Daniel Weinman
Daniel Weinman earned his second career WSOP gold bracelet and $12.1 million by winning the 2023 WSOP Main Event.

For seventeen long years, Jamie Gold’s name stood tall as the winner of the largest WSOP Main Event purse in history, with his victory over 8,773 entrants netting him a $12 million payday. On Day 49 of the 2023 WSOP, that record was finally broken by Georgia’s Daniel Weinman in one of the quickest final tables in recent memory. Monday’s finale took just a hair under three hours to find a champion between Adam Walton, Daniel Weinman and Steven Jones, which mirrored Day 9’s breakneck pace.

With the average stack coming into the final day sitting at nearly 100 big blinds, there was some expectation that the race to crown a champion could be a lengthy affair. Instead, it took just six hands for Walton to get his stack in the middle, bluffing all-in with AsKc on a 5dJd7h flop. Walton was bluffing with the best hand however, as Steven Jones held AcQs, and Walton was able to narrow the gap between himself and his opponents in a hurry.

Walton’s aggression would soon turn out to be his downfall, however, as on Hand 140 of the final table, Jones raised to 6 million on the button with the Qd6d, and Walton called in the small blind with 8s8c. Weinman took a few moments before three-betting to 27 million in the big blind with AhAd, and after Jones folded, Walton took less than a second before announcing a three-bet shove for 209.5 million; 84 big blinds at the moment. 

Weinman snap-called before Walton could get his chips across the line, and Walton was in dire shape to keep his Main Event hopes alive.

Adam Walton
A crestfallen Adam Walton looks for a miracle after running his eights into Daniel Weinman’s aces.

A 7c5h3c flop brought no immediate help, but the 9s turn added a gutshot to Walton’s outs. The Kc river was clean for Weinman, and Walton settled for a $4 million consolation prize, while leaping to second on Washington’s all-time tournament earnings list behind Scott Clements.

There were a wide range of opinions about Walton’s shove with eights on social media, but Alex Livingston had one of the more nuanced responses to Walton’s final hand:

Weinman held a nearly 3:1 chip lead going into heads-up action with Jones, but with 64 big blinds left in his stack, Jones had plenty of playability left and even started out strong on the first five hands, clawing back to 202 million and just a 2:1 chip deficit. Hand 164, the 24th of heads-up action, started out innocently enough, as Jones raised to 7 million on the button with the Jc8d and Weinman called with the KcJd. 

A Js5s2d flop brought both players top pair, and Weinman check-raised a 6 million bet from Jones to 18.5 million. Jones called, and the 4c rolled off on the turn. Weinman fired out 38 million, prompting Jones to ask the dealer, “What is it?” before going into a four-minute tank. The words, “All-in,” finally came out of Jones’s mouth at the conclusion of the tank, and Weinman immediately and softly asked the dealer, “How much?” before wincing and standing up. 

Thirty seconds would tick by before Weinman nodded and pushed a stack of chips in to call, and once the cards were revealed, he pumped his fist, knowing he just needed to fade an eight to earn his second WSOP gold bracelet and the biggest cash prize in Main Event history.

The Ah fell on the river, and amongst cries of “I knew you could do it!” and a bath of Twisted Tea and water from a boisterous rail including Matt Glantz, Shaun Deeb and Josh Arieh, Weinman etched his name in poker history as the 2023 WSOP World Champion, earning $12.1 million and high praise from many of poker’s elite in the process.

Steven Jones had to settle for one hell of a consolation prize, earning a mammoth $6.5 million for his second-place performance. The Arizona native instantly shot up to first on the all-time tournament earnings leaderboard for his home state with the cash, jumping ahead of another former WSOP Main Event final table member in Jacob Balsinger.

Steven Jones
Steven Jones ended up one spot short of poker immortality, but received a staggering $6.5 million for a runner-up performance.

Congratulations to Daniel Weinman on an incredible accomplishment, overcoming a record-breaking field of 10,043 players, as well as everyone at the final table of the most prestigious tournament in poker! The poker community can only hope that momentum from “Poker Boom 2.0” will continue revving the field even further into five-figure territory in the 2024 iteration of the World Series of Poker Main Event, and if the trajectory continues to trend up, Weinman’s record-breaking top prize may only stay on top for one year instead of the 17 that Jamie Gold’s $12 million lasted.

WSOP 2023 Event #76: $10,000 WSOP Main Event World Championship Final Table Results:
Place Player Country Prize
1st Daniel Weinman USA $12,100,000
2nd Steven Jones USA $6,500,000
3rd Adam Walton USA $4,000,000
4th Jan-Peter Jachtmann Germany $3,000,000
5th Ruslan Prydryk Ukraine $2,400,000
6th Dean Hutchison Scotland $1,850,000
7th Toby Lewis United Kingdom $1,425,000
8th Juan Maceiras Spain $1,125,000
9th Daniel Holzner Italy $900,000

 

Daniel Weinman
The newly minted World Champion gets the cash, the bracelet, and the girl. All in a day’s work for Daniel Weinman.

Reard Rampages to Second Bracelet in 6-Max Championship

There was little drama to be seen in the bonus Day 4 of Event #90: $10,000 No-Limit Hold’em Six-Max Championship, unless you were interested in the positioning of the three players not named Alexandre Reard remaining. Despite losing the chip lead briefly at the start, Reard recovered quickly and eliminated Justin Liberto to reclaim his massive chip advantage. Stephen Chidwick did the honors of ousting AJ Kelsall, but it didn’t take long for Reard to bust Chidwick, as he turned a straight against Chidwick’s top pair to send Reard his second WSOP gold bracelet.

WSOP 2023 Event #90: $10,000 No-Limit Hold’em Six-Max Championship Final Table Results:
Place Player Country Prize
1st Alexandre Reard France $1,057,663
2nd Stephen Chidwick United Kingdom $653,688
3rd AJ Kelsall USA $443,259
4th Justin Liberto USA $306,555
5th Eli Berg USA $216,319
6th Eric Baldwin USA $155,809

 

Lee Outlasts Mizrachi in Lengthy $1k Freezeout

It took a staggering 16 hours for a returning field of 124 players to be reduced to one in Event #92: $1,000 Freezeout No-Limit Hold’em, but at the finish line before an additional day of play would be required, Kang Hyun Lee denied Eric Mizrachi the “Brothers Mizrachi” trifecta of bracelet winners, and earned $236,741 and his first WSOP gold bracelet.

WSOP 2023 Event #92 $1,000 Freezeout No-Limit Hold’em Final Table Results:
Place Player Country Prize
1st Kang Hyun Lee Canada $236,741
2nd Eric Mizrachi USA $146,335
3rd Ivan Millian USA $106,602
4th Abdul Almagbleh Jordan $78,495
5th Kane Kalas USA $59,429
6th Asher Conniff USA $43,372
7th Ricardo Nakamura Brazil $33,461
8th Vanessa Kade Canada $25,749
9th Eider Cruz Brazil $20,041
10th Quoc Le USA $15,778

 

Nielsen Bags Lead in Short Deck

A total of 22 new arrivals joined the 31 players who bagged Day 1 of Event #93: $10,000 Short Deck Championship, and only five players remained after a full day of play. Martin Nielsen, a native of the Faroe Islands, holds the chip lead with 2,007,000, ahead of Eric Wasserson (1,705,000) and five time bracelet winner John Juanda (332,000). Chris Brewer made a valiant effort to try and leap Ian Matakis in the race for WSOP POY, but ultimately bowed out in seventh for $36,648.

WSOP 2023 Event #93: $10,000 Short Deck Championship Final Table Results:
Place Player Country Chips/Prize
1st Martin Nielsen Faroe Islands 2,007,000
2nd Eric Wasserson USA 1,705,000
3rd Hong Wei Yu USA 1,596,000
4th Ivan Ermin Russia 743,000
5th John Juanda Indonesia 332,000
6th Nobuaki Sasaki Japan $47,406
7th Chris Brewer USA $36,648

 

Peters and Reichard In Contention in $5k 8-Handed

Day 1 of the semi-turbo structured Event #94: $5,000 No-Limit Hold’em (8-Handed) saw 813 entrants take to the felt in search of one of the final bracelets handed out at this year’s WSOP. David Peters (1,490,000) bagged up the chip lead out of the remaining 60 players, with Josh Reichard (1,340,000) lurking close behind in hopes of taking his name off the “best without a bracelet” list.

WSOP 2023 Event #94: $5,000 No-Limit Hold’em (8-Handed) Leaderboard:
Place Player Country Chips
1st David Peters USA 1,490,000
2nd Nozomu Shimizu Japan 1,450,000
3rd Josh Reichard USA 1,340,000
4th Chang Yu Chung Taiwan 1,275,000
5th Matthew Su USA 1,250,000
6th Rafael Reis Brazil 1,230,000
7th Alex Keating USA 1,060,000
8th Punnat Punsri Thailand 1,055,000
9th Phil Laak USA 1,050,000
10th Pat Lyons USA 995,000

 

Miller and August in a Photo Finish in H.O.R.S.E.

Thirteen hours was not enough to reduce a returning field of 18 players in Event #91: $3,000 H.O.R.S.E. down to a champion, with Ryan Miller and Leonard August staking claim to the last players standing over a field of crushers that included Poker Hall of Famers Barbara Enright (4th – $62,783) and Todd Brunson (8th – $18,429) and mixed game specialists Kevin Gerhart (7th – $24,363), Nick Guagenti (9th – $14,204) and Chad Eveslage (12th – $8,939).

WSOP 2023 Event #91: $3,000 H.O.R.S.E. Final Table Results:
Place Player Country Chips/Prize
1st Ryan Miller USA 9,300,000
2nd Leonard August USA 3,925,000
3rd Calvin Anderson USA $89,169
4th Barbara Enright USA $62,783
5th Andrew Yeh USA $44,983
6th Noah Bronstein USA $32,807
7th Kevin Gerhart USA $24,363
8th Todd Brunson USA $18,429

 

Newly minted WSOP Main Event champ Daniel Weinman already shipped a tourney prior to the series…although it might not have had quite as high of stakes:

Fun follow up for the new champ: he’s slightly more successful in the Main now than before:

“BrockLesnar” F5’d the competition and set a WSOP record for number of cashes this summer:

You can never escape the WSOP, Salty…

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