Freestyle Rapper ‘Papo MC’ Earns Poker’s Biggest Payout Of 2024

The World Series of Poker Paradise festival debuted in 2023, bringing poker back to Atlantis Paradise Island Bahamas, the former site of the long-running PokerStars Caribbean Adventure. The second-annual running of the WSOP Paradise went all-in on high-roller offerings, with seven of the 13 live events priced at $25,000 or more to enter, including three six-figure buy-in tournaments.

A baker’s dozen bracelets had been handed out after nearly a fortnight of action from Dec. 6-19, along with a staggering $153,551,500 in prize money. (Two online bracelet events were also held, but prize pool info and full real-name results had not yet been released for those tournaments at time of publishing.)

Battle Rapper Banks $12 Million In Triton Invitational

Argentina’s Alejandro Lococo captured the largest tournament poker top prize of 2024 with just a few weeks remaining in the year. The freestyle rapper and poker player, known to many as ‘Papo MC,’ came out on top of the first-ever WSOPP Triton Million invitational event. He bested a field of 96 total entries in the $500,000 buy-in nosebleed-stakes affair to secure his first gold bracelet and the staggering $12,070,000 first-place payout.

This dwarfed Lococo’s previous top score of $1,225,000 which he earned as the seventh-place finisher in the 2021 WSOP main event in Las Vegas. He now has nearly $14.9 million in lifetime tournament earnings, with the majority coming from this one career-defining victory. As a result, he has surged into second place on the Argentinian all-time money list, trailing only Jose ‘Nacho’ Barbero ($21.2 million).

“It feels amazing for sure,” Lococo said after the win. “This was my first $500k… actually this was my first $100k-plus in my entire life. It’s amazing, it’s like I’m dreaming.”

This invitational event sported a split field during the early action, with the amateur players and the professionals they invited separated to start day 1. The 96-entry field that turned out to the Atlantis Paradise Island in the Bahamas resulted in a $48,000,000 prize pool.

The final day began with 14 players remaining, all of whom were safely in the money after the bubble burst late on day 2. Several big names were sent packing on the way down to the final table, including Stephen Chidwick (14th – $792,000).

He was soon joined by hedge fund founder David Einhorn, who was knocked out of this event in the first hand of the tournament, but rebought and made it down to the final two tables to recoup some of his losses for taking 13th place ($865,000).

Esti Wang (12th – $865,000), Adrian Mateos (11th – $985,000), and Chance Kornuth (10th – $985,000) then went out before the final table. Mateos didn’t earn any Player of the Year points for his finish, but the Spaniard did add yet another big payout to a 2024 campaign that saw him atop the Card Player POY standings with more than $11 million in cashes.

Lococo outlasted Michael Moncek (9th – $1,200,000), Sosia Jiang (8th – $1,605,000), Aleksejs Ponakovs (7th – $2,140,000) and Alex Foxen (6th – $2,795,000) before he began his climb up the leaderboard. He then won a big pot against bracelet winner Ben Heath with trip queens against pocket sevens. The UK poker pro made a hero call on the end and was left on fumes.

Heath managed to win multiple all-ins after being down to less than a small blind to bounce back out of the danger zone, though. He then doubled up yet again, with Q-J besting the A-8 of Dvoress to leave the Canadian near the bottom of the counts after spending much of the final table as the big stack.

Finland’s Elias Talvitie (5th – $3,542,000) and Dvoress (4th – $4,390,000) were the next to head to the rail. Dvoress, a two-time bracelet winner, now has over $41.1 million in recorded scores.

Turkey’s Sinan Unlu (3rd – $5,304,00) was the next to fall at Lococo’s hands. This was just his 11th recorded tournament score, and by far his largest.

Heads-up play began with Lococo holding a massive 7:1 lead. On the final hand, Lococo shoved from the button with K 2 and Heath quickly called with A K. His incredible comeback story ended there, however, as the board came down Q 8 2 7 8 to give Lococo a pair of deuces for the win.

Heath walked away with a career-best payday of $8,160,000 as the runner-up. The Brighton, England native’s lifetime earnings swelled to over $31.2 million thanks to this massive score.

Yinan Zhou Wins WSOPP Super Main Event For $6 Million

Yinan Zhou took down $25,000 super main event, which featured the largest guarantee in tournament poker history with $50,000,000 up for grabs. The 24-year-old Chinese player topped a field of 1,978 total entries, earning his first WSOP gold bracelet and the massive $6,000,000 top prize.

Prior to this multi-million-dollar triumph, Zhou’s top live score was the $72,200 he earned as the 28th-place finisher in the inaugural WSOP Paradise $5,000 main event last year. The primarily online-focused player had one recorded six-figure cash to his name, which fittingly came with his runner-up showing in a $1,000 buy-in WSOP Online event last fall.

“I have no plans… it is big money. Now I feel good. I decided to play more, practice more, study more to become better and better, to fight against the best and become the best,” Zhou said in his post-win interview.

There were 1,124 entries made across the four live starting flights for this tournament, with another 254 day 2 late registrants and 600 online entrants, bringing the total to 1,978. That resulted in an overlay of $550,000 and an overall prize pool of $48,500,000 (The guarantee minus staff fees.) The top 299 finishers earned a piece of the huge prize pool, with none other than 17-time bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth being the last to be eliminated outside of the money. He would bounce back later in the series, however.

Plenty of notables ran deep, including Christoph Vogelsang (32nd), Rainer Kempe (31st), Chris Klodnicki (26th), Roland Rokita (22nd), Nick Maimone (18th), Sorel Mizzi (16th), Ren Lin (11th), and 2003 WSOP main event champion Chris Moneymaker (10th), who ran pocket nines into the pocket jacks of bracelet winner and 2010 EPT San Remo champion Liv Boeree to bubble the final table.

The final day began with four-time bracelet winner Michael Addamo out in front and Zhou in sixth chip position. Georg Lehmann ran A-9 into the A-J of Addamo, further adding to the Australian’s lead. The German walked away with $750,000 for his ninth-place showing, guaranteeing seven-figure paydays for the remaining contenders. The first player to claim such a payout was Belarus’ Vadzim Lipauka, who was sent packing by Mustapha Kanit in eighth place ($1,000,000).

Justin Bonomo made headlines when he revealed on social media that he was asked to remove a Palestinian keffiyeh or face disqualification on the penultimate day of this event. (See pg. 10) The American poker pro came close to adding to his collection of three bracelets but was ultimately knocked out in seventh place when his pocket threes ran into the pocket jacks of Zhou.

Bonomo picked up a gutshot straight draw on the flop to go with his outs to a set but was unable to improve any further and settled for $1,300,000. He remains in second on poker’s all-time money list, with this latest deep run increasing his lifetime haul to $67.7 million.

Despite starting the day as the chip leader, Addamo was ultimately the next to fall. He lost a big pot with two pair against the turned Broadway straight of Zhou to slide down the leaderboard and continued to trend downward from there and ended by busting to Boeree in sixth place ($1,650,000). He now has more than $29 million in lifetime earnings after this, his eighth seven-figure score.

Christopher Nguyen ran A-7 suited into the A-10 of Boeree to lose a chunk of his stack. He then got his last handful of big blinds taken by the pocket queens of Kanit and was eliminated in fifth place ($2,100,000).

A classic preflop race spelled the end of Boeree’s run in this event. She open-shoved for just over six big blinds with pocket fours from the cutoff. Marcelo Aziz, who won his way into this event for free via an online satellite on GGPoker, called from the button with A 8 and an ace on the turn saw Boeree head to the payout desk to collect a career-high payday of $2,800,000.

This sum also set the record as the largest single payout ever earned by a female player, surpassing the $2,748,605 that Wenling Gao earned as the runner-up in the 2020 WSOP Online main event. The co-founder of the Raising For Effective Giving organization announced that she plans to donate 20 percent of her earnings from this event to a charitable cause.

Thanks to this record-setting windfall, the former poker pro turned host of the Win-Win podcast now has more than $6.5 million in career cashes. That’s good for fourth place on the women’s all-time money list, trailing only Vanessa Selbst ($10,899,027), Kristen Foxen ($9,348,349), and Kathy Liebert ($7,113,052).

Kanit was ultimately the next to be eliminated. Shortly after winning a race to double into the chip lead, he attempted a multi-street bluff with seven high that was looked up by Zhou’s full house (see pg. 60). He then ran sevens and fives into the queens and jacks of Zhou to fall to around 15 big blinds. In his final hand he got all-in with A 3 facing the 9 8 of Aziz. Both players picked up flush draws by the turn, but Aziz rivered a pair of eights on a K Q 2 6 8 board to win the hand.

Kanit now has nearly $16.4 million in lifetime cashes, putting him just $1 million away from surpassing Italy’s all-time money leader Dario Sammartino ($17.4 million).
Heads-up play began with Aziz holding a 3:2 lead. Zhou managed to edge his way in front and then began to pull away, only for Aziz to double up with A-7 besting A-8 in a preflop all-in showdown.

By the time the final hand arose, however, Zhou held more than a 2:1 advantage. He limped in from the button with A 6 and Aziz shoved holding K 6. Zhou quickly called and was in a dominant position with five to come. Both players ended up with trips after the J 7 5 6 6 board was dealt, with Zhou’s ace kicker being the deciding factor.

Aziz earned $4,600,000 as the runner-up, an unbelievable payday in any context, but all the sweeter given that he won his way into this event via a freeroll.

Alex Foxen Keeps Hot Streak Going With Third Bracelet

Alex Foxen had an incredible year on the live tournament circuit. The 33-year-old American poker pro made 20 POY-qualified final tables and won three titles in 2024, saving the best for last as he took down the $100,000 Triton main event for his third gold bracelet. Foxen topped a field of 182 entries in the nosebleed-stakes tournament, adding to his hardware collection while growing his career earnings by $3,850,000.

This was the second-largest tournament payday yet for Foxen, whose lifetime haul on the tournament circuit now sits at more than $43.1 million. He is just the 18th player in the history of the game to surpass $40 million in career cashes, and sits in 15th place on poker’s all-time money list.

While this was the third overall bracelet win for Foxen, it was his second of the year. He won the WSOP Online pot-limit Omaha $500 mystery bounty six-max event earlier this fall. His first bracelet came back in 2022, when he topped the $250,000 high roller in Las Vegas for a career-best $4,563,700. (Foxen’s wife Kristen also won a bracelet this year, extending her women’s record with five in total.)

This was also Foxen’s second Triton victory of 2024, having won a $50,000 buy-in event at the recent Triton Monte Carlo stop for nearly $1.5 million.

“Bracelets have always been a barometer of success for a lot of poker players, so that means a lot to me. I feel like Triton has evolved to the point where these trophies have a significance like that as well,” said Foxen about the dual-toured event.

This was the second multi-million-dollar cash of the series for Foxen, who also finished sixth in the $500,000 Triton Million event just a few days prior for $2,795,000.

He also earned 1,680 POY points, which was enough to move him into sixth place in the 2024 standings. Foxen has now finished inside the top 10 for the last seven years.

The former college football player overcame a stacked field down the stretch, with the likes of Stephen Chidwick (11th), Seth Davies (9th), Samuel Muller (7th), and David Coleman (6th) running deep. Davies and Coleman both sit among the top POY contenders after adding to their point totals in this event. Davies climbed to 26th, while Coleman moved up to second place. This was his 24th final-table showing of the year, with five qualified wins earned along the way.

Two-time bracelet winner Fedor ​​Holz was on the wrong end of a big clash with Foxen early in three-handed play. He ultimately made top pair, but Foxen turned two pair to send him to the rail with another $1,830,000 in his pockets. This was his 13th seven-figure score on the circuit.

Foxen held a 3:1 lead over three-time bracelet winner Joao Vieira when heads-up play began. The decisive pot of the match arrived fairly quickly. Foxen picked up 8 3 on the button and limped in. Vieira raised with 10 8 and Foxen called. The flop came down A 6 3 and Vieira led out with air. Foxen called with bottom pair and the 9 hit the turn. Vieira sized up, firing big with his gutshot. Foxen called again and the K completed the board. Vieira bet again as a bluff, leaving himself just a few chips behind. Foxen thought it over for a while before making the hero call with bottom pair to take a massive lead and then the title.

Vieira was eliminated in second place ($2,590,000). This was a new career-best for the Portuguese pro, who now has more than $14 million in recorded cashes to his name.

WSOP Paradise Winners

Foxen was not the only player to add to his stash of hardware. In fact, several top players bumped their bracelet counts.

Among them was Stephen Chidwick, whose poker tournament résumé is truly one of the most impressive in the history of the game. At just 35 years of age, the poker pro from Deal, England has already accumulated more than $63.6 million in career earnings, which is good for third place on poker’s all-time money list.

The two-time Card Player Player of the Year award winner’s latest success on the circuit saw him defeat a field of 122 entries in the $50,000 buy-in pot-limit Omaha event. Chidwick earned $1,357,080 and his second career WSOP bracelet, having also won a $25,000 PLO event at the 2019 WSOP. He became the 10th English player to earn multiple bracelets.

This was the 13th seven-figure cash of Chidwick’s career. More than $5.4 million of his earnings have now come from PLO tournaments, which is good for second on the PLO all-time money list.

With five titles and 20 final-table finishes, Chidwick jumped to 10th place in the 2024 POY standings. Joining him at the final table were a few other POY heavyweights in Michael Watson and Dylan Weisman. PLO specialist Weisman climbed to 11th place, while Watson would later add another final table, giving him 17 for 2024, moving him to fifth place overall.

Mike Gorodinsky added his name to the elite list of players with four or more gold bracelets. The Russian-born mixed games professional and 2015 WSOP Player of the Year emerged victorious from a field of 200 entries in the $10,000 PLO event, pocketing $393,250. Gorodinsky now has more than $4.9 million in career earnings.

This triumph came more than a decade after his first WSOP win. Gorodinsky became just the 77th player to have earned at least four bracelets with his most recent title run.
Roman Hrabec moved to 13th place in the POY standings thanks to his 11th final table of the year.

Nick Schulman came out on top in the $5,000 no-limit hold’em turbo bounty event, dubbed The Closer, earning $145,000 and his sixth career gold bracelet. The 40-year-old poker pro from New York became just the 25th player in history to have won as many bracelets.

Schulman picked up his fifth bracelet earlier this year in Las Vegas, taking down a $25,000 buy-in no-limit hold’em high roller event for $1,667,842. This latest victory saw Schulman, who is also a WPT champion and regular on the high roller circuit, surpass $21.6 million in career earnings.

Daniel Negreanu finished fourth behind Schulman for his 17th final table of the year, climbing to 21st place in the POY standings. Other notables included Shaun Deeb (6th), Santhosh Suvarna (5th), and Ren Lin, who earned $110,000 as the runner-up. Lin had apparently not had his fill of tournament poker for the year, though, and soon made his way to Las Vegas for the final few days of the World Poker Tour World Championship (pg. 32).

The pot-limit Omaha tournament scene has been booming in recent years, and that’s just fine with Lautaro Guerra. The Spanish PLO specialist has 38 recorded tournament scores, with 35 coming in events that featured just his preferred four-card poker variant. His three other cashes account for just $61,000 of his more than $4.9 million in earnings, which makes him one of the elite performers of the burgeoning high-stakes PLO circuit.

Guerra secured his largest score yet by taking down the $100,000 buy-in super high roller event, topping an elite field of 88 entries to earn his first gold bracelet and the $2,126,770 top prize. This was the fifth-largest winner’s payout in PLO tournament history.

The final table featured Patrik Antonius (7th), Jason Koon (5th), Jared Bleznick (3rd), and Ben Tollerene (2nd).

The first event on the schedule was the $2,500 buy-in mini main event, which drew 2,031 entries to result in a $5,077,500 prize pool. The top 306 finishers earned a share, with six-figure payouts for the final seven contenders. The largest payday of all went to eventual champion Jeffrey Hakim, who earned $575,050 and his first gold bracelet 16 years after his first series cash.

The next was earned by Eric Wasserson, who had come painfully close to gold on several occasions over the years, with seven top-five finishes including two-runner-up showings. Finally, the longtime mixed games regular broke through, taking down the $25,000 dealers choice championship for $353,340.

This was the second-largest tournament score yet for Wasserson, trailing only the $545,772 he earned with a third-place finish in the 2016 Poker Players Championship. He now has nearly $2.9 million in recorded scores to his name. Six-time bracelet winner Josh Arieh was the runner-up to Wasserson, with Mike Gorodinsky placing third.

The next champion to emerge was China’s Lei Yu. He defeated a field of 363 total entries in the $5,000 deepstack event to earn $293,050. This was the largest recorded score yet for Yu, topping the $134,125 he earned for winning a side event at WPT Korea this spring.

All eyes were on all-time WSOP title leader Phil Hellmuth as he entered the final table of the $10,000 GGMillion$ championship with a shot at capturing his record-extending 18th gold bracelet. In the end, the Poker Hall of Famer was eliminated in eighth place, earning $130,830.

The bracelet ultimately went to Johannes Straver of the Netherlands. It was the first for the Dutch player, who also walked away with a career-best score of $807,430. This victory came roughly two-and-a-half years after Straver fell one spot short of a bracelet at the 2022 WSOP in Las Vegas. With this latest big payday, his career earnings now sit at more than $4.3 million.

Germany’s Tom Fuchs closed out his best year ever on the circuit with his largest victory yet. He defeated a field of 130 entries in the $50,000 event, earning $1,292,000 and his first gold bracelet. Fuchs now has more than $3 million in recorded tournament earnings after logging this, his first-ever seven-figure score.

The vast majority of that total has been earned this year, with his five biggest paydays all coming in 2024. In addition to this marquee win, Fuchs also finished seventh in the Triton Monte Carlo $150,000 high roller for $762,0000. This was Fuch’s first title and fourth final-table finish of the year.

The Super Saver Invitational stood apart as the only tournament on the schedule that cost precisely $0 to enter. Players were only able to participate in the $1 million freeroll if they were a bracelet winner who played the $25,000 buy-in Super Main Event, they purchased a $100,000 early bird package, or were a GGPoker package winner.

There were ultimately 487 who took a seat with a shot at the seven-figure prize pool, with Brazilian poker pro Pablo Brito Silva being the one to come away with the $200,000 top prize. The 35-year-old now has more than $3.8 million in career tournament earnings, with his largest score being the $1,000,000 he earned as the champion of the 2020 partypoker LIVE MILLIONS South America main event.