Jordan Griff Leads 2024 WSOP Main Event Final Table

The 2024 World Series of Poker $10,000 no-limit hold’em main event set the record as the largest ever held, drawing 10,112 entries to create a prize pool of $94,041,600. After four starting flights, two day 2s, and six consecutive days of combined-field play, there are now just nine players remaining with a shot at the championship bracelet and the top prize of $10,000,000.

All of the final nine are now guaranteed at least $1,000,000 for making it this far, and will have a day off on Monday, July 15 before returning at 1:30 PM local time on Tuesday, July 16th to pick up the action.

The top stack heading into the final table is 30-year-old data and analytics supply chain manager Jordan Griff. The Scottsdale, Arizona resident bagged up 143,700,000, which represents roughly 24 percent of the total chips in play and is good for 90 big blinds.

Griff originally hails from New City, New York. He’s been playing poker for nine years, and primarily focuses on cash games, with interest in variants outside of no-limit hold’em, including pot-limit Omaha and limit hold’em.

“I play in some pretty big cash games, but for me it’s a hobby. I do it for fun. I enjoy playing the game,” said Griff, who is playing in his third main event. “I have love for the game.”

Griff was nearly knocked out early on during day 8. He got all-in with pocket queens as an overpair to the board and was called by a covering stack who had flopped a set of threes.

“I’m a numbers guy and all I was thinking there on that river is ‘I have 4 percent to save my life here.’ And it’s like, ’I’m going to be out, or I’m going to continue on with this dream.’ And I wasn’t even watching it. I couldn’t even… it was painful. And then I heard the gasps, I turn around and see the queen… it was just pure emotion,” said Griff. “I couldn’t control myself. It was the biggest spot of my life… I’m just excited to be here and excited to still be playing and I look forward to what Tuesday and Wednesday bring, if I make it.”

Not only did Griff spike that queen to double up early in the day. He also won a massive pot during 10-handed play, rivering quads to beat the flopped nut straight of bracelet winner Joe Serock, who fired out a sizable value bet on the end.

“Seeing the bet in front of me… in that moment I knew I was chip leader and I knew there’d be the possibility, going nine-handed, I’d be chip leader. It’s a dream come true.”

Brian Kim is the second-largest stack with 94,600,000 (59 big blinds). The 34-year-old poker player nearly achieved the dream of making the main event final table back in 2022, making it down to day 7 as one of the chip leaders but ultimately finishing 23rd.

“After the 2022 main event run, I started having a big interest in tournaments and I wanted to get better at them. So since that tournament, actually, I’ve been doing a lot of work and I definitely think it helped me a lot,” Kim told Card Player.

Kim came into this year’s main event with nearly $7.5 million in career tournament earnings, with more than $5.2 million coming from his success on the high roller Triton tour. He is one of just two players at the final table with a bracelet win under his belt, having taken down the WSOP Online $5,300 high roller back in 2022.

Niklas Astedt rounds out the top three with 94,200,000 (59 big blinds). The Swedish poker pro has nearly $3.8 million in recorded live earnings, with tens of millions in online winnings as well. The man known to many by the screen name ‘Lena900’ will be looking to become just the second Swedish player to win the main event, following in the footsteps of 2014 champion Martin Jacobson.

Joe Serock took a big hit in that hand against Griff, but remains one of the largest stacks left in the field. The 2012 World Poker Tour player of the year is the only player besides Kim with a prior win at the series, having taken down the 2023 WSOP Online $500 pot-limit Omaha event. Serock has 83,600,000 in chips and will be looking to add to his $5,540,655 in career tournament earnings in a major way at this final table.

Canada’s Jason Sagle is tied with Brian Kim for the second-highest finish in the main event among the remaining players, having placed 23rd back in 2004 for $120,000. He has roughly $1.5 million in total earnings, including $600,646 from a runner-up finish in the 2005 World Poker Tour North American Poker Championship. Sagle sits in the middle of the pack with 67,300,000 (42 big blinds).

Boris Angelov ended day 8 with 52,900,000 (33 big blinds). The Bulgarian has $1.2 million in prior scores to his name, with more than half of that coming from his runner-up finish in this year’s European Poker Tour Monte Carlo main event for $670,140.

The seventh-ranked player at the final table is Jonathan Tamayo with 26,700,000 (17 big blinds). Tamayo has more than $2.3 million in prior tournament earnings accrued across 187 in-the-money finishes, with his previous top score being the $352,832 he earned for a 21st-place finish in the 2009 WSOP main event.

France’s Malo Latinois will enter the final table with 25,500,000 (16 big blinds), while Spain’s Andres Gonzalez will be the short stack with 18,300,000 (11 big blinds). Malinois’ top score ahead of his result in this event is the $53,019 he was awarded for finishing 16th in the 2023 EPT Paris main event. Gonzalez has $757,376 in career earnings, with the majority of that coming from a pair of third-place finishes this summer. The first was in the $1,500 freezout at the series for $201,518. A couple of weeks after that he logged the same finishing spot in the $3,500 buy-in event at the Wynn Summer Classic to earn $500,602.

Setting The Final Table

Day 8 began with 18 players, which meant that nine knockouts were recorded on the road to final table. The first saw Mexico’s Gerardo Hernandez (18th – $350,000) lose a preflop flip with pocket sixes against the A-K suited of Andres Gonzalez. He was soon joined on the rail by five-time WSOP Circuit gold ring winner Jessie Bryant (17th – $450,400), who ran Q-J into another A-K suited, this time in the hands of Spain’s Guillermo Sanchez Otero. Otero flopped an ace and held from there to narrow the field to 16.

Despite scoring that knockout, Otero was ultimately the next to fall, with his AQ being outrun by the 97 of Sagle. Otero earned $450,400 as the 16th-place finisher after a seven on the river gave Sagle a winning pair.

A classic cooler spelled the end of Yegor Moroz’s run in this event. The Florida resident four-bet shoved all-in with pocket jacks over the top of Kim’s three-bet and found himself up against pocket kings. Neither player connected with the board and Moroz was eliminated in 15th place ($450,400). This was the largest tournament score yet for Moroz, coming in at nearly 10x the size of his previous top payday of $45,900 he earned for a 26th-place finish in last year’s WSOP ‘Monster Stack’.

2024 WSOP tag team event winner Jason James lost a standard preflop race to finish 14th. His 1010 was unable to outrun the AQ of Serock. James was trying to follow in the footsteps of Espen Jorstad, who won the 2022 tag team event before taking down the main event later that same year. Unfortunately for James, Serock flopped aces up and held from there to send James to the payout desk. The poker pro from Mississauga, Ontario earned $450,400, bringing his career haul to nearly $1.7 million in the process.

Four-time bracelet winner Kristen Foxen came into the day with a chance to become just the second female player to ever make a WSOP main event final table, joining 1995 world championship fifth-place finisher Barbara Enright. Several women have come close, including the four that finished tenth since Enright’s deep run: Barbara Samuelson (1994), Susie Isaacs (1998), Annie Duke (2000), and Gaelle Baumann (2012).

Foxen looked on track to achieve this historic goal in the early going, and she even managed to overtake the chip lead midway through the day. The 37-year-old poker pro from St. Catherine’s, Ontario later found herself sliding down the leaderboard as the evening wore on, though.

Just before the scheduled dinner break, she got involved in a big pot against Serock. He min-raised to 2,400,000 from under the gun with AK and Foxen called from the big blind with KQ. The flop came down AKJ and Foxen check-called a 4,000,000 continuation bet with her middle pair and gutshot straight draw. The turn brought the 5 and Serock bet 11,000,000 with his top two pair when checked to. Foxen then check-raised all-in for 36,900,000. Serock made the call and the 6 on the river ended Foxen’s run in 13th place.

The $600,000 she earned for her impressive showing in this event increased her career tournament earnings to $9,014,048, the second-highest total of any female player behind only Vanessa Selbst ($10,899,027).

Brazil’s Gabriel Moura bowed out in 12th place ($600,000) after a battle of the blinds. Sagle effectively put him all-in from the small blind with 6-5 and Moura called with Q-9. Moura flopped middle pair, but Sagle turned a nine-high straight and held from there.

Malcolm Franchi ran AQ into the AK of Griff to finish 11th ($800,000). Ace-king high played by the river to leave just ten players remaining.

The unofficial final table lasted roughly 40 minutes, with the highlight being when Griff won his big pot with quads to take the lead. The final hand of the night saw Portugal’s Diogo Coelho commit the majority of his stack preflop with AJ. He was up against AK for Astedt. The rest of the chips went in on a KQ6 flop. Coelho was in need of a ten or running jacks. The Q turn and 8 river burst the final table bubble, sending Coelho home with $800,000. This was the second-largest score of his career, trailing only the $867,235 he earned for winning a high roller at last year’s EPT Paris festival.

Play will resume with 51:20 remaining in level 39, which features blinds of 800,000-1,600,000 with a big blind ante of 1,600,000. The average stack of 67,413,333 is good for just over 42 big blinds when play resumes at 1:30 PM on Tuesday, July 16 with the goal of playing to the final three.

Here is a look at the chip counts heading into the final table:

Remaining payouts up for grabs in the 2024 WSOP main event:

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.

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