
The 2024 edition of the World Series of Poker Main Event officially made poker history, becoming the largest-ever Main Event in terms of entries.
It got down to the wire, but with late registrations on the second of two Day 2 flights, the event tipped the scale and got up to 10,112, beating the last year’s record by a few dozen players.
With this, the Main Event managed to break attendance records back to back, relegating the 2006 tournament, which held the top spot for nearly two decades, to third place.
It took nearly full ten days of play to get through the massive field, but now, the 2024 WSOP Main Event is down to its final table. There are just nine players remaining, all of them guaranteed at least $1,000,000, with $10,000,000 secured for the winner.
The Biggest Final Table in Poker Is Set
After a long and grueling battle on the green felt, nine players were left standing, and they’ll be coming back tomorrow, July 16, to play down to final four. After that, the tournament will pause, and the remaining four will return on July 17 to find the 2024 champion.
Starting the day as a significant chip leader is Jordan Griff of the United States. Griff is coming back to a stack of 143,700,000, which translates to 90 big blinds – a rather comfortable position for the final table of a massive tournament.
A few players are coming back to stacks between 30 and 60 big blinds, while three contenders are in the danger zone, starting with less than 20 bigs, and they’ll be looking for an early double-up.
Player | Country | Stack |
Jordan Griff | USA | 143,700,000 (90 BB) |
Brian Kim | USA | 94,600,000 (59 BB) |
Niklas Astedt | Sweden | 94,200,000 (59 BB) |
Joe Serock | USA | 83,600,000 (52 BB) |
Jason Sagle | Canada | 67,300,000 (42 BB) |
Boris Angelov | Bulgaria | 52,900,000 (33 BB) |
Jonathan Tamayo | USA | 26,700,000 (17 BB) |
Malo Latinois | France | 25,500,000 (16 BB) |
Andres Gonzalez | Spain | 18,300,000 (11 BB) |
Griff, the current chip leader, doesn’t have a huge amount of experience and has only about $50,000 in live tournament earnings. So, whatever happens tomorrow, this will be by far the biggest cash of his poker career.
In terms of experience, there are two players who stand out. Joe Serock has over $4.5 million and one WSOP bracelet to his name going into the final table, while Brian Kim also has one piece of WSOP silverware, but his career earnings exceed $7.3 million.
Sweden’s Niklas Astedt is better known by his online handle ‘Lena900.’ One of the best online tournament players around, the Swede will be looking to cement his legacy in poker by winning the biggest title of them all.
Close But No Cigar for Kristen Foxen
While everyone has their favorites in the Main Event, the poker world was pretty much unanimously rooting for Kristen Foxen to make the final table.
Foxen, whose run of impressive results has firmly established her as one of the best players around, was in the mix with just 18 players remaining, and the hope of having the first female Main Event winner was alive.
Unfortunately, Kristen’s luck ran out, and her run was cut short as Joe Serock took the last of her chips, sending her to the rail in 13th place. An impressive run, to be sure, but Foxen making the final table would add another layer of excitement to this already-epic Main Event.
Patrik Antonius Inducted into Poker’s Hall of Fame
While the Main Event was the main focus of the poker world for the last few days, another important thing happened in the interim, as Poker’s Hall of Fame got its latest inductee.
Four years after becoming eligible, Patrik Antonius was added to the official list of the greatest poker players in the history of the game, and there is no doubt in anyone’s mind that the induction is more than deserved.
The Finn has achieved pretty much everything there is to achieve, on the live felt and in online poker. He was one of the regular staples in the highest stakes games on Full Tilt back in the day, featured in all of the biggest poker shows, and consistently beaten live cash games and tournaments at the highest level.
This was only the second time Antonius was officially nominated for the Hall of Fame, and the fact that he was selected on the second go further proves that there is no ambiguity when it comes to his poker greatness.
The Final Week Is Upon Us
After a full six weeks of non-stop poker action, the 2024 World Series of Poker is coming to its inevitable end. There are a few more events left on the docket, but everyone’s eyes will be on the Main Event final table action on July 16 and 17.
One man will walk away $10,000,000 richer, and all nine will certainly have this World Series etched in their memories for many years to come.
Soon, we will also know the name of the 2024 WSOP Player of the Year. As things stand right now, the honor will probably go to Scott Seiver or Jeremy Ausmus. Seiver is currently in the lead, but with only about 100 points between the two, Ausmus could still catch up.