Asher Conniff Wins First Open Bracelet Event Of 2024 World Series of Poker

The 2024 World Series of Poker kicked off with a brand new event: the $5,000 buy-in no-limit hold’em champions reunion bounty eight-max. The tournament 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, Asher Conniff came away with his first bracelet and the largest chunk of that money after overcoming a big deficit heads-up. Conniff’s payout of $408,468 was the third-largest score yet for the poker pro from Brooklyn, New York. The 2022 WSOP main event tenth-place finisher and World Poker Tour champion now has more than $4.4 million in lifetime tournament earnings to his name.

This was Conniff’s first final-table finish of 2024. The 1,440 Card Player Player of the Year points he earned for the deep run were enough to catapult him up the standings and into 113th place on the POY leaderboard presented by Global Poker.

A total of 493 entries were made, creating a $2,267,800 prize pool that was paid out among the top 76. The 22 previous WSOP main event winners were granted free seats in the tournament, with four of them going on to make the money in 2012 champion Greg Merson (67th), 2023 champion Daniel Weinman (52nd), 1995 champion Dan Harrington (37th), and and 2016 champion Qui Nguyen (21st).

The final day began with ten players remaining and Conniff in the middle of the pack. By the time the field was narrowed to seven for the PokerGO final-table broadcast, he remained at the middle of the leaderboard.

A classic race lead to the first knockout of the live-stream. Halil Tasyurek got all-in preflop with A-K suited facing the pocket queens of Nenad Dukic. Tasyurek flopped aces and kings and held from there to leave Dukic on fumes. Dukic was soon all-in for his last few big blinds with K-J facing the pocket nines of Terry Fleischer, who bet David Coleman off of A-10 suited after a seven-high flop. Fleischer turned a nine-high straight to send Dukic to the rail in seventh place ($51,416).

Coleman was the clear short stack after that hand. He soon committed the majority of his remaining seven or so blinds with A-9. He was looked up by Conniff, who held A-J suited in the cutoff. Neither player connected with a six-high flop, but Conniff bet enough to put Coleman all-in for his last 2.7 big blinds and Coleman made the call. Both players hit a pair of aces on the turn, but Conniff’s kicker played by the end to earn him the knockout. Coleman was awarded $69,231 for his sixth-place showing. This was the 14th POY-qualified final-table finish of the year for Coleman, with four victories recorded across those events. The 480 POY points he secured for this latest deep run moved him into third place in the overall standings. He also increased his lifetime tournament earnings to nearly $5.7 million.

The next big hand began with Fleischer raising from the cutoff with A9. Tasyurek defended his big blind with K5 and the flop came down 1085. It went check-check and the 5 turn improve Tasyurek to rips. He bet 600,000 and Fleischer raised all-in as a bluff and Tasyurek quickly called. Fleischer was drawing dead. He cashed for $94,936 as the fifth-place finisher, growing his career earnings to more than $2.6 millions in the process.

Bracelet winner Jonathan Pastore got all-in for his last 12 big blinds with pocket fours facing the Q-J suited of Tasyurek. A jack-high flop gave Tasyurek a big lead, which he maintained through the turn and river. Pastore, the 2022 WSOP $5,000 six-max event champion with roughly $2.2 million in prior earnings to his name, added another $132,545 with his strong showing in this event.

Yuzhou Yin had slid to the bottom of the counts during short handed play, getting a multi-street bluff picked off by Conniff that left him well behind the rest of the pack. He managed one double up through Tasyurek, but moments later was all-in agains with A-2 trailing A-9. Neither player connected with the board and Yin was eliminated in third place ($188,342). This was the largest score yet for Yin, topping the $50,800 he had earned as the third-place finisher in the $800 Flip & Go event at the 2023 WSOP Paradise last December.

Heads-up play began with Tasyurek holding 20,900,000 to Conniff’s 3,750,000. It took more than two hours for a champion to be decided. Conniff closed the gap multiple times in the early going, only to have Tasyurek jump back out to big leads. Conniff was close to even again when the next key pot arose. Tasyurek had flush and straight draws going into the river, but missed everything. He fired a bluff on the end and Conniff found a hero call with ace high to take a 3:2 lead of his own.

Conniff had extended his advantage to roughly 4:1 by the time the final hand of the tournament arose. Tasyurek shoved for 12.5 big blinds with J9 from the button and Conniff called with 1010. The board ran out K7458 to lock up the pot and the bracelet for Conniff.

Tasyurek earned $272,305 as the runner-up. This was the second-largest score of his career, trailing only the $358,075 he earned as the fourth-place finisher in last year’s European Poker Tour Cyprus main event.

Here is a look at the payouts and POY points awarded at the final table:

Visit the Card Player 2024 World Series of Poker page for schedules, news, interviews, and the latest event results. WSOP coverage sponsored by Global Poker.

Photo credits: PokerGO / Miguel Cortes.

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