WSOP 2024: Dylan Weisman, John Racener and Brent Hart All Win Bracelets on Day of Drama in Las Vegas

Three more bracelets were won overnight in Las Vegas as Dylan Weisman and John Racener both won their second WSOP titles and Brent Hart captured a maiden gong. There were eight events in progress on a bumper Friday night of action on Day 11 of the 2024 World Series of Poker at the Horseshoe and Paris casinos.

Weisman the Wisest in PLO Shootout  

Dylan Weisman took home $294,311 and his second gold WSOP bracelet in Event #18, the $1,500entry Pot-Limit Omaha event, as the event with 1,469 entrants came down to a crucial period of five hours where three-handed play went on without an elimination between Weisman, Chino Rheem and Steve Zolotow.

Polish overnight chip leader Grzegorz Derkowski led the final table into action, but Weisman took the momentum as the final table of eight began to play down to a winner, almost immediately taking out Leslie Rousell in eighth place when Weisman’s kings topped Rousell’s queens.

Soon, Zolotow and Weisman took the initiative as Abdul Almagableh (7th), Jhojan Rivera (6th) and John Zable (5th) all busted. Derkowski left for $101,284 in fourth place when Weisman took him out and play was sent three-handed after not so long. That was only the beginning of an incredible period of play where Zolotow began with the lead, Chino Rheem held it at other stages after some fine play, but Weisman was left with the advantage when Zolotow’s ten-high straight was topped by Weisman’s jack-high straight.

Just two hands after three-handed play had ended, Weisman had the title. When Chino Rheem flopped two pair, the two men got the chips into the middle and Weisman’s nut flush and open-ended straight draw immediately hit the flush on the turn.

No help came in the form of a full house of Rheem on the river and he had to settle for second place and $196,191. Dylan Weisman celebrated winning his second WSOP bracelet, and the top prize of $294,311.

Brent Shows Hart to Overcome Ochana

Brent Hart won his first-ever WSOP bracelet in style on Day 11 of this year’s WSOP as he triumphed against overnight chip leader Eddie Ochana to win the $5,000-entry Event #16 in 8-Max NLHE for $660,284. and his first-ever WSOP bracelet.

Play began with seven players in action, but soon it was six as Taylor Black shoved his final eight big blinds into the middle with and lost out to Shant Marashlian’s for a score of $87,582.

Soon after, Daniyal Gheba lost out in sixth place for $117,271 when his pocket tens were crushed by Alexander Queen’s pocket aces. Soon, Marashlian busted in fifth place for $159,517 when he ran short and shoved into Ochana’s , a board of sending the at-risk former chip leader home.

India’s Kartik Ved failed in his attempt to win a second bracelet when his lost to Ochana’s as the American once more got the bigger chip stack in behind and won, a five on the flop good enough to send Ved to the rail for $220,373 and reduce the field to three American players all shooting for their first bracelet.

Alexander Queen was all-in with soon after but couldn’t find either a jack or his surname card against Ochana’s , a board of sending play heads-up and eliminating Queen for $309,128. Ochana had all the chips and had enjoyed some good fortune to that point but his 4:1 chip lead was soon whittled away as Brent Hart began his charge to the title with a flush draw over flush draw. Both Hart and Ochana missed after needing one heart from the flop, but Hart’s kicker player and the chips were level.

After Hart won a pot with two-pair, he looked down at as Ochana shoved. Hart eventually made the correct call, delighted to see Ochana had shoved pre-flop with . There was to be no miracle for Ochana, as the man with 80% of the chips going into the final battle fell just short of the bracelet. Instead, after a flop of put him in the lead, Ochana watched in horror as, after a safe turn, the nightmare river card of fell to hand Brent Hart his first WSOP bracelet win and $660,284 top prize at his expense.

Racener Takes Second WSOP Title After Evading Eveslage

John Racener, so often a challenger in WSOP Player of the Year races at the World Series of Poker, finally won his second WSOP bracelet seven years after his first. In some ways, Racener seems like a perennial fixture at the World Series, having won money on so many occasions, with 120 cashes in his career in WSOP events. Winning a live tournament just three days after his 21^st birthday, Racener actually took a decade to win a bracelet but now sits on two victories at only 38 years old.

In the 2017 $10k Dealer’s Choice Championship, Racener took home his first bracelet after outlasting luminaries such as Mike Matusow, James Obst and Ben Yu.  This time around, it was the Limit hold’em Championship as Racener kept up his record of only winning $10,000-entry WSOP events for those big payouts. With a final table packed with talent, Racener outran stars of the modern game such as Maxx Coleman (9^th), Andrew Kelsall (8^th) and Ronnie Bardah (7^th) as play got closer to a heads-up showdown.

The overnight leader Marco Johnson was hoping to grab his third bracelet but fell just short in third place when he got it in with an open-ended straight draw on the flop against Racener’s flopped top pair. No help came for the at-risk player and Johnson cashed for $142,245 as Racener went into the heads-up with 3.1 million chips to Chad Eveslage’s 4.8 million.

Heads-up, Racener moved into the lead with top pair, top kicker and a key hand that was won with a straight to open up a better than 2:1 chip lead. That soon improved to a 7:1 lead and when Eveslage was all-in with , Racener couldn’t resist calling with the ‘Texas Dolly’, a.k.a. . The board of gave Racener two pair and he won his second bracelet with the world-famous winning hand from both the 1976 and 1977 WSOP Main Events.

Wilson Goes Wire to Wire to Lead Final Day of $25k High Roller

Brandon Wilson led at the start of the penultimate day of the $25k High Roller Event #21, and he led at the end too, albeit by a fraction of the amount he did 10 hours or so earlier. Wilson’s lead on the final day of the event is a marginal one, with 6.13 million to Stoyan Madanzhiev’s stack of 6m. Indeed, the Bulgaria is one of two men from his country going for the win, with Ognyan Dimov back in sixth place of the 12 players on 3,635,000 chips.

Elsewhere on the final day, short stacks Eli Berg (760,000) and Justin Saliba (720,000) sit outside the top 10 but still have the experience to maximize their opportunities on the final day, while bigger stacks include Michael Rocco (5.59m), Kevin Rabichow (3.57m) and Masashi Oya (3,070,000), with players such as Alex Foxen (18^th), Erik Seidel (23^rd) and Andrew ‘Chewy’ Lichtenberger all earning $64,249 but falling short of the final showdown.

Williams Leads, Alcorn Chasing Gold in Limit Lowball Race

Just 13 players remain in with a chance of gold and the top prize of $146,516 as they bid to become the champion in the $1,500 Limit 2-7 Lowball Triple Draw Event #22. James Williams leads the players with 1.9 million chips, with Sean Yu (1,555,000), Alex Ferrari (1,475,000) and the PokerStake player Heather Alcorn (1,325,000) all still in with a shout of the title.

On a busy day at the felt, 157 players were reduced to the final 13, with the $766,290 prize pool going to 87 players, among whom Chad Campbell (18^th) and two-time bracelet winner Lawrence Brandt (16^th) fell just short of making the final day’s bracelet battle.

Three Exciting Events Close Opening Days with Drama

Three other events concluded on the day, with the $1,500-entry Shootout NLHE Event #23 completing both Day 1a and Day 1b. With each player who survived to Day 2 winning a nine-player WSOP table to progress, Jared Jaffe, Alex Keating, Niall Farrell, Maria Ho, Rainer Kempe, 2024 bracelet winner Darius Samual, Mike Dentale, Erick Lindgren, Espen Jorstad, Landon Tice and David Williams all made it through, with players such as Harry Lodge and PokerStake player Olga Iermolcheva falling just short, losing heads-up in agonizing fashion.

In the $10,000-entry Pot Limit Omaha Championship, there were productive days at the felt for stars such as Sean Winter (378,000), Michael Duek (255,000), Jesse Lonis (248,500) and Viktor Blom (167,000) as the 2023 Poker Hall of Fame inductee Brian Rast (147,000) and six-time bracelet winner Shaun Deeb (42,500) and Mike Matusow (20,500) made the Day 2 cut.

Finally, the $300-entry Gladiators of Poker  event saw Day 1b end with a staggering 8,000 entries, as players who might be identified as ‘Weekend Warriors’ competed for a much-coveted WSOP gold bracelet. As the chips were being counted at the close of play, Eric Sunde’s 2,390,000 stack looked the biggest, while players such as Shaun Colquhoun (1.21m) and Royce Baker (1.26m) could both look back on a day where they’d turned a five-figure starting stack into a seven-figure ending stack.

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!