There were nine WSOP bracelet events on Day 23 of the 2024 WSOP, with two new winners and seven events without a gold bracelet being awarded. In the $100,000 High Roller event, Swedish legend Viktor Blom has the chip lead with six remaining, while six was the unlucky number for Game of Gold winner Maria Ho as the poker star lost in that exact position as she fell short of her maiden bracelet yet again.

Edengren Wins It ‘For Fun’

Sweden’s Marcus Edengren won Event #43, the $1,500-entry Mixed Omaha tournament, as he showed Blom the way in winning their country’s first bracelet this year. Playing Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better, Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better and Big O, Edengren returned to the three-handed action on this extended day top of the charts and quickly got the job done, winning with a better straight against James Juvancic in third place, before a 5-to-1 chip lead made heads-up simple, the top prize of $196,970 heading to Edengren when a better two pair landed him the gold.

Yesterday, Phil Hellmuth’s elimination in fourth place from 853 entrants saw the Poker Brat just miss an 18^th WSOP bracelet. The event winner was delighted.

“I just come to Vegas every year to have fun, and then I play some tournaments,” Edengren joked to PokerNews. “I don’t really play poker anymore at all. I stopped a long time ago and just play for fun. I’ve  not been close to winning a bracelet yet but this year I have been great. I was 12^th in the PLO8 and thirty something in Big O”. [It’s] just four card [events] for me. If there are any of those tournaments while I am in Las Vegas, I will play them.”

After such a stirring first title, Edengren would be wise to play the rush while on this sort of form.

Jared Kingery Crowned as Spain Feels the Pain

Three Spanish players arrived in the final five hoping to win the next bracelet for their country after Sergio Aido’s stunning victory in the $50,000 High Roller event. Sadly for them, Jared Kingery had other ideas. Winning his own debut WSOP bracelet, Kingery took down the $2,000-entry NLHE Freezeout event for $410,359 after getting the better of Spanish player Javier Gomez heads-up.

Just a couple of years ago, Kingery was runner-up from 20,080 entrants in the 2022 ‘Housewarming’ event that saw players enter the Horseshoe and Paris casinos for WSOP events for the first time. Today, 1,561 entries were gotten through in a little under three busy days at the felt as Kingery made the nut straight to overtake Gomez then used his stack to pressure his remaining enemies.

All-in with ace-queen against ace-jack for the win, Kingery held and the Washington longshoremen, used to using cranes to unload cargo in the Capital found himself considering how heavy $410,359 in dollar bills just might be to lift.

“I’m definitely not a professional player,” he said afterwards. “I’m actually a longshoreman back in Washington so I don’t play that much,” said Kingery. That Housewarming score was my first WSOP tournament ever. I was just sun-running!”

If two events worth over $843,000 isn’t a day in the sun, what is? Kingery will never forget this year’s WSOP, that is for sure.

Blom Bullying High Rollers

Viktor Blom is in charge in the $100,000 High Roller event, with one day between the Swedish phenom and the top prize of over $2.8 million. Blom, who finished third in the $50,000 High Roller earlier this month, has 27,675,000 chips, with Chris Hunichen (16,475,000), Chance Kornuth (8,900,000) Aleksejs Ponakovs (6,475,000), Jeremy Ausmus (6,100,000) and Justin Saliba (1,575,000) all some way behind the leader.

With sixth-place worth $512,465 and over five times that to the winner, the prize pool of $10,932,750 will be the focus tomorrow when the final table is shown live on PokerGO. Blom will be hoping that this time, he puts his chip lead to the best use and grabs gold.

Maria Misses, Glaser Going for Gold Again

Game of Gold winner Maria Ho lost out in sixth last night as she just missed out on a gold WSOP bracelet again. The Taiwanese-American poker legend will be disappointed to miss the final table but can once again be proud of another terrific performance as she fell just short of glory in Las Vegas.

With five left, British mixed game player Benny Glaser (3,675,000) leads from Russia’s  Maksim Pisarenko (3,375,000) and  Steve Zolotow (1,500,000) among others, with Canada’s Mike Leah (340,000) extremely short.

Neves the Monster

Portuguese player Pedro Neves (172.2 million) leads from Aaron Johnson (101m) and Brian Roff (50.8m) with four others on a fraction of the chip leader’s chips with one day left in Event #38, and a massive $1,098,220 up for grabs. On a day where the overnight chip leader Martin Kabrhel crashed and burned in 26^th place to miss the late stages entirely, two of Portugal’s finest and five American poker heroes made the last show, with everyone looking for that ‘Monster’ payout.

Prociak Proving Worth Again

PokerStake player David Prociak (14,615,000) is flying high in Event #48, the $1,000 buy-in Pot-Limit Omaha event, as he reached the final day with a big lead as he fires for his second bracelet of this year’s WSOP and third in total tomorrow after crushing in the Badugi event earlier this summer.

Christopher Vitch (13,530,000), and Thomas Taylor (6,100,000) will be trying to prevent Prociak, but some big names have already busted, with Bryce Yockey, Shaun Deeb, Brian Hastings and Phil Laak all slipping out of contention and Prociak is a big favorite with one day to play to level Scott Seiver on two WSOP Wins in the past few weeks.

Three Other Events Conclude Day 1s

Event #46, the $1,000-entry Seniors Championship, ended with just 914 players survivors, with Canadian player William Elliott (530,000) leading from legends such as Sammy Farha (347,000), Team Lucky’s Matt Glantz (122,000), Barry Shulman (93,500), Mike ‘The Mouth’ Matusow (80,500), and John Hennigan (80,500) ahead of Day 2.

Event #49 saw 1,252 players take part in the $3,000-entry NLHE Freezeout event, with 187 players making it to Day 2 and into profit. Ivan Ruban (1,476,000), David Stamm (1,165,000), and John Kenner (1,089,000) lead the field, with stars such as Eric Afriat (601,000), Martin Jacobson (526,000), Chris Brewer (444,000), Jeremy Becker (355,000), and Punnat Punsri (260,000) all chasing the $523,195 top prize.

Event #50, the $10,000-entry Razz Championship, ended proceedings on Day 23, with 54 surviving from 90 entries, with Eric Rodawig (276,500) Ren Lin (250,500) and Arthur Morris (225,000) in the top five places. Brian Yoon (218,500), Nick Schulman (147,000), John Monnette (130,000), Daniel Negreanu (126,000), Phil Hui (110,000), Robert Campbell (108,500), Alex Livingston (99,000), Brandon Shack-Harris (96,500), Chad Eveslage (90,000), and Scott Seiver (83,000) all made the cut too, along with last year’s event winner, Jerry Wong (69,000).

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!