After Shannon Shorr kicked off the week by winning his first-ever World Series of Poker gold bracelet, Bert ‘girafganger7’ Stevens got in on the act too, winning the biggest-ever WSOP Online Main Event for a score of $2.78 million in thrilling circumstances. With commentary from industry legends Jeff Gross and Ali Nejad, the GGPoker-sponsored event was screened around the world on a delayed live stream as fans flocked to watch Stevens conquer a star-studded final table.
Record-Breaking Numbers
The World Series of Poker Online Main Event cost $5,000 to play this year and in partnership with GGPoker, saw a record-breaking attendance. On Day 1, an incredible 6,023 players took part in the action, with 761 of them surviving to Day 2. That day of action saw the field whittled down to just nine starters at the final table, and that was enough to make the 2023 WSOP Online Main Event a Guinness World Records holder for the biggest prizepool in an online poker tournament. An amazing $28.6 million was up for grabs, with over $2.7 million to the winner.
Bert Stevens was the chip leader when play began, sitting down to battle for what turned out to be his first WSOP bracelet with 103 big blinds. That was only a slim lead from Dutch player Eric Bakker, who began with 90 big blinds, but a drop off a cliff came behind the top two with, others such as Uruguayan Ramiro Petrone (42 big blinds) going for his second bracelet, Chinese player Yagen Li (31 big blinds) firing for his first and Irish player Simon Wilson (22BB) the short stack.
While no-one busted early, eventually, it was the shortest player who bowed out first. Wilson was all-in pre-flop with 
and needed to hit against the 
belonging to Bert Stevens. The flop of 
kept the British player ahead, and after the 
turn, a 
on the river ended Wilson’s chances, seeing the young up-and-coming player cash for a career-best online score of $251,073.
Dutch Despair as Bakker is Busted
Over half of the final table had elapsed, but only one player had busted. Incredibly, the three hours that the final table took to play out had lost only Wilson, but his exit opened up the metaphorical floodgates. Swiss player Fabian Rolli must have thought he’d found the perfect point to double back into contention, but having committed his stack with 
pre-flop, Rolli lost to Bakker’s 
after the board came 
. Rolli departed for an eighth-place result worth $339,032.
Lukas Hafner was the player to depart in seventh, scoring a cash worth $457,864 after a three-way battle between premium hands. Hafner’s 
came off worse against Yagen Li’s 
, not helped by Erik Bakker being present in the same hand with 
. Bakker survived, but his stack was dealt the first serious hit of the night. With Stevens having a 200 million chip pot at the end of the hand, Bakker three-bet shoved all-in with and was called by Stevens with . The board of 
sent the Dutchman to the rail with $618,406.
Five players remained and just 30 minutes were left in what became a race to the finish line. Russia’s Alexander Timoshenko lost out in fifth place for $835,303 soon after, committed automatically in the big blind with 
and knocked out by Stevens’ 
. The board of 
never looked like helping the Russian survive and of the 350 million or so chips in play, Bert Stevens had 235 million of them.
Stevens Seals Victory in Style
With four men left, only one of them had a WSOP bracelet to his name, and Uruguay’s Ramiro Petrone was the next to leave the party. Desperately short of chips, Petrone shoved from first position with 
but ran into Yagen Li’s 
in the big blind. The flop of 
gave Petrone a gutshot to a straight draw but the 
turn and 
river sent the Uruguayan home with the first seven-figure prize of $1,128,331 for finishing fourth.
It was a very quick ending. Ezequiel Kleinman was all-in with 
in the big blind without a choice and lost to Stevens’ 
after a board of 
sent the Argentinian home with $1,524,214 in third place.
Heads-up, Li won an early hand, but as Stevens led by around 2:1 in chips, he moved in with , Li was committed with and Bert Stevens held as the board came to give the British player his first-ever WSOP bracelet and a top prize of $2,783,432.
Watch the moment Bert Stevens streamed his first WSOP bracelet win live here!
You can also watch a full replay of the final table via GGPoker’s YouTube channel:
| GGPoker WSOP Online Main Event 2023 Final Table Results: | |||
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
| 1st | Bert Stevens | United Kingdom | $2,783,432 |
| 2nd | Yagen Li | China | $2,059,058 |
| 3rd | Ezequiel Kleinman | Argentina | $1,524,214 |
| 4th | Ramiro Petrone | Uruguay | $1,128,331 |
| 5th | Alexander Timoshenko | Russia | $835,303 |
| 6th | Eric Bakker | Netherlands | $618,406 |
| 7th | Lukas Hafner | Austria | $457,864 |
| 8th | Fabian Rolli | Switzerland | $339,032 |
| 9th | Simon Wilson | Ireland | $251,073 |
