Jonathan Tamayo Wins Largest World Series of Poker Main Event Ever Held

After two weeks of adrenaline-pumping action, the 2024 World Series of Poker $10,000 no-limit hold’em main event has finally narrowed its record field of 10,112 entries down to a single player. Longtime poker pro Jonathan Tamayo emerged victorious with the championship bracelet and the first-place prize of $10,000,000.

“Joe McKeehen told me that this tournament’s impossible to win. And then, when the field size is bigger, you feel like it’s even more impossible to win,” said Tamayo after closing out the historic win. “But, you just sit down on day 1, you’re just like, ‘Okay, eventually I’m going to bust this tournament. It’s not going to be pretty, I’m not going to feel great and you’re going to go on with your life and mentally prepare yourself for it.’ I just can’t believe I did not bust the main event.”

The 38-year-old poker pro from Humble, Texas came into this event with $2.3 million in prior tournament earnings from 187 prior recorded tournament cashes. Now he has more than $12.3 million, and has added his name to the prestigious list of world champions.

Joining him in that elite company is his friend Joe McKeehen, who helped present Tamayo with his bracelet. The 2015 WSOP main event winner was on Tamayo’s rail down the stretch, working alongside four-time bracelet winner Dominik Nitsche.

“Joe and Dom helped. If they weren’t here, I’d likely do not win this tournament,” Tamayo said in his chat with the collected media after winning. “I might be out eighth, I might be out seventh… I might win this tournament, but a whole other bunch of good things would actually would’ve had to happen for that to happen.”

This was Tamayo’s first bracelet, which he can add to his collection of four WSOP Circuit rings. Prior to this win, his top score was a 21st-place finish in the 2009 main event for $352,832. He also had one other top-100 showing, placing 78th in 2015.

“If you get one deep run, chances are that’s the one deep run,” said Tamayo when asked about running deep in this event again after that previous close call 15 years ago. “I cant’ believe I was able to get two, to get a second chance, and actually close it.”

This was the second straight year that an American player has won poker’s world championship, with Tamayo following in the footsteps of 2023 winner Daniel Weinman. Prior to that there was a four-year stretch of international champions that included Norway’s Espen Jorstad (2022), Germany’s Koray Aldemir (2021) and Hossein Ensan (2019), and Argentina’s Damian Salas (2020).

Tamayo came into the final day of this event in second chip position among the last three contenders. There was still $20,000,000 in prize money left to play for from the $94,041,600 prize pool that was built by the record turnout for this event.

Check out a recap of the first day of final table action HERE.

Niklas Astedt was the chip leader to start the day. He found himself battling with start-of-day short stack Jordan Griff often in the early going.

Griff had just edged Astedt out for the chip lead, moving ahead by a single 500,000 chip in time for one of the biggest clashes of the day. Astedt raised to 8,000,000 from the button with KJ and Griff three-bet to 28,000,000 from the small blind. Adstedt called and the flop came down 1093 to give Griff middle set. He bet 25,000 and Astedt called with his overcards and gutshot straight draw.

The turn brought the J to give Astedt top pair to go with his draw. Griff moved all-in, putting Astedt to the test for his whole stack. Astedt went into the tank as the shove was counted down. After plenty of consideration he made the call for his remaining 159,000,000. Astedt called and found himself in need of a queen on the river in order to keep his hopes alive. The river instead brought the K and Griff’s three nines took down the pot.

Heads-Up play has officially been reached at the @WSOP Main Event Final Table!

Who will win it all?

: https://t.co/s5mI1gdqOt pic.twitter.com/YMpjkkf4Kp

— PokerGO (@PokerGO) July 17, 2024

“Yeah, it’s a tough one,” Astedt told PokerGO sideline reporter Jeff Platt after hitting the rail. “I didn’t think he would necessarily would shove like an over pair there, he should be trapping most of his good hand on the turn. [Sigh] I don’t know, man, that was a tough one. He is a bit of a wild one and, you know, pretty top heavy structure. I’m not sure still if I like it, but it’s a tough one.”

Astedt earned $4,000,000 as the third-place finisher. The online tournament poker legend known to many as ‘Lena900’ reportedly has more than $48 million in tournament earnings on the internet. With this deep run, he now has nearly $7.9 million in live scores as well. The 33-year-old Swedish poker pro now sits in second place on his home nation’s money list, trailing only 2014 WSOP main event champion Martin Jacobson’s $18.1 million.

On just the second hand of heads-up play, Griff attempted a triple barrel bluff that was ultimately picked off by Tamayo, who had flopped top pair of aces with a six kicker. Tamayo went deep into the tank on the end but eventually called to overtake the chip lead.

Griff soon found a double up of his own, getting all-in on the turn with jacks and sixes leading the pair of jacks with an ace kicker held by Tamayo. A safe river saw the tables turned again, with Griff taking a slight lead again. Griff continued to extend his advantage, and had a shot at closing out the win when he got all-in with 77 racing against the K10 of Tamayo.

Nearly all the drama was drained from the situation when the flop came down QJ9 to give Tamayo a king-high straight with a straight flush redraw. The 5 on the turn left Griff drawing dead, and the K river saw Tamayo double back in front.

Griff doubled up with pocket sixes against Tamayo’s A8 to bring about yet another lead change. This lead was short lived, though, as Tamayo doubled back to nearly even with top pair holding against middle pair after all of the chips went in on the flop.

Tamayo was able to get back out in front in time for the decisive hand of the tournament. With blinds of 2,500,000-5,000,000 and a big blind ante of 5,000,000, Tamayo raised to 12,500,000 from the button with 83. Griff called with 96 and the flop came down 983. Griff checked and Tamayo bet 10,000,000 with his two pair. Griff check-raised to 40,000,000 with top pair. Tamayo moved all-in and Griff called off for 230,000,000 total.

The turn was the A, which gave Griff some additional outs. He could now catch an ace, nine, or six heading into the river to double up. The 5 rolled off on the end instead, locking up the pot and the title for Tamayo.

Griff earned $6,000,000 as the runner-up, blowing away his previous top score of $18,104 for a final-table finish in a WSOP Circuit event at Thunder Valley Casino Resort last year. The 30-year-old data and analytics supply chain manager for Meta came close to living out the dream of every amateur poker player, but ended up falling one spot short of hoisting the bracelet. The New City, New York native, now based in Arizona, was playing in just his third main event.

Tamayo drew a lot of attention from the poker world when he folded pocket queens to a single raise late on day 8 with one knockout left before the final table was set. When asked about ‘the haters’ and the discussion around the hand, Tamayo said, “Fold queens. Play 8-3 off.”

In addition to securing the eight-figure top prize and the bracelet, Tamayo also earned plenty of rankings points. The 3,600 Card Player Player of the Year points he was awarded were enough to move him into 11th place in the 2024 POY standings presented by Global Poker. This was his first title and second final-table finish of the year, having finished third in the inaugural PGT Texas Poker Open main event for $180,000 and 912 points. He now sits with 4,512 total points.

Tamayo also earned 1,550 PokerGO Tour points for the win. With 1,730 total PGT points, he now sits in second place on that high-stakes-centric leaderboard, trailing only Michael Rocco and his 1,835 points.

Here is a look at the full results from the 2024 WSOP main event 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.

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