Francis Anderson Wins WSOP Independence Day Celebration Event

Francis Anderson has been agonizingly close to winning a World Series of Poker gold bracelet several times in recent years. His first brush with gold came in 2019, when he finished fourth in the $2,620 ‘Marathon’ event. A few years later he placed third in the 2022 ‘Monster Stack’ for a then career-best payday of $449,912. Most recently, he finished fourth again in the 2023 Poker Hall of Fame bounty event. Finally, after all of those near misses, Anderson was able to close out a win at the WSOP in 2024. He topped a field of 4,263 entries in the $800 buy-in Independence Day Celebration no-limit hold’em event, earning his first bracelet and a new top score of $501,040.

The Wappinger Falls, New York native now has more than $3.2 million in lifetime live earnings to his name.

“I won my first WSOP bracelet last night and I hit my biggest score ever! Feeling so grateful right now. Thanks everyone that reached out to me and congratulated me,” said Anderson in a social media post after coming out on top.

The big turnout for this event, which ran from July 3-5, resulted in a final prize pool of $3,630,213. The top 365 finishers made the money, with five-figures or more for the final 53.

Plenty of big names ran deep, including two-time bracelet winner John Riordan (97th), two-time bracelet winner Mark Seif (41st), three-time bracelet winner Ari Engel (35th), bracelet winner Benjamin Ector (21st), and two-time bracelet winner Martin Zamani (7th).

The top six all earned six-figure paydays. Bamshad Azizi cracked pocket kings with pocket sixes to eliminate Tom Cohen in sixth place ($105,960). Azizi (5th – $138,490) was unable to come from behind a second time in a row, though, and was knocked out when his pocket nines clashed with the pocket jacks of Brent Lee.

Donnie Barnard got all-in with Q-9 suited against the pocket queens of Lee. He flopped an open-ended straight draw for a sweat, but the turn and river brought no further help and he was sent to the rail in fourth place ($182,350).

Lee continued to surge, with his pocket fives holding against A-4 for Taylor Williams in the next all-in confrontation. Williams earned $241,850 as the third-place finisher.

Heads-up play began with Lee well out in front of Anderson. The gap was narrowed considerably when Anderson’s A-J won a flip against a small pocket pair of Lee, but he still trailed by a decent margin. That soon changed when Anderson’s pocket kings won a big pot against the flopped top pair of queens of Lee. Anderson called all-in on the river to move into the lead.

In the final hand, Lee shoved from the button for eight or so big blinds with Q2 and Anderson called with 44. The board ran out 109635 and Anderson’s pocket fours were enough to lock up the pot and the title. Lee earned a career-best payday of $323,080 as the runner-up.

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

Photo credit: WSOP / Regina Cortina.

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