A second place finish in any poker tournament means a good pay day. However, it also means that you were one step short of being on top. Such is the dramatic story of Thailand poker pros Kannapong Thanarattrakul and Punnat Punsri, who came very close to winning a bracelet in the 2024 World Series of Poker, but had to settle for 2nd place.
Kannapong Thanarattrakul Denied By Chance Kornuth
There were 1,088 entries at the 2024 WSOP Event #85 $1,000 FLIP &GO NLHE Presented by GGPoker, pushing the prize pool to $957,440. One of Thailand’s top ranked players Kannapong Thanarattrakul nearly went the distance but couldn’t get past multi-bracelet winner Chance Kornuth at heads up. On the final hand, Kornuth turned the winning card to secure his career fourth bracelet and $155,446. As for runner-up, Thanarattrakul, he pocketed a six figure payout of $103,633. This was Thanarattrakul’s his 26th career WSOP cash.
The runner-up finish for a WSOP bracelet is nothing new to Thanarattrakul. Back in August 2023, the Thai pro came in 2nd at the WSOPC 2023 Event #11: Super Circuit Main Event in London, and further back, at the 2022 WSOP Online Bracelet MAIN EVENT (GGPoker), Thanarattrakul claimed his biggest career win of over $2 Million. Thanarattrakul has a Youtube channel (https://www.youtube.com/@
Another Runner-Up for Punnat Punsri
Thailand’s most decorated player Punnat Punsri came in 2nd at the 2024 WSOP Event#87: $5,000 NLHE (8-handed). In a field of 1,042, Punsri went heads up against Matthew Alsante and nearly locked up the coveted gold until a bad beat on the turn flipped the counts to which Punsri could not recover. Despite the loss, he took home $523,648 for his 28th career WSOP cash and his biggest WSOP payday so far.
This is the second time Punsri has been denied glory on the world stage. At the 2022 WSOP $1,979 Poker Hall Of Fame Bounty NLHE, he lost to Korean pro Jinho Hong.
Punsri sits at number one in Thailand’s All-Time money list with over $16 million in live earnings. Among his many accomplishments is a Triton Main Event title. While adding a WSOP title is difficult, it also seems to be within reach.
*Article by JJ Duque
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