Four bracelet winners celebrated winning titles on Day 34 of the 2023 World Series of Poker (WSOP). Two were new winners in Online Event #12 title holder Tom Hall and Ladies Event champion Tamar Abraham, while two others, Chris Brewer and Jesse Lonis, bagged gold for the second time in their careers.

Brewer Comes Back to Bite Baker

The first event to conclude, quite naturally, was the No Limit 2-7 Single Draw Championship, which – like all Championship events – cost $10,000 to enter and in this case, awarded popular American high roller Chris Brewer his second WSOP bracelet of the series. Having already won the $250,000-entry Super High Roller earlier in June, Brewer made it two wins after starting the final day second in chips of the three players who returned.

After overnight chip leader David ‘ODB’ Baker encountered a “bittersweet” exit in third place after losing two big pots to Brewer, the new chip leader had a big advantage going into the final battle against Canadian player Alex Livingston. For the second time this series, Livingston lost out in second place, banking anotherimpressive score but just missing th gold. Brwwer was exceptionally grateful for how it played out.

“There wasn’t much that I did,” he said modestly. “The deck just said ‘Hey, Chris, you get to win the tournament today’. The other one was a $250,000 tournament with $5 million on top. I wanted to win the bracelet and it still means a lot, but the stakes were very different. It was a lot less intense.”

Intense or not, with two big wins, Brewer has won the best part of $6 million in just under five weeks. He currently sits in second place on the WSOP Player of the Year leaderboard and admits he’ll “go for it” in the tournaments that remain.

Jesse Lonis on “Incredinle” $50,000 PLO High Roller Win for $2.3m

Jesse Lonis won his second WSOP bracelet in even more dramatic circumstances, coming out on top in the $50,000-entry PLO High Roller Event #71. Taking the top prize of $2,303,017, Lonis, clearly bowled over by events upon completion of the final table, was overjoyed to have triumphed in his first-ever $50,000 event.

“It’s my first $50,000, so I can’t start better in the high rollers,” he said. “It feels great because it’s a tough tournament. Every player in it, 99% of them are great players. It was a mental battle and nice to come out on top. Besides family, poker is pretty much what I do. I don’t do studying. I’ve actually never studied in my life. I just play. Volume, over and over. The more and more hands you see obviously you’re going to get better.”

So it proved at a final table where Lonis triumphed over the chip leader heading into play, Tyler Smith, who nevertheless earned $1.4 million for coming second. Adam Hendriz finished fifth and Isaac Haxton seventh at what was a final table that featured some of the best mixed game players in the world. Among them must now be considered Jesse Lonis, double bracelet winner.

Abraham Triumphs in Ladies Event

The overnight chip leader, Japanese architect Shiina Okamoto, took a massive lead into the final day in Event #67, the Ladies Championship. However, Tamar Abraham got the better of her after steamrolling a final day littered with quick eliminations.

One of the pivotal bust-outs was Mary Dvorkin’s exit in fifth place. The former overnight chip leader in this event lost with to Okamoto’s for a prize of $46,33 which gave Okamoto a big stack, but by that point, the Japanese had already fallen behind the runaway train of Tamar Abraham, who went into the heads-up battle with a better than 3:1 chip lead.

Okamoto played fearless poker and got back to a little worse than 2:1 down, but try as she might, she couldn’t wrestle the lead away from Abraham, and on a board showing , Okamoto made a move all-in with . Called quickly by Abraham, who slammed her chips onto the felt and turned over  , Okamoto needed one of only four outs and didn’t find it, ending the event in the American’s favor.

Kertland in King in Colossus With 80 Left

1,989 Day 2 players battled in Event #70, the $400-entry Colossus, and by the close of play, only 80 remained. With a total field of 15,983, the chip leader going into the pivotal Day 3 is Jesse Kertland (26,150,000), with Colin Robinson (22,300,000) and Darrick Arreola (19,750,000) closest behind.

With $501,120 up for grabs to whoever wins this spectacular event, big names such as Pete Chen (10,075,000), Konstantinos Nanos (9,200,000), James Dempsey (8,275,000), Ian Steinman (7,700,000) and Jason Wheeler (2,375,00) all still have a chance of victory, with the average stack worth only 26 big blinds.

Turner Prize as Lindgren Levels Up

A total field of 377 has played down to 24 survivors after two days at the felt in the $1,500-entry Mixed Big Bet Event #73. Day 2 play began with 146 players still in seats, but the money bubble burst and with the minimum cash remaining worth $5,938, everyone will have their eyes on the $190,240 top prize and of course the WSOP bracelet.

Mini Main Event Winds Down After Epic Day

Two more Day 1s ended on Day 34 of the WSOP and the first was a massive one. The $1,000-entry Mini Main Event came to a pulsating conclusion 5,257 players deep into a day that saw many players queue up for a while to take their seats.

At the end of Day1, just 426 players had survived and with a top prize of $549,555 on the line, it was the Indian player Avneesh Munjal (3,250,000) who led the remaining players by some way as 22 levels ended with players returning to their beds dreaming of a half-million-dollar bracelet win in the event.

On Day 1 the $10,000-entry PLO Hi-Lo 8 or Better Championship, Michael Banducci (387,500) ended the session on top of the others, with Michael Wang (364,500), Taylor Paur (361,500), and Cliff Josephy (296,000) all featuring in the top five.

With others such as PLO specialist Dylan Weisman (276,000), Maxx Coleman (233,500) and Dzmitry Urbanovich (253,000) all slaying, the $2.47 million will be battled for by some of the best on Day 2 tomorrow.

Excitement over the Mini Main Event almost overtook that of the Main Event. Almost.

Mini main

Mini mini mini mini main

Line snake around me
Now I can’t reg no more
Can’t push my edge no more
Have mercy on me

Mini main

— Bakes (@DMBakes) July 2, 2023

Player of the Year contender? You’d Brewer believe it.

After winning his 2nd @WSOP bracelet this summer we asked Chris Brewer if he thinks he’s going to be pushing for the POY☀️ pic.twitter.com/nbzsEclipe

— PokerNews (@PokerNews) July 3, 2023

Should the best dealers at the WSOP be rewarded? Martin Jacobson thinks so… but Isaac Haxton disagrees.

Why not give players the option to rate dealers individually, like we do in other service industries? Top rated dealers rcv a proportionate share of the total tipping pool. Special award for DOY. Below avg get reviewed/ rcv more training by @wsop to increase the overall standard

— Martin Jacobson (@Martin_Jacobson) July 3, 2023

Finally, if you’re going to play the Main Event, be grateful above all else, says… wait, Matt Glantz?

No matter how bad u run this week. No matter how frustrating the cards might be. It's so very important to remember ur the fortunate one. 99%+ people in the world would give their left nut or right tit to play a $10k poker event. Take a breath & realize how lucky u are! @WSOP

— Matt Glantz (@MattGlantz) July 3, 2023

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