WSOP 2024 Day 16 Recap: Two First-Timers Win Bracelets, Phil Ivey and Jason Mercier Challenging for World Series Gold

The 16th day of action in the 2024 WSOP saw two new bracelet winners crowned champions in Las Vegas. In Event #29, Phil Ivey and Jason Mercier only have each other and Danny Wong standing between them and victory, while there were five other events in play at the Horseshoe and Paris casinos in Las Vegas. 

Benton Unbeatable in Freezeout Final 

Just one year after he started playing poker, Evan Benton achieved a dream some are still battling towards after decades - he became a WSOP bracelet winner. The newbie won $412,484 in Event #28 as he outlasted 2,316 opponents that included Phil 'The Poker Brat' Hellmuth on his way to becoming champion. 

At the final table, Benton got the better of Balakrishna Patur heads-up, after the exits of players such as overnight chip leader Andres Gonzalez, the Spanish player disappointed to finish third for $201,518 after such a stunning set-up to the finale. 

Others to go close included popular American poker player Nick Maimone (7th for $64,202) and Nicolas Vayssieres (9th for $38,5170 but it was Benton's day and his celebrations at the close of the action told everyone how important it was to him. 

WSOP Event #28: $1,500 NLHE Freezeout Final Table Results

Place	Player	Country	Prize
1st	Evan Benton	United States	$412,484
2nd	Balakrishna Patur	United States	$274,972
3rd	Andres Gonzalez	Spain	$201,518
4th	Haiyang Yang	China	$149,145
5th	Mukul Pahuja	United States	$111,485
6th	Guofeng Wang	China	$84,175
7th	Nick Maimone	United States	$64,202
8th	George Tomescu	Romania	$49,472
9th	Nicolas Vayssieres	France	$38,517

Bakovic Bags the Bracelet

A fast and furious final day in Event #30, the $600-entry Mixed No-Limit Hold'em and Pot-Limit Omaha Deepstack ended with another brand-new bracelet winner as Canadian Alen Bakovic beat Brian Keith Etheridge to the title and top prize of $207,064.  

With an amazing 3,351 entries this year, the bulk of a prize pool of $1,709,010 lay in front of 145 returning players on the final day, with Bakovic second-last of the final 24 players before roaring back to take the crown.

Bakovic, who told anecdotes to his tables all day, was rewarded for his good humor with good fortune as he outlasted a final table featuring Joseph Couden and Marcus Ruiz, Brian Keither Etheridge and Olegs Buiko making the final three players.

Heads up saw both Etheridge and Makovic hold the lead on numerous occasions but Bakovich ended with all the chips and was beaming from ear to ear as he took hold of his first-ever WSOP bracelet. 

WSOP Event #30: $600 Mixed Deepstack NLHE/PLO Results

Place	Player	Country	Prize
1st	Alen Bakovic	Canada	$207,064
2nd	Brian Keith Etheridge	United States	$138,051
3rd	Olegs Buiko	United States	$101,682
4th	Sergio Benso	Sergio Benso	$75,518
5th	Quan Tran	United States	$56,557
6th	Marcus Ruiz	United States	$42,715
7th	Joseph Couden	United States	$32,537
8th	Daniel Goldberg	United States	$24,997
9th	Jianqiang Yu	China	$19,371

Ivey and Mercier Close to Glory in Limit Championship

After over 12 hours of play, just three players remained from a starting field if 149 players after Day 2 of the $10,000 Limit 2-7 Triple Draw Championship in Event #29. Danny Wong (3,730,000) has the chip lead, but with Jason Mercier (2,955,000) and Phil Ivey (2,260,000) the two men who are trying to prevent him winning, anything is possible tomorrow from 4pm local time. 

With Phil Hellmuth on 17 bracelets, a win for Ivey would take him onto 11, clear of 10-time winners Johnny Chan, the late Doyle Brunson, and Erik Seidel. Wong would move onto two WSOP titles and if the returning Floridian Mercier was to win, it would take him onto seven WSOP victories, drawing him level with John Hennigan, Men Nguyen and Billy Baxter, with only Hennigan still active. 

Players such as Allen Kessler (10th) and Renan Bruschi (8th) fell short before the official six-handed final table began with British professionals Benny Glaser (4th) and Philip Sternheimer (6th) both departing before the close of play and the cliffhanger to end them all. 

Will it be Ivey, Mercier or Wong? We will find out tomorrow.

WSOP Event #29 $10,000 Limit 2-7 Triple Draw Championship Final Table

Place	Player	Country	Prize/Chips
1st	Danny Wong	United States	3,730,000
2nd	Jason Mercier	United States	2,955,000
3rd	Phil Ivey	United States	2,260,000
4th	Benny Glaser	United Kingdom	$104,825
5th	Jonathan Cohen	Canada	$75,015
6th	Philip Sternheimer	United Kingdom	$55,553

Coleman on Course to End Bracelet Duck in Six-Max Event 

With 61 players starting the penultimate day of action in the $3,000 6-Max NLHE  Event #31, David Coleman has put himself in the best possible position to dominate his way to a final day victory and his first WSOP bracelet. The modern poker great, who has over $5 million in live tournaments alone, leads the final six with a mammoth stack of 24.3 million chips, as he bids to win the top prize of $516,135 and the all-important bracelet. 

On the penultimate day, 2024 WSOP Heads-Up Championship runner-up Faraz Jaka, Ian Steinman, Alex Foxen, Joseph Cheong, and the Season 1 Game of Gold champion Maria Ho all busted, with Ho losing a big flip with jacks against ace-king to again fall short of her own first WSOP title.

WSOP Event #31 $3,000 6-Max NLHE Final Table Chip Counts

Place	Player	Country	Chips
1st	David Coleman	United States	24,300,000
2nd	Konstantyn Holsky	Ukraine	7,800,000
3rd	Nicholas Seward	United States	7,775,000
4th	Nikolaos Angelou	Greece	3,800,000
5th	Stephen Buell	United States	3,200,000
6th	Akinobu Maeda	Japan	2,300,000

Noori Nears Top Prize in Seven Card Stud 

Event #32 reached its final day as the $1,500-entry Seven Card Stud action saw nine survive to the last table of the event, headed by Michael Noori (2.31 million) Adam Owen (2.19m) and Richard Ashby (1.75m). With WSOP legends Brandon Shack-Harris (610,000) and Hal Rotholz (510,000) both still in their fighting, the race to the $113,725 top prize is on.

WSOP Event #31 $3,000 6-Max NLHE Final Table Chip Counts

Place	Player	Country	Chips
1st	Michael Noori	United States	2,310,000
2nd	Adam Owen	United Kingdom	2,190,000
3rd	Richard Ashby	United Kingdom	1,750,000
4th	Jaycin Cross	United States	625,000
5th	Brandon Shack-Harris	United States	610,000
6th	Hal Rotholz	United States	510,000
7th	Chris Tryba	United States	320,000
8th	Aaron Kupin	United States	255,000
9th	Mengqi Chen	United States	162,000

Three Bracelet Events Begin on Day 16

Three other events began Day 1 flights on Wednesday as bumper fields continued in the 2024 World Series of Poker. In Event #33, the $600 PLO 8-Max Deepstack, 2,402 entrants were reduced to 361 players in the money places with just 95 making Day 2, including chip leader Natalio Pereira (2.24m) Maxx Coleman (1,810,000), David Mzareulov (1,350,000), Lee Markholt (850,000), Adam Levy (320,000), Nipun Java (220,000) and Michael Wang (170,000). 

In Event 34, the $2,500-entry NLHE Freezeout event, 18 levels of action, reduced a total field of 1,267 entries to just 192 players, with everyone remaining in the money. Joshua Wang (1,086,000) has the chip lead but poker stars such as Boris Angelov (750,000), Kristen Foxen (739,000) and Josh Arieh (710,000) will all be hoping that their experience takes them to Day 3 and the final showdown for the gold.

Finally, Event #35 ended after a mammoth opening day at the felt. Daniel Mayoh led the $1,500-entry H.O.R.S.E. field by a nose with 309,000, just a photo finish ahead of the wonderfully-named Bryan Jolly (307,000), with crushers David Bach (291,000) and Calvin Anderson (257,500) rounding out the top four and Scott Clements (217,000) inside the top 10. 

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