WSOP Draws Nearly 230,000 Total Entries, Awards $438 Million In Prize Money

The 2024 World Series of Poker has officially concluded, and it will go down as the largest yet. The 99 live bracelet events hosted this summer at Paris and Horseshoe Las Vegas attracted a record 229,553 combined entries. A total of $438,592,624 in prize money was paid out along the way, including $94,041,600 in this year’s main event, which is the single largest prize pool in poker tournament history.

This year’s series set a new record for the number of events with prize pools over $2 million, with 54 of the 99 live tournaments surpassing that mark. There were also seven events with prize pools larger than $10 million, another new record.

“It’s special to see the passion for poker continue to deliver records on an annual basis,” said WSOP Senior Vice President and Executive Director Ty Stewart. “The laundry list of records that were shattered this summer at the WSOP continue to show that the poker renaissance is upon us.”

Editor’s Note: There was a previous issue with the WSOP’s results pages that led to inaccurate listings in some events with day 2 late registration. Those numbers have since been updated in both the WSOP and Card Player database.

Calvin Anderson And Chance Kornuth Capture Fifth and Fourth Bracelets

Calvin Anderson took down the $10,000 eight-game championship, besting a tough field of 189 entries to earn his fifth career gold bracelet and the top prize of $413,446. With this win, Anderson became just the 41st player in WSOP history to have won five or more bracelets.

The victory was particularly special for the 36-year-old based out of Las Vegas, given the format which includes eight of the most popular variants of poker.

“You’re playing a bunch of different games against all of the top players. I played against tons of really, really good players along the way. I ran good, but I think I played really well, too. There’s a lot of spots where I’m super happy with the way that I played. Feels good to do all of the things right,” Anderson told WSOP reporters.

This was the third-largest score of Anderson’s career and increased his lifetime earnings to nearly $7.2 million.

Hot on Anderson’s heels in the bracelet race is Chance Kornuth. The 38-year-old poker pro took down this year’s $1,000 Flip & Go event, outlasting a field of 1,088 entries to secure his fourth career bracelet and the top prize of $155,446.

Kornuth’s victory made him just the 73rd player in poker history to have earned as many titles at the series. The win increased Kornuth’s career earnings to nearly $19.3 million, capping off a series that included a runner-up showing in the $50,000 high roller for $1.35 million, and a fourth-place finish in the $100,000 high roller for another $930,000. He had 16 cashes during the summer overall.

The first Flip & Go tournaments were hosted online at GGPoker and then brought to the brick-and-mortar WSOP in 2021. The tournament begins with an initial ‘flip’ in which a full table of players are forced all-in blind and are dealt a hand of pineapple. They discard one of their three starting cards after seeing a flop and then the rest of the board is dealt out. The winner from each single-table flip makes the money and moves on to the second phase of the event, which is a fast-paced no-limit hold’em tournament that plays down to a champion like a typical tournament would.

Xixiang Luo and Alex Livingston Earn Second Bracelets

The $25,000 H.O.R.S.E. event fittingly came down to a stacked final table, with seven of the last eight contenders already having at least one bracelet victory, including several multiple bracelet winners like 11-time WSOP champion Phil Ivey, seven-time champion Scott Seiver, and five-time champion Adam Friedman. In the end, it was China’s Xixiang Luo who emerged victorious with the hardware and the top prize of $725,796.

This was Luo’s second career bracelet win, having taken down the inaugural $1,500 mixed no-limit hold’em and pot-limit Omaha double board bomb pot event earlier this summer for $270,820. Along with Scott Seiver and David Prociak, Luo helped to keep alive a streak that now extends a quarter-century that has seen at least one player earn multiple bracelets in a single year. The streak began when Chris Ferguson won both a $2,500 seven-card stud event and the WSOP main event in 2000.

Luo now has more than $3.7 million in career tournament earnings, with almost $1.5 million of that coming from his 33 cashes at the series that have yielded four final tables and two victories.

Like Luo, Alexander Livingston also joined the storied ranks of multiple bracelet winners. He managed the feat on the final day of the series, taking down the $3,000 six-max pot-limit Omaha event for his second bracelet and the top prize of $390,621.

The Canadian poker pro now has $9.2 million in lifetime earnings, with more than $6.5 million coming from his success at the WSOP. The 2019 main event third-place finisher secured his first bracelet in the 2022 $1,500 seven-card stud event to earn $103,282.

Jared Bleznick And Michael Rocco Headline First-Time Champions

Jared Bleznick has been around the biggest poker cash games in the world for a long time. In recent years he’s focused more on his sports card business, but that apparently hasn’t hampered his ability to show up and beat out the best. Bleznick has actually recorded three of the four largest tournament paydays of his career in the past calendar year.

He most recently beat out a field of 178 entries in the $50,000 no-limit hold’em high roller to earn his first bracelet and a career-best score of $2,037,947. The 2023 Super High Roller Bowl Pot-Limit Omaha champion now has more than $6.9 million in total tournament earnings to his name.

The turnout of 187 entries for this high-stakes tournament built a prize pool of $8,499,500. The top 27 finishers earned a share, with even a min-cash being worth six figures ($102,299 to be precise).

Plenty of big names ran deep, including two-time bracelet winner Justin Saliba (5th), bracelet winner Jose ‘Nacho’ Barbero (4th), Super High Roller Bowl champion Christoph Vogelsang (3rd), and two-time bracelet winner Jesse Lonis (2nd).

Heading into the $10,000 no-limit hold’em six-max championship, Michael Rocco had made five top-three finishes in WSOP bracelet events without coming away with a win. Just over a month before this tournament began, the 34-year-old recorded a third-place finish in a $25,000 buy-in high roller at the series. Rocco’s frustration with the result was evident in his bust-out interview with PokerGO sideline reporter Jeff Platt.

“I always don’t close [in] big spots. That’s just what I do,” he said in frustration.
Rocco was able to close in this big spot, though. He beat out a field of 502 entries in the final $10,000 buy-in championship event of the summer to earn his first gold bracelet and a career-best payday of $942,922. This victory increased Rocco’s lifetime tournament earnings to $7.1 million.

Rocco was awarded 2,100 POY points as the champion. This was his second title and tenth final-table finish of the year. With 5,183 total points and nearly $2.2 million in to-date POY earnings, he now sits in sixth place on the leaderboard. Rocco also secured 925 PGT points, enough to catapult him into the outright lead in that high-stakes-centric points race.

The top 76 finishers made the money in this event, with big names like four-time bracelet winner Adrian Mateos (5th), and bracelet winner Aram Zobian (4th) among the many that ran deep. Two-time bracelet winner Alexandre Reard, who won this very event in 2023, came incredibly close to going back-to-back in this prestigious affair. He entered heads-up play with with a 3:1 lead and had a chance to secure the historic repeat with pocket eights against the pocket sevens of Rocco. Rocco flopped a set, however, and held from there to double into the lead.

The final hand of the tournament was also a wild one. Reard raised on the button with Q 5 and Rocco defended with 4 3. The flop came down Q 5 4 and Rocco check-called a bet. The turn brought the 3 and Rocco check-raised all-in and Reard quickly called. According to Card Player’s Poker Odds Calculator, Reard was a 91-percent favorite to win the hand and double up, but the 3 appeared on the end to send him home with a brutal bad beat story.

Reard earned $610,013 as the runner-up. The French player now has more than $5.9 million in lifetime earnings.

First-Timers Break Through As WSOP Winds Down

The $1,500 eight-game mix event drew a field of 494 entries, resulting in a prize pool of $659,490 that was paid out across the top 73 finishers. In the end, it came down to a back-and-forth heads-up match between six-time bracelet winner Josh Arieh and Garth Yettick. Ultimately it was Yettick who triumphed, earning $131,061 and his first bracelet as the champion.

Arieh settled for $85,667. There were several other big names that made it down to the final day in this event, including a trio of two-time bracelet winners in Marco Johnson (6th), Maxx Coleman (5th), and John Racener (4th). Three-time bracelet winner and Poker Hall of Fame nominee ‘Miami’ John Cernuto placed third for $57,249.

Germany’s Carsten Heidemann played in his first WSOP main event this year, and was eliminated when his top set of aces was beaten by a backdoor flush. He shook it off and then hopped into the $600 Ultra stack no-limit hold’em event and managed to overcome the field of 6,628 entries to earn $343,010 and his first bracelet.

The first-ever $1,000 buy-in live mystery bounty pot-limit Omaha event held at the WSOP drew a sizable field of 4,280 entries to create a prize pool of $3,616,800. From that overall prize pool, $1,284,000 was set aside for the mystery bounties, which were only paid out among those who made it to day 2 and scored a knockout. The largest chunk of the main prize pool was ultimately awarded to Germany’s Sascha Wilhelm, who emerged victorious for the top prize of $282,290.

Matthew Alsante had just $8,346 in total live tournament earnings to his name when he took a seat in the $5,000 no-limit hold’em eight max event at this years’ series. The Illinois resident managed to top a sizable field of 1,042 entries to walk away with his first bracelet and the $785,486 top prize.

High-stakes tournament regular Punnat Punsri finished second. This was the 12th final-table finish of the year for Punsri, with two titles won along the way. His 5,757 POY points are good for fourth place in the 2024 POY rankings.

Clement Richez has saved the best for last at each of the past two WSOP festivals. In 2023 he ended the summer with a 50th-place finish in the main event for $188,400, which was his largest payday yet at the time. The French player topped that in 2024 by taking down the $3,000 buy-in mid-stakes championship event, besting a field of 3,177 total entries to earn $1,041,989 and his first bracelet. Richez now has nearly $1.5 million in recorded tournament earnings, with nearly all of that coming from his dozen cashes in WSOP bracelet events.

The top 477 finishers made the money in this event to earn a piece of the $8,482,590 prize pool, including Alec Torelli (3rd) and Adam Owen (2nd).

Joseph Sanders bested a field of 1,304 entries in the $1,500 pot-limit Omaha event to earn his first bracelet and $269,530. This was the largest tournament score yet for the Las Vegas resident, topping the $50,400 he earned for a fifth-place finish in a $10,000 pot-limit Omaha event at the 2021 U.S. Poker Open. Sanders now has $900,000 in career tournament earnings after this big win at the series.

The $3,000 H.O.R.S.E. event attracted 357 entries, creating a prize pool of $953,190. The top 54 finishers earned a share of the pot, with the largest going to eventual champion Gary Bolden. The Las Vegas resident overcame a tough final table to secure his first bracelet and a career-high payday of $205,321. Bolden now has career earnings in excess of $1.6 million.

Among the many big names that cashed in this event were six-time bracelet winner Jeremy Ausmus (7th), WPT champion and three-time bracelet winner David ‘ODB’ Baker (6th), two-time bracelet winner Luis Velador (5th), and two-time bracelet winner John Racener (2nd).

This was the seventh final table of the series for Ausmus, which tied the record set by Phil Hellmuth in 2021. Ausmus now has 14 overall final tables in 2024, with one title earned along the way. His 4,895 POY points are good for ninth place in the 2024 rankings.

Michael Liang is having one of his best years ever on the live tournament circuit. The Alexandria, Virginia resident took down a $3,000 buy-in event at The Lodge earlier this year for $428,000, which was his third-largest score ever at the time. Just over two months removed from that victory, Liang overcame a field of 6,292 entries to win the $777 buy-in ‘Lucky 7s’ event, earning $777,777 and his first gold bracelet for the win. This was a new top score for Liang, who now has more than $4 million in lifetime earnings to his name.

This year’s $1,979 Poker Hall of Fame no-limit hold’em bounty event drew 1,119 entries, building a total prize pool of $1,970,906. After three days of poker action it was British poker player Jaime Walden who came away with the bracelet and the top prize of $313,370.

This tournament was first introduced in 2021, making this the fourth annual running. The unusual buy-in price point stems from the founding date of Poker’s Hall of Fame, which was established in 1979. Hall of Fame members who played each sported a bounty that corresponded to the year they were inducted.

The penultimate event of the series was dubbed The Closer. The $1,500 no-limit hold’em tournament attracted 3,215 entries to build a $4,292,025 prize pool. The largest share of that was awarded to Ching Da Wu, who walked away with $525,500 and his first gold bracelet.

Racener took fourth, adding $196,170 to his summer totals. The Florida poker pro had five final tables, including a win, and 22 cashes overall including online events.
The last live bracelet event of the summer was the $1,000 super turbo no-limit hold’em. The tournament took just a single day to complete, with cards getting in the air at 10 AM local time and a champion crowned by 2 a.m.

When the dust settled, the 1,544-entry field had been narrowed to one player in Aneris Adomkevicius. The Lithuanian earned $201,344 and his first bracelet. This victory came on the heels of his 165th-place showing in this year’s WSOP main event for $60,000. ♠