One of the most heartwarming storylines of the 2023 World Series of Poker (WSOP) emerged today as the father-daughter duo of Amanda Botfeld and David Botfeld made the money of the $10,000 WSOP Main Event World Championship.

Amanda Botfeld, a poker writer and author of 2020’s A Girl’s Guide to Poker, announced on Twitter that she and her dad had made it to the money in poker’s most prestigious event. The tweet included a photo of the two locked in a loving embrace, no doubt happy to have secured a payday of at least $15,000.

https://twitter.com/amandabotfeld/status/1678506507514654721

The poker author’s tweet came shortly after the trio of Yue Qi Wang, Peter Nigh, and Jeppe Bisgaard were all eliminated on the Main Event money bubble.

Another Deep Run for the Botfelds

Incredibly enough, this is not the first deep run for Amanda and David Botfeld, who taught his daughter how to play poker when she was 13.

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The two paired up for the 2021 Tag Team Event and finished third for a total of $49,512, bringing both Botfeld’s their biggest career cashes. Serious runs in the 2023 Main Event would bring much bigger scores as a record $12.1 million is up top for the eventual champion.

Unfortunately for the elder Botfeld, he was eliminated shortly after the burst of the money bubble in 1,166th place to take home $17,500. But there’s still plenty of hope for Amanda, who started the day with a healthy stack of 627,000.

It could be said a deep Main Event run for Amanda is well-deserved. She’s done plenty of good for the poker community as of late, including giving away multiple seats to last year’s $10,000 buy-in WPT World Championship.

Read About the 2023 WSOP Main Event Bubble!

_{*Lead photo courtesy of Amanda Botfeld via Twitter}

On Monday, early in the Day 4 session at around 1:30 p.m. PT, the record-breaking 2023 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event bubble burst when three players were all in and at risk at separate tables. All three lost the hand, and they would go race-off for the money and the 2024 WSOP Main Event seat.

On Day 3, the WSOP staff decided to call it a night with 1,517 players remaining and to come back the following day at noon PT to play to the money. As was expected, it didn’t take long to reach that point given there were so many short stacks entering and only 10 players needed to bust.

Flipping for the Bubble

With 1,508 players left and the tournament in hand-for-hand play, three players were all eliminated at the same time at separate tables. As such, the WSOP had to create a flip-off situation to determine who would finish as the official bubble. Those individuals were Yue Qi Wang, Peter Nigh, and Jeppe Bisgaard.

Nigh lost a race at his table to bust from the Main Event, Bisgaard ran kings into aces, and Wang had top pair aces but ran into quads.

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All three players would evenly split the $30,000 for 1,507th and 1,506th place, but the winner of the flip-off would also take home free entry into the 2024 WSOP Main Event, valued at $10,000.

Each player was dealt two cards face-down, followed by five community cards, just the same as a traditional no-limit hold’em hand. Bisgaard, who lives in Denmark, hit a straight on the river to take down the free seat to next year’s world championship event, and was officially declared as the bubble.

“Obviously, it feels good about winning that Main Event seat,” Bisgaard, who said he works in the shipping industry, told PokerNews. “Bubbling is not fun, but the situation I got into was not avoidable. Plus the fact that I knew there’s always a free seat on the bubble, which maybe tried to incentivize me to get a stack, so I feel good.”

Bisgaard will return to the Main Event next summer with a free entry. It will be his third time competing in the most prestigious poker tournament in the world. The last time he played, he busted early.

“This is an upgrade,” the 2023 WSOP Main Event bubble joked.

This was the second straight year a three-way flip was required to determine the bubble. Robert Lipkin earned the free seat via the flip into this year’s Main Event.

Poker Player Begs Table to Take it Easy on Him

When the Main Event approaches the bubble, the pressure is on the short stacks, especially those who are playing for life-changing money or out of their bankroll. Gary Blackwood shared a note his friend received from another player at his friend’s table that was quite interesting.

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The individual who wrote the note explained he is a player from China and that reaching the money “would mean everything to me,” as it would, by his account, “greatly boost my chance of getting into an American university.” As such, the player who signed the letter as “GAO,” asked that his tablemates would refrain from raising his first big blind as he entered the day with a tiny stack.

After the bubble shenanigans concluded, the tournament returned to normalcy in Level 16 (4,000-8,000 blinds). There will be four additional two-hour levels prior before Day 4 wraps. PokerNews will be live reporting throughout the session and the entire event.

Previous Five WSOP Main Event Bubbles

*Excludes 2020 hybrid online-live year during COVID.

Follow Continued Live Coverage of the Main Event

Event #76: $1,500 Bounty Pot-Limit Omaha came to an end after a rollercoaster of action here at the 2023 World Series of Poker hosted at the Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas. Only one person was left holding their hands high, gripping the elusive gold bracelet. Thomas Skaggs was that person, having conquered the 1,214 entry field.

The gold meant more to Skaggs than the $171,742 grand prize; it was his first WSOP bracelet. He did, however, recently win a circuit ring in a pot-limit Omaha event at Horseshoe Indiana earlier this year ($28,181). Skaggs went on to say that he had made it his goal to win either a circuit ring or bracelet, so he’s beyond thrilled to have gotten both. A deserving runner-up, David Hu held the chip lead multiple times at the final table, and Skaggs commented about the skill and precision that Hu played with.

Final Table Results

Winner’s Reaction

PokerNews got the opportunity to chat with Skaggs just following his victory, and he was ecstatic, despite him being just two hours away from having to catch a plane home to Glendale, Kentucky. He mentioned that he’s mostly an Omaha player, and this was his third year in a row playing this particular event. He and a few of his buddies usually make the trip out around this time in the series, but he’s always foregone the Main Event to play the PLO Bounty instead. Skaggs contributed his experience in cash games, which gave him the strong mindset needed to deal with the swings throughout the tournament.

Day 1 and Day 2 Action

Day 1 saw plenty of notables enter the field, most of which hopped in after busting the Main Event. Martin Kabrhel caused a few headaches throughout the day but ultimately fell well outside the money despite snagging multiple bounties. The bubble burst towards the end of the day in the 14th and final level of the day. Hall of Famer, Erik Seidel, made it deep into the day to cash but fell short of bag and tag; the same was true of Felipe Ramos.

Some of those who did battle through to Day 2 included bracelet winners Nacho Barbero, Daniel Negreanu and Dash Dudley; all falling one by one. Negreanu busted in a three-way pot deep on Day 2, and Dudley went on to bust the final hand of the evening just moments before players bagged and tagged.

Day 3 Action

Of the 140 entrants who made it to Day 2 only 15 made it through to Day 3. Of those that remained, only one repeat bracelet winner remained in the field in the form of Jeff Madsen, who was well in contention until his luck ran out in 12th place.

Action slowed after the elimination of Giuseppe Maggisano, who bubbled the unofficial final table when Skaggs made a full house against him. From there, the remaining nine played for nearly two full levels before the were moved to one of the feature tables in the Horseshoe Main Event Center.

Final Table Action

Sergio Martinez fell in ninth place shortly after the move when he got short in chips and was bested by the better rundown of Yusuke Tanaka.

Noah Schwartz was the only bracelet winner left in the field and had maintained a medium-sized stack the entire day of play. At one point, Schwartz misread his hand, thinking he lost, then told his opponents he was getting too old for this game when his tablemates informed him he won the pot. Eventually, Schwartz reached a moment where he inquired if it was his time to die and ultimately fell in eighth place.

Paul Spitzberg quietly ground his way through the field, maintaining his stack throughout the day by stealing the blinds with late-positioned, pot-sized raised. Finally, the blinds got too high for him to keep the momentum, and he was eliminated in seventh place in a blind versus blind confrontation.

Vincent Moscati made a tremendous fold after committing half his stack in a pot that saw Paul DeGiulio triple up but if Hu had won that pot Moscati would have laddered for about $25,000. Despite doubling up shortly after that, Moscati met his demise in sixth place when Hu caught a king on the river.

Japanese player Tanaka had a dynamic day that saw him above starting stack often but struggling to be amongst the chip leaders. In the end, it took his kings being cracked to send him on his way in fifth place.

DeGiulio was well in contention when he won the hand previously mentioned, but after Satar Al-Sadoun pulled off a big bluff on him, his stack curtailed and he was never able to build traction again. In the end, Al-Sadoun caught a flush on the river against DeGiulio to bring the field down to only three.

Al-Sadoun bagged amongst the chip leaders on Day 1 and on Day 2 he managed to bag the biggest stack by far. Once three-handed play got under way, though, Hu began to run away with the lead. The momentum shifted dramatically when Skaggs doubled through Al-Sadoun. Only just a few hands after, Skaggs doubled through Hu to become massive chip leader. Now nursing a short stack, Al-Sadoun’s jacks were dominated by the kings of Skaggs to send Al-Sadoun out in third place.

Heads Up Play

Hu didn’t make things easy for the champion, and he found an ideal spot to double right at the start of heads up play. Hu continued to tip the scales in his favor by chipping away with a series of small pots going his way. Things may have turned out differently if Hu had been able to find a double with his aces in the final hand but it wasn’t his day. Hu did let PokerNews know that he was very happy; this is his 2nd highest tournament cash.

Skaggs ended up attributing his win to a massive pot he scooped off of Al-Sadoun about halfway through Day 3 to push him into the chip lead. He had a hard time for the three levels after that pot, but if it weren’t for that mass of chips, he wouldn’t have been able to survive as long as he did. Skaggs used the cards from that hand in his winner’s photos as opposed the cards he won his final hand with.

The WSOP isn’t over yet, so make sure you stay tuned on PokerNews for all of the action from the live bracelet-awarding events.

Day 41 of the 2023 World Series of Poker at the Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas had three events taking place, with the bulk of the vast tournament areas taken up by the massive Main Event field. The Main Event lost over half of its players, with 1,517 of the 3,538 returnees bagging up at the close of play.

The day also saw the third and final flight of the $777 Lucky 7’s event conclude.

Another player got their hands on a coveted gold bracelet, and Thomas Skaggs is that champion. Skaggs came out on top in Event #78: $1,500 Bounty Pot-Limit Omaha, defeating the Netherlands’ David Hu heads-up to capture $171,742 and his first

Morgan Petro Bags Up Lucky 7’s Day 1c Chip Lead

The third and final start day of Event #77: $777 Lucky 7’s drew in 3,444 entrants, taking the total attendance to an impressive 7,323 players. Only 154 of the Day 1c players bagged and tagged stack at the close of play, meaning 317 hopefuls return to the action on Day 2.

Morgan Petro bagged up a cool 3,100,000 chips at the close of play, which is just enough for the Day 1c chip lead. Shawn Daniels (2,945,000) was almost the flight’s chip leader, while Toshimasa Sakato (2,360,000) finished in third.

Bracelet winner David Miscikowski (1,940,000) ended Day 1c tenth in chips, while the likes of Michael Rodrigues (1,400,000), Rafael Reis (1,065,000), Lara Eisenberg (850,000), Chino Rheem (820,000), Mike Gorodinsky (785,000), Loni Hui (675,000), and David “ODB” Baker also punched their Day 2 tickets.

Cards are back in the air from 10:00 a.m. local time on July 10, with Stepan Vinokurov (3,315,000) leading the 317 survivors back into the action. PokerNews‘ live reporting team will be on the ground through the day as the field whittles down towards a champion.

Event #77: $777 Lucky 7’s Day 1c Top 10 Chip Counts

Kornuth Continues His Epic Run of Form

Chance Kornuth can seemingly do nothing wrong at the poker table of late. The popular pro has won over $3.6 million in 2023 alone, and is now second in chip going into Day 4 of Event #76: $10,000 WSOP Main Event World Championship.

Kornuth finished Day 3 with 1,887,000 chips in his stack, and with a realistic shot of walking away with a life-changing $12.1 million top prize. Only Antonio Mallol Heredia (1,899,000) has more chips than Kornuth, and only just.

Liran Betito (1,775,000), Pei Li (1,742,000), and Nicholas “Dirty DIaper” Rigby (1,719,000) round out the overnight top five.

As you would expect from a record-breaking field, there are some legitimate superstars among the surviving Day 3 players. Chris Brewer (1,447,000) finds himself in the top 20, with the like of Faraz Jaka (1,378,000), Jesse Lonis (1,188,000), Stephen Chidwick (1,106,000), Yuri Dzivielevski (1,059,000), and Maurice Hawkins (1,028,000) each having the welcomed problem of having to fit more than one million chips into an overnight bag.

Others still in the hunt include 2010 WSOP Main Event runner-up John Racener (950,000), Julien Martini (870,000), the 2003 champion Chris Moneymaker (778,000), Dominik Nitsche (680,000), Alex Foxen (637,000), and the 2017 WSOP Main Event champion Scott Blumstein (618,000).

Day 4 commences at 12:00 p.m. local time on July 10, with the plan to complete another five 120-minute levels. The money bubble will burst early into proceedings, with 1,507 players receiving at least $15,000 for there efforts, and only 1,517 players returning to their seats.

Event #76: $10,000 WSOP Main Event World Championship Day 3 Top 10 Chip Counts

What to Expect on Day 42 of the 2023 WSOP

July 10 is the 42nd day of the 2023 WSOP, and things are starting to pick up again now that the Main Event’s field is down to a more manageable level.

In addition to Day 4 of Event #76: $10,000 WSOP Main Event World Championship, and Day 2 of Event #77: $777 Lucky 7’s taking place, two new tournaments shuffle up and deal.

You can follow all of the action from Event #79: $2,500 No-Limit Hold’em and Event #80: $25,000 H.O.R.S.E. High Roller, the latter’s field is expected to be crammed full of elite-level poker players.

Day 3 of the 2023 World Series of Poker Event #76: $10,000 WSOP Main Event World Championship at the Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas has come to a conclusion. The record for the largest WSOP Main Event field in its 54-year history was broken with a total of 10,043 entries, and only 1,517 remain.

The 10,043 entries generated a total prize pool of $93,399,900, smashing the previous record of $82,512,162 set in 2006 that had a total of 8,773 entrants.

In the 2006 edition of this event, Jamie Gold battled his way to victory and a $12,000,000 payday. The eventual winner this year will receive exactly $100,000 more, a symbolic gesture ensuring that the champion of the largest Main Event ever will also be its biggest winner. The minimum cash payout for 1,507th place will be $15,000, and the bubble is expected to burst very shortly on Day 4 as they are only 10 eliminations away.

2023 Main Event Payouts

Chance Kornuth found himself at the top of the leaderboard after slowly climbing throughout the day. Kornuth crossed the 1,500,000 chip mark as he sent a player home with his pocket fours near the end of the night. Kornuth continued building to end Day 3 with 1,887,000 chips, enough for second place on the leaderboard.

Only Antonio Mallol Heredia (1,899,000) bagged up more chips than Kornuth, and only just. The man from Oceanside, California, according to the Hendon Mob Database, has a shade more than $75,000 in live tournament winnings, with the bulk of that sum stemming from a $49,610 score in 2018. Mallol Heredia has cashed twice at the 2023 WSOP, and is all but guaranteed to at least min-cash in the 2023 WSOP Main Event.

End of Day 3 Top 10 Chip Counts

Main Event Day 3 Action

Many notables took their seat at the start of the day, including poker crusher Alex Foxen, who had a great start, busting Giyeon Han near the beginning of the day to put him over 500,000 chips. Foxen continued to battle throughout the day and finished with a total of 638,000 in chips.

Tom Dwan started Day 3 with 426,500 chips but fell short as he shoved his pair and a flush draw against the aces of Brian Atchison and couldn’t catch up shortly before the dinner break.

All-time leading WSOP Circuit ring winner Maurice Hawkins has had an impressive Main Event thus far, bagging the overall chip lead on Day 2d with 941,000, and has managed to keep the momentum going, closing out Day 3 with 1,028,000.

Nicholas Rigby found himself near the top of the leaderboard for the third-day straight, putting a total of 1,719,000 chips in the bag at the end of Level 15.

Many notables bagged over the 1,000,000 chip mark including, Pei Li (1,742,000), Chris Brewer (1,447,000), and Nikita Luther (1,294,000).

Day 4 resumes on July 10th at 12:00 p.m. local time. Five more 120-minute levels will be played, and 1,507 players will get paid, which means it is extremely likely that the money bubble will burst during the first level of play.

Be sure to stay tuned to PokerNews as its live reporting team continues to provide comprehensive coverage of the $10,000 WSOP Main Event World Championship.