John Gorsuch, Rami Boukai, and Andrew Donabedian (L to R) all won WSOP gold on Wednesday. (WSOP photos)

Three players won bracelets on Day 15 of the 2019 World Series of Poker and a couple of four-time champions put themselves in position to win their fifth. John Gorsuch, Rami Boukai, and Andrew Donabedian all ended their day by posing for winner photos.

John Gorsuch Rallies to Win Millionaire Maker

John Gorsuch was in a position that a lot of poker players have been in. Down to just two big blinds in a tournament and expecting the inevitable bust out. It never came for Gorsuch though. He went from two big blinds to WSOP bracelet winner and millionaire a few hours later after rallying to win the $1,500 Millionaire Maker Wednesday night.

The 42-year-old from Florida has been at a WSOP final table before, finishing fifth a $3,000 Six Max No Limit Hold’em event in 2017. On Wednesday night, Gorsuch left nobody in his wake, including runner-up Kazuki Ikeuchi who started heads-up play with a 3-2 chip lead. Along with the $1.34 million score and WSOP gold bracelet, Korsuch was coveting something even simpler – the victory.

“I haven’t won a tournament outright since maybe 2013 and it was a little bar tournament,” Korsuch said.

Having recently sold his company, Korsuch seems to be set on simply playing cards for now and seeing where that takes him.

“I’m a poker player for right now. I’ve talked to other people who’ve bought companies, sold companies. You always have that itch to figure out what’s next,” Korsuch said. “Poker is awesome. I can play poker all day and all night long. This kind of helps figure out whether I want to keep doing it. Which I think I do.”

Final Table Payouts

  1. John Gorsuch – $1,344,930
  2. Kazuki Ikeuchi – $830,783
  3. Lokesh Garg – $619,017
  4. Vincas Tamasauskas – $464,375
  5. Joshua Thibodaux – $350,758
  6. Cory Albertson – $266,771
  7. Bob Shao – $204,306
  8. Fabian Gumz – $157,565
  9. Joshua Reichard – $122,375

Rami Boukai Wins $1,500 Eight Game Mix

After bagging up chips on Tuesday night, Rami Boukai and John Evans returned Wednesday to finish off the $1,500 Eight Game Mix event. Boukai wasted little time, taking Evans’ final chips after just 45 minutes of play to capture his second bracelet and $177,294.

“I don’t sleep too well in this city, I just didn’t want to fuck things up, I had a big chip lead,” Boukai said of the need to play a fourth day. “It was as good of a spot as I could see myself in.”

Boukai’s first win came in 2009.

Evan earned $109,553 as the runner-up for his largest career score and just second WSOP cash. His first came last week when he min-cashed the $1,500 HORSE event.

Chris Klodnicki finished third for $72,933.

Final Table Payouts

  1. Rami Boukai – $177,294
  2. John Evans – $109,553
  3. Chris Klodnicki – $72,933
  4. Philip Long – $49,531
  5. Allen Kessler – $34,329
  6. Donny Rubinstein – $24,292

Andrew Donabedian Ships $600 PLO Deepstack

Andrew Donabedian outlasted 2,576 other players to win the $600 Pot Limit Omaha Deepstack bracelet and $205,605. He finished the job on Wednesday night, beating Todd Dreyer heads up for the third live tournament win of his career.

A WSOP Circuit regular, Donabedian has yet to win a WSOP Circuit event. His two previous wins also came in PLO events on the Las Vegas Strip. His previous biggest score came last summer when he won $22,723.

“Winning a bracelet is awesome honestly. I got a bracelet before I got a ring, I play a lot of circuit events and got a lot of second and thirds, but no win yet,” Donabedian said. “I guess I was saving the win for the bracelet. I don’t feel like I need to win a ring now, because I have one better.”

Final Table Payouts

  1. Andrew Donabedian – $205,605
  2. Todd Dreyer – $126,948
  3. Robert Valden – $92,672
  4. Corey Wright – $68,258
  5. Mihai Niste – $50,732
  6. Alexandru Ivan – $38,051
  7. Tom Franklin – $28,803
  8. Florian Fuchs – $22,006
  9. Alexander Condon – $16,971

52 Players Left in the Running in Marathon Event

Day 3 of the $2,620 Marathon No Limit Hold’em event was a busy one. The day began with 188 players still in contention and after 25 players were eliminated, the bubble burst leaving 163 players in the money in one of the longest tournaments on the WSOP schedule.

At the end of the day just 52 players were left with Matt Russell bagging up the chip lead. His lead is a narrow one, however, as Peter Hong ended with 1,205,000 and Johan Guilbert finished with 1,204,000. Five other players finished with a stack of at least 1,000,000.

Joseph Cheong, TK Miles, Mohsin Charania, Anatoly Filatov, Day 2 chip leader David Coleman, and reigning World Poker Tour Player of the Year Erkut Yilmaz all moved on to Day 4.

Some of the notables who cashed on Wednesday but weren’t able to stay in the tournament included Andre Akkari, Joao Vieira, Maria Lampropulos, Kane Kalas, Matt Berkey, Ian O’Hara, Bertrand Grospellier, Cliff Josephy, Olivier Busquet, and Ole Schemion.

Players return to action at 1 PM PT.

Top 10 Chip Counts

  1. Matt Russell – 1,260,000
  2. Peter Hong – 1,205,000
  3. Johan Guilbert – 1,204,000
  4. Vladimir Alexandrov – 1,107,000
  5. Tuan Phan – 1,041,000
  6. Joseph Liberta – 1,030,000
  7. Jason Wandling – 1,007,000
  8. Sergio Fernandez – 1,000,005
  9. Francis Anderson – 900,000
  10. Preston Lee – 796,000

Michael Mizrachi Grinds His Way to $1,500 Seven-Card Stud Hi-Lo Final Table Lead

Michael Mizrachi, recently named the ninth greatest player in WSOP history, has just five more players to outlast in the $1,500 Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo to claim his fifth career bracelet. Mizrachi, who started the day with the chip lead with 22 left, ended in the same position with just six players left.

Mizrachi bagged up 1,355,000. Michael Sopko and Robert Gray are in the chase group, with 1,184,000 and 1,028,000 respectively. Mizrachi is the only player at the final table with a WSOP bracelet already to his credit.

Yuval Bronshtein, fresh off of winning his first bracelet, busted in 13th place.

The final table gets underway at Noon PT.

Final Table Chip Counts

  1. Michael Mizrachi – 1,355,000
  2. Michael Sopko – 1,184,000
  3. Robert Gray – 1,028,000
  4. Elias Hourani – 425,000
  5. Jose Paz-Gutierrez – 300,000
  6. Jan Stein – 264,000

Stephen Song Leads $1,000 No Limit Hold’em Final Table

From 346 players that started Day 2 of the $1,000 No Limit Hold’em event, just six remain and Stephen Song sits with an overwhelming chip lead. Song finished with 24,655,000 and only one other player, Sevak Mikaeil, finished with more than 6,000,000.

Ryan Laplante finished with the fourth biggest stack at 4,885,000.

Phil Hellmuth picked up his fourth cash of the 2019 WSOP with a 16th place finish for $13,830.

WSOP Player of the Year frontrunner Dan Zack picked up a few more points with his 108th place finish. Shaun Deeb, Jessica Dawley, Maria Konnikova, Matt Affleck, Jeff Madsen, Marvin Rettenmaier, and Pim de Goede also picked up in-the-money finishes on Wednesday.

The final table begins at Noon PT.

Top 10 Chip Counts

  1. Stephen Song – 24,655,000
  2. Sevak Mikaiel – 6,395,000
  3. Scot Masters – 5,315,000
  4. Ryan Laplante – 4,885,000
  5. Renato Kaneoya – 4,875,000
  6. Dominic Coombe – 3,505,000

Brian Hastings Leads Talented Field in $10,000 HORSE

The $10,000 HORSE event isn’t one of those tournaments full of fun, recreational players. It’s usually populated by most of the game’s best players and Day 2 gave those players a chance to shine, going from 94 players at the start of the day to just 20 at the end.

Brian Hastings, who has four bracelets to his name including one from a $3,000 HORSE event last summer, finished as the chip leader and one of just three players with a seven-figure stack. Hastings ended with 1,125,000 and holds just a 5,000 chip lead over Dario Sammartino and a 13,000 chip lead over Day 1 chip leader, Daniel Ospina.

Greg Mueller and Phil Galfond each finished with 734,000 for the fourth biggest stack. Galfond was one of 11 players who took advantage of a max late registration opportunity, signing up just before Day 2 started.


Daniel Alaei, Rich Zhu, and Phillip Hui all managed to find a cash before busting late on Day 2.

Phil Ivey, Daniel Negreanu, Paul Volpe and defending champion John Hennigan were among the players who busted before the money bubble burst.

Day 3 begins at 3 PM PT.

Top 10 Chip Counts

  1. Brian Hastings – 1,125,000
  2. Dario Sammartino – 1,120,000
  3. Daniel Ospina – 1,112,000
  4. Greg Mueller – 734,000
  5. Phil Galfond – 734,000
  6. Marco Johnson – 631,000
  7. David Brookshire – 611,000
  8. Matthew Gonzales – 551,000
  9. Nick Guagenti – 537,000
  10. Tom Koral – 425,000

$1,000 Pot Limit Omaha Draws 1,526 Players

One of just two events to get underway on Wednesday, the $1,000 Pot Limit Omaha event attracted 1,526 and through 10 levels of play, Bulgaria’s Stefan Ivanov finished with the chip lead. Ivanov was one of 309 players who survived Day 1.

Right behind Ivanov is Luis Zedan with 374,000. The third biggest stack belongs to Joseph Sabe with 330,000.

JC Tran, Pim de Goede, Dan Shak, Ismael Bojang, Chris Moorman, Joao Simao, Eoghan O’Dea, Erik Seidel, Joao Vieira, and John Racener all managed to move on to Day 2.

Day 2 begins at 2 PM PT and will see the money bubble burst after 80 more players are eliminated.

Top 10 Chip Counts

  1. Stefan Ivanov – 386,000
  2. Luis Zedan – 374,000
  3. Joseph Sabe – 330,000
  4. Szymon Wysocki – 306,500
  5. Neil Yekell – 277,000
  6. Andrew Whitaker – 274,000
  7. Joshua Gibson – 261,500
  8. Jon Turner – 258,000
  9. Christopher Aiello – 251,500
  10. Anatolii Zyrin – 248,000

Former #1 Griffin Benger Tops $3K Six Max NLHE Day 1

Griffin Benger is no stranger to the spotlight at the World Series of Poker. Benger, a former #1-ranked player on PocketFives, finished seventh in the 2016 WSOP Main Event. On Wednesday, Benger finished on top of the 140 players who survived Day 1 of the $3,000 Six Max No Limit Hold’em event.

Benger ended the day with 427,000. The next biggest stack belongs to Upeshka De Silva with 306,000 chips in the bag.

2018 WSOP Main Event runner-up Tony Miles, Joe Cada, Jonathan Proudfoot, Ben Heath, Adrian Mateos, Dan Ott, Daniel Negreanu, and Chris Ferguson all moved on to Day 2.

The tournament attracted a field of 754 players, down from the 868 that played in 2018.

Top 10 Chip Counts

  1. Griffin Benger – 427,500
  2. Upeshka De Silva – 306,000
  3. Michael Tureniec – 263,000
  4. Onur Unsal – 258,000
  5. Manig Loeser – 245,000
  6. James Obst – 242,000
  7. Aleksandr Shevliakov – 222,000
  8. Robert Bickley – 221,500
  9. Kunuk Shin – 221,000
  10. Francisco Torrecillas – 219,500

Thursday Schedule