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The latest day of action at the Horseshoe Las Vegas and Paris casinos saw drama excitement and gold as Day 33 gave two more first-time WSOP event winners the night of their lives... only for their achievements to be caught in the glare of Phil Hellmuth’s star once again shining brightly on a World Series night of glory. The Poker Brat’s win in the $10,000 Super Turbo Bounty event gave him a record-extending 17th WSOP bracelet.

 

Phil Hellmuth Wins Record 17th WSOP Bracelet

 

A night of surprise glory gave Phil Hellmuth an incredible 17th WSOP in the $10,000-entry Super Turbo Bounty Event #72. The single-day event, which saw Phil Ivey finish sixth, saw Hellmuth lead the remaining final five to the bracelet with the chip lead. Give the Poker Brat and self-proclaimed GOAT the most chips in that position and it doesn’t matter whether its three in the afternoon or the small hours of a Las Vegas morning – he’ll make you pay.

 

So it proved yet again. The turbo pace of the event looked like it might have chewed Hellmuth up with a dozen players left as he languished towards the bottom of the pile with a dozen players left. One double-up and the exit of Ivey later and Hellmuth was in charge.

 

Chris Savage lost out in fifth, Kelvin Kerber slid out in fourth and Tom Kunze departed in third. Heading into the final bracelet battle, Hellmuth had the lead and immediately got it in with eight-four against the seven-six of spades on a flop of K-8-4, with the smaller cards in spades.

 

A four on the turn gave Hellmuth a full house, but as the Poker Brat leapt into the air, yelling “Yessss!”, he realised to his horror that one more out could spoil his party. The five of spades – and only that card – would save Zaki, giving him a straight flush, but it was a long shot and the king of spades instead landed on the river to give Hellmuth his latest record-extending victory.

 

Hellmuth now has 17 WSOP bracelets, seven more than anyone else, including the 10-time winner Ivey, who must wait yet again. He should have known that it doesn’t matter how many Phils are involved late. At the World Series, the only name that matters is Hellmuth.

 

WSOP 2023 Event #72 $10,000 Super Turbo Bounty Results:

Rank

Player

Country

Prize

1st

Phil Hellmuth

United States

$803,818

2nd

Justin Zaki

United States

$496,801

3rd

Tom Kunze

Germany

$349,737

4th

Kelvin Kerber

Brazil

$249,876

5th

Chris Savage

United States

$181,230

6th

Phil Ivey

United States

$133,461

7th

Brandon Steven

United States

$99,817

8th

Marc Foggin

United Kingdom

$75,837

9th

Abdella Ali

United States

$58,546

10th

Lawrence Brandt

United States

$45,938

 

David Guay Wins for Home Country on Canada Day

 

On Canada Day, Gavid Guay got the better of the overnight leader John Taylor to claim gold for the first time in his career. The top prize of $271,032 will no doubt have meant a lot too, but with Guay now topping $1.5m in tournament earnings, the win clearly affected him just as much for the bracelet as anything else.

 

“I'm definitely going to be more emotional later,” he said of his immediate feelings. “I'm going to call my mom soon to let her know. I had a lot of friends and family here on the rail and some I only know from way back.”

 

Guay’s win not only came on his country’s national day but in dramatic fashion. Coming from second place, he took out both opponents with weaker holdings in their final hands as Americans’ Steven Stolzenfeld (3rd for $124,850) busted before Guay made the best of a 5:1 chip lead heads-up to claim gold.

 

WSOP 2023 Event #64 $600 NLHE Deepstack Championship Results:

Rank

Player

Country

Prize

1st

David Guay

Canada

$271,032

2nd

John Taylor

United States

$167,483

3rd

Steven Stolzenfeld

United States

$124,850

4th

Jonathan Fhima

France

$93,795

5th

Romain Kowalczyk

France

$71,018

6th

Gaetan Balleur

France

$54,199

7th

David Sebesfi

Australia

$41,694

8th

Paul Hindmarch

United Kingdom

$32,332

9th

Ahmed Karrim

South Africa

$25,276

 

Weiran Pu Wins First Gold in Six-Max Event

 

Chinese player Weiran Pu won his first-ever WSOP bracelet as he took down the 65th event of the WSOP, winning the $5,000-entry Six-Max event for $938,244 and his first WSOP bracelet. Beating overnight leader Norbert Szecsi heads-up, Pu’s victory saw his vociferous rail burst into raptures as he captured the title and in doing so, denied Szecsi his fourth WSOP crown.

 

The final table began with just six players, and it was the Brazilian player Vitor Dzivielevski who busted first. With five players left, any hopes Angelina Rich had of ending this year’s bracelet drought for female players in open events was crushed when her pocket fours couldn’t beat pocket kings belonging to Pedro Garagnani, as the Brazilian held with ease to reduce the field to four. He was out next on the ‘as live’ PokerGO stream but Tyler Cornell’s exit in third meant Pu had the chance of glory, going into the heads-up with 38.1 million to Szecsi’s 21.75m.

 

Eventually, a cooler froze the Hungarian’s chances of a fourth title, his ace-queen crushed by Pu’s ace-king, as both players paired up but Szecsi could find no more help to bust as runner-up. Pu had the title, the top prize and the gold bracelet, all of which meant he couldn’t be happier.

 

WSOP 2023 Event #65 $5,000 NLHE 6-Max Results:

Rank

Player

Country

Prize

1st

Weiran Pu

China

$938,244

2nd

Norbert Szecsi

Hungary

$579,892

3rd

Tyler Cornell

United States

$407,040

4th

Pedro Garagnani

Brazil

$289,819

5th

Angelina Rich

Australia

$209,366

6th

Vitor Dzivielevski

Brazil

$153,485

 

Okamoto Leads Ladies Championship with Seven Left

 

The final seven players are left in the $1,000-entry Ladies Event #67, with Japanese architect Shiina Okamoto building a chip mountain anyone would be proud of to lead with a massive stack of 11.67 million.

 

Second in chips is Tara Cain but she is some way back on 4.75 million and is trailed by Mary Dvorkin, who led overnight and comes into the final with 2.65 million. Everyone else has less than 20% of the chip leader’s stack as the final day approaches and with a first-time bracelet winner guaranteed, who’ll win the $192,167 top prize is anyone’s guess.

 

WSOP 2023 Event #67 $1,000 Ladies Championship Leaderboard:

Rank

Player

Country

Prize

1st

Shiina Okamoto

Japan

11,670,000

2nd

Tara Cain

United States

4,750,000

3rd

Mary Dvorkin

Israel

2,650,000

4th

Tamar Abraham

United States

2,370,000

5th

Suzanne Malavet

United States

2,100,000

6th

Chrysi Phiniotis

Cyprus

1,180,000

7th

Nam Nguyen

United States

630,000

 

Smith Leads PLO High Roller as Lonis Chases

 

The $50,000-entry PLO High Roller, Event #71 on the ticket, has just 11 players still in with a chance of grabbing the gold and the top prize of $2.3 million. In chare after the penultimate day is Tyler Smith, who has a stack of 14 million chips, with Jesse Lonis second in chips on 8,650,000. Everyone else has less than half of the chip leader’s stack, but some very big names lurk in the shadows waiting to pounce.

 

Even low in the counts, some dangerous players are one double-up from becoming very dangerous, with Adam Hendrix (3,500,000),          Isaac Haxton (2,500,000) and the current leader in the WSOP Player of the Year race Ian Matakis (2,150,000) still chasing glory.

 

WSOP 2023 Event #71 $50,000 PLO High Roller Leaderboard:

Rank

Player

Country

Prize

1st

Tyler Smith

United States

14,000,000

2nd

Jesse Lonis

United States

8,650,000

3rd

Elias Harala

Finland

6,575,000

4th

Danny Hannawa

United States

6,125,000

5th

Kabaleen Rajamurthy

Malaysia

5,400,000

 

Baker, Brewer and Livingston Live to Raise Another Day

 

Three former bracelet winners will return tomorrow to conclude Event #69, the $10,000-entry NL 2-7 Single Draw Championship. With a top prize of $367,599 on the line, David ‘ODB’ Baker (4,580,000) has a good chip lead.

 

The only problem is that he’s being chase down by great opponents. Both Chris Brewer (2,765,000) and Alex Livingston (1,900,000) are former bracelet winners, with Brewer going for his second this summer. One of the trio will win again tomorrow.

 

WSOP 2023 Event #69 $10,000 Lo Limit 2-7 Single Draw Championship:

Rank

Player

Country

Prize

1st

David 'ODB' Baker

United States

4,580,000

2nd

Chris Brewer

United States

2,765,000

3rd

Alex Livingston

Canada

1,900,000

 

Colossus Attendance Smashes 2022 Total

 

Day 1b of the $400-entry Colossus Event #70 saw 1,021 players survive from 8,188 entries, as Scott Keaton topped the leaderboard on 1,358,000 chips from Darrick Arreola (1,313,000) and Neng Lee (1,290,000).

 

Other big names to feature include Dan Heimiller (979,000), Norwegian player Preben Stokkan (665,000) and Five Diamond Classic winner James Dempsey (600,000), with a total Day 2 field of 1,986 players from 15,893 entrants being around 2,000 higher in numbers than last year. That’s a colossal prizepool.

 

WSOP 2023 Event #70 $400 Colossus Leaderboard:

Rank

Player

Country

Chips

1st

Scott Keaton

United States

1,358,000

2nd

Darrick Arreola

United States

1,313,000

3rd

Neng Lee

United States

1,290,000

4th

William Ackerman

United States

1,200,000

5th

Mikael Ifergan

France

1,175,000

 

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Phil Ivey, PokerGO, WSOP, Phil Hellmuth, 2023 WSOP, WSOP 2023