize of $426,744 and the gold WSOP bracelet on the line, it was Sami Saad El-Dein (1,350,000) who bagged the chip lead on Day 2 of this $10,000-entry Omaha Hi-Lo Championship, but with legends lining up behind him, it’s unfair to call anyone a favorite with a day’s play to go.

Jared Bleznick (1,200,000) sits in second place and will be hoping to win his first bracelet, while Seiver and Anderson will go for number four, and Shaun Deeb will push to win his seventh WSOP title. Other players such as Jake Schwartz (485,000) and John Racener (365,000) present real danger and will be final day threats, but there was no stacking up to do for near finishes Anthony Zinno (28^th) and Hunter Mcclelland (27^th), both of whom won $20,309 in missing out on the final day.

Wagganer Leads First Badugi Event of the Series  

The first Badugi event to take place this summer on the WSOP saw 487 entries all put down $1,500 to play the exciting poker variant, with 139 players surviving to Day 2 and the race to win the $129,676 top prize and the WSOP bracelet. A field of legends sat down to play, including plenty of stars who didn’t make Day 2, such as last year’s event winner Michael Rodrigues, the 10-time WSOP bracelet winner Phil Ivey, Mike ‘The Mouth’ Matusow, Poker Hall of Famer Eli Elezra, Allen ‘Chainsaw’ Kessler, and the popular ‘Barstool Nate’ Silver.

While those luminaries won’t be playing towards the 74 money places tomorrow, Joseph Wagganer certainly will, bagging up 268,500 for a healthy chip lead at the end of Day 1. Followed most immediately by Sweden’s Oscar Johansson (218,000) and Wagganer’s fellow American Mark Roland (217,500), players such as Hanh Tran (203,500), Jerry Wong (191,000) and Frank Kassela (175,000) also made the top 10 on Day 1.

Other big names who bagged up stacks include Alex Livingston (148,000), Andrew Yeh (132,000), Heather Alcorn (125,000), Dan Zack (120,000) and Chris Brewer (103,000), all of whom finished well clear of the average stack of 87,590.

Mystery Millions Bumps Field to over 18,000

The fourth Day 1 flight of the $1,000-entry Mystery Millions Event #5 saw another 7,600 entries added to the total field, making it 18,409 ‘bags of sand’ that have made it into the prizepool. Players will have a shot at the $1,000,000 bounty on Monday as Day 2 begins, with around 2,000 players surviving to what will be an epic spectacle.

Topping the leaderboard on Day 1d was Adrian Puccio (3,360,000), who was the only player to end the day on over 3 million chips. Behind him in the top ten, Romanian Mircea Ionescu (2,595,000) and Chinese player Dong Chen (2,2215,000) from China represent countries outside North American, with James Carroll (1,530,000) one of the biggest names to make the top 20.

Other big names to bag included Scott Ball (1,745,000), Justin Liberto (1,685,000), John Riordan (1,290,000) and Ismael Bojang (1,275,000), all of whom have previously won a WSOP bracelet.

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!

This article originally appeared on PokerStake.com