The WSOP $10,000 Main Event is the most highly anticipated live tournament in the world of poker. Annually taking place in Las Vegas as the conclusion to the World Series of Poker festival, the event attracts thousands of hopefuls from all four corners of the world. Every single one of them sits at the Rio All Suite Hotel & Casino poker table with one thought in their heads – to win the most coveted non-monetary prize in poker – the WSOP Main Event champion’s bracelet.
The WSOP $10,000 Championship’s final table is usually played a few months after the actual event, usually early in November. This year, the nine finalists returned to the host venue on October 30, led by two time gold bracelet winner Cliff Josephy with 74,600,000 in chips.
Day 1 of final table action saw four players leave. Spain’s Fernando Pons was the first to go. He rounded out the official final table for a payout of $1,000,000. Jerry Wong from the US was eliminated in 8th place, good for $1,100,076. Canada’s Griffin Benger busted out in 7th place for $1,250,190. Kenny Hallaert from Belgium was the last to leave the final table on Sunday. His share of the prize pool totaled $1,464,258.
Day 2 of final table play kicked off with Qui Nguyen holding two times more chips than the player to stand second on the chip counts chart. Nguyen had a total of 128,625,000 in chips, good for 129 big blinds at the time cards were thrown in the air. He was followed by Josephy with 63,850,000.
The second day of the WSOP Main Event final table did not start very well for Nguyen. The player lost his chip lead within the first ten hands of play. At that point, it was Gordon Vayo to emerge as the one holding the most chips, winning a massive all-in confrontation against Vojtěch Růžička that left the latter extremely short-stacked.
Růžička’s opponents had to bid him farewell after he lost the very next hand in play. The Czech collected $1,935,288 for his performance in the world’s most prestigious poker tournament.
It took an hour of play before Nguyen regained (and never let go) of the chip lead. Several hands later, Josephy crippled Michael Ruane beyond repair. From that point on, Ruane’s stack diminished with every hand until he was eliminated in 4th place to collect a payout of $2,576,003.
Play was scheduled to stop once there were only three players left at the table. However, the three survivors – Nguyen, Vayo, and Josephy decided to play several more hands before calling it a day. The last hands to be played on Monday were of much help to Nguyen, as the player improved his advantage even further.
Three-handed play is set to resume today at 5 pm local time. Nguyen will be leading the elite group of three survivors with a massive stack of 197,600,000 and a 2:1 advantage over Vayo who bagged and tagged 89,000,000 in chips on Monday. Josephy, the third remaining hopeful, will start the WSOP Main Event’s final day with 50,000,000 in chips. Play is set to continue until the name of the winner becomes clear.
This year’s edition of the WSOP $10,000 Championship drew 6,737 entries who generated a prize pool of $63,327,800. Payouts were set for the top 1,011 finishers, with min-cashes totaling $15,000. The winner will take home the first-place prize of $8,005,310 and a gold bracelet, specially crafted for the tournament’s victor.
Pennsylvania-born poker pro Joe McKeehen won the 2015 WSOP Main Event after dominating the final table throughout all three days of play. The player earned $7,683,346 for his terrific performance.
