In 2024, the record-breaking attendance of a year earlier was put in the shadows as the biggest Main Event ever to play finished amid post-final controversy in Las Vegas. With a record 99 bracelet events on the felt in Las Vegas, Nevada, it was a stunning series for big names, new faces and everyone in between.
One player won three bracelets and captured the Player of the Year title, there was a new name on the list of Main Event winners, and one of the longest bracelet droughts for perhaps the world’s best-known poker player ended in thrilling style as there was an emotional bracelet ceremony inside the Thunderdome.
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Early Events See Seiver Shine
The 55th annual World Series of Poker took place between May 28 and July 17 as the Horseshoe Las Vegas and Paris Las Vegas casinos took over the gambling capital of the world for seven weeks of exciting poker action, with thousands of players finding their way to the Main Event felt visa satellites on GGPoker worldwide.
Some new formats featured in 2024, with a Pot Limit Omaha Mystery Bounty event, a brand-new $5,000-entry Seniors High Roller adding to the standard $1,000-entry Seniors Championship event, and a Mixed No Limit Hold’em/PLO Double Bomb Pot tournament adding fun to the drama and thrills to the serious job of going for gold.
Many top professionals got off to winning starts, with bracelet victories for Asher Coniff, John ‘Johnny World’ Hennigan and Bryce Yockey inside the first 10 events. Also in the winner’s circle quickly was the winner of Event #10, the $10,000 Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better Championship, Scott Seiver. Taking home $426,744 and his fourth WSOP bracelet. A delighted Seiver promised that he would do his best to win as many bracelets as possible at the series.
That early promise was delivered on in short order, with Seiver also claiming the 40th event of the series, the $1,500 Razz event for $141,374. Not that Seiver had it all his own way, with John Racener winning the Limit Hold’em Championship and Nick Schulman claiming gold for the fifth time in the $25,000 NLHE High Roller for a massive $1.66 million.
Two Poker Legends End Droughts
For many years, Phil Ivey was locked on 10 WSOP titles, tied with Johnny Chan and the late Doyle Brunson. In late 2023, Erik Seidel’s 10th bracelet win meant four men shared that platform behind the runaway WSOP all-time leader Phil Hellmuth and his 17 titles. In 2024, Phil Ivey separated himself from the chasing pack by winning his 11th WSOP event, capturing the $10,000 Limit 2-7 Triple Draw Championship for a score of $347,440 and moving to within six wins of his fellow Phil, the infamous Poker Brat.
Another big winner at the 2024 WSOP was Chris ‘Big Huni’ Hunichen, who finally ended his bracelet wait by taking down one of the biggest events of the entire series. Winning the $2.83 million top prize in the $100,000 High Roller NLHE, Hunichen hit a miracle river to survive at one point, coming back from a big deficit to defeat Jeremy Ausmus, who consistently fell just short of glory all series.
In the $50,000 Poker Players Championship, Bryce Yockey threatened to win his second bracelet of the 2024 WSOP. Reaching the final two, he was up against Daniel Negreanu, who had not won a bracelet of any kind in 11 years and not locked up a WSOP title in Las Vegas for an incredible 16 years. During that time, ‘Kid Poker’ had become the only player to win the WSOP Player of the Year title twice and won countless millions around the world but the bracelets had eluded him.
Finally, Negreanu beat Yockey to take the title and claim the $1,178,703 top prize. In doing so, he had laid to rest the ghost of his seventh WSOP bracelet after such a long time and was emotional at the moment of victory. The GGPoker Global Ambassador broke down in tears as he thanked his wife Amanda and his loyal fans, celebrating with the rail in the Thunderdome as the crowd cheered ‘Daniel, Daniel’.
The Biggest Main Event Ever
The $10,000 buy-in No Limit Hold’em Main Event began on July 3, with the champion claiming gold on July 17, a full fortnight later. In 2023, 10,043 entries set a new attendance record for the WSOP, a record which had stood since 2006, a record that took 17 to break, a record that was re-broken just 12 months later. An incredible 10,112 players took on the $10,000-entry freezeout event that is the most popular poker event in the world and with that number of entrants, it meant 1,517 players would cash.
Among those to make the money were six former world champions. Both previous winners, 2023’s Daniel Weinman (1,357th) and 2022’s Espen Jorstad (1,393rd) both made a min-cash, with the 2021 winner Koray Aldemir coming 598th for $32,500. The 2017 winner Scott Blumstein (1,137th for $17,500) and 2002 winner Robert Varkonyi (852nd for $25,000) both cashed but it was the 2015 champion Joe McKeehen who finished highest, coming 499th for $35,000.
After the fairly lackluster finishes of former champions, there were exits for Alex Keating (55th for $160,000), Brandon Cantu (39th for $250,000), and the Poker Hall of Famer Brian Rast (24th for $350,000). But it was the progress of Kristen Foxen that captured the imagination of the poker world, with no female taking the World Championship title in its 55-year history and only 1 female ever making the final table. Sadly for Foxen fans, she busted in 13th place for $600,000, falling just short of a final table where she would not just have been a contender but a real threat. With her immense profile and fantastic skill at the felt, she could have inspired a generation of women to play the game.
Astedt Falls Short
With nine making the final table, Jordan Griff had the chip lead with 143.7 million chips, 23.7% of the chips in play. That was a strong lead over both Brian Kim (94.6m) and Niklas Astedt (94.2m), with only Joe Serock (83.6m) having more than half of the chip leader’s stack as the final got underway.
An early exit for French player Malo Latinois earned him $1 million for ninth place. This was followed by the bust-out of popular professional player Joe Serock in eighth for $1.25m and the exit of Brian Kim in seventh for $1.5m. That period of play left just two Americans in with a chance of victory, and somehow, they reached the heads-up stage still in their seats.
Spanish player Andres Gonzalez was the next man to go, earning $2m for losing in sixth place. As Niklas Astedt took control, the Bulgarian Boris Angelov lost out in fifth for $2.5m. The payout structure was altered from 2023 where the winner Daniel Weinman was awarded $12.1 million. The top prize in 2024 was lower despite more entries, at just $10m but allowed for a flatter division of the prize pool.
After Canada’s Jason Sagle busted in fourth for $3m, Niklas Astedt led the final three but he was to be the next man to leave after a bad run ended with him missing out on the final battle. All-in with top pair and a flush draw on the turn, he lost to Griff’s set of nines, as the American faded the river and went into the final duel with an almost 3:1 chip lead.
Tamayo Takes Title
The final battle was one of the longest-ever battles to win the world championship bracelet. All-in-all, the final table lasted an epic 235 hands, and with 65 hands of heads-up play required to find a winner, Griff and Tamayo both had the chip lead on multiple occasions only for the at-risk player to double back into contention in a seemingly endless loop.
Eventually, Tamayo moved all-in on a nine-high flop and Griff called having paired the nine. Tamayo had flopped two pairs with eight-three both hitting and held through turn and river to become the new world champion, winning $10 million in the process. In accepting the bracelet, Tamayo referenced his fortune earlier in the Main Event. He had shoved ten big blinds with ace-queen as Day 4 drew to a close and needed to beat pocket jacks to survive.
“Someone folded ace-king in the cutoff, and the other two jacks were dead because the big blind on seven or eight big blinds folded jacks,” he described after the result. “The turn was an ace. If that chain of events doesn’t happen, I don’t have that bracelet, and I’m not here.”
Laptop-Gate Leaves Sour Taste
Jonathan Tamayo will never be forgotten as a WSOP Main Event winner, but not because of his excellent play or final table fortunes. As he celebrated victory, a photograph was snapped of him and his ecstatic rail including the multiple WSOP bracelet winner Dominik Nitsche. In front of Nitsche and Joe McKeehen, who was also present, was the team’s laptop, open on what fans speculated was information on the action.
Every player who won the WSOP Main Event likely had the help and support of his friends on the rail, but the sight of an open laptop blew up in Tamayo’s face. Fans complained that it gave him an unfair advantage. Poker players largely defended the actions but agreed that the ‘optics’ were bad for the game. If amateurs did not believe they were entering a battle that took place on an even playing field, they might not enter, some argued. In the end, the WSOP made a statement revealing that in future years, technology accessing GTO or push/fold information that allowed others to ‘solve’ scenarios at the final table would not be available in any way.
Jonathan Tamayo was a deserving winner of the 2024 Main Event. Poker, always a solo game, was more about whose team a player was on than ever before. In 2025, the action was sure to take place under the microscope of moderation following the controversial support from his friends.
| Player | Country | Prize | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | Jonathan Tamayo | United States | $10,000,000 |
| 2nd | Jordan Griff | United States | $6,000,000 |
| 3rd | Niklas Astedt | Sweden | $4,000,000 |
| 4th | Jason Sagle | Canada | $3,000,000 |
| 5th | Boris Angelov | Bulgaria | $2,500,000 |
| 6th | Andres Gonzalez | Spain | $2,000,000 |
| 7th | Brian Kim | United States | $1,500,000 |
| 8th | Joe Serock | United States | $1,250,000 |
| 9th | Malo Latinois | France | $1,000,000 |
2023 WSOP Main Event 2025 WSOP Main Event
About the Author: Paul Seaton has written about poker for over 10 years, interviewing some of the best players ever to play the game such as Daniel Negreanu, Johnny Chan and Phil Hellmuth. Over the years, Paul has reported live from tournaments such as the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas and the European Poker Tour. He has also written for other poker brands where he was Head of Media, as well as BLUFF magazine, where he was Editor.