John Hennigan Nabs Seventh World Series Of Poker Bracelet

The 55th Annual World Series of Poker officially kicked off on May 28 at the Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas. After less than a fortnight of action at time of publishing, there have already been 23 winners decided, with nearly $59.7 million in prize money awarded across those nearly two dozen tournaments.

Over 43,000 total entries were made across the 23 live events that have wrapped up thus far, for an average turnout of 1,874. Fields have ranged from as small as 64 for the $25,000 buy-in heads-up championship (entries were capped at that number), up to 18,409 for the $1,000 Mystery Millions. That latter figure was good for the sixth-largest field in WSOP history.

‘Johnny World’ Secures Seventh WSOP Win

While 14 new bracelet winners were crowned in the early going, 10 players have added to their pre-existing collections of WSOP hardware so far this year. Chief among them was John Hennigan, who won his seventh gold bracelet by taking down the $1,500 dealer’s choice six-max event.

The 53-year-old Poker Hall of Fame member became just the ninth player to have won as many titles at the series.

“Very happy to win the tournament. I mean to me, the best thing about winning the tournament is not losing it. Not getting second or knowing they’re still playing and wandering around after you go broke,” Hennigan told reporters. “It’s just very satisfying to come out on top.”

All seven of Hennigan’s wins have come in non no-limit hold’em events. His first two victories were the 2002 $2,000 H.O.R.S.E. and the 2004 $5,000 limit hold’em. A decade removed from that later triumph, Hennigan took down the king of all mixed game tournaments, the 2014 $50,000 Poker Player’s Championship. His next three bracelets all came in $10,000 championship events, with wins in the 2016 triple draw deuce-to-seven lowball championship, the 2018 H.O.R.S.E. championship, and the 2019 stud championship.

Hennigan now has nearly $9.6 million in career tournament earnings, with roughly $6.1 million of that coming from his 50 cashes in WSOP events. He also has a World Poker Tour title to his name, having won the WPT Winter Poker Open for $1.6 million back in 2007.

The event drew a field of 530 entries, resulting in a $707,550 prize pool that was paid out among the top 80 finishers. The final table also featured six-time bracelet winner Shaun Deeb (8th) and high-stakes player Viktor ‘Isildur1’ Blom (4th).

Scott Seiver and Robert Mizrachi Each Earn Their Fifth Bracelets

Scott Seiver won his first bracelet back in 2008, taking down the $5,000 no-limit hold’em event for his first piece of WSOP hardware. Seiver then had to wait another decade before securing his second title at the series, which seems to have kicked off a spree.

He has now won four bracelets in the last six years, with his most recent coming in the $10,000 Omaha eight-or-better championship. Seiver defeated a field of 171 entries to earn his fifth overall bracelet and the top prize of $426,744.

“I made a decision this summer to really focus on tournaments and try to give it my A-game, at a level that I haven’t always done here… so to just come and win the first $10K, it feels very validating,” said Seiver in an interview with PokerGO.

The 39-year-old New York native, now based out of Las Vegas, has accumulated nearly $26.2 million in career tournament earnings despite not being a year-round tournament grinder. Three of his five WSOP wins have come in $10,000 championship events, with the previous two being the 2018 limit hold’em championship and the 2019 razz championship. His fourth bracelet came in a $2,500 buy-in no-limit hold’em freezeout event.

The top 30 finishers earned a share of the $1,590,300 prize pool, with the final table featuring Jared Bleznick (8th), Jake Schwartz (7th), five-time bracelet winner Benny Glaser (6th), four-time bracelet winner Calvin Anderson (3rd), and bracelet winner Jonathan Cohen (2nd).

Seiver was the 37th player in poker history to have won five or more bracelets, but would soon be joined by another.

After his own deep run in the $10,000 O8 championship, Robert Mizrachi followed it up by taking down the $10,000 dealer’s choice championship. He overcame a field of 124 entries to earn $333,045 and his fifth career bracelet.

This title run also saw Robert tie his younger brother, Michael ‘The Grinder’ Mizrachi, who also has five wins at the series. Mizrachi won his first bracelet back in 2007, taking down that year’s $10,000 pot-limit Omaha championship for $894,100. His second came in 2014 when he emerged victorious in the first-ever dealer’s choice event held at the WSOP for $147,092. 2015 saw him take down a $1,500 Omaha eight-or-better tournament for $251,022 and his third bracelet. His fourth came the following year in the $10,000 stud championship for another $242,662.

The 45-year-old South Florida native now has more than $9.2 million in career tournament earnings to his name, with more than $4.6 million of that coming from his 93 WSOP cashes. His largest tournament payday came when he took down the 2022 WPT Venetian main event for $894,100.

Among the notables at the final table were three-time bracelet winner David Bach (5th), two-time bracelet winner Ben Lamb (4th), and bracelet winner Ryutaro Suzuki (3rd).

Other Pros Who Added To Their Collections

Bryce Yockey became yet another previous bracelet winner to win again in 2024. Just shy of seven years after securing his first in the 2017 $10,000 pot-limit Omaha eight-or-better championship, the California native emerged victorious from a field of 733 entries in the $5,000 pot-limit Omaha event.

Yockey earned a career-best payday of $606,654 alongside his second bracelet, giving him more than $5.1 million in lifetime earnings to his name.

The $3,371,800 prize pool for this event was split amongst the top 110 finishers, with six-figure scores for the final six. Three-time bracelet winner Joao Vieira and Farid Jattin were among those who joined Yockey at the final table, with Jattin taking home $404,430 as the runner-up finisher to bring his career total to more than $9.2 million.

Nick Guagenti closed out the $1,500 limit hold’em tournament to earn $121,074 and his second bracelet on the same day that Yockey recorded his win.

Guagenti’s first bracelet win came back in 2020 when he took down a $2,000 buy-in no-limit hold’em event during the WSOP Online for $305,433. The Westerville, Ohio native now has more than $2.7 million in recorded tournament earnings to his name.

David Prociak won a bracelet at his first WSOP final table back in 2016, taking down a $1,500 seven card stud eight-or-better event. From 2017-2023, he made six more top-four finishes, including two third-place showings and two runner-up finishes.

The Orlando, Florida resident made another final table just a week into this year’s festival and managed to come away with a win, taking down this year’s $1,500 badugi event for his second bracelet and $129,676.

“It feels great; winning one could be a fluke. Winning two, you just can’t be a fluke. Coming in second twice last year sucked,” Prociak admitted. “Now I feel like I can actually take in some compliments.”

This was only the second time that the WSOP has hosted a stand-alone badugi bracelet event. The tournament debuted in 2023, with Portugal’s Michael Rodrigues coming away with the hardware. Prociak made the money last year, finishing 39th. Prociak now has more than $2.3 million in recorded tournament earnings to his name, with more than half of that coming from his 44 in-the-money finishes in bracelet events.

Bulgaria’s Simeon Spasov triumphed in the $1,500 no-limit hold’em six-max event, outlasting a field of 2,526 entries to earn $439,815 and his second gold bracelet. With this win, Spasov increased his career tournament earnings to more than $2.2 million while becoming just the third player from his home country of Bulgaria to have won multiple bracelets. Joining him in that prestigious group are Boris Kolev and Yuliyan Nikolaev Kolev.

This was the second-largest payday of Spasov’s tournament résumé, trailing only the $527,944 he earned for taking down the 2022 $2,000 buy-in no-limit event. He has now cashed 26 times at the series, accumulating nearly $1.1 million along the way.

Dylan Weisman is really good at pot-limit Omaha. In fact, he’s one of the best, and there’s a strong argument to be made that he currently stands at the top of the mountain. The PLO specialist earned his second career bracelet by topping a massive field of 1,469 entries in the $1,500 pot-limit Omaha event for $294,311.

His first bracelet came in 2021, winning the $1,000 PLO event for $166,461. He now has six final tables at the WSOP, all coming in PLO. In fact, his top 20 deep runs at the series have all included some variation of the game.

With nearly $4.1 million of his $5.6 million in career earnings coming in PLO, he is now the winningest PLO tournament player ever, narrowly edging out the likes of Eelis Parssinen, Stephen Chidwick, Ka Kwan Lau, Ben Lamb, Tommy Le, Shaun Deeb, and Jared Bleznick, according to HendonMob.

While limit hold’em has seen more popular days in poker history, there were still 104 hopefuls who turned out for the $10,000 championship event at the series, all vying for the $308,930 first-place prize and the bracelet.

In the end, the title went to Florida poker pro John Racener, who picked up his second career bracelet. Racener is best known for finishing runner-up in the 2010 WSOP main event for more than $5.5 million, but he has proven to be a consistent force at the summer series for quite some time. In 2017, he nearly won WSOP Player of the Year honors when he won his first bracelet in the $10,000 dealer’s choice championship. In total, he has made 24 final tables at the WSOP.

Sean Troha took down his first WSOP title back in 2022, emerging victorious in the $10,000 pot-limit Omaha championship. The following summer he secured his second WSOP win as the last player standing in the $1,500 buy-in pot-limit Omaha event.

Just a couple of weeks into the 2024 series, Troha has already managed to win his third career bracelet. He took down the $10,000 pot-limit Omaha eight-or-better championship for $536,713. He bested a field of 259 entries, scooping the final pot to earn the largest share of the $2,408,700 prize pool.

The PLO specialist from North Olmstead, Ohio now has more than $3.1 million in career tournament earnings, with over $2.4 million of that coming from his 29 cashes in bracelet events.

Brek Schutten, Malcolm Trayner, Asher Conniff, and Dan Sepiol Highlight First-Timers
A baker’s dozen of players have won their first bracelets so far at the 2024 WSOP, including one who walked away with the largest payout awarded so far at the series. That honor belongs to Intensive Care Unit nurse Brek Schutten, who took down the $25,000 buy-in six-max event for a career-best payday of $1,405,641 and his first bracelet.

The 36-year-old healthcare worker and poker player from Grand Rapids, Michigan came within one spot of becoming a WSOP champion back in 2022, finishing second in the $50,000 buy-in no-limit hold’em eight-max event. He had to wait two years before he found himself heads-up for a bracelet again, but this time around he came away with the hardware.

“I got second to Jake Schindler and just had those regrets ever since,” Schutten told WSOP reporters after coming out on top. “Certain hands go through your mind all the time and you never know if you’re going to get back to a high roller final table, let alone heads-up, let alone win the thing.”

This was the second seven-figure score for Schutten, who cashed for $1,261,095 as the champion of the 2021 WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open $3,500 buy-in main event. He now has more than $5.3 million in career earnings to his name despite not being a full-time poker professional.

The only other seven-figure payday awarded so far at the series came in the $1,000 Mystery Millions event. The tournament drew 18,403 entries to become the sixth-largest field for any live bracelet event in WSOP history. This tournament also set a new record with the highest turnout for any bracelet event costing $1,000 or more to enter.

After four starting flights and two more days of action inside the Horseshoe Las Vegas, only one player remained in Australia’s Malcolm Trayner. The Turramurra resident earned $1,000,000 and his first gold bracelet as the champion.

This was the 34th bracelet won by an Australian player, and far and away the largest tournament score of Trayner’s career. Before this marquee victory, his best cash had been the $125,495 he secured as the runner-up in a $10,000 AUD buy-in event at the WPT Australia festival last fall.

While Trayner was the only player to secure a seven-figure payday from the main prize pool, two other players also walked away with $1 million thanks to the mystery bounty component of this tournament. Each $1,000 buy-in made in this event saw $300 added to the mystery bounty prize pool, with available prizes ranging from $1,000 up to $1 million.

As with 2023, there were two million-dollar bounties paid out this year, with Valentyn Shabelnyk and DJ Buckley securing those lucky tickets. The video of Shabelnyk opening his envelope went viral thanks to his understated response to the revelation that he had just won a million dollars. Other top bounty paydays went to bracelet winner Roberto Romanello ($500,000) and eventual ninth-place finisher Jake Brown ($250,000).

Of the first-time bracelet winners to emerge so far in this series, Asher Conniff and Dan Sepiol are two of the most accomplished. Conniff was the first player to take down an open event at the festival, coming out on top in the brand new $5,000 buy-in no-limit hold’em champions reunion bounty eight-max.

The tournament also awarded a $10,000 seat in this year’s main event to anyone who knocked out a previous main event winner. A total of 22 previous world champions turned out, from 1983 winner Tom McEvoy through reigning main event winner Daniel Weinman.

The event attracted 493 entries in total, creating a prize pool of $2,047,800. In the end, Conniff came away with his first bracelet and $408,468. This was the third-largest score yet for the poker pro from Brooklyn, New York. The 2022 WSOP main event tenth-place finisher and WPT champion now has more than $4.4 million in lifetime tournament earnings to his name.

Sepiol’s breakthrough at the series came after he fell behind 17:1 in his heads-up match for the title in the $1,500 no-limit hold’em shootout.

“It doesn’t feel good, especially when you just bluffed off your entire stack but I kind of, like, played my stack that was in front of me and just tried to make the best decisions,” Sepiol told reporters.

From there the experienced player, with more than $7.1 million in prior tournament earnings chipped away at Robert Natividad’s lead, then moved ahead, then pulled away himself. In the end, the 2023 WPT World Championship winner closed out the victory, securing his first bracelet and the top prize of $305,849.

Bracelet Breakthroughs

The first bracelet awarded at the series went to Jose Garcia of Albuquerque, New Mexico. The poker dealer at Sandia Resort & Casino outlasted a field of 1,189 entries in the $500 buy-in Casino employees no-limit hold’em event to earn his first piece of WSOP hardware and the top prize of $79,134.

Daniel Willis overcame a field of 3,485 entries in event no. 3, the $500 kickoff no-limit hold’em freezeout. The businessman and former online poker pro from Swindon, England earned $175,578 and his first gold bracelet as the last player standing.

Pittsburgh’s James Chen took down the $1,500 Omaha eight-or-better, besting a field of 928 entries to win $209,350. Chen had won his first bracelet nearly a year earlier but ultimately fell just one place shy of the gold in that $10,000 Omaha eight-or-better championship event.

Darius Samual came into the series with just eight recorded tournament cashes to his name, and no prior final-table finishes. The British businessman took a risk early in the series, putting up around half of his poker bankroll to enter the $25,000 buy-in heads-up no-limit hold’em championship.

The gamble paid off big, as Samual went on to top the field of 64 entries to earn $500,000 and his first bracelet. Samual came out on top in six consecutive one-on-one matches to secure the bracelet, defeating James Chen, Ian Matakis, Matthew Wantman, John Smith, Artur Martirosian, and Faraz Jaka.

The $1,000 super turbo bounty no-limit hold’em freezeout drew 2,639 entries. The fast-paced affair kicked off at 10 AM and continued until just short of 3 AM the following morning. When the dust settled after the roughly 17-hour sprint, it was France’s Thibault Perissat who hoisted the bracelet and collected the top prize of $197,308. This marked the 41st WSOP bracelet won by a French player.

The 15th event on the schedule this year was a $1,500 buy-in pot-limit Omaha eight-or-better tournament. A total of 1,277 entries were made in the big bet split pot game, creating a prize pool of $1,704,795 that was split amongst the top 192 finishers. Caleb Furth scooped the final pot of the tournament to secure the title and the top prize of $265,361. This was Furth’s first bracelet win and the largest payday of his career.

The $800 buy-in no-limit hold’em deepstack took just two days of play to narrow a massive 4,732-entry field down to a winner. That player was TJ Murphy, who earned $368,977 and his first gold bracelet after defeating Raymond Mancini heads-up for the title. The Spencer, Iowa resident had never cashed in a bracelet event before taking down this tournament.

Brent Hart earned $660,284 and the hardware as the champion of the $5,000 no-limit hold’em eight-max event, bringing his career haul to nearly $1.5 million. The event drew 660 entries, with the top 124 earning a cut of the $3 million prize pool.

The first standalone lowball bracelet of the series was earned by Aaron Cummings. The Montana resident bested a field of 574 entries in the $1,500 deuce-to-seven triple-draw lowball tournament to earn $146,516 and his first bracelet. ♠