Two days of play saw a total of 1,241 players sit down in Event #32: $3,000 No-Limit Hold’em 6-Max. The prize pool swelled to $3,313,470, and the lion’s share to play for was left to the 58 players who made the second day of this tournament.

In the end, it was Mark Ioli who was crowned champion, winning his first WSOP bracelet and a career-best score of $558,266. “It was a long two days, but it was worth it,” the newly crowned champion said, beaming. “The two previous times I got heads up for a bracelet, I was a card away from winning,” he said, referring to his two second places in WSOP online events. “So it feels good to finally win. It’s the one accolade in poker you want no matter what.”

When talking about the competition in this tournament, he said, “The first eight hours of play, there wasn’t a single recreational player at my table, it was all pros. I played pretty patiently throughout and obviously ran good in a few spots to win.”

The former Magic player turned to poker in his college years and moved to Canada to play after Black Friday. “Nowadays I play live cash, some tournaments, and some other business ventures.”

When asked whether he would play the rest of the series, he said, “For sure. Initially, the plan was to play cash mostly and then a few tournaments, but I got a cash the other day, and I really want to get back in there. It’s crazy how quickly plans change.”

Final Table Results

Day 2 Action

Day 2 action began in a fast and furious way. Many notable players went out the door early including Alex Foxen (48th – $9,621), who busted memorably when start of day chip leader Chris Hunichen called him with six-three suited, John Dolan (33rd – $15,857), Martin Jacobson (28th – $19,382) Benjamin Diebold (19th – $24,087), Maria Ho (17th – $30,429), Asher Conniff (16th – $30,429), and Noah Schwartz (9th – $50,948).

The unofficial seven-handed final table was reached when the start of day chip leader Chris Hunichen got in his short stack in the middle with ace-nine against Johann Ibanez‘s pocket eights. An ace-high flop came out that also contained an eight, and no improvement on the turn meant that Hunichen would exit the tournament in eighth place for $50,948.

Final Table Action

The very first hand of the unofficial final table saw the first elimination. Todd Ivens moved in his short stack to the middle with ace-ten, which saw Julien Sitbon from one seat over move in with pocket nines and everyone else folded. The flop came out ace-high, but the river nine gave the Frenchman a set of nines, and he took down the pot while Ivens exited the tournament in seventh place for $67,492, bringing the table to the official final table.

Samy Boujmala was the first casualty of the official final table after a swingy day. He rose to the chip leader with two tables left, but several clashes with his countryman Sitbon had left him as a shorter stack. He raised most of his stack in the hijack with ace-seven suited, and Eshaan Bhalla moved all in for more with pocket kings, and Boujmala called. The board ran out as no favor to the ace-seven, and Boujmala exited the tournament in sixth place for $90,791.

Sitbon would be out the door soon after. He lost a race to Ioli to fall to the short stack but was able to double up once after that. His run of fortune was short-lived as he moved in his final chips in with pocket threes only to see Ibanez wake up with pocket aces in the big blind. The aces held to eliminate Sitbon in fifth place for $123,992.

Bhalla got tangled in a pot in the small blind with ten-eight against Ibanez in the big blind who held queen-ten. On a ten-high board, Bhalla check-jammed the turn which Ibanez called, and he held on the river to take an overwhelming chip lead and leave Bhalla to exit the tournament in fourth place for $171,874.

In third place came Wing Liu shortly after Bhalla’s bust out. Liu was never able to gain much traction at the final table, and that saw him dwindle down to just a few big blinds. In the end, he moved in after defending the big blind on a four-four-deuce flop with king-five, only for Ibanez to call him with aces. The aces held up, and Liu collected $241,767 for his deep run.

What followed was a heads-up battle for the ages. Over 2.5 hours of grueling tournament-defining pots that saw the lead shift multiple times between Ioli and Ibanez. In the end, Ioli doubled in a crucial hand where his ace-king won a race against the pocket eights of Ibanez, which gave him a five-to-one lead. A few hands later, the remaining chips would get in when Ibanez held ace-ten against Ioli’s king-jack. The turn brought Ioli a full house and secured him the bracelet while Ibanez finished his deep run in second place for $345,034.

Thank you all for reading along here at PokerNews. Stay tuned for all updates regarding the 2023 WSOP.

Benjamin Ector is now a first-time bracelet winner after taking down Event #28: $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em Freezeout at the 2023 World Series of Poker for $406,403 following a brief heads-up battle with runner-up Adam Swan ($251,158).

The Freezeout event drew a field of 2,046 unique entries for a prize pool of $2,731,410 and saw 17 players returning for Day 3, including third-place finisher Nick Palma ($184,730) and Germany’s Dietrich Fast (8th – $45,895), the only bracelet winner at the nine-handed final table.

Start-of-day chip leader Matthew Hunt was looking to close out on a maiden bracelet but lost two massive flips to Ector to give up the chip lead and eventually fall in seventh place for $59,468. Ector then used the chip lead to steamroll the remaining final table eliminating every player along the way.

2023 WSOP Event #28 Final Table Results

Winner’s Reaction

Ector was ecstatic to have won his first gold bracelet after having a long successful career playing online, he moved to Mexico to play when Black Friday hit.

He also had a deep run in the $1,500 No Limit Hold’em Monster Stack Event at the 2019 WSOP. Ector recalled starting the final table with the chip lead and ending up in fifth place which was a real disappointment at the time. He moved back to Mexico to relax and take some time away from poker and just recently started playing live again.

Ector has played at many final tables and had a solid aggressive strategy heading into the final table despite not starting as the chip leader this time. He remained patient and waited for the right opportunities to make his moves.

A turning point for Ector was where his ace-king won a race against Hunt’s pocket eights and from there, Ector started to run away with the tournament.

Once he gained a substantial chip lead, he systematically knocked out each player from eighth to second place and in between, used his aggression to win small pots, and continued building his stack.

In most of the eliminations Ector showed the dominating hand except against Santiago Plante where Plante had Big Slick suited, and Ector had five-four off but called due to the pot odds, ultimately hitting a straight.

His rail was chanting, “Smelling salts, smelling salts,” as Ector had been using them to stay alert and sharing them with other players.

Ector was texting his mom in Atlanta and his sister in Salt Lake City to relay the good news that he had won.

He plans to play more events during this summer’s WSOP and make some more final tables.

Day 3 Action

Day 3 kicked off with 17 players at two tables with Hunt as the chip leader. The tables played for about five hours and finally whittled down in players when Rene Lazaro was the last person eliminated before the final table redraw.

The unofficial final table consisted of ten players which included bracelet winner Dietrich Fast who was eliminated in eighth place and Day 2 chip leader Hunt went out in seventh place.

Swan and Palma were in the final three and attempted to overcome the chip leader’s reign and doubled up a few times but couldn’t keep up any momentum to surpass Ector.

Palma went out in third place when his jack-ten failed to complete a flush against Ector’s dominating ace-ten.

The heads-up match between Swan and Ector did not last long and ended after Swan was betting third pair strongly and Ector made a big call with second pair.

The very next hand, Swan moved his short stack in with ten-nine suited and Ector called with the Deadman’s hand. Swan didn’t hit his outs and finished runner-up.

That ends the PokerNews coverage of this event but you can keep up with all the other World Series of Poker news over at the 2023 WSOP hub.

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An explosive final table which lasted only three hours, ended when Scott Dulaney bested long-time chip leader Sridhar Sangannagari in a brief heads-up battle.

Dulaney pocketed $194,155 for first place and of course, a coveted WSOP gold bracelet. The Fireman from Houston, Texas was a popular winner, with an enthusiastic rail – which grew larger and more vociferous, the closer he got to the bracelet.

As with so many events at the 2023 World Series of Poker, Event#31: $600 Mixed No-Limit Hold’em/Pot-Limit Omaha Deepstack was a record-breaker – with a large turnout of 2,758 entries, which generated a prize pool of $1,406,580.

Event #31 Final Table Results

Dulaney started the day sixth in chips and stayed afloat until action reached the final nine, where he sat seventh in chips.

The final table was dominated at the start by Sangannagar. The Goldman Sachs Vice President tore through the table, claiming the scalps of Zachary Vankeuren and stalwart British pro Barny Boatman along the way.

He held the chip until it was heads up but by that time there wasn’t much in it and Dulaney overcame him in short order.

Winner’s Reaction

It was an emotional scene as the final hand ended, as Dulaney ran to the rail to embrace his wife – his rail celebrating wildly. When the dust had settled, Dulaney summed up his feelings.

“I’m really excited, kinda reeling at the moment,” Dulaney said afterward. “But I knew it was gonna happen and I plan on winning multiple Omaha bracelets this week, this year. I think all the best Omaha players in the world come from Houston and I’m trying to prove it this summer.”

On the subject of his favorite card being a nine, Dulaney explained, “Basically, it’s one of the lowest pairs you want to get involved in big Omaha pots with, but I’ll take the lowest of the low if I’ve got to. I’m a ‘come from the bottom’ type of guy. Everybody in Houston knows that’s my hand and I’m a Houston player through and through.”

Asked what aspects of firefighting helped his poker skills, Dulaney’s response was unequivocal: “All of them. I take aggressive firefighting tactics and apply them to the poker table. I’ve always done that and now it’s paying off.”

As far as celebrations go, Dulaney said, “I’m gonna go spend some time with my kids because they’re upstairs and I haven’t seen them.” But the perpetual poker player in him couldn’t resist adding, “I may jump in another tournament if I can tonight. If I can get in that Omaha still, I’m probably going to late reg for that, to be honest with you.”

Final Day Action

The final day got underway with 112 players. That number was thinned down extremely quickly, with the three-table redraw taking place before the day’s second break. A mere two hours later, the tournament was down to nine players. The main beneficiary during that period was Boatman.

With 24 combatants remaining, Boatman was sitting on a miserly stack of 900,000. By the time the event reached its final table, he had torn through the field to sit second in chips with a mighty 12,500,000.

Also on display was Boatman’s customary wit. When one player mistook him for the late David “Devilfish” Ulliott, Boatman quipped, “I was better-looking than him when he was alive”. Unfortunately, his run good ran out when his Jacks couldn’t hold against ace-deuce.

Boatman fell to Sangannagari early on in the final table action, and the Goldman Sach Vice President looked sure to take it down before Dulaney got on an unstoppable roll. Sangannagari knocked out fellow American Vankeuren in fourth and looked destined to claim the bracelet with half the chips in play.

But Dulaney was not to be denied and when he knocked out Willie Smith, the stacks had got a lot closer. He doubled through Sangannagari shortly afterward and a few hands later had him all in and covered.

Dulaney claimed his victory in a hand of pot-limit Omaha. Having worn a cap throughout, displaying his favorite card in the deck, it seemed inevitable that the final river of the tournament would come a nine.

That ends the PokerNews coverage of this event but you can keep up with all the other World Series of Poker news over at the 2023 WSOP hub.

Follow live updates from the 2023 WSOP here!

A businessman and a Dutch poker professional went heads up for the title, and it was the pro who emerged victorious.

Jans Arends defeated Cary Katz on Day 3 to take down the 2023 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Event #29: $100,000 High Roller. Arends secured a $2,576,729 top prize and his second career gold bracelet. Katz, the President of PokerGO affectionately known as “El Jefe,” collected $1,592,000 as the runner-up.

Arends’ win is accentuated by the competition he faced at the final table, which began with four WSOP bracelet winners. Not only did he have to go through Katz, he overcame a star-studded cast with Adrian Mateos, Jeremy Ausmus, Chance Kornuth and Biao Ding.

And then there was the field, which boasted a pair of Poker Hall of Famers in Phil Ivey and Daniel Negreanu. Other notable participants included Justin Bonomo, Koray Aldemir, Espen Jorstad, Brian Rast and Seth Davies, among others.

2023 WSOP Event 29 Final Table Results

Arends, however, got hot when it mattered down the stretch.

A good starting hand matters in poker, of course, but Arends knew when to take down pots with aggression, showing a willingness to check-raise in spots. The style helped him build momentum.

“First of all, I enjoy the game a lot, especially when I’m running hot and this year has been absolutely crazy,” Arends told PokerNews after winning the tournament. “I’ve never run this hot in my life.”

He went on to ride a hot streak to his second career WSOP bracelet.

Event #29 saw 93 total entrants, which surpassed last year’s entry pool of 62 participants, to generate a prize pool worth $8,997,750.

Winner’s Reaction

Arends, who hails from the Netherlands, isn’t new to winning a WSOP bracelet. He secured his first bracelet during an online event in 2022.

The second time around securing gold, though, provided a much different feeling.

“It’s completely different live,” Arends said. “Live is more pressure, there’s people around, there’s cameras, live-streamed final table. There’s added pressure. The first one was just an online tourney and basically, all that people saw in the end was who won. So, this is very different. Way more special, I would say.”

Wednesday’s win also represented Arends’ biggest cash, and he almost doubled his $2,900,000 career earnings before taking down this tournament.

But the financial gain isn’t the sole reason why Arends chooses to compete with world-class poker players.

“I always enjoy the game,” he said. “I love the challenge, I love to compete, I love to try to improve, so that’s the first reason. Then, obviously, the money side of it is nice as well. I think if there was no money to be won, I probably wouldn’t be playing as much, but those two things. I don’t really care about this legacy stuff or a number of bracelets or total cashes or something like that. That’s not what I’m doing it for.”

“I was crying inside because I’m not going to lie – I was rooting for Jeremy Ausmus there.”

Arends entered Day 3 as the chip leader, but then saw Mateos, who was to his immediate left, emerge to seize the chip lead with close to 28,000,000. Mateos gained momentum when he doubled up through Ausmus early on Day 3, much to Arends’ dismay.

“I play against him a lot online and he’s an absolute sicko,” Arends said of Mateos with a chuckle. “When he doubled up, I was crying inside because I’m not going to lie – I was rooting for Jeremy Ausmus there. First of all, he was one seat over. Having Adrian to your direct left with a bunch of chips is just not a very fun thing.”

The situation changed when Arends and Mateos got involved in a massive 19,025,000 pot minutes before the first break, and Arends’ flopped full house beat Mateos’ straight.

It was at that moment Arends, who once again assumed the chip lead, knew winning the tournament became a real possibility.

“After the hand against Adrian, I was like, ‘OK, Adrian is short, Cary Katz has like 25, 30 bigs (blinds) and he’s not going to want to play any hands,’ this is a dream spot to finish it off,” Arends said. “At that point, I really started to believe it.”

The faith paid off in a handsome way for Arends, who plans to spend the rest of the summer in Las Vegas.

He’s eying more bracelet-qualifying tournaments, including Event #35: $10,000 Secret Bounty and the Main Event. But first, he wants to quickly celebrate Wednesday’s win.

“I could also use some rest, but I think what’s next is I’ll drink one or two beers,” Arends said with a smile. “And then I’ll go play the 10K.”

This concludes coverage of Event #29 of the 2023 WSOP, but make sure to continue to follow PokerNews for live updates of your favorite events throughout the summer.

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