Daniel Willis Wins World Series of Poker $500 Kickoff Event

Daniel Willis overcame a field of 3,485 entries in event no. 3 at the 2024 World Series of Poker, 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.

Willis is the Founder & CEO of Amplifyd, which is described on it’s website as, “a premier auction house for influential artists and music brands to sell their collections, unique collectibles, and experiences.”

In addition to the hardware and the money, Willis also secured 600 Card Player Player of the Year points for the win.

This was by far the largest live tournament score yet for Willis, blowing away the $10,756 he earned for a seventh-place finish in a $600 buy-in event at the 2019 Venetian DeepStack Extravaganza.

The strong turnout for this freezeout event built a prize pool of $1,442,960 that was split amongst the top 523 finishers. Plenty of big names ran deep, including 2013 WSOP main event champion Ryan Riess (63rd), two-time bracelet winner Marco Johnson (47th), and six-time bracelet winner Daniel Negreanu (16th).

The final day began with eight players remaining and Willis in the lead. David Niedringhaus (8th – $22,022) was the short stack, and ultimately the first to be eliminated. His A-Q was outrun by the K-J of Steven Borella to narrow the field to seven. John Marino soon followed thanks to his pocket sevens running into the pocket tens of Shawn Smith. Marino earned $28,501 for his seventh-place showing.

A preflop flip sent Daniel Sherer packing in sixth place ($37,194). His K-Q was in a more or less fair fight against the pocket tens of two-time bracelet winner Michael Wang, but a ten-high flop left Sherer drawing to a gutshot straight. The turn paired the board to improve Wang to tens full, ensuring him the knockout in the process.

Yoshinori Funayama got his last five or so big blinds in with J-8, only to receive a quick call from Willis and his pocket kings. Funayama turned a pair of eights for a bit of hope, but a blank on the end sent him home in fifth place ($48,938).

The next big clash saw Steven Borella three-bet shove for about 10 big blinds over a button open from Wang with K-2 . Willis called in the big blind with pocket aces and Wang got out of the way. The big pocket pair held again for Willis and Borella settled for $64,920 as the fourth-place finisher.

The very next deal after Borella was bounced saw another all-in and call. Smith three-bet shoved for 11 big blinds total over the top of of another button raise from Wang, who made the call with A-10. Smith showed pocket deuces. Wang flopped a ten and held from there to end Smith’s run in third place ($86,820).

Heads-up play began with Wang holding 45,000,000 to Willis’ 42,300,000. Wang won the first hand to extend his lead, but soon lost a big one with top pair, top kicker against the turned flush of Willis. All of the chips went in on the turn and Willis doubled up to take a nearly 4:1 lead.

The final hand began with Willis raising to 2.5X from the button with J9. Wang called with A5 and the flop came down AJ10. Wang checked with top pair and Willis checked behind with middle pair. The 7 on the turn put a third club on board. Wang bet two-thirds pot and Willis made the call. The J completed the board and Wang checked. Willis moved all-in and after several minutes in the tank, Wang made the call for his last 12 big blinds. Willis revealed his rivered trips to win the pot and the title.

Wang earned $117,046 as the runner-up after falling just short of earning his third career bracelet. The score increased his career earnings to more than $6.4 million.

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 / Enrique Malfavon.

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