Level 40
: Blinds 1,000,000/2,000,000, 2,000,000 ante
Hand #104: Steven Jones opened to 4,000,000 with A?3? as the first player to act and Adam Walton called from the next seat with K?J? before Ruslan Prydryk called on the button with 4?3?. Jan-Peter Jachtmann also called from the big blind with 6?5?. Walton bet 5,000,000 on the flop of K?9?7? and all three of his opponents folded.
Hand #105: Daniel Weinman opened to 4,000,000 on the button with 10?8? and took down the pot.
Level 40
: Blinds 1,000,000/2,000,000, 2,000,000 ante
Ruslan Prydryk Elimination
Hand #106: Ruslan Prydryk open-jammed a stack of 24,000,000 from the hijack and Daniel Weinman called in the cutoff to put the Ukrainian at risk.
Ruslan Prydryk: Q?10?
Daniel Weinman: A?J?
The flop landed 2?J?A? to give Weinman the lead with two pair but Prydryk was left hope with four outs to Broadway. His outs increased on the Q? turn before the 8? bricked off to mark his elimination in fifth place for $2,400,000 as Weinman lept into the chip lead.
Level 40
: Blinds 1,000,000/2,000,000, 2,000,000 ante
Steven Jones
Hand #107: Adam Walton limped out of the small blind with 7?6? and Daniel Weinman raised to 6,000,000 from the big blind with A?J?, shutting down Walton.
Hand #108: Seven Jones raised to 4,000,000 with 8?8? and Jan-Peter Jachtmann defended the big blind with A?4? to the 8?6?4? flop. The German checked and subsequently called Jones' bet of 3,500,000 before checking the 2? turn. Jones fired another bet worth 12,000,000 into 18,000 and Jachtmann checked his stack before coming along.
That brought them to the 6? river, which paired the board and completed a potential flush draw. Jachtmann bet 24,000,000 and Jones double-checked his cards. After one minute of consideration, Jones raised to 65,000,000 and Jachtmann folded.
Hand #109: Walton raised it up to 4,000,000 K?10? from under the gun, Jones called in the big blind with Q?10?.
The 10?9?6? from was checked right away to the 6? turn, which brought no betting action either.
On the J? river, Jones checked and Walton bet 8,000,000 into 11,000,000. Jones reluctantly called with his queen-ten but Walton had the best of it with the king-ten.
Hand #110: Weinman made it 4,000,000 to go with 8?6? and Walton defended the big blind with K?8?. On a flop of J?J?6?, Walton check-called for 2,000,000 and the 10? turn went check, check.
Walton bet the K? river for 5,000,000 and Weiman reluctantly folded.
Hand #111: Walton limped the small blind with Q?9? and Weinman knuckled it back with 6?3? to the K?Q?7? flop. No betting action led to the 6? turn on which Walton bet 4,500,000 and Weinman folded.
Level 40
: Blinds 1,000,000/2,000,000, 2,000,000 ante
Jan-Peter Jachtmann
Hand #112: Steven Jones opened to 4,000,000 from the hijack with K?8? and took down the pot.
Hand #113: Daniel Weinman opened to 4,00,000 on the button with A?4? and Steven Jones defended out of the big blind with J?8?. Jones checked on the flop of K?K?10? and Weinman continued for 2,000,000. Jones folded.
Hand #114: Jan-Peter Jachtmann opened to 4,000,000 with K?8? on the button and Steven Jones called in the small blind with K?10?. Jones checked on the flop of 3?3?6? and Jachtmann bet 5,000,000. Jones called. Jones checked again on the 10? turn and Jachtmann sized up to 20,500,000. Jones sat still with his hand over his chest before announcing all in to bring a snap-fold from Jachtmann.
Hand #115: Adam Walton completed in the small blind with K?5? and Daniel Weinman checked in the big blind with 8?5?. Walton checked on the flop of 6?6?4? and Weinman bet 2,000,000. Walton called. Walton checked again on the 8? turn and Weinman bet 8,000,000 to bring a quick fold from his opponent.
Level 40
: Blinds 1,000,000/2,000,000, 2,000,000 ante
Jan-Peter Jachtmann
Hand #116: Steven Jones opened to 4,000,000 in the cutoff and Adam Walton called on the button. Jan-Peter Jachtmann three-bet jammed a stack of 54,000,000 in the big blind and Walton called with a bigger stack.
Jan-Peter Jachtmann: K?Q?
Adam Walton: A?A?
Jachtmann had run into aces and got absolutely no help from the 2?9?5? flop. The 6? turn had him drawing dread before a blank river confirmed his elimination.
Level 40
: Blinds 1,000,000/2,000,000, 2,000,000 ante
The final three contenders
The record-breaking 2023 World Series of Poker Main Event is one step closer to crowning a winner at the Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas. Out of a staggering field of 10,043 entries who ponied up the $10,000 buy-in for the biggest live poker event of the year, only three players remain in contention for the largest portion of the gargantuan $93,399,900 prize pool.
Steven Jones soared to the top of the leaderboard and boasts 238,000,000 to his name, while Daniel Weinman (199,000,000) and Adam Walton (165,500,000) follow suit not far behind. The chip leader holds 119 big blinds while Walton still has almost 83 big blinds at his disposal, promising deep-stacked action for the conclusion of the tournament.
The penultimate tournament day lasted a total of 116 hands during which the field was reduced from nine hopefuls to just three contenders, all of which hail from the United States. Chances of a potential Main Event champion from Germany for the third time within the last five years came to an end when Jan-Peter Jachtmann was knocked out in fourth place.
Having lost several pots in quick succession to tumble towards the bottom of the leaderboard, the German businessman and Pot-Limit Omaha aficionado three-bet jammed for 27 big blinds with king-queen right into the pocket aces of Walton. Once it was his turn to act, Walton instantly grabbed his cards and triumphantly slammed them on the felt before heading to his rail and high-fiving everyone already. There was no miracle escape for Jachtmann and the action for the evening concluded.
Loud “USA,USA,USA” chants could be heard all over the Horseshoe Event Center when it came time to bagging and tagging, and the first winner from the United States will be crowned since John Cynn back in 2018.
Seating Chart for the Final Day
Seat
Player
Country
Chip Count
Big Blinds
1
Steven Jones
United States
238,000,000
119
4
Adam Walton
United States
165,500,000
83
5
Daniel Weinman
United States
199,000,000
100
Jones started the penultimate tournament day second in chips and was responsible for several eliminations to bring the event one step closer to a winner.
"It feels amazing. Everything came into plan as as as I wanted to do it today. Worked out really well, picked up some big hands at some key spots," Jones confirmed.
Second in chips is Walton, who entered with the most chips but experienced a roller coaster ride that would have left many others frustrated. However, his boisterous rail made sure that he stayed on track and finished on a high.
"I mean, frustrated? No, Obviously, I was wishing for something better. But like, this is obviously, like such a fun time. Everybody’s here. Yeah, Not. Not especially by the end."
The previous best WSOP Main Event finish of Weinman was a 173rd place but he is now guaranteed at least $4 million with pay jumps worth millions of dollars. He relaxed on the golf course with fellow finalist Toby Lewis on the day off prior to the first final table stage. Lewis' bid for a maiden WSOP gold bracelet and next major live poker title was cut short in seventh place while Weinman retained his chances of more WSOP honours.
"The day today couldn’t have gotten much better," he concluded and added. "I thought I had a lot of big hands early, made some chips, didn’t really get put to too many tough decisions, which was fortunate because there were a couple of spots where Adam really could have put me in the blender and kind of got fortunate that he gave up on a couple of hands, kind of just had the cards. Don’t really think I did anything too special. Just played really solid poker, made a few hands at the right time and looking forward to a battle tomorrow."
Daniel Weinman
All three Americans now have one night to prepare for the final stage, which will once again be shown on the PokerGO live stream platform. There are 43:33 minutes left in level 40 at blinds of 1,000,000-2,000,000 with a big blinds ante, which makes for an incredible average of 100 big blinds to chase the $12,100,000 top prize.
"Yeah, I expect tomorrow to be a battle. It’s probably going to be a really long day. Obviously, some good players left. It’s it’s going to I think it’s going to be a long day," chip leader Jones predicted after bagging and tagging for the night.
It only took slightly more than two and a half levels to wrap up the day but the first elimination only unfolded in hand #43 but caused fireworks thereafter. In the span of eight hands, three of the finalists were sent to the payout desk and half a dozen players suddenly remained.
First to depart was Italian apple tree farmer Daniel Holzner who had navigated a shorter stack for a long time leading up to the nine-handed final table. He was chipped down to a short stack and doubled only to then lose a flip with ace-jack against the pocket tens of Jones.
Dean Hutchison boasted one of the loudest rails in the Thunderdome but never pulled away from a short stack. In the final hand ahead of the second break, the Scotsman put his hopes on pocket fives but Jachtmann had him pipped with pocket sevens in the big blind.
That elimination ensured a pay jump for fellow short stack Ruslan Prydryk, who went on to double once the action resumed. However, Prydryk saw his stack cut down throughout several hands without a showdown and Weinman dealt the final blow in a preflop contest. For his efforts, Prydryk collected $2.4 million and jumped into fifth place on the Ukrainian all-time money list according to The Hendon Mob.
Tournament staff informed the final four players to wrap up with three remaining or upon conclusion of the next level. It would only take another ten hands for Jachtmann to become the distinct short stack and he jammed two paint cards at the worst possible time to settle for a career-best score of $3 million.
Final Table Results and Remaining Payouts
Place
Player
Country
Prize (in USD)
1
$12,100,000
2
$6,500,000
3
$4,000,000
4
Jan-Peter Jachtmann
Germany
$3,000,000
5
Ruslan Prydryk
Ukraine
$2,400,000
6
Dean Hutchison
Scotland
$1,850,000
7
Toby Lewis
England
$1,425,000
8
Juan Maceiras
Spain
$1,125,000
9
Daniel Holzner
Italy
$900,000
All three Americans now have locked up $4 million already but each elimination comes with a massive seven-figure pay jump. The action resumes the following day as of 1 p.m. local time and the PokerNews live reporting team will be back to provide hand-for-hand coverage according to the delay of the PokerGO live stream as of 2 p.m. local time on Monday, July 17, 2023, until the new WSOP Main Event champion has been crowned.
