Chanracy Khun
Chanracy Khun holds the WSOP bracelet aloft after beating Doug Polk to the title in the $25,000 Heads Up Championship.

The sixth day of drama in this year’s 54th annual WSOP Concluded with two players lifting gold as Chanracy Khun conquered two legends of the game to win his first bracelet and Nick Schulman bagged his fourth on an exciting evening in Las Vegas.

Khun Beats Winter and Polk for Epic Final Day Win

“We will, we will, Polk you!”

Winning any WSOP tournament heads-up is a challenge, but winning six heads-up battles in a row against some of the best players in the world is almost mission impossible. For Chanracy Khun, that achievement is a reality this morning as he celebrated beating Sean Winter in the semifinals and Doug Polk in the final to claim gold for the first time in Las Vegas. Taking the title and $507,020 top prize, Khun’s incredible victory saw him not only topple those two great players on the final day, but over the course of the event, also beat Marko Grujic, Event #2 winner Alexandre Vuilleumier, Gabor Szabo and poker phenom Landon Tice along the way.

On the final day, Doug Polk began as favorite to take gold, and the popular YouTuber certainly had the largest rail. “We will, we will, Polk you!” they cheered as their hero battled against Chris Brewer for a place in the final. As they did so, the eventual winner Khun was beating Sean Winter, a board of 7h4c2d6s5c seeing Winter eventually call holding Qh3h for a low straight. Khun, however, had played the higher straight with 8s7s perfectly and could sit back and watch as his two potential opponents battled to meet him in the final.

The second semifinal to finish was an epic, with Chris Brewer and Doug Polk battling hard as each man took the lead on mulitiple occasions. In the end, a crushing bad beat for Brewer sealed it for Polk, as almost all the chips were on the line when Brewer five-bet shoved with KsKh and Polk called off his stack with QhQh. With no flush to hope for, a board of 8h6s5c5s played through the turn to leave Polk looking for a two-outer on the river to survive. Incredibly, the Qd landed on 5th street and Polk leapt out of his seat, doing two laps of the Thunderdome before sealing victory just a few hands later.

The final was a great match too. Polk took the lead before Khun battled back. Polk used all his experience to get himself almost 3:1 up in chips before a bluff gone wrong was hero-called by the masterful Khun with only pocket sixes. Shortly after, Polk was sitting on just ten big blinds when she shoved with Kh8d. Khun made the right call with KsTs and after a board of Ac5c2d7s9s landed, no miracle could save Polk this time. He won $313,362 in second place, but Khun’s first bracelet came at the expense of what would have been Polk’s fourth. So near, and yet so far.

WSOP 2023 Event #8 $25,000 Heads Up Championship Results:
Place Player Country Prize
1st Chanracy Khun Canada $507,020
2nd Doug Polk United States $313,362
=3rd Chris Brewer United States $192,513
=3rd Sean Winter United States $192,513
=5th Robert Perez Spain $74,648
=5th Anthony Zinno United States $74,648
=5th Landon Tice United States $74,648
=5th Eric Wasserson United States $74,648

 

Nick Schulman Captures Fourth Crown as Monnette and Deeb Fall Short

“I’ve always thought it was my best game. I grew up playing it.”

A comeback victory for Nick Schulman saw Event #9, the $1,500-entry Seven Card Stud event go his way as the American won his fourth WSOP bracelet in style. Coming into the final, Schulman was fifth of seven in chips, but he used the moments he held the better hand to devastating effect as he picked a careful path through legends of the game on his way to victory.

After the eliminations of Tim Frazin (7th for $12,839) and DJ Buckley (6th for $17,166), Schulman was still short-stacked. But having taken out his fellow shortie in Buckley, Schulman started making moves, increasing the pressure on his opponents and stealing valuable chips along the way. He’d more than stabilized by the time that the overnight chip leader John Monnette took out Shaun Deeb in fifth place for $23,476, and that meant Monnette was vulnerable to an attack on his stack. A crucial flush turned Schulman’s stack around and soon after, Monnette was on the rail.

Eliminating Hoejeong Lee in third place, Schulman went into the final battle against Andrew Hasdal with a comfortable lead, holding 64% of the chips in play. He used those chips to good effect, winning when his hand improved from two pair to a full house on seventh street with the defeated Hasdal unable to make his straight flush draw come good.

“I love Stud,” Schulman said afterwards to PokerNews reporters. “It’s probably my favorite game and I’ve always kind of thought it was my best game. I grew up playing it.”

That experience, coupled with a measured final table performance throughout was a devastating combination, and Schulman’s victory gives him his fourth bracelet, good enough for level par with other legends of the game such as Joe Cada, Josh Arieh, Brian Rast and Benny Glaser.

WSOP 2023 Event #9 $1,500 Seven Card Stud Results:
Place Player Country Prize
1st Nick Schulman United States $110,800
2nd Andrew Hasdal United States $68,479
3rd Hojeong Lee United States $46,912
4th John Monnette United States $32,828
5th Shaun Deeb United States $23,476
6th DJ Buckley United States $17,166
7th Tim Frazin United States $12,839

 

Nick Schulman
Nick Schulman (center) showing exactly why many back his abilities at the final table of WSOP Events, coming from fifth in chips to win.

Mystery Millions Sees Both Seven-Figure Prizes Won to Cheers

Everyone plays the Mystery Million to try and win the million-dollar bounty, but this year, there were two on offer in Las Vegas, as well as a $1,000,000 prize for winning the event too. On Day 2 of this epic event with over 18,000 entries, not one but two of the million-dollar bounties were won, to quite different players.

Shant Marashlian’s reaction to finding the first million-dollar bounty was perhaps the calmest you might be able to imagine…

… while Patrick Liang’s response to winning the second of the two million-dollar bounties in the Mystery Millions was far more euphoric!

As 1,005 players were whittled down to just 30, Guang Chen ended the day ahead of the rest on 64 million chips at the end of Day 2. He was followed by Steven Thompson (52.3 million) and Jaime Madrigal (45.2 million) in the podium places, with Chris ‘Big Huni’ Hunichen (30.2 million) and Dan Shak (14.3 million) both hopeful of using their vast knowledge of the game to bag a first-ever bracelet. Hunichen’s 63 WSOP cashes and Shak’s 69 cashes will propel them to do their very best to capture gold on tomorrow’s dramatic final day.

WSOP 2023 Event #3 $1,000 Mystery Millions Leaderboard:
Rank Player Country Chips
1st Guang Chen United States 64,000,000
2nd Steven Thompson Costa Rica 52,300,000
3rd Jaime Madrigal United States 45,200,000
4th Christian Roberts Venezuela 41,200,000
5th Ryan McKnight United States 40,200,000
6th Jonah Labranche United States 32,600,000
7th Tram Pham United States 31,300,000
8th Chris Hunichen United States 30,200,000
9th Tyler Brown United States 28,300,000
10th Gareth Devereux United Kingdom 27,100,000

 

Eveslage Shooting for Second Bracelet in Dealer’s Choice Decider

The Dealer’s Choice Championship reached its final day as 13 players remain in contention for what would be a highly prized WSOP bracelet. Having already conquered Event #5, also a $10,000 buy-in Dealer’s Choice event, Eveslage is one day away from making it a double. On that day, Eveslage won the $131,879 top prize but if he can take down Event #10, it will be worth  over $311,000, a not insignificant increase.

To do so, he’ll need to make it past some experts in this entertaining format, not least yesterday’s overnight chip leader John Hennigan. The six-time WSOP bracelet winner has all the experience and sits ominously on 519,000 chips in the middle of the pack. Eveslage may have bagged 1,371,000 chips overnight but Ryan Goindoo (1,075,000), Ari Engel (767,000), and Mike Gorodinsky (496,000) will all be ready to step up should he put a foot wrong on his imagined path to glory.

WSOP 2023 Event #10 $10,000 Dealer’s Choice Championship Leaderboard:
Rank Player Country Chips
1st Chad Eveslage United States 1,371,000
2nd Ryan Goindoo Trinidad and Tobago 1,075,000
3rd Marco Johnson United States 925,000
4th Jordan Siegel United States 858,000
5th Ari Engel Canada 767,000
6th John Hennigan United States 519,000
7th Mike Gorodinsky United States 496,000
8th Dustin Dirksen United States 442,000
9th Zack Freeman United States 388,000
10th Paul Volpe United States 340,000

 

Hellmuth Hopes for Bracelet #17 Alive in Deepstack Event

Phil Hellmuth survived a fast and furious opening day in Event #11, the $600-entry Deepstack NLHE Event on Day 6 of the WSOP. With 6,085 entries in the deepstack yet fast-paced structure tournament, the Poker Brat ended the day inside the top 100 as 340 players booked a seat in Day 2’s table draw.

Top of the shop was the American player Kevin Daily, who ended play with over 1.9 million chips, but the average is far lower at around 575,000. Hellmuth has 665,000 chips to play with on Day2 as he pursues a final day berth in the hunt for bracelet #17.

WSOP 2023 Event #11 $600 NLHE Deepstack Chipcounts:
Rank Player Country Chips
1st Kevin Daily United States 1,915,000
2nd Garen Zobian United States 1,708,000
3rd Fabio Pinhodamaso Portugal 1,750,000
4th Chahn Jung United States 1,700,000
5th Ryan Johnson United States 1,535,000
6th Michael Souza United States 1,500,000
7th Pat Nguyen United States 1,440,000
8th Roberto Gordon United States 1,425,000
9th Bejnamin Teston United States 1,420,000
10th Brian Chanley United States 1,400,000

 

Arieh, Heath and Metaldi All Perform in $5,000 Freezeout

Put it all on the line and the cream usually rises to the top. It’s true for the $10,000 ‘freezeout’ WSOP Main Event and so it proved again on Day 1 of the $5,000-entry NLHE Freezeout Event #12. A total of 735 players took on the no-rebuy event, with only 148 of them surviving to Day 2.

The chip leader at the close of play was the Ukrainian player Artem Metaldi (796,000) whose aim of becoming the second Ukrainian WSOP bracelet winner in the first dozen events is on track after he topped Julio Delgado (728,000) and Adekunle Olonoh (709,000) in the podium places.

Elsewhere, there were strong performances from British high roller regular Ben Heath (480,000), the 2021 WSOP Player of the Year Josh Arieh (436,000) and two-time bracelet winner Michael Gagliano (391,000), all of whom finished the day inside the top 25 players.

WSOP 2023 Event #12 $5,000 NLHE Freezeout Chipcounts:
Place Player Country Chips
1st Artem Metalidi Ukraine 796,000
2nd Julio Delgado United States 728,000
3rd Adekunle Olonoh United States 709,000
4th Ruan Zhuang United States 597,000
5th Matthew Hunt United Kingdom 519,000
6th Michael Rodrigues Portugal 508,000
7th Masaya Hayami Japan 505,000
8th Nathan Russler United States 494,000
9th Andrew Ostapchenko United States 486,000
10th Orson Young United States 480,000

 

Jack Effel took time out from directing the poker traffic at Horseshoe and Parsi casinos to let Poker.org know all about the ‘No RTAs’ rule in place and when players can expect to be punished.

There was a double-celebrity sighting in the form of TV star restauranteur Lisa Vanderpump at the WSOP felt. Don’t worry: her lucky charm and co-star wasn’t begging for scraps at the table.

Finally, we at PokerStake join the rest of the poker world in wishing Scotty Nguyen a swift and full recovery from his upcoming surgery. The first half of this year’s WSOP just won’t be the same without him, baby.

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