WSOP 2023 Day 48 Recap: Home is the Hero! Three Stateside Players Guarantee American Main Event Winner

It was a day for all American poker supporters to celebrate, as all three United States players to reach the final nine in the WSOP Main Event reached the promised land. The all-American trio of Steven Jones, Daniel Weinman and Adam Walton are all in with a chance of winning this year’s World Championship and the $12.1 million top prize.

With action in five other bracelet events, the drama had PokerGO fans on the edge of their seats either watching the Main Event or inside the Horseshoe and Paris casinos in Las Vegas.

American Trio Set for Main Event Showdown

Three American players reached the last shootout for the title of world champion on the penultimate day of this year’s Main Event. After a thrilling night’s action, the final table kicked off with nine and was left only with home country heroes as America celebrated knowing that they will have their first Stateside champion since 2018.

The nine-handed final got underway with British poker legend Toby Lewis in the hot seat, sitting with the short stack. The Hampshire man wasted no time in going on the attack, however, and chipped up at the expense of the more nervous players who began the action. The first elimination came when the Italian apple tree farmer Daniel Holzner, whose family gifted him a Main Event seat, won $900,000 when his ace-jack couldn’t hit against Steven Jones’ pocket tens.

Jones and his pocket tens were to become something of a theme. Toby Lewis took out Juan Maceiras in eighth place for $1.1m but soon after shoved all-in with king-jack over Jones’ opening bet. The American pondered but eventually called and showed pocket tens. Lewis could find no paint and slid out in 7^th for $1.4m.

One British player had left, and the other soon joined him. Scotland’s finest in this Main Event – and in the history of the World Championship – Dean Hutchinson, was all-in with pocket fives but ran into Jan-Peter Jachtmann’s pocket sevens and couldn’t find any help to leave with a career-high score of $1.85 million.

The Americans were largely dominating the periods without eliminations. Soon, Ukraine’s last hope in the event, Ruslan Prydryk, was on the rail. He got short and was hoping to hit with queen-ten suited, but up against Daniel Weinman’s ace-jack, the flop of A-J-2 was a nightmare.

Drawing to Broadway or running cards, the queen turn didn’t diminish his hopes, but an eight on the river confirmed his exit for $2.4 million and further rubber-stamped Weinman’s incredible rise as he took the chip lead. Just 10 eliminations ago in the event, Weinman had needed a miracle jack when all in with the ‘fishhooks’ against queens and kings. He got it, hitting his two-outer and hasn’t looked back since.

Four remained, one still needed to leave the party. Jachtmann was short from the 100^th hand of final table play, and in the 116^th hand of the night, his tournament was over. All-in with king-queen offsuit, he ran into Adam Walton’s pocket aces and a nine-high board to the turn confirmed his exit before the river card even fell.

Favorite heading into the final showdown tomorrow night must be Weinman. He has the experience, the nous and perhaps the best coaching rail in Main Event history, with Shaun Deeb and Josh Arieh an elite pair of players to have not only in your corner, but on the front line of the rail if needed. Steven Jones has the chip lead with 238 million chips, but Weinman (199m) with the experience and Walton (165.5m) with the recent pocket rockets momentum mean the World Championship could belong to any one of the three remaining stars.

All three of those stars have the stripes to win the title. Whoever wins is about to become America’s latest poker hero.

Shum Shakes up the Closer, Wins First Bracelet

Pierre Shum conquered The Closer, as he took the title in the $1,500 buy-in event, for $606,810 and his first-ever bracelet. At an entertaining final table, Amirpasha Emami was the longest-lasting non-American player as the Canadian reached fifth place for a score of $164,750. Shum was not to be denied, however, watching Peter Nigh end the hopes of Roongsak Griffeth in third place.

Going into the heads-up battle, Nigh had the chip lead with 106.5 million chips to Shum’s 70 million, but an incredible hand where Shum won with quad fours helped propel him into the lead and with a healthy 3:1 chip lead, his queen-deuce hit two queens on the flop to vault Nigh’s ace-eight and take down the title.

Four Remain in NLHE Championship

Just four players are left in the $10,000-entry NLHE Championship, with Frenchman Alexandre Reard on 18 million chips heading into the last day’s play. Only six could make the final table in this Championship event, and there was a very big elimination shortly before that point was reached. The 17-time WSOP bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth busted in ninth place as the ‘Poker Brat’ won $86,118 in ninth place when his pocket eights couldn’t hold against Eli Berg’s ace-jack, an on the flop sending Hellmuth home eight places short of his 18^th bracelet.

That achievement will have to wait, and so too will the conclusion of this event, with players coming back tomorrow to finish off the tournament and decide which of the four single bracelet winning players will win their second bracelet of their career. At the six-handed final table, Eric Wasserson busted in sixth for $155,809 when his shove with ace-six couldn’t hit against Reard’s pocket jacks.

The chip leader also took out Berg in fifth for $216,319, as the latter’s pocket fours once again ran into jacks. Reard’s dominance was outlined by those two late eliminations rather than created by them, and the French player, who has more than double any of his challengers, will be a tough man to stop in tomorrow’s final showdown. Behind him in the counts, however, Stephen Chidwick, AJ Kelsall and Justin Liberto all have the ability to captialise on any mistake.

Cold Crushers in Hunt for NLHE Freezeout Crown

Day 1A of the 92^nd WSOP event this summer saw 1,710 players battle to reach Day 2 of the $1,000 buy-in Freezeout event. In the end, just 124 of them made it, with some absolute crushers reaching the upper limits of the leaderboard.

Top of the shop after a 12-hour Day 1 fight at the felt was Ian Steinman, the American bagging up a massive 883,000 chips. Behind him, stars align as Dylan Wilkerson (691,000) and Bin Weng (611,000) both made the top five, the latter off the back of winning a WPT Main Event title just a couple of days ago.

Nakanishi and Wasserson Flying High in Short Deck Event

Event #93, the $10,000-entry Short Deck NLHE event saw a total of 84 entries, with 31 players making it through to Day 2. With Russian player Ivan Ermin in the lead on 411,000 chips, there were strong top five finishes for Nobuaki Sasaki from Japan on 378,300 chips in second place and Martin Nielsen in third on 346,800.

The 2022 winner of this event, Shota Nakanishi, re-entered to eventually come into the clubhouse fourth in chips on 336,300, with the former EPT champion and Poker Hall of Famer John Juanda on 240,900 chips.

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