The 2024 World Series of Poker has concluded and the most sought-after gold bracelet among the 99 up for grabs at the Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas found a new owner. Hailing from Humble, Texas, 38 year old Jonathan Tamayo is the new WSOP Main Event champion after an action-packed heads-up duel with fellow American Jordan Griff.
That both would be heads-up for the title may come as a surprise, as Griff entered Day 8 joint-last in chips and Tamayo was among the shortest stacks when the nine-handed final table was determined inside the Horseshoe Event Center. However, Griff was the chip leader when the final nine returned to the Thunderdome for the two-day conclusion and Tamayo showcased his skills by running up his stack all the way to second place on Day 9 during the 161 hands played.
All eyes were set on Niklas Astedt from Sweden, who is widely considered as the best online MTT player of all times with more than $50 million in cashes online, most of which came under his PokerStars moniker of “Lena900”. His rail was chanting Lena, Lena, Lena over and over again but that all fell silent after just nine hands on the final day.
Astedt started as the chip leader and Griff’s incredibly aggressive playing style brought swings to the leaderboard in almost every hand. The Swede ultimately paid the price in a clash with Griff and had to settle for third place, which came with a payday of $4 million.
What followed was an entertaining heads-up between Griff and Tamayo, in which they both had each other on the ropes and brink of elimination two times. It would be Tamayo who came out on top to become the new world champion and claim the top prize of $10 million. The bracelet was handed to him by 2015 WSOP Main Event champion Joe McKeehen, a close friend who was on the rail to return the favour of Tamayo being on his rail nine years ago.
Runner-up Griff only had $47,192 in recorded live tournament cashes to his name before the event with the largest score being a modest $18,104. All of those figures were blown out of the window with his consolation prize of $6 million, and his epic run was witnessed by his parents on the rail on the final two days.
The 2024 WSOP Main Event was the largest in history and attracted a staggering field of 10,112 entries to generate a record prize pool of $94,041,600. Some 1,517 spots were paid in the marathon tournament and several Asian players went deep.
Inside the top 100 were Ma Li (90th for $100,000), Biao Ding (69th for $140,000), Chi Jen Chen (67th for $140,000) and Danny Tang (62nd for $160,000), who were all eliminated on Day 6. The next day brought back 59 hopefuls and Hiroki Nawa from Japan bowed out in 45th place for $200,000. Shundan Xiao was the second-last woman in contention and the California-based but China born newcomer in poker made it to 28th place for $300,000.
Japan’s Kyosuke Nagami and Yake Wu reached the final three tables but were sent to the payout desk in 21st and 20th place respectively, both collecting $350,000 for their efforts. Another big storyline thereafter was the deep run of Kristen Foxen, which ended in 13th place for $600,000, just shy of becoming the second woman ever to reach the WSOP Main Event final table.
*Article by Christian Zetzsche
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