Congratulations to Simon Charette, Winner of Event 23: $3,000 No-Limit Hold'em Six-Handed ($567,624)!
Early Monday afternoon, 924 hopefuls dished out $3,000 for Event 23: No-Limit Hold’em Six-Handed in hopes of turning it into fame and fortune – or at the very least to cut a profit. After three long and hard-fought days of six-handed action, it would be Simon Charette who took home the gold bracelet and the $567,624 that went along with it.
Even with just 18 players remaining going into Day 3, it was still a stacked field with the likes of Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, Freddy Deeb, Andrew Lichtenberger, Eugene Katchalov and Scott Montgomery. Fun fact: combined – those five players alone have over $25 million in tournament winnings.
The day started off fast and furious with six eliminations occurring within the first half of the first level of play. Katchalov was one of the early victims when he made a short-stack push with 
into Eddie Blumenthal’s 
. Katchalov paired his queen, however, Blumenthal would spike an ace on the river to sent Katchalov to the rail.
The eliminations came a bit more slowly after that, but they did come. Freddy Deeb met his end in 10th place after he found himself dominated in a blind versus blind confrontation.
Andrew Lichtenberger would bubble the unofficial final table after his pocket kings fell to the ace-queen of Artem Metalidi after getting it all in preflop.
After relocating to the main stage of the Pavilion, the final seven players joined together onto a final table. Scott Montgomery would be the first to go after pushing a flush draw on the flop and whiffing. Not long after, Grospellier hit the rail after his 
could not hold up against Luis Rodriguez Cruz's 
.
The pace of play slowed considerably following Grospellier’s elimination as no one left was particularly short-stacked and no big hands developed. However, Simon Charette used this time to amp up the aggression and push himself near the chip lead during five-handed play.
Foster Hays went out in 5th place shortly after dinner break when his 
failed to improve against Metalidi’s after pushing all-in preflop.
Next to go would be Eddie Blumenthal, who ran his pretty-looking 
into statistically the worst-possible hand, aces, held by Charette. He failed to improve and was sent to the rail in 4th place.
Luis Rodriguez Cruz was scrappy and managed to double during three-handed play, but he would eventually have to settle for 3rd place after his 
failed to hold up in a race against Charette’s .
Heads-up play was short lived, to say the least – lasting just a few hands. Medalidi’s fate as runner-up occurred after he six-bet shoved 
preflop and was called by Charette holding . The 
board didn’t improve Metalidi’s hand and he had to settle for 2nd place.
Congratulations to Simon Charette, who has now bested his second-place finish that occurred last year during Event #48: $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em.
Event #23 $3,000 No Limit Six-Handed Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | Simon Charette | $567,624 |
| 2nd | Artem Metalidi | $350,806 |
| 3rd | Luis Rodriguez Cruz | $225,511 |
| 4th | Eddie Blumenthal | $146,053 |
| 5th | Foster Hays | $98,756 |
| 6th | Bertrand Grospellier | $68,738 |
Thank you from all of us here at PokerNews for tuning in and following along as we crowned yet another WSOP champion. Until next time – goodnight from Las Vegas!