WSOP 2024: Main Event Approaches Money Bubble with Moreno in the Lead, Chance Kornuth Wins Fourth WSOP Bracelet

A busy day in the World Series of Poker saw six events in progress as the WSOP Main Event reached the money bubble stage, Chance Kornuth won his fourth bracelet in the $1,000-entry Flip N Go event, and four more events produced drama from the first card to the last at Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas.

Main Event Plays Near the Bubble, Moreno Over 2m Chips

Day 3 of the 2024 WSOP Main Event saw 3,617 players begin play from the world-record attendance of 10,112 in Las Vegas for this special event. By the close of Day 3, just 1,524 players remained, with only seven of them needing to bust to put the remaining 1,517 into the money spots, as the record $94,041,600 prizepool begins to be distributed.

Returning for Day 4 with the chip lead will be Spanish player Francisco Perez Moreno. He ended the night as the only player above 2 million chips on a stack of 2,187,000. Behind the PLO cash game player, however, sit some NLHE experts, with Alex Livingston (1,808,000), Francis Anderson (1,660,000), Ren Lin (1,570,000), and Nacho Barbero (1,289,000) all over a million chips.

The 11-time WSOP bracelet winner Phil Ivey (597,000), Ethan ‘Rampage’ Yau (504,000) and the 2021 Main Event Champion Koray Aldemir (443,000) all made the cut for Day 4 and likely profit, while the 10-time WSOP bracelet winner Erik Seidel (78,000), seven-time winner Daniel Negreanu (74,000) and the reigning champion Daniel Weinman (82,000) will all be hoping to survive the bubble with around 10 big blinds then push up the leaderboard into a position where they can make their experience count.

Many other players of huge reputation – and others of none – busted on Day 3 of the 2024 Main Event, including former final table player Ben Lamb, the 2012 world champion Greg Merson, Triple Crown winner Niall Farrell, Mike ‘The Mouth’ Matusow, Andrew ‘Chewy’ Lichtenberger, Brazilian crusher Felipe Ramos, and PokerGO commentators Brent Hanks and Nick Schulman.

Chance Kornuth Wins Bracelet #4 in Flip N Go Finish

Chance Kornuth won the fourth bracelet of his glittering poker career after a premonition from his younger brother was realized by the poker legend in Las Vegas. A fun – and fast – final table featuring poker legends such as Mike Leah battled bravely but Kornuth proved himself to be the king once again, banking a top prize of $155,446.

After yesterday’s exciting ‘flip’ portion of proceedings, Chance Kornuth had fired three bullets worth a collective $3,000 into the prizepool. A day later, he won the $155k top prize and gold for the fourth time at the WSOP. On a frantic final day, there were eliminations inside money places for Scott Seiver (86^th for $2,400), Mike Watson (81^st for $2,400), Toby Lewis (65^th for $2,818), Chris Brewer (59^th for $3,135). Brad Owen (21^st for $6,855), and Shaun Deeb (14^th for $8,412).

At the final table, John Armbrust busted with pocket eights to Kornuth’s ace-queen, setting the eventual winner on his way to victory. Ian Hamilton (7^th) and Filipp Khavin (6^th) both busted in succession after Armbrust’s departure, before Xiaoyao Ma left in fifth when king-jack was overtaken by Mike Leah’s king-ten when a ten landed on the turn.

Sean Whelan was busted in fourth when king-jack couldn’t triumph against Kornuth’s ace-ten and soon, the Canadian Leah joined him, busting in third for $74,062 when pocket fours lost to Kornuth’s ace-queen, which was fast turning into the leader’s lucky hand. Heads-up action lasted just a single hand as Kannapong Thanarattrakul finished as runner-up after his suited ace-four fell to Kornuth’s queen-jack, a jack on the turn proving fatal for the Thailand player. Having come second in the $50k High Roller WSOP event earlier in the series, Kornuth finally had his fourth WSOP title.

“Even though it’s a smaller one, it feels incredible,” he told PokerNews. “I made a bunch of mistakes and got all the way down to 20 bigs. I just kept hanging around and then went on a heater and had above average at the final table and won a bunch of pots. I think that’s just kind of an experience thing. Perspective and framing are really important.”

With yet more winners photos in the family album, Kornuth revealed that his brother had told him about a dream he had the night before Kornuth’s win where his older brother won the bracelet and was holding it across his fist. Kornuth completed that vision by posing for the cameras… and family.

Yettick Provides Improbable Finish to 8-Game

“I GOT LUCKY WITH THE CARDS I WAS DEALT AND ENDED UP WINNING.”

Garth Yettick came back from a 5:1 chip deficit against the six-time bracelet winner Josh Arieh to win the $1,500-entry Event #83, the Eight Game Mix 6-Handed event. With 494 entrants, the event saw a final day table of seven battle for the gold, as a first-timer eventually won gold after opponents totalling 14 bracelets between them ultimately fell short of adding to their collective number.

Yettick got off to the ideal start, hitting a flush to survive when his queens were losing to Xiaochuan Zhang’s pocket kings in PLO. Marco Johnson was next to leave, shot down by Yettick also as the eventual winner started to rise. An exit for John Racener in fourth place followed after Maxx Coleman busted in fifth, as ‘Miami’ John Cernuto took him out. The 2024 Poker Hall of Fame nominee – along with Josh Arieh at the same table – couldn’t crown his appearance with gold, losing his last chips with king-four to his fellow nominee Arieh, whose pocket nines held in No Limit Hold’em.

Heads-up, Arieh’s lead grew to a 5:1 advantage but it all went wrong for the six-time WSOP winner, as Yettick’s top two pair held as Arieh’s open-ended straight draw failed to hit for the win. Yettick then won a crucial flip in NLHE when his ace-queen hit against Arieh’s nines as once again, Arieh couldn’t win a flip for the title. Falling behind, he got his chips in with ace-queen in No  Limit only to run into Yettick’s ace-king, and the first-timer had the victory.

“All you need is a chip and a chair, and thankfully today I was never in that situation,” said the newest WSOP event winner. “I’ve seen a lot of tournaments on TV and I am very familiar with tournament strategies. I got lucky with the cards I was dealt and ended up winning.”

Taking home the top prize of $131,061 and his first WSOP bracelet, Yettick was modest about winning in his second-ever ranking tournament cash two decades after his first.

“I did look into everyone’s Hendon Mob record prior to the day; it was definitely the toughest table of opponents that I had sat down with. I thought that everyone played great at this final table, I just got the better cards. Whenever the chips did go in, I just won the races. It feels great, winning the bracelet and winning the money too. I’m just always happy to be playing poker.”

Three Other Events Conclude

Three other WSOP bracelet events took place on Day 43 of this year’s WSOP as the Ultra Stack reached Day 3 with just 19 players left and two new events kicked off with dramatic Day 1s. The $600-entry Ultra Stack, Event #84, saw just 19 players remain in their seats at the close of play, with Ricardo Lopez (32.6m) the chip leader overnight. Daniel Rezaei (28m) sits third in chips in the hunt for his first WSOP title, while Victor Dermendjian (27.5m) isn’t far behind as he bids to win gold for Brazil.

In Event #86, the $1,000-entry Mystery Bounty event, 1,701 players took on Day 1a, with just 193 surviving to Day 2. Nicholas ‘Dirty Diaper’ Rigby (438,000) bagged a huge stack as he looks to win his first bracelet after giving fans so much entertainment in the Main Event in recent years. He’s joined by Gene Grieshaber (1,211,000) and Peter Siemund (1,037,000) in the chipcounts.

Finally, Event #87 kicked off with 1,041 total entries as the $5,000 buy-in 8-Max NLHE event was topped by a trio of Brazilians on Day 1. Just 157 players reached the money places on a frenetic day of fast-paced poker, with 88 players making it to the pivotal second and final day of action.

Brazilians Felipe Boianovsky (1,795,000), Felipe Ketzer (1,380,000) and Yuri Dzivielevski (1,375,000) lead the remaining field, with a total prize pool of $4,788,600 producing a top prize of $785,486. British poker star Patrick Leonard (1,370,000) Bulgarian poker crusher Fahredin Mustafov (1,300,000), Russian GG MILLION$ legend Artur Martirosian (1,190,000), and the American professional Galen Hall (1,170,000) all sit in great places to threaten the final table. The WSOP $25,000 Heads-Up Championship winner Darius Samual (1,100,000), Faraz Jaka (600,000), Nick Maimone (525,000), Alex Foxen (430,000), Rainer Kempe (310,000), and David Peters (230,000) are all still hunting gold.

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