WSOP 2023 Day 36 Recap: Main Event Sees Stars Make Top 20, Two Other Bracelets Events Won

A busy day of action in both the WSOP Main Event and the Mini Main Event saw legends of the game of poker progress from Day 1b in the big one, while two bracelets were won in other events. The stars were out on Day 36 of the 2023 World Series of Poker as Patrik Antonius and Julien Martini were two big names of many who excelled at the felt at the Horseshoe and Paris casinos in Las Vegas.

 

Superstars Shine on Day 1b of Packed Main Event Field

 

It was a pulsating day of poker action on Day 1b of the $10,000-entry WSOP Main Event. With 1,118 entries the adjudged number at the time of going to press, a total field of 2,158 has been whittled down to 1,621 survivors over Day 1, with five 120-minute levels producing 819 survivors on Day 1b specifically.

 

Top of the leaderboard after that time was Jean-Pierre van der Spuy of South Africa, whose stack of 287,000 was good enough to lead on the day, although that was some way short of three players who made the podium places on Day 1a, including the current overall leader Yehuda Dayan (389,900).

 

Behind van der Spuy on Day 1b, a collection of some of the world’s most feared poker players are queueing in his slipstream. Four-time bracelet winner Julien Martini (286,000) ended the day a three-bet short of the chip lead. Finnish poker legend Patrik Antonius (263,500) was only a four-bet back. Other stars such as Anatoly Filatov (231,000), Daniel Rezaei (216,200) and Chris Brewer (173,000) all comfortably made the top 50.

 

The biggest name to finish high on the Day 1b leaderboard, without doubt, is the 10-time WSOP bracelet winner and two-time world champion Johnny Chan. The Poker Hall of Famer closed the day on 218,000, which was good for 16^th place of the 819 who made it through. Chan ‘The Man’ will be tough to stop of Day 2abc.

 

WSOP 2023 Event #76 $10,000 Main Event Leaderboard:
Rank	Player	Country	Chips
1st	Jean-Pierre van der Spuy	South Africa	287,000
2nd	Julien Martini	France	286,000
3rd	Yuze Ding	United States	284,500
4th	Gar Cheung	United States	281,500
5th	Andrew Graham	United States	277,700
6th	Scott Numoto	United States	268,200
7th	Patrik Antonius	Finland	263,500
8th	Jevon Lam	United States	243,000
9th	Robert Lofaso	United States	233,500
10th	Anatoly Filatov	Russia	231,000

 

Bradley Gafford Wins First Bracelet in Mini Main Event

 

U.S. player Bradley Gafford won the 74^th event of this year’s 95 bracelet tournaments, conquering the Mini Main Event for an incredible top prize of $549,555. The $1,000 buy-in event, which saw 5,257 players play down to a winner over four days, handed out well over $1.3m on the final day as the overnight leader Jeremy Oleon and Jennifer Abad both missed out on the final two let alone the gold.

 

Heads-up, it was Josh Reichard who ran Gafford close, but the first-time winner, who hails from San Diego, was over the moon with his result.

 

“I knew that there would be a possibility if I could win the first flip of the day,” he told PokerNews reporters afterwards. “I just thought everything would go my way today and it did. It has come way earlier than I thought, and I haven’t really processed it yet. I was planning on playing the Main Event tomorrow - Day 1c - but we will see what happens tonight and I might jump in the final flight, Day 1d.”

 

WSOP 2023 Event #74 $1,000 Mini Main Event Results:
Rank	Player	Country	Prize
1st	Bradley Gafford	United States	$549,555
2nd	Josh Reichard	United States	$339,646
3rd	Jeremy Oleon	France	$255,215
4th	Jennifer Abad	United States	$193,103
5th	Oliver Berens	United States	$147,129

 

Kamel On Top as Deutsch Misses Out

 

Australian player Hassan Kamel won Event #75, the $10,000-entry PLO Hi-Lo 8 or Better Championship, after getting the better of Ryan Hoenig heads-up. On a dramatic final day, Dylan Weisman managed to finish fifth, which he considered some result from starting lower down, thanking his fans for their support.

 

The overnight chip leader Stephen Deutsch saw things go against him late in the day as he could only cash in sixth place for $105,737, five places short of claiming his first bracelet. The Stateside player has now finished 6^th, 3^rd and 2^nd in WSOP events in his 16 WSOP cashes. So near, and yet so far.

 

Kamel, who was in the middle of a road trip when he stopped off to play at the WSOP, returns to the road with almost $600k in winnings.

 

"I don't really like playing tournaments,” he confessed after winning his first WSOP bracelet. “I found my favorite game, hang out, and have been road tripping across America. I honestly don't play that much any more; I just happened to be here and thought I’d come and check it out.”

 

There’ll be no skimping on Beef Jerky at the next truck stop for Kamel and his overjoyed rail. Did anyone say, ‘Fill it up with premium’? Kamel is over the hump in this WSOP in spectacular style.

 

WSOP 2023 Event #75 $10,000 PLO Hi-Lo 8 or Better Championship:
Place	Player	Country	Prize
1st	Hassan Kamel	Australia	$598,613
2nd	Ryan Hoenig	United States	$369,972
3rd	John Holley	United States	$265,156
4th	Anton Smirnov	Russia	$192,562
5th	Dylan Weisman	United States	$141,727
6th	Stephen Deutsch	United States	$105,737
7th	Long Tran	United States	$79,979
8th	Dzmitry Urbanovich	Poland	$61,346

 

Sam Soverel Leads Last Six in Hybrid High Roller

 

United States poker legend Sam Soverel (2.8 million) will look to close out his second WSOP bracelet event when he transfers from the virtual felt to the real stuff tomorrow in Las Vegas. This hybrid Online High Roller Championship cost $5,300 to play and isn’t far off what Damian Salas won back in 2021.

 

The hybrid winner of this event will be one of six greats who have five previous bracelet wins between them, with Yuval Bronshtein (2.7m), Aleks Ponakovs (1.5m) and Ethan Yau (1.3m) all having claimed gold before, Bronshtein twice. With Lingkun Lu (1.1m) and Gergely Kulcsar (525k) underdogs due to chip stack sizes and experience, anything could happen in this event, with $393k and the bracelet up for grabs to the winner.

 

WSOP 2023 Online Event #13 $5,300 NLHE High Roller Championship:
Rank	Player	Country	Chips
1st	Sam Soverel	United States	2,873,636
2nd	Yuval Bronshtein	Israel	2,741,876
3rd	Aleks Ponakovs	Latvia	1,593,689
4th	Ethan Yau	United States	1,311,441
5th	Lingkun Lu	United States	1,153,794
6th	Gergely Kulcsar	Hungary	525,564

 

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