This year’s World Series of Poker Main Event set another record with 10,112 players and a $94 million prize pool. With the entire series now wrapped up, Jonathan Tamayo, of Humble, Texas, found the winner’s circle for $10 million.
“We always take our shot here, but it’s just a numbers game,” he told PokerGO after the win. “We never, ever, ever think this is reality and I’m just soaking it in right now. This perspective is kind of nice actually. Everybody plays this tournament. Everybody who’s great at poker plays this tournament, and I somehow won it and I still can’t believe it.”
An American took the top spot for the second year in a row. Another American, Jordan Griff, of Schaumburg, Illinois, finished runner-up for $6 million.
WSOP by the Numbers
The series once again brought together poker players and fans from around the world. Here’s a quick look at some of the action by the numbers.
- 11 – The number of bracelets for Phil Ivey after winning the $10,000 Limit 2-7 Triple Draw Championship for $347,440.
- 19,303 – The number of entries in this year’s $400 Colossus event. Martin Alcaide took the win for $501,250.
- $1,178,703 – Amount won by Daniel Negreanu for winning the $50,000 Poker Players Championship for his seventh bracelet.
- 229,553 – Total entries for the entire WSOP, the most all-time.
- 700 – Poker tables used at this year’s series between the Horseshoe and Paris casinos in Las Vegas.
- 3 – Events won this summer by Scott Seiver on his way to the 2024 WSOP play of the year title. He now has seven bracelets and also scored an entry into next year’s Main Event, a trophy, and a banner to hand at Paris/Horseshoe for the accomplishment.
- $1,000,000 – Amount that the final nine players remaining at the Main Event final table were each guaranteed.
- $250,000 – Largest buy-in tournament on this year’s WSOP schedule – the Super High Roller No-Limit Hold'em event. The tournament brought in 75 entries for a prize pool of $18.7 million, won by India’s Santhosh Suvarna for $5.4 million.
- $300 – Lowest bracelet event buy-in this year on the schedule. This Gladiators of Poker No Limit Hold'em event saw a massive field of 20,647 for a $5.1 million prize pool. When the card-playing combat was finished, Stephen Winters, of Lyons, Colorado, scored the win and his first WSOP cash for $401,210. “I guess this is for the little guys,” Winters said afterward. “I just play a few small tournaments each year, so it was exciting just to be relevant for once.”
- 1 – New member named to the Poker Hall of Fame – longtime high-stakes regular Patrick Antonius.
- 21 – Number of games players must know when competing in one of the WSOP dealer’s choice tournaments. John Hennigan won the $1,500 tournament this year for his seventh bracelet and $138,296. Robert Mizrachi won his fifth bracelet in the $10,000 championship version of the event for $333,045.
- 54 – The number of events exceeding $2 million prize pools, a new record.
- 7 – Events exceeding $10 million prize pools, also a new record.
By Sean Chaffin