The $2,500 freezeout was won by Spaniard Antonio Galiana, who took home $439,395 for his efforts.
Game of Gold star Johan “YoH ViraL” Guilbert took second place for a $292,927 score.
Heads-up, they played a crazy hand with a 5-bet bluff shove on the river.
One of the best bluffs in @WSOP history!?
— PokerGO (@PokerGO) June 15, 2024
🤯🤯🤯
📺: https://t.co/s2pDl56eOX pic.twitter.com/C77fQew46T
The winner explained after the tournament that he expected to get lots of folds in this spot from his capped opponent. "When he raises, he is not representing anything, because all of his good clubs are either betting the flop or the turn due to the high stack-to-pot ratio; betting was the only way to get all the money in by the river."
The final table turned out to be quite stellar – Jeremy Ausmus was eliminated in 3rd place, Juha Helppi took 4th place, and Patrick Leonard took 7th place.
New WSOP Bracelet Owner Accused of Huge Scam
After the victory, it turned out that the newly minted champion was an experienced fraudster. Jason Philpott, founder of the Spin&Go school team651, responded in the comments to the sensational distribution by asking Galiana for the money he'd (allegedly) stolen.
Jason added a link to the post for the 2018 2+2 theme. It details that Galiana and his partner were members of this school and stole $94,180.70 over the course of a year. Payments were calculated at the end of the month depending on EV. Which is what the scammers took advantage of. To maximize their profits, they did literally anything – they forged hand histories, played with fake documents, multi-accounted, and even created a fake website in order to successfully pass the audit.
Galiana first accused the school leaders of persecution and deception, but then abruptly changed his tone :
Since this story was published by PokerNews, Team 651, Jason, and I have discussed and resolved this matter to all parties’ satisfaction. I am retracting any statements suggesting he defamed or harassed me. A statement from Jason confirming this will follow shortly.
Jason confirmed 6 minutes later:
"Team 651 and Antonio have discussed, and resolved this matter to everyone’s satisfaction. As part of these discussions, he explained the limited scope of his involvement, and we found him to be credible."
We never learned any other details, such as whether Galiana paid any compensation. All tweets with mutual accusations were deleted.
One of the strongest mix game regulars in recent years, Phillip Hui, won Event 35: $1,500 HORSE.
In America, HORSE is a traditionally popular format and cheap tournaments attract an impressive event attracted 835 entries, Phillip received $193,545 for the victory.
In heads-up, Hui made up a 1 to 10 deficit, and this is already becoming his trick. As he told reporters, it isn't the first time he's come back from next to nothing.
"This is my favourite event — my favourite variant of poker,"
"When I won my first bracelet in 2014 in the O8, I was 16:1 down heads-up and came back,"
"When I won the PPC I was down 4:1 and then when I won the PLO [in 2022] I literally never had over 20 big blinds until I got heads-up."
"If you have chips or you're in the tournament or you're in the game of whatever sport, you can't give up. It's kind of cliche but I try to center myself after every hand, whether I played a hand poorly or not. I just tried to stay focused and take one hand at a time."
Timur Margolin from Israel won the third bracelet in the Deepstack 8-Handed for $800, turning it into an impressive $342,551.
After the victory, Timur praised his family.
"If it wasn't for my wife's support, I would be playing the Series in the first place."
Second place went to Agharazi Babayev from Azerbaijan ($228,321). He was selling shares on our Russian forum and, it seems, is seriously determined to please his three shareholders.
The $10,000 Big O tournament was held for the first time on the series. Judging by the 332 entries, it's safe to assume that this format will catch on.
The winner was John Fauver ($681,998), a little-known Omaha specialist from West Virginia.
“I was short the whole time, and I was just trying to survive,” admitted the young champion.“I found a couple spots, where the cards fell perfect for me. Kept me at a playable stack and then it just kept working out for me.”
Once again, Calvin Anderson stopped a step away from the bracelet. He received $454,668 for second place. At the very beginning of the series, he took 3rd place in the $10,000 Omaha Hi-Lo Championship (won by Scott Seiver).
At the moment, Calvin is the most valuable player in Negreanu's fantasy draft.
Scott Seaver won his second bracelet of the series and sixth of his career in the $1,500 Razz Tournament ($141,374).
From the very beginning of the episode, Scott emphasizes his serious attitude and successfully backs up his words with deeds. He offered bets to everyone on bracelets, points in the “Player of the Year” race and points in fantasy (he is now third here).
Following his 6th bracelet and second of the 55th annual WSOP, Scott told reporters:
“It’s this weird feeling where you set a goal that should be close to impossible and then take the steps to do it.”
Scott has his sights on a special achievement, which his performance, so far, aligns with.
“I really, truly want to win Player of the Year this year. I’m going to do as much as I can to make that happen.”
This year's rankings are dominated by superstars.
Brandon Shack-Harris was second in the razz tournament, knocked out by Seivers 10-7. As Mikhail Savinov aptly noted, it is a rare case when two strongest players played for the title in MTT, and the stronger one won.
Sergio Aido won the $50,000 High Roller ($1,703,383).
He tied heads-up with Chance Kornuth ($1,674,123).
Viktor Blom came in third ($951,727).
This is Isildur's first great success in a long time. After numerous online troubles, he did not appear in public at all for several years. In 2023, unexpectedly for many, he came to Las Vegas and, it seems, he and his shareholders liked the experience.
8th place went to Bruce Buffer – the voice of the UFC.
Artur Martirosyan took 12th place in the event. Martin Kabrhel, as always, was very active, and got eliminated in 10th place.
Bruce Buffer gave the start to the final day in his inimitable manner, however, this could not have happened without the help of Martin.
In the $1,500 Monster Stack tournament, players made 8,703 entries (in 2023 there were 8,317).
While three starting days were played and in these minutes they were finishing the second, in one of them Ali Imsirovich was noticed at the tables.
“Welcome back to the WSOP, Mr. Imsirovic,” Ben Ludlow greeted him. "Just a reminder no solvers allowed at the table"
The England team made its debut at the European Football Championship on Sunday. Patrick Leonard really wanted to watch the match:
Table mate getting here 2 mins before me and requesting the golf so I can’t watch the England euros game to tilt me is the smartest angle I’ve seen! pic.twitter.com/0bdajQ7g7v
— Patrick Leonard 🫡 (@padspoker) June 16, 2024
Patrick took up the solution to the problem himself, and soon he knocked out the “golfer”:
“There could only be one winner in this battle.” Luckily, God is a football fan.
