WSOP 2024 Day 26 Recap: Adrian Mateos Leads Super High Roller with 14 Remaining, Phil Ivey Still Strong as Phil Hellmuth Narrowly Misses Out

A thrilling day of action took place in the World Series of Poker as the 2024 Series continued apace, with nine events in progress, a legendary blow-up and a stacked field of survivors - and victims - in the $250,000-entry Super High Roller. 

Khang Pham Wins Seniors Championship for First Bracelet 

American player Khang Pham won his first-ever WSOP bracelet in the $1,000 Seniors Championship for a top score of $677,326. Beating Marc Wolpert heads-up, Pham was at his first final table at the WSOP too and credited his friends' belief in him for getting the win.

The fourth and final day of action began with 26 players as Pham survived a tumultuous Day 3 with a miraculous escape from elimination and did similar today, winning with ace-four against ace-eight for a big pot. With the last WSOP bracelet winner Mark Seif exiting in 12th place, Pham made the heads-up against Wolpert almost level in chips and when he moved ahead due to having a better kicker with both men flopping trips, the writing was on the wall.

Top pair survived against Wolpert's open-ended straight draw and Pham had his first-ever WSOP bracelet and a top prize of $677,326 after surviving so many times in a field of 7,954 entrants.

WSOP Event #46: $1,000 Seniors Championship Final Table Results

Haidary On Top after Kruse Control Crashes 

A fourth and final day wil be needed in the $5,000-entry 6-Max NLHE Event #52, where Australian player Mostafa Haidary (15,375,000) holds the chip lead going into the final day's play. 

With Bulgarian Krasimir Yankov (12,825,000) Germany’s Bernd Gleissner (8,575,000) and American Brandon Schwartz (4,300,000) all still in contention, the battle to win the bracelet and $656,747 will be an intense one after a massive penultimate day of action. 

The German soccer professional-turned-poker-star Max Kruse crashed out in seventh for $115,823. The dramatic three-way all-in saw Kruse's pocket fours lose to Yankov's pocket aces, as Matthew McEwen's pocket queens also saw him take a fatal hit to his stack. 

An exit for Pedro Madeira in fifth place for $195,573 saw play halted for the day, as four men remained in the hunt for the WSOP bracelet. 

WSOP Event #52: $5,000 6-Max No Limit Hold'em Final Table Chip Counts/Results

Phil Hellmuth's Inner Poker Brat Explodes After Late Run Ends in Exit

A thrilling day of action in the Super Turbo Bounty Event #57 saw Phil Hellmuth go so close to another final table and a shot at his 18th bracelet, only for him to miss out and explode with rage at the manner of his departure. Hellmuth also went out in a three-way all-in as the Poker Brat had the best of it when he got his chips in on a A-Q-6 flop with two diamonds. holding queen-five against the diamond draw for Ludo Geilich, the Scottish play rivered the flush to take out the Brat and he let his opponent have it with both barrels. 

“The same ****ing guy from Scotland, every time! F***ing idiot, 10-high, what the f***?” Hellmuth cursed, leaving the arena. With 486 entries, the event will award a huge top prize of $612,997 which is still being chased by Geilich, but the British player is the short stack at the final table with German Oliver Weis (6.5m), Belarussian Aliaksei Boika (5.36m) and French poker professional Antoine Saout (4.28m) in podium places. Only Frank Funaro (2.67m) and Japanese player Shota Nakanishi (2,100,000) have ever won a WSOP bracelet before. 

WSOP Event #57: $10,000 Super Turbo Bounty Final Table Chip Counts

Super High Roller Sees Kid Poker Bust Twice 

The second day of action in the $250,000 Super High Roller Event #55 saw just 14 players remain from a field of 75 at the close of play. Day 3 will begin with a bubble battle, as only 12 players are paid, with Spanish pro Adrian Mateos chief amongst them with 16.25 million chips. The top prize of $5,415,152 is also firmly in the sights of Santhosh Suvarna (14,950,000) and Taylor von Kriegenbergh (12,050,000), while Sean Winter (9,725,000), Matthias Eibinger (8,600,000), Jonathan Jaffe (8,075,000) and Ben Tollerene (7,375,000) all starred too.

A little further back, Chris ‘Big Huni’ Hunichen (6.4m), Phil Ivey (5.65m) and Jeremy Ausmus (5.3m) will all be hoping to make Day 3 their own, while others missed out entirely on a Day 3 stack. Defending champion Chris Brewer departed, as did the 2022 champion Alex Foxen. Daniel ‘Kid Poker’ Negreanu lost two bullets when his pocket jacks lost to Seth Gottlieb’s suited ace-ten, while others such as Nick Schulman, Isaac Haxton, Stephen Chidwick, Danny Tang, Nick Petrangelo, Andrew ‘Chewy’ Lichtenberger and Espen Jorstad will all be wondering what might have been.

WSOP Event #55: $250,000 Super High Roller Day 2 Chip Counts

Yuri Dzivielevski Wins Fourth WSOP Bracelet 

Brazilian poker crusher and online star Yuri Dzivielevski won his fourth WSOP bracelet in five years for $215,982 when he conquered Event #53, the $3,000-entry Nine Game Mix 7-Max event saw Richard Ashby (9th for $18,284), Tomasz Gluszko (5th for $46,094) and Scott Bohlman, (4th for $65,654) all depart before Dzivielevski beat Nicholas Julia heads-up for the gold. 

WSOP Event #53: $3,000 Nine-Game Mix Final Table Results

Two More Events Continue in Las Vegas

Finally, two other events concluded for the day in Las Vegas, as Patrick Moulder (1,820,000), Shaun Deeb (1,270,000) and Chad Eveslage (1,030,000) all put themselves in contention for the $177,045 top prize and the bracelet in Event #56, the $2,500 Mixed Triple Draw event, with 15 players remaining from the 371 entries in this event.

Finally, Day 1b of the $1,500 Millionaire Maker kicked off with over 6,500 players battling down to only 1,400 survivors, as players such as Barry Hamilton (940,000), and the former WSOP bracelet winners (Rafael Reis (145,800) and Christian Roberts (134,500) all survived to Day 2. 

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