WSOP 2024: Margolin and Fauver Strike Gold, Blom Leads High Roller and Seiver Seeking Sixth Bracelet

Day 19 of the 2024 World Series of Poker was a “blast” for bomb pot lovers, as a brand new bracelet event brought the fun of cash game bomb pots to the Horseshoe and Paris casinos in Las Vegas. In addition, two more gold bracelets were doled out and the $50k High Roller saw plenty of familiar faces in action as a total of seven events were on display on the eve of Father’s Day.

Margolin Makes it Three in Deepstack

While the Day 1 stacks in Event #36: $800 8-Handed No-Limit Hold’em Deepstack were certainly deep, the final table of the event was quite the opposite, as the average stack was just a hair under 24 big blinds. The four-hour sprint to the finish saw Timur Margolin turn on the aggression and steamroll his way to a bracelet, his third after winning two bracelets (one in the US, one at the WSOP Europe) in 2018. Margolin gave thanks to his family, fittingly enough given the holiday tomorrow, telling PokerNews after his victory, “I want to thank my wife and kids for being so supportive of my decision to travel and play poker.”

Margolin didn’t keep the chip lead from wire-to-wire, however, ceding it to Michael Allen early on. A key hand developed after Jeremy Chen’s elimination that may have been the turning point in Margolin’s tournament; after a raise and a three-bet, Margolin cold-four bet the to 22 million (leaving just 6 million behind), and Francisco Riosvallejo woke up with in the big blind. However, Riosvallejo chose to preserve his 19.1 million chip stack and snap-folded, and Margolin took down the hefty pot without showdown.

From there, Margolin took hold of the driver’s seat, eliminating Vaughan Machado, Cole Uvila, the aforementioned Riosvallejo and Joseph Couden in a single level to bring the field down to four.  Adam Hendrix managed one double from there, but couldn’t find another against Agharazi Babayev to end yet another deep run for the pro in fourth, who is still seeking his first WSOP bracelet. From there, Allen tried to put a stop to Margolin’s constant aggression with a three-bet shove for his last 15 big blinds with , but Margolin had the goods with to eliminate Allen and give the product of Israel a monster 10:1 lead going in to heads-up play.

There would be no miracle comeback for Babayev, who got his last few big blinds in on a board with . Margolin once again had a monster in the wings, however, and his held tall after a river to secure the victory, while Babayev took solace in a career-best score for the man from Azerbaijan.

PLO Crusher Fauver Bests Anderson For Big O Crown

John Fauver has been something of a well-kept secret in the PLO ranks, with multiple wins in smaller buy-in Omaha events this year and a seventh-place performance in a $15,000 buy-in PLO event during the 2024 PokerGoTour PLO Series. Fauver may not be a secret much longer, as he broke through in a big way to take down Event #37: $10,000 Big O Championship for $681,998 and his first WSOP bracelet, nearly quadrupling his Hendon Mob reported earnings in the process.

19 players returned for the final day of play, and a bevy of bracelet winners fell short of the final table, including Adam Friedman (18th – $25,340), Ryan Hughes (17th – $25,340), Anson Tsang (14th – $30,800) and David Benyamine (9th – $48,582). It took two hours for the first eliminations at the final table, with short stacks Danny Wong, Michael Rocco and Alfred Atamian finally hitting the rail. Two-time WSOP bracelet winner Dylan Weisman got it in with top pair and a backdoor low draw a few hands later, but Farid Jattin had a wrap and hit on the turn to bust out Weisman in fifth.

At this point, Jattin had a dominating chip stack, but Fauver went on a heater after the dinner break, with a quick series of doubles that saw him take over the lead. Jattin’s stack dwindled down to dust soon after, and it was Calvin Anderson’s turn to spin up a short stack, doubling through Fauver before taking all of Nitesh Rawtani’s chips in two hands. Fauver entered heads-up action with a slight lead over the four-time bracelet winner Anderson, and while the stacks were plenty deep, it didn’t take long for the duo to get the chips in the middle. 

Fauver limp-called a 600,000 chip bet from Anderson with blinds at 100,000/200,000/200,000, and Anderson led out for 1.4 million on a flop. Fauver potted it to put Anderson in for his last 4 million, and Anderson chose to call it off with . Fauver had the goods with [, but Anderson binked his straight on the turn. Fauver caught right back up on the river, denying Anderson his fifth bracelet and earning his first in the process.

Blast From the (Online) Past Blom Leads $50k High Roller

A total of 43 new entries joined the 68 returning players on Day 2 of Event #39: $50,000 High Roller No-Limit Hold’em, bringing the total field to 177 high rollers. Online poker legend Viktor Blom, still seeking his first WSOP bracelet, currently leads the final 13 players with 9,670,000 in chips, nearly a million more than Sergio Aido (8,800,000) in second. Blom’s stack soared early and he remained active all day long, surely reminding many fans of “Isildur1” grinding the online streets as his stack yo-yo’d up and down the counts.

Jonathan Jaffe (5,135,000) is the only other stack over 5 million, while heavy hitters like Martin Kabrhel (4,380,000), Jesse Lonis (4,230,000), defending champ Leon Sturm (3,895,000), Adrian Mateos (3,585,000) and Chance Kornuth (3,385,000) all have playable stacks for Day 3 action. UFC announcer Bruce Buffer will be doing the introductions for tomorrow’s action, and he’ll do so as a player as well; however, he returns with the shortest stack of the group, with just 1,365,000.

Jeremy Ausmus (26th – $101,724), Brandon Steven (23rd – $101,724), Chris Brewer (18th – $101,724) and Seth Davies (17th – $106,810) all managed to earn a payday, while Day 1 chip leader Masashi Oya, Issac Haxton, Daniel Negreanu, Phil Ivey, Brek Schutten, Dan Sepiol and Phil Hellmuth fell short of a payday.

Kelsall Stands Tall in Stud Championship

Another in the long line of Championship WSOP bracelet events kicked off today, as 74 players ponied up a buy-in for Event #42: $10,000 Seven Card Stud Championship, with registration still open for Day 2 to expand the prize pool further. Just 41 players managed to bag up chips, with Andrew Kelsall and his 294,000 stack atop the pack. The winner of the 2020 WSOP Global Casino Championship is looking to add his second bracelet to his collection, along with padding a WSOP resume that already contains an impressive $2.2 million in lifetime earnings.

Bracelet winners Yuval Bronshtein (203,000), Chad Eveslage (191,500), Yuri Dzivielevski (169,500) and Naoya Kihara (145,000) all command top ten stacks, while Robert Mizrachi (115,500), Alex Livingston (112,000), Mori Eskandani (103,500) and Brian Rast (81,000) remain in contention, while Bill Klein, Nacho Barbero, Allen Kessler, Chris Vitch and Todd Brunson, Adam Friedman, and Daniel Negreanu all saw their hopes dashed on Day 1.

Seiver Seeking Second Bracelet of 2024 in Razz

Scott Seiver’s WSOP already may be considered a success to some observers, with a win in the $10,000 Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better event earlier in the series, but the talented pro isn’t resting on his laurels just yet. From a field of 136 returning players in Event #40: $1,500 Razz, Seiver cruised his way to a comfortable chip lead out of the 14 players who survived the day, sitting with a healthy 2,455,000 chip stack. Standing in the way of bracelet number six for Seiver are mixed game crushers Ben Yu (1,235,000), Brandon Shack-Harris (985,000) and Justin Liberto (730,000).

83 of the returning players would earn a slice of the prize cool, including Day 1 chip leader Andrew Kerstine (72nd – $3,000), Shaun Deeb (65th – $3,000), Patrick Leonard (53rd – $3,150), David “ODB” Baker (43rd – $3,465), Mike Gorodinsky (24th – $4,514) and John Racener (16th – $5,340).

A New Event and Another Monster Stack Flight Round Out Day 19

One of the more hotly anticipated events on the WSOP calendar kicked off today, as Event #41: $1,500 Mixed: No-Limit Hold’em; Pot-Limit Omaha Double Board Bomb Pot (8-Handed) saw the field playing a round by round tournament, but every time the game changed, the table played a double-board bomb pot variant of the game. A total of 1,312 players took flight in the inaugural event, with just 167 of them returning for Day 2, a nod to the volatile nature of bomb pots. Dong Chen (940,000 leads the remaining field, with Dario Sammartino (549,000), David Benyamine (431,000), Shaun Deeb (247,000) and Ian Matakis (206,000) all bagging up chips for Day 2.

Meanwhile, the second flight of Event #38: $1,500 Monster Stack No-Limit Hold’em kicked off with 4,004 entrants, of which 947 made it through to Day 2. Changfeng Fan booked an absolutely monstrous ticket to Day 2 with a 1,403,500 stack, over 500,000 more than second place Chih-Feng Li. Faraz Jaka (439,000), Kathy Liebert (315,500) and Kristen Foxen (292,500) also managed to bag up big stacks.

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!