WSOP 2023 Day 15 Recap: Ben Lamb Wins Second Bracelet as Seidel Falls Short, Shaun Deeb Scoops Number Six

A huge day took place at the World Series of Poker on Day 15, with Ben Lamb, Shaun Deeb and Renji Mao all took gold WSOP bracelets at the Horseshoe Las Vegas and Paris casinos.  With a total of nine events in action, it was the busiest day of the 54^th annual WSOP So far this summer.

Shaun Deeb Makes it Six in Eight Game Mix

Shaun Deeb won his sixth WSOP bracelet in Event #27, the $1,500-entry Eight Game Mix, winning a top prize of $198,854 as he toppled Aloisio Dourado from Brazil heads-up. In the final six, Deeb swung this way and that in terms of chips, but never felt out of it, and after Daniel Strelitz busted in fifth place, it seemed inevitable that Deeb would end up battling for the bracelet.

Heads-up, Deeb trailed led again and eventually saw it out with what he considered a fortunate winning hand.

“There’s a ton of variance in these tournaments,” he told PokerNews after the event. “Anything can happen. You can lose a flip. Obviously, the winning hand I got super lucky. I beat a pair of queens with king-ten in a spot where he would only call off if it came ten-ten. I was going to lose a big pot a lot of the time there.”

Deeb, however, made luck count for him, and not for the first time this WSOP, put himself in the ideal position, where he was cheered on by fellow multiple bracelet winner Josh Arieh on the rail who gave him a pep talk when he was down to two. Deeb mentioned that his heads-up opponent wanted to face him, but Arieh was unrepentant. “Then he got his wish,” he declared. “Let’s go!”

Go Deeb most assuredly did, winning out to claim his sixth bracelet and draw level with players such as his former nemesis and now friend, Daniel Negreanu.

Ben Lamb Wins the World in Omaha Hi-Lo Championship

Ben Lamb proved he has the chops for any final table situation as he saw out a tough last day to reign supreme in the $10,000-entry Omaha Hi-Lo Championship. The popular former WSOP Main Event final table player won his first WSOP bracelet 12 years ago but now has two of them thanks to a dogged display in Event #28.

Beating James Chen heads-up for the gold, Lamb was quick to tease John ‘World’ Hennigan, who joked about then withdrew his offer of a swap when he and Lamb has the same stacks back on Day 2. It is ironic in the extreme that Lamb won the event for half a million while Hennigan failed to make the final table.

In the midst of Lamb’s success, it was easy to ignore just how close Erik Seidel came to winning a 10^th WSOP bracelet. Seidel was hoping to draw level with WSOP legends Johnny Chan, Phil Ivey and the late, great Doyle Brunson, but fell in fourth place for an impressive yet anti-climactic finish worth $150,445.

Mao Sees Off Elsby in Reschedule Finale

The $800-entry Event #26 concluded a day late after a heads-up battle that looked to be tilted the other way eventually led to Renji Mao bagging his first WSOP bracelet. When play resumed, Mao, who hails from China, was behind around 2:1 in chips, but a fortuitous double up came when his aggression yielded results.

All-in with king-six of clubs, he looked to be doomed against Matthew Elsby’s ace-queen when the flop paired both of the American’s cards. There were two clubs as well, however, and another arrived on the river to give Mao the lead. He never looked back, eventually winning with ace-eight against Elsby’s king-four when the Chinese player’s high card counted.

Arends Goes for Glory Again

The $100,000 High Roller final table has a very familiar name on it for fans of previous high rollers this World Series. Dutchman Jans Arends came into the final day of the $50,000 high roller behind only Alex Foxen, hoping to go one place higher and hold on for the bracelet and $1.5m. That dream died when the Dutch player cashed out in third as Leon Strum steamrollered all of his final four opponents to win his first-ever bracelet.  

Arends, however, has the outright chip lead this time out. With a stack of 16,625,000, winning the bracelet should be easy for here, tight? Wrong. The final table, which will play out live for PokerGO subscribers, features five opponents who will be more than capable of denying the talented Dutch player. Arends is followed in the counts by an all-time great in Cary Katz (12,775,000), who is yet to win a bracelet despite being in the top 20 tournament players of all-time.

Behind him, there is a bit of a gap, but Chinese player Biao Ding (8.8m), Day 1 chip leader and four-time bracelet winner Adrian Mateos (7,175,000), high roller legend and five-time winner Jeremy Ausmus (5.75m) and triple bracelet winner Chance Kornuth (4.6m) will all pose a huge challenge to the crown on the final day.

The Brits are Coming in Event #28

Matthew Hunt, also known as ‘Mental Health Matt’ showed that he had his head screwed on correctly on Day 2 of the 28^th WSOP 2023 event. Hunt built a superb lead with 9.38 million chips going into the final day of the $800 NLHE Freezeout event, with his nearest challenger Ben Ector on 5.69 million.

While stars such as Dean Hutchinson (4m) and dangerous German player Dietrich Fast (2.6m) both remain in pursuit, Hunt will be hoping to at least reach the podium places in an event that said goodbye to Ryan Laplante, Johnnie Moreno, Mustapha Kanit, Ryan Leng, Upeshka De Silva and the Day 1 chip leader Hao Zhou on Day 2.

Other Events to Take Place on Day 15

There were four other events taking place on a packed Day 15 of action in this year’s World Series of Poker. In Event #30, Benny Glaser led the remaining 18 players from the 166 who started Day 2 of this event which has a top prize of $145,863.

In Event #31, the $600-entry NLHE/PLO Mix saw Troy Nowlin top of the leaderboard after Day 1, with 2,758 entries whittled down to just 122 survivors. Other stars on the day included Barny Boatman, who piled up 900,000 chips on his way to surviving to the next day comfortably in the upper 25% of players. Boatman, who is shooting for a third WSOP bracelet, would be an ever-popular winner if he can ride out the bumps in the road on his way to another victory.

In Event #32, Chis Hunichen (2.4m) built an impressive lead in the $3,000-entry 6-Max event that also saw strong performances from Roman Hrabec (1.5m), Maria Ho (860,000) and Alex Foxen (750,000), who all finished in the top half of a Day 1 field that trimmed 1241 to just 55 players.

Finally, Event #33 saw 102 entries in the Razz Championship, which costs $10,000 to play. Of the field, only 54 remain, with mixed games specialist Adam Owen (252,000) in fourth place behind the Day 1 pacesetter Roy Thung (303,000).

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