WSOP 2024 Day 36 Recap: David Eldridge Triumphs as Brian Rast Falls Just Short, Two More Bracelets Won

David Eldridge Beats Brian Rast to PLO Gold 

The final day of action in Event #73 saw five players return to the felt and just one remain at the end as David Eldridge won his second WSOP bracelet and a huge top prize of over $2.2 million in the $25,000 Pot Limit Omaha High Roller event. On a dramatic day of action, five men returned to play down to a winner and were topped by the impressive Eldridge. 

After eliminations for Finnish star Juha Helppi in fifth place, Chinese player Yang Wang in fourth and Ethan Cahn in third, the Poker Hall of Famer Brian Rast went into heads-up with a better than 4:1 chip lead as he hoped to end the 476-entry event with the gold.

However, he was unable to see it through as top set against bottom set for Eldridge flipped the script and the player known as ‘Diamond Dave’ raced into a huge lead before making trips on the river to seal victory, winning the World Series of Poker bracelet and the $2,246,728 top prize. Read all about it in our full recap here. 

WSOP Event #73: $25,000 Pot Limit Omaha High Roller Final Table Results

Alcaide Wins Colossus for $500,000

Bulgarian player Martin Alcaide took down the $400 buy-in Colossus as Event #70 for a $501,250 top prize after beating Yujian Zhou heads-up. After players such as Nicholas Richard and Trevor Brown busted early, Caleb Powell lost his stack in the next level, when his short stack shove with ace-seven ran into Ricky Andino's jack-eight and a board of Q-J-5-6-8 gave the latter two pair. 

Bohdan Slyvinskyi lost out in fourth place for $111,740 when his pocket queens lost to Joel Vanetten’s ace-king, before Brooks Floyd lost with ace-nine suited against Zhou's pocket kings. Two hands that were never revealed at showdown saw the Bulgarian Alcaide take over 75% of the chips heads-up and when he shoved with pocket sevens, Zhou galled off his stack with pocket fives. A clear board for the Bulgarian gave him victory and over $501,000, the biggest win of his whole career.

WSOP Event #70: $400 Colossus Final Table Results

Two Remain in Seven Card Stud

Just two players remain in the $10,000-entry Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo Championship, otherwise known as Event #74, with just Richard Sklar (5,530,000) and Arash Ghaneian (4,495,000) down to the final two. A huge battle for the bracelet is going to happen tomorrow with the stacks almost level, but before that happens, both will need to recover from a stunning penultimate day at the felt. 

With eight reaching the final table, Michael Rocco left in 8th place for $38,589 as the American high roller reached the latter stages in yet another event this summer. Andrey Zhigalov from Russia and Italian player Dario Alioto both busted before Eric Wasserson made his way from the felt in fifth place for $88,686. 

Out in fourth place was the Poker Hall of Famer Todd Brunson, who came close to winning his second bracelet, cashing for $122,663 before the Canadian player Thomas Taylor departed in third for $173,533.

Heads-up had no chance to play out, and with Sklar and Ghaneian coming back tomorrow to play for either a runner-up place of $250,984 or the title-winning top prize of $376,476, the WSOP bracelet will be won in 24 hours time. 

WSOP Event #74: $10,000 Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo Championship

Tag Team Event Down to 22 Players

Event# 75, the $1,000-entry Tag Team No-Limit Hold’em event ended its third day of competition with 22 teams in contention for the joint prize of $190,910 and two gold WSOP bracelets. With 292 teams starting Day 2, the money bubble burst as the $1,264,560 prizepool began being distributed between the players. 

Top of the shop at the close of play were Team Perez (Joan Perez & Javier Rodriguez) with 3,730,000 chips, as Team Hopkins (Joshua Hopkins & Charles Honkonen) ended marginally behind on 3,305,000 chips, with Team Hall (Sheraton Hall & Malcolm Trayner) some way back in third place on 2,545,000.

Experienced poker players remain all over the leaderboard, with Marcos Exterkotter & Henry Fischer (1,440,000) and Jason Wheeler & Anthony Nardi (1,150,000) still involved with a thrilling final day on the horizon. 

Mystery Bounty Event Down to Nine as Navas Leads 

Brazilian player Tauan Naves leads the final nine into play in the $10,000-entry Mystery Bounty Event finale. Event #76 saw the Brazilian Naves pile up 16.3 million, with Damarjai Davenport (10m) second in chips. Matthew Lambrecht (9.9m) sits in third, with Vladimir Minko (7.47m), William Jia (2.12m) and Robert Heidorn (1.97m) also still in their fighting for the $1,018,933 top prize... and the WSOP bracelet. 

WSOP Event #76: $10,000 Mystery Bounty Final Day Chip Counts

Three Other Events Play Out 

The other three events that took place on Day 36 were at varying stages as thousands of players battled to reach the next day in thrilling style. In Event #77, the $2,500 Big Bet Mix crowd came down to 71 at the start of the penultimate day players from 468 total entrants as a prizepool of over a million dollars will see a winner claim the top prize of $209,942. Ahead with just 19 remaining is Wing Liu, who sits with 2,387,000 chips, marginally more than Alex Foxen (2,243,000), as others such as Chris Klodnicki (1,053,000) and Andy Black (756,000) chase gold. 

In Event #79,the $50,000 High Roller Pot-Limit Omaha, 133 entries were led by Jason Mercier at the end of Day 1 with 1,575,000 chips. Jared Bleznick (1,470,000) and Santhosh Suvarna (1,360,000) made the top three stacks, with Michael Moncek (1,290,000), Bryce Yockey (1,135,000), David Benyamine (980,000), Jim Collopy (800,000), Richard Gryko (720,000), Noah Schwartz (705,000) and Isaac Haxton (665,000) all surviving to Day 2 with decent stacks. 

Finally, Event #78 was the final event to close as the $1,000 Mini Main Event welcomed 6,093 players with a prizepool of $5.3m on the line. A total of 486 players made it to Day 2 with Indian player Paawan Bansal bagging up 2,825,000.

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