The year was 2002. Russell Rosenblum had cashed in exactly one poker tournament in his life, one month prior, when after four days of poker he found himself at the final table of the 2002 World Series of Poker Main Event. The ESPN cameras were on hand to film the action, and despite none of the hole card cameras that would come into fashion in the year that followed and completely change the game, Rosenblum was on as massive a stage as there was in poker with $2 million awaiting the champion. Rosenblum played his way down until six remained, and then ran into Scott Gray’s , failing to improve. After enjoying such success at an early stage of taking poker tournaments seriously, pocketing $150,000 for his sixth place finish, the moment came and went before Rosenblum truly appreciated what had happened. “It’s a thing that Mike Matusow said to me when I almost busted in 2002, long before making the final table,” Rosenblum said. “He goes, ‘Dude, don’t think it’s gonna be so easy to get back here. Don’t screw it up, and actually cherish the moment.’ And at the time, I couldn’t cherish the moment. It’s was the first $10K I ever played, and it was just so overwhelming, every single moment.” Rosenblum enjoyed more success in tournament poker in the years that followed. In 2004, Rosenblum made the final table of the Season II WPT World Championship at Bellagio, finishing in fifth for a career-best $332,660 cash. He cashed in four subsequent WSOP Main Events, in 2010, 2011, 2013 and 2022, but up until this year finished no better than 169th. Now, in 2024, Rosenblum’s the closest he’s been since 2002. He’s played through six days of the 2024 WSOP Main Event, and with 59 players left he’s starting to get a taste of what might well turn into another bite at the apple. “I want to get there,” said Rosenblum. “Believe me, I want to get there. I’m never getting back here again. It’s impossible. But I’m really just cherishing it more – it’s different. I’ll be devastated when I bust, and everybody busts but one man or woman. I’m looking around the room and just thinking, ‘Do I have some shot to get my picture up there?’ But just the fact that I can be here and have a 1% or 2% chance is so cool.” Rosenblum is the last remaining player in the 2024 WSOP Main Event field to have previously made the final table. If he can play through two more days, Rosenblum would also be claiming a piece of poker history. Eight players have had gaps of 10 years or more between WSOP Main Event final table appearances. The current record for such a gap is held by Dewey Tomko, who was the runner-up in both the 1982 and 2001 WSOP Main Events. Using the current nine-handed final table standard, Mickey Appleman (13 years), Phil Hellmuth (11 years) and Erik Seidel (11 years) each waited over a decade for a return appearance at the WSOP Main Event final table as well. As to whether or not that previous experience will serve Rosenblum as he tries to make it back, Rosenblum fairly pointed out the difference between navigating a field of 631 (as it was in 2002) and a field of 10,112. It’s about weathering the storms, putting yourself in as many good spots as possible and then managing your mentality during the tough stretches. “It’s totally different. It’s a complete minefield,” said Rosenblum. “Day 1, some people say ‘I just want to keep surviving.’ But you can’t do that, you’ll never win the tournament. Yesterday, Adrian Mateos, he’s one of the best players in the world, unquestionably. He gets away from pocket kings against aces, and the very next hand he loses everything with aces versus . Doesn’t matter how good you are – there’s an element of luck in this game, which is the reason there’s no big money chess matches. Everybody’s got a shot in this thing, right? “And you’re always dealing with a psychology about these things. Let’s say you have 5 million in chips and you lose 2 million and you’re down to 3. You feel like you’ve lost your tournament, it’s over. I’ve screwed it all up. Across the table, the other guy had 500,000 and he gets up to 1.5 million, he feels like he’s gonna win, right? You have twice as many chips as him and you feel devastated and he’s on top of the world. You have to manage those highs and lows. I came in yesterday with a lot of chips, and I rarely have a lot of chips. And I came in yesterday not being negative, but just prepared for adversity.” Rosenblum came into Day 7 sitting 32nd out of 59, with a hope that his chips will take another swing forward. He has steeled himself for the potential pain of an elimination while appreciating every hand and moment that comes his way. As much as the WSOP Main Event has changed in 22 years, so too has Rosenblum’s life. Billed as an attorney living in Bethesda, Maryland during the 2002 ESPN broadcast, making his way as a rising legal star in Washington, D.C. Rosenblum now serves as the Chairman of the Board for Lexicon Bank in Nevada, which actively courts poker players as clients and customers. That’s the life Rosenblum will be going back to whenever this run comes to an end, be it a finish in the 50s or somewhere at the final table. The last time Rosenblum was in this position, he was in his early 30s and only had to play four days to reach the final table. Six days in, with two more to go, he’s feeling the effects of 10 hours of poker a day for this many days in a row. But as he puts an eye towards making his way back to the promised land of a WSOP Main Event final table, Rosenblum felt a boost as he watched other players at his table feeling the same way. “The dealer sat down in the box at the start of the day today and goes, ‘How are y’all doing?’ And a couple of the guys just say, ‘Good.’ ‘Good.’ But one guy, he’s gotta be 26, 27 years old, and he says, ‘Good, but I’m tired as hell. And I looked at him. I go, ‘Wait, I thought it’s just me, the old man. Are you kidding?’ He goes, ‘I’m exhausted. I look around the table. Everyone’s 23, 24 and they’re all like, ‘We’re tired.’ The fatigue is brutal. “But life is good. I can’t complain. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying I’m gonna bust this thing and go, ‘Oh, that was fun. I’ll be devastated for sure. But just getting back this deep again, making the final table, that would be really cool. Honestly, it’s impossible.”

On Sunday at noon, in the Paris Ballroom in Las Vegas, high-stakes poker legend Patrik Antonius was named as this year’s inductee to the Poker Hall of Fame. In the modern era of poker, few have ben as bold and fearless as Patrik Antonius, said Executive Director of the WSOP Ty Stewart. A force both online and live, were thrilled to see Patriks high-stakes career acknowledged by legends who have added the first international player to the Poker Hall of Fame in years. From Helsinki, Finland, Antonius, 43, emerged during the poker boom as one of the toughest cash game players in the world who routinely battled, both live and online, with the biggest names in the game before turning into one of pokers brightest stars himself. The induction of Antonius is a stiff rebuttal to the commonly held belief that a defined number of World Series of Poker bracelets is needed to win the necessary votes for induction. Having yet to win a bracelet, Antonius on-camera, on-the-felt results in both cash games and tournaments were enough to turn the tide in his favor and lock up a spot on the walls of the Hall of Fame Poker Room at Horseshoe Las Vegas. Even without a WSOP bracelet on his resume, Antonius tournament results are more than bona fide for the Hall of Fame. With nearly $23 million in recorded tournament earnings, according to The Hendon Mob, Antonius has six seven-figure scores, that include a runner-up finish in the 2018 Super High Roller Bowl Macau for a career-high score of more than $3.1 million. Additionally, hes claimed an EPT Main Event and EPT High Roller title, as well as a Triton title in 2022, and a runner-up finish at the Season IV edition of WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic in 2005 – just to note the test of time requirement. Ultimately, it was Antonius competitive nature that helped him get to where he is today. From his early days online as a regular in Full Tilts nosebleed Rail Heaven cash games, to becoming a fixture on late-night poker TV including Poker After Dark and High Stakes Poker, Antonius has never been one to back down from pokers biggest stage. Its something his fans have enjoyed for more than two decades and something his peers clearly admire, honoring him, in his second nomination, with a spot in the Poker Hall of Fame.

Poker fans are prepared for some level of spectacle when it comes to the World Series of Poker Main Event final table – coordinated T-shirts, chants, and large collections of friends and family coming together to support a player as they enjoy a once-in-a-lifetime experience. But when loud chants and boisterous celebrations started to ring throughout the ballroom at Horseshoe Las Vegas on Day 6 of the 2024 WSOP Main Event, days away from the final table and millions of dollars directly on the line, it took a lot of people by surprise. If you’ve been watching the PokerGO broadcasts at home, you’ve probably heard the commotion from the outer tables on multiple occasions. At the center of that attention has been 35-year-old Yegor Moroz, and his rail of friends and supporters have grown in size and volume since that point in the tournament. Now onto Day 8 with just 16 players remaining, Moroz is one day away from getting all of those people around the WSOP Main Event final table. “I mean, it’s been unreal. This is the best group of friends that I could ever ask for,” said Moroz. “All these people have been showing up, supporting and loving unconditionally. And then being there for all the moments and even in spots where they couldn’t even really see what was going on. But they were there. The group is a conglomeration of different phases of Moroz’s life. There are friends from his time attending the University of Florida, where he first learned to play poker. Others come from South Florida, poker players and others who share Moroz’s love of music and attending festivals. There are also friends Moroz has made since moving to Las Vegas. At the center of this group, the person who has been on the sidelines of this particular group the longest is Darryll Fish. The WPT Champions Club member is known for being quite reserved when he’s at the table, but he’s been the unofficial representative for the group when the cameras and sideline reporter Jeff Platt have come calling over the last few days. “I can totally respect the idea of keeping your composure and stoicism and all that sort of thing,” said Fish. “But I think there’s a lot to be said for really basking in the emotions of a once-in-a-lifetime experience like this type of run. He loves to dance, loves to have a good time, just all around a jolly guy who appreciates life – and we love him a lot.” For Fish, who’s enjoyed a lot of major successes in his poker career, watching a friend who has had $189,785 in career lifetime tournament earnings lock up a result that will multiply that total at least a few times over and potentially a lot more has been surreal and a purely joyful moment. “It’s super fun to live this experience vicariously through a friend, especially someone who’s not just a poker friend, but like a true brother,” said Fish. “Some people here have small pieces of him, I have 0%. Most of us are rooting for him out of the kindness and care of our hearts, which is I think is kind of rare in poker these days. We all dream of going deep in the Main. We don’t necessarily get to have that experience ourselves. We have a lot of our best friends here and we’re having a really good time. He’s enjoying the moment and we’re staying right there with him.” Only a few players have had a sideline support system anywhere near as potent as Moroz’s, and one of them belonged to another good friend, Jesse Capps. For most of Day 6, they played at the same table, facing each other in Seat 6 and Seat 9. Capps played into Day 7 of the 2024 WSOP Main Event and experienced a few highlights on featured tables, before ultimately going out in 51st place. Capps promptly joined Moroz’s rail at that point and has been cheering him on ever since. “We’ve gone to festivals together, we hang out, we go on hikes together. He’s one he’s one of my closest friends,” said Capps. “Going deep with him was so cool, because we were we were sweating each other from the beginning. And then on Day 6, we make it to the same table. The last hand, he gets a player all in and his whole rail tries to rush to the table and security stops them, so I’m shouting out the action. When he wins, he runs to the rail, and then so do I. I was rooting for him, and honestly, probably harder than I was rooting for myself.” “When does that ever happen? When do friends get to sit together Day 6 or Day 7 of the Main Event?” said Moroz. “It’s just incredible, and when we weren’t in pots together, it’s cool to just share the space and and kind of feel through it, because there’s everyone on the rail, they have their own experience. But being at the same table, you can feel like what they’re going through and almost feel the hands as they happen.” Moroz has spent considerable time on Day 7 and Day 8 at the primary featured table, giving the audience at home a more direct sense of what that rail has been like up close. In the biggest hand he’s played thus far in the tournament, Moroz flopped a set of jacks against pocket aces and the celebrations included beer getting splashed around and people climbing on one another’s shoulders. A deeper look at that rail reveals some big-time pros, including Fish, Adam ‘Roothlus’ Levy, and a bevy of other heavy hitters, largely based out of South Florida. And as much as having good vibes and outward energy and emotional support has helped Moroz hus far, having never been in such a spot before. “He plays cash games pretty regularly, he’s played tournaments for a long time and played online a lot back in the day with us,” said Fish. “He loves the game and is surrounded by a lot of people with quite a bit of experience in the game, so he’s got a really good support system and he has been thinking through situations really well and mostly playing really good ball out there.” For Moroz, it’s been about trying to strike the balance between staying in the zone and not hearing too many voices in his head when he’s trying to stay calm under pressure. “They’ve been really amazing, being conscious of not trying to change anything up or put ideas in my head or whatever,” said Moroz. “Obviously there’s a lot of really talented people here, and they’re gonna let me just kind of play my game and then give me feedback when when I come and offer hands, which is exactly what I need. It’s been perfect. Be heard, received, get that feedback and go back to my space.” Moroz and his friends have brought an energy into the room, and whether it’s been in response to that chanting and support or the natural progression of the tournament, a few other players and their rails have stepped up their game for Day 7 and Day 8. For Moroz, acknowledging his friends after big hands and on breaks has served to keep him grounded and happy, preventing him from getting overwhelmed by the stakes at hand. And if they manage to get into the heads of his opponents at all, that’s just a cherry on top. “I feel like the rest of the room can feel them, and that’s amazing. That’s what kept my spirits up,” said Moroz. “I feel like it was drawing in all that good energy. It’s good to feel having people rooting for you.”

The 2024 World Series of Poker Main Event drew 10,112 players, making it the biggest Main Event field of all time. This grueling test of endurance has reached its apex as the final table of nine is officially set with the close of action on Day 8 Sunday night. Each of the remaining players is now guaranteed at least $1 million, with a $10,000,000 windfall and the custom WSOP Main Event bracelet awaiting the champion. The 2024 WSOP Main Event final table includes a healthy proportion of poker’s top talent and a few yet undiscovered talents, all vying for a life-changing sum when play resumes on Tuesday at 1:30 p.m. PST/4:30 p.m. EST. You know you’ll be watching, but just in case you’re jumping in now, let’s meet the nine players who all have a shot at becoming the next WSOP World Champ. Jordan Griff – 143,700,000 | 90 Big Blinds Hometown: New City, New York Currently Resides: Scottsdale, Arizona Lifetime Live Tournament Earnings: $47,192 Biggest Lifetime Cash: $18,104, 9th, 2023 WSOP Circuit Thunder Valley Other Prominent Scores: $10,464, 7th, 2019 $1,100 WPTDeepstacks New York Main Event What a difference a day can make. Jordan Griff entered Day 8 of this tournament tied for last place in chips, and on the very first hand of the day his pocket queens nearly went up in flames against a flopped set of threes. But a rivered queen set the tone for what would be a wild day at Horseshoe Las Vegas that would culminate in Griff claiming the chip lead going into the WSOP Main Event final table. “I mean, I’m a numbers guy and all I was thinking on that river is I have 4% to save my life,” said Griff. “And I’m gonna be out, or I’m gonna continue on with this dream. I wasn’t even watching it – I couldn’t, it was just painful. And then I heard the gasps, I turn around, I see the queen and it was just pure emotion. Like I couldn’t control myself. It was the biggest pot of my life.” Griff kept climbing from there as the day went on. The 30-year-old supply chain manager from Scottsdale, Arizona entered the 10-handed unofficial final table comfortably in third place and went on to play the largest pot of the tournament thus far, against Joe Serock, in which Griff flopped a set and rivered quad fives to overtake Serock’s flopped straight. Griff, whose previous best cash was for just over $18,000 last year, is a cash game player by trade. He has now locked down at least $1 million with a chance at 10 times that prize if the next two days of this tournament go right. End of Day Chip Counts: Day 1: 98,600 (2,018/6,966) Day 2: 229,000 (873/3,617) Day 3: 615,000 (288/1,524) Day 4: 1,015,000 (255/464) Day 5: 3,035,000 (93/160) Day 6: 8,725,000 (33/59) Day 7: 8,300,000 (T-17/18) Brian Kim – 94,600,000 | 59 Big Blinds Hometown: Diamond Bar, California Currently Resides: Sydney, Australia Lifetime Live Tournament Earnings: $7,332,360 Biggest Lifetime Cash: $954,000, 3rd, 2024 $53,000 Triton Super High Roller Jeju Other Prominent Scores: $920,000, 2nd, 2023 $50,000 Triton Cyprus Super High Roller; $609,000, 2nd, 2024 $25,000 Triton Super High Roller Budva Perhaps no one among this final nine is better suited to weather potential seven-figure swings than Brian Kim. His top four career cashes are all in Triton Super High Roller Series events, followed by a final table at WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic Season XX and a 23rd-place finish in the 2022 WSOP Main Event. Kim is one of two WSOP gold bracelet winners at this 2024 WSOP Main Event final table. One thing he didn’t have, that Kim has now locked up, is a $1 million live result. Kim strongly attributes his previous run in the WSOP Main Event as a factor in his success in 2024. “I think after the 2022 Main Event run, I started having a big interest in tournaments and I wanted to get better at them,” said Kim. “So since that tournament, actually, I’ve been doing a lot of work and yeah, I definitely think it helped me a lot today.” Kim was down to almost nothing around the dinner break on Day 5 of this tournament, and his ability to stick it out during that tough stretch has paid off in the most serious of ways. “I learned from experience that just kind of checking out when you’re under 10 big blinds is not going to do you any favors,” said Kim. “Just staying dialed in and trying to make the best possible play is going to be the best way to go. Something actually extremely lucky happened on Day 5. One person was late coming back from dinner break, and they were the big blind. So I shoved with a hand that I normally wouldn’t have, had he been there, and I doubled up. From that, I was able to take 11.4 big blinds to Day 6, got some luck and now I’m here.” End of Day Chip Counts: Day 1: 122,200 (1,134/6,966) Day 2: 172,000 (1,445/3,617) Day 3: 829,000 (134/1,524) Day 4: 1,850,000 (111/464) Day 5: 995,000 (148/160) Day 6: 9,975,000 (29/59) Day 7: 42,400,000 (9/18) Niklas Astedt – 94,200,000 | 59 Big Blinds Hometown: Partille, Sweden Currently Resides: Goteborg, Sweden Lifetime Live Tournament Earnings: $3,031,190 Biggest Lifetime Cash: $380,245, 4th, 2015 EPT Barcelona 10,300 High Roller Other Prominent Scores: $314,011, 2nd 2024 EPT Paris 25,000 High Roller; $278,226, 2nd, 2022 EPT Barcelona 10,200 Pot Limit Omaha If Niklas Astedt is not a name that immediately jumps out at you, perhaps ‘Lena900’ might ring a bell. One of the most prolific online tournament players of the last decade, Astedt has won more than $50 million online, and another $3 million in live tournaments. The 33-year-old from Sweden has one previous WSOP final table, during the 2020 GGPoker World Series of Poker Online, and now stands to make a major statement in the live poker realm at the WSOP Main Event final table. Like all eight other players at this final table, this is guaranteed to be the biggest live tournament cash of his career. In 2021, Astedt topped a poll from PocketFives (now StakeKings) that declared him the best online poker player in history. End of Day Chip Counts: Day 1: 114,000 (1,386/6,966) Day 2: 219,500 (955/3,617) Day 3: 287,000 (824/1,524) Day 4: 385,000 (409/464) Day 5: 7,900,000 (9/160) Day 6: 15,800,000 (14/59) Day 7: 50,000,000 (4/18) Joe Serock – 83,600,000 | 52 Big Blinds Hometown: Albuquerque, New Mexico **Currently Resides:**San Diego, California Lifetime Live Tournament Earnings: $4,576,760 Biggest Lifetime Cash: $341,783, 2nd, 2009 WSOP $2,500 6-Handed No Limit Hold’em Other Prominent Scores: $320,400, 3rd, 2012 WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star; $306,240, 3rd, 2012 WPT Seminole Hard Rock Showdown $10,000 Championship Event Joe Serock was the beneficiary of a major windfall when he picked off Kristen Foxen’s bluff with top two-pair to eliminate her from the 2024 WSOP Main Event in 13th place. That pot put Serock into the chip lead, and while running into rivered quads against Griff chopped him down significantly, Serock had a lot of leeway and sits comfortably in fourth place when play resumes on Tuesday. When it comes to poker accolades, Serock is the most decorated player at this final table. He was the Season X WPT Player of the Year after making a pair of final tables in back-to-back months. He’s also a WSOP bracelet winner, having won an online Pot Limit Omaha bracelet in 2023, and Serock also set a previous career best with a 5th place finish in the 2021 WSOP Online $5,000 Main Event for over $800,000. Known as ‘floes’ from his pre-Black Friday online poker exploits, he has more than $2.3 million in major online tournament results excluding his modern WSOP results. End of Day Chip Counts: Day 1: 192,600 (182/6,966) Day 2: 202,500 (1,112/3,617) Day 3: 343,000 (707/1,524) Day 4: 2,670,000 (37/464) Day 5: 4,855,000 (50/160) Day 6: 13,175,000 (20/59) Day 7: 46,300,000 (6/18) Jason Sagle – 67,300,000 | 42 Big Blinds Currently Resides: Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada Lifetime Live Tournament Earnings: $1,685,165 Biggest Lifetime Cash: $600,455, 2nd, 2006 WPT North American Poker Championship Other Prominent Scores: $155,599, 1st, 2015 $1,100 Fallsview Poker Classic; $120,000, 23rd, 2004 WSOP Main Event Remarkably, Brian Kim isn’t the only player at the 2024 WSOP Main Event final table to have finished 23rd in a previous instance of the WSOP Main Event. In 2004, the year that Greg Raymer won $5 million, Jason Sagle finished 23rd for $120,000. Two years later, Sagle had a WPT title within his reach when he got heads-up against Soren Turkewitsch in his hometown of Niagara Falls. He got all in preflop with against Turkewitsch’s and a chance to win the tournament, but it was not to be for Sagle on that day. That $600,455 for second place represented Sagle’s best career tournament result to date until locking up $1 million+ in this 2024 WSOP Main Event. End of Day Chip Counts: Day 1: 139,700 (731/6,966) Day 2: 251,000 (701/3,617) Day 3: 357,000 (671/1,524) Day 4: 1,180,000 (230/464) Day 5: 2,610,000 (107/160) Day 6: 17,350,000 (9/59) Day 7: 51,400,000 (3/18) Boris Angelov – 52,900,000 | 33 Big Blinds Hometown: Sofia, Bulgaria Lifetime Live Tournament Earnings: $903,109 Biggest Lifetime Cash: $663,565, 2nd, 2024 EPT Monte Carlo Main Event Other Prominent Scores: $34,869, 40th, 2021 WSOP Europe Main Event Boris Angelov started Day 8 of the 2024 WSOP Main Event tied with Jordan Griff for last place in the chip counts, and just like Griff, Angelov doubled up early in the day and spun his way up to a $1 million guarantee and a chance at the WSOP Main Event title. It’s been a fight for Angelov since Day 1 of this tournament, when he bagged less than a starting stack at the end of the night, and fewer chips at the end of Day 6 than he ended Day 5 with. Angelov has shown himself capable of making a push for a major title already this year. Back in April, Angelov outlasted a final table that also featured Rania Nasreddine and Jonathan Pastore to get heads-up with Derk Van Lujik, before falling in second place for $663,565. On Tuesday, Angelov gets an even bigger opportunity to push for a life-changing title and prize. End of Day Chip Counts: Day 1: 52,500 (4,716/6,966) Day 2: 218,500 (967/3,617) Day 3: 349,000 (694/1,524) Day 4: 2,380,000 (58/464) Day 5: 4,850,000 (51/160) Day 6: 4,475,000 (46/59) Day 7: 8,300,000 (T-17/18) Jonathan Tamayo – 26,700,000 | 17 Big Blinds Hometown: Humble, Texas Lifetime Live Tournament Earnings: $2,301,219 Biggest Lifetime Cash: $352,832, 21st, 2009 WSOP Main Event Other Prominent Scores: $237,935 – 1st, 2021 $1,100 Wynn Summer Classic; $206,020, 1st, 2013 WSOP Circuit West Palm Beach Main Event Jonathan Tamayo has the best previous WSOP Main Event finish of any player among this year’s final nine, but only by a hair. His 21st-place finish in the 2009 WSOP Main Event was worth over $350,000 and stood for 15 years as his career-best – until now. After making such a run previously, and then reducing his volume of tournaments for a long stretch, making it to a WSOP Main Event final table seemed an impossibility. “It never was a possibility in my mind, and then it didn’t feel real this year until the start of Day 7, when I had a lot of chips,” said Tamayo. “From there, the chances I’d make the final table are a whole hell of a lot better than they are when you start the tournament; even if it isn’t a big number, anyone would definitely take it.” Tamayo has fallen just short of a $1 million prize on a few occasions in his Daily Fantasy Sports career, but now he’s locked it down in the poker world. Like several others at this final table, Tamayo got his start in the online tournament poker streets. He also helped prepare 2015 WSOP Main Event champion Joe McKeehen ahead of his final table, and McKeehen will be in his corner this time around. He’ll be among the shorter stacks when play resumes on Tuesday, but Tamayo is well aware of how incredible a position he’s in. “It’s not ideal, but everyone would take my position. That’s what I’ll say about that.” End of Day Chip Counts: Day 1: 105,300 (1,723/6,966) Day 2: 272,500 (561/3,617) Day 3: 823,000 (141/1,524) Day 4: 455,000 (387/464) Day 5: 5,430,000 (37/160) Day 6: 13,300,000 (19/59) Day 7: 18,400,000 (14/18) Malo Latinois – 25,500,000 | 16 Big Blinds Hometown: Paris, France Lifetime Live Tournament Earnings: $96,515 Biggest Lifetime Cash: $52,951, 16th, 2023 EPT Paris Main Event Other Prominent Score: $15,608, 3rd, 2022 300 Winamax Poker Open Monster Stack Malo Latinois was flying high from Day 2 of the 2024 WSOP Main Event all the way through the start of Day 8. He was among the chip leaders at the end of each of those days, culminating in the outright top stack at the close of Day 7. But Sunday was a struggle throughout, and Latinois had to battle all day just to hold on for one of the final nine spots. He doubled Angelov up early in the day, kept hemorrhaging chips in tough spots and then hit a low point when he doubled up fellow French player Malcolm Franchi. A double-up with a flopped flush against a flopped set sustained Latinois enough to let him grind his way through to Tuesday’s final table, where he’ll start in eighth place. The $1 million he’s guaranteed at this point is more than 10 times Latinois’ previous total career live tournament earnings. End of Day Chip Counts: Day 1: 70,800 (3,495/6,966) Day 2: 424,500 (101/3,617) Day 3: 1,132,000 (47/1,524) Day 4: 4,130,000 (6/464) Day 5: 6,115,000 (26/160) Day 6: 22,375,000 (3/59) Day 7: 61,300,000 (1/18) Andres Gonzalez – 18,300,000 | 11 Big Blinds Hometown: Cartagena, Spain Lifetime Live Tournament Earnings: $294,249 Biggest Lifetime Cash: $201,518, 3rd, 2024 $1,500 WSOP Freezeout Other Prominent Scores: $21,838, 24th, 2021 WSOP $5,000 6-Handed No Limit Hold’em; $10,459, 19th, $3,000 WSOP NLHE Four of the five shortest stacks to start Day 8 of the 2024 WSOP Main Event managed to fight their way to the final table, including Andres Gonzalez. Gonzalez entered 10-handed play with less than 10 big blinds and despite multiple all-in shoves managed to chip up without ever being called. He’ll have 11 big blinds and a long way to go when play resumes on Tuesday, but the Spaniard has proven himself adept with a short stack to this point. Gonzalez got close to winning his first WSOP bracelet earlier this summer in a $1,500 No Limit Hold’em event, and his third-place finish for $201,518 represents the bulk of his career earnings prior to this WSOP Main Event. End of Day Chip Counts: Day 1: 98,800 (2,012/6,966) Day 2: 186,000 (1,290/3,617) Day 3: 428,000 (528/1,524) Day 4: 2,650,000 (39/464) Day 5: 6,225,000 (24/160) Day 6: 14,775,000 (16/59) Day 7: 14,900,000 (15/18) All stats courtesy of The Hendon Mob.

The ninth day of the 2024 World Series of Poker Main Event ended the championship dreams of six players, and with one more day to play a field that was once 10,112 players is now down to just three title hopefuls: Sweden’s Niklas Astedt, and Americans Jonathan Tamayo and Jordan Griff. Astedt, the online poker legend best known as ‘Lena900,’ will take the chip lead into Day 10 of the 2024 WSOP Main Event with 223,000,000, but in what’s almost certainly one of the closest three-handed races to close out a WSOP Main Event in history, Tamayo’s 197,000,000 and Griff’s 187,000,000 have both other players directly in the mix. Each is guaranteed $4 million, with $6 million for second place and a first-place prize of $10 million and a customized WSOP bracelet. Griff entered Day 9 as the chip leader, but Astedt surged into the chip lead on the strength of busting out two of the most experienced players at the final table – Joe Serock in 8th, and Brian Kim in 7th – in a matter of just seven hands. Astedt’s stack took a dip over the next several hours, but on the strength of eliminating Jason Sagle in fourth place to end the action on Tuesday night at Horseshoe Las Vegas – his fourth elimination of the night – Astedt will begin three-handed play with a slight advantage over his two remaining opponents. “I think things went very well, under the circumstances,” said Astedt. “I had 240 million early on when we were six- and seven-handed, I lost a few pots and ended somewhere on my top peak.” For Astedt, who has well into eight figures worth of confirmed lifetime online tournament earnings including multiple PokerStars WCOOP and SCOOP titles, the pace of playing 10 days of the Main Event has been quite slow in comparison to multi-tabling a dozen or more games at once. But there has been one significant positive – sweating out the all-ins with his friends and family crowded around him for support. “It’s among the coolest things I’ve ever done in poker, for sure.” And while Astedt has largely shied away from the poker spotlight, preferring the far more subdued environment of playing online poker at home, he feels as though he has handled the biggest stage and publicity that poker has to offer as well as ever could have expected. “It’s not my favorite thing to do, but I’m just proud that I have been able to stay composed and play my game,” said Astedt. “But today, I enjoyed it a lot. I mean, it was so much fun. I’m so happy everyone came.” Tamayo, who will begin action on Wednesday in second place, entered the night in a far different circumstance. He started in seventh place and at one point sat in last place during nine-handed play. But then Tamayo picked up his first double of the day via Griff with a superior ace holding through the runout and remained steady until the field was reduced to six. Griff had Tamayo down to the river with only six outs to hit, as his trumped Tamayo’s , but after an flop and turn, the river saved Tamayo’s tournament and sent him on a skyward trajectory up the chip counts. Then, in one of the two biggest pots of the tournament so far, Tamayo flopped a straight with while Astedt flopped a set of 10s. Tamayo check-called all in on the river to secure a double to over 100 million in chips. Astedt picked off Andres Gonzalez in sixth place in a coinflip, as his spiked an on the flop to defeat Gonzalez’s pocket jacks, and then Tamyo got into the mix once more. In the first of two eerily similar spots, Boris Angelov folded himself down to a point where he couldn’t protect his hand, and despite a strong advantage with pocket sixes against Tamayo’s , a king on the flop and turn had Angelov drawing dead going into the river. After a day in which almost all of the key pots he played went his way, Tamayo was riding high into the finale of the 2024 WSOP Main Event. “It’s a dream,” said Tamayo. “Because you can prepare all you want, you may never get to this spot. And when you get to a stage like this, you kind of look around, you take it in as like, ‘I’m at the final table of the Main Event of the World Series of Poker,’ and then it’s time to get to work. One more day of work and then I can relax a little bit after that. Whatever happens, happens.” As far as what lies ahead, Tamayo feels ready no matter what Wednesday might bring. “I’m probably fresher than I thought I’d be,” said Tamayo. “It’s three-handed in the World Series of Poker Main Event, so whomever’s at the table, let’s go. I don’t care.” Finally, there’s Griff. He entered Day 9 with the chip lead, and despite scoring the first knockout of the day saw quite a few all-ins go against him on Tuesday. He still managed to win enough pot and apply enough pressure to keep himself firmly in contention in a three-way race. “It’s been a long nine days,” said Griff. “I can’t believe I’m saying I’m going into Day 10. But I’m going to try and get well rested and come in fresh tomorrow. I made some great pay jumps, I’m down to three people and I increased my chip stack. That’s everything I ever wanted.”

Fourteen years ago, Jonathan Tamayo met Joe McKeehen at Turning Stone Casino, a location that’s proved a vital forging ground for some of the greatest poker players in the world over the last two decades. Little could they have known upon that first meeting that both individually would go on to enter poker’s brightest spotlight as a World Series of Poker Main Event champion – McKeehen in 2015, and Tamayo joining him by securing the 2024 WSOP Main Event title on Wednesday night at Horseshoe Las Vegas. It was a friendship that saw McKeehen and Tamayo as roommates for every WSOP since 2012, sharing a rental car as they played a full slate of tournaments. “I’m 33. Every year since I turned 21, we’ve roomed together in some capacity, maybe with a couple other people, a couple years by ourselves,” said McKeehen. “But we’ve always been together, just spent years and infinite car rides back and forth, talking about poker, talking about life, and talking about how to navigate the beast that is the World Series.” On Wednesday, Tamayo survived a wild rollercoaster of a final day that saw both he and Jordan Griff at risk multiple times during their heads-up battle. After trading the lead multiple times, Tamayo jumped out in front one final time and, holding 8-3 on a 9-8-3 board, managed to hold off Griff’s 9-x on the final hand to secure the oversized WSOP gold bracelet and the $10 million first-place prize. Tamayo, Griff, and Niklas Astedt started Day 10 of the 2024 WSOP Main Event with virtually even stacks and a lot of depth compared to the blinds. From hand one, Griff and Astedt battled and kicked off a chain of events in which big pots became the norm. McKeehen spent the entirety of the final table over the last two days sitting on Tamayo’s rail, as part of a support system that helped push Tamayo over the finish line. Having McKeehen and Dominik Nitsche running through scenarios over the last few days put Tamayo in just the right spot and frame of mind to be prepared for those kinds of fireworks. “That was one of the scenarios that was discussed overnight, what could happen,” said Tamayo. “And we had a game plan for that, if it ended up with them wanting to go to war. It was kind of sit back, watch it happen, and then once your heads up deal with the problem.” That’s exactly how it played out, with Astedt calling off his tournament with top pair and a gutshot straight against Griff’s flopped set of nines and failing to get there. That set up a heads-up match between Tamayo and Griff with Griff holding a tremendous chip advantage to start. Tamayo was ready when the pots got big right away. He called Griff down with one pair of aces, and then the battle really began. Each player won a key coinflip to continue their tournament run, and the best hand held during each and every heads-up collision through the very end of the tournament. Tamayo had his highs and lows, but he was prepared for the moment. From McKeehen’s perspective on the rail, the attention Tamayo and his assembled team on the rail paid was commensurate to the moment at hand. “One thing I noticed on the final table is it felt like a lot of people didn’t have a support system to tell them like in the middle of the game, how maybe they should adjust their play,” said McKeehen. “During the final table, Jonathan was the only one in the middle of hands getting up from his seat, coming to talk to us, and we’re giving him a lot of additional information that he could use to do what he did. “I think the game plan that we ended up formulating works very well,” said McKeehen. “The assumptions we made based on our film study worked very well and we kind of just put it all into play.” Beyond the technical side of things, McKeehen and Tamayo’s assembled rail of friends and family each took a level of responsibility for keeping Tamayo level-headed. BJ Craig, the friend who first introduced Tamayo and McKeehen on that fateful day at Turning Stone, became a willing punching bag and provider of humor and levity throughout the run. “Being friends with John for 12 years, I know some of his emotional tendencies – what gets him going and what doesn’t,” said McKeehen. “This morning, I was just trying to make him laugh a lot when we weren’t doing when we weren’t doing a lot of studying. I didn’t want him to get in his head or anything. “I think he was ready to go business-wise, I think the balance we had between study and fun worked out well,” said McKeehen. “BJ, he’s John’s emotional support animal and we made sure to fly him out for this. And when you have a human emotional support animal, the jokes do come pretty easily.” The results speak for themselves. Tamayo’s WSOP Main Event winner’s banner will be up on the wall next year, about 10 spots down from McKeehen’s. Tamayo was all smiles in his post-victory interview and relished in the fact that he and McKeehen could now team up against the rest of their friends as fellow champions. “We have a circle of friends that have two Main Event winners now, which you would never, ever think,” said Tamayo. “It’s gonna be kind of fun that we can both make fun of all of our friends at the same time.” Even when McKeehen is dropping jokes, though, he drops knowledge laced into it. He, Tamayo, and every player in the 10,112-entry field for the 2024 WSOP Main Event knew the impossibility of winning this tournament at the outset, and yet every moment in Tamayo’s career and friendship with McKeehen put Tamayo in just the right mindset to make a victory possible. “Joe McKeehen told me that this tournament is impossible to win,” said Tamayo. “And then when the field size is bigger, you feel like it’s even more impossible to win. But you just sit down Day 1 and think ‘Eventually, I’m going to bust this tournament. It’s not going to be pretty, I’m not going to feel great. And I’m going to go on with my life.’ And you can mentally prepare yourself for it. “And I just can’t believe I did not bust the Main Event.”