The Muck · WSOP Daily Brief
Day 51
The summer ends today, and Tuesday cleared the runway. Three more bracelets landed on Day 50: David Peters won the $10,000 6-Max Championship for $1,001,391 and bracelet number five, then re-entered the workforce by bagging a Day 1 stack in Event #99 the same night. Joshua Wang, a recreational player, beat Erik Seidel heads-up in the $3K PLO 6-Max to deny the legend an 11th bracelet, and Garrett Dwire turned $500 into $210,000 in the Summer Saver. We can also finally confirm Johnny Oshana won the 11,185-entry Gladiators of Poker for $250,000, per WSOP.com, resolving the hole in our count. That makes 96 of 100 by our tally, with four bracelets all scheduled to land today: the $25K H.O.R.S.E. where Julien Sitbon leads the final 16 and the entire POY podium of Foxen, Kihara, and Deeb is somehow still alive and literally seated next to each other, the $5K 8-Handed where Hellmuth lurks with a short stack, the $800 Deepstack, and the one-day Super Turbo. Last call in Vegas.
Story 01 of 6
David Peters won Event #94: $10,000 6-Handed No-Limit Hold'em Championship on Tuesday, topping a 558-entry field for $1,001,391 and his fifth WSOP bracelet, defeating Fahredin Mustafov heads-up, per PokerNews and Card Player. The event needed an extra day after PokerNews' Day 49 recap noted four players were still standing at the scheduled finish. Poker.org called it a crazy finish that gave Peters a summer-saving win. Peters then registered Event #99: $5,000 8-Handed NLHE and bagged 765,000 on Day 1, per PokerNews' Day 50 recap, because apparently the appropriate celebration for a million-dollar score is 20 more levels of poker.
Why it mattersFive bracelets puts Peters in genuinely rare company for a player still primarily known as a high-roller crusher, and doing it in a $10K 6-Max championship field is the hard way. The same-night re-entry into Event #99 is the quiet flex of the week: most players take a victory lap, Peters took a seat assignment. If he runs deep today he could bookend the summer with hardware.
Story 02 of 6
Joshua Wang won Event #96: $3,000 6-Handed Pot-Limit Omaha for $407,137 and his first bracelet, defeating Erik Seidel heads-up, per PokerNews. Wang is described by PokerNews as a recreational player, and he ran through a final table to deny one of the most decorated players in poker history an 11th piece of WSOP hardware. Seidel, who won his 10th bracelet in 2021, settled for runner-up in what PokerNews framed as a dominant final table performance from Wang.
Why it mattersSeidel is 66 and has been making final tables across five decades, so every near-miss now carries the weight of maybe being the last real shot at 11. Instead the bracelet goes to a rec player in a PLO event, which is the exact kind of chaos that keeps amateurs booking flights to Vegas. Only Hellmuth (17), Chan, Brunson, and Ivey (10 each) sit at or above Seidel's 10, and the gap to Hellmuth is not getting closed this summer.
Story 03 of 6
Event #97: $25,000 High Roller H.O.R.S.E. plays to a winner today with Frenchman Julien Sitbon leading the final 16 at 3,800,000, ahead of Alexander Kostritsyn (3,205,000) and Ali Eslami (1,990,000), per PokerNews. The kicker: Naoya Kihara (1,060,000), Alex Foxen (930,000), and Shaun Deeb (550,000), the top three in the WSOP Player of the Year race, are all still in and drew seats next to each other for Day 3. PokerNews reports the winner collects $872,052 and 877.62 POY points, and the standings sit at Foxen 3,283, Deeb 3,180, Kihara 3,042. A win for Foxen or Deeb would make them the first player past 4,000 points this year. Sitbon, who won an online bracelet in 2023 and finished second in this summer's $10K Mystery Bounty, is chasing his first live one. Ari Engel (1,860,000) and Josh Arieh (315,000) also remain.
Why it mattersThis is the last meaningful POY battlefield until WSOP Paradise in December, where the race is decided for the first time ever. A hundred-point spread across the top three with 877 points on the line means today's result could effectively set the Bahamas stakes. And the seating chart put all three contenders elbow to elbow for the finale, which is either a scheduling accident or the best television the WSOP never planned.
Story 04 of 6
Garrett Dwire won Event #95: $500 Summer Saver No-Limit Hold'em, beating 4,621 opponents for his first bracelet and a career-best $210,000, per PokerNews. The $500 buy-in was the cheapest open bracelet event left on the schedule and drew the full post-Main Event crowd, including a certain reigning POY who lasted approximately one orbit on Monday.
Why it mattersA 420-to-1 return on the buy-in and a bracelet is the whole sales pitch of the low-stakes WSOP events in one result. Dwire outlasting a 4,622-entry field in a fast structure is a real accomplishment dressed up as a lottery win. The Summer Saver name finally paid off for somebody.
Story 05 of 6
WSOP.com's series update confirms Johnny Oshana won Event #88: $300 Gladiators of Poker, topping an 11,185-entry field for $250,000. We had flagged this event as unconfirmed for two straight days while our tally sat at 92; the official confirmation closes the books on the biggest field of the late summer. WSOP.com's roundup did not state the exact completion date, so we are logging it as newly confirmed rather than a Tuesday result.
Why it mattersAn 11,185-entry field means Oshana beat more players than the Main Event and the Mid-Stakes Championship combined, for roughly a fortieth of the Main Event's first prize, which is the eternal math of the $300 buy-in. More importantly for our accounting: the bracelet count now reads 96 of 100, with the four remaining Vegas bracelets all scheduled to land today and the Main Event's parked until August 5.
Story 06 of 6
July 15 is Day 51, the final day of the Vegas series, and all four remaining open events finish today, per PokerNews. In Event #99: $5,000 8-Handed NLHE, 72 of 884 players return, with Australia's Josh Norvock leading at 1,530,000 and Adam Hendrix third with 1,285,000. Also bagged: Cliff Josephy, Joseph Cheong, Leo Margets, Brian Rast, fresh champion David Peters, Jennifer Harman (187,000), and Phil Hellmuth (165,000). In Event #98: $800 Deepstack, Israel's Kfir Nahum leads the final 129 of 2,036 with 2,030,000, with Ryuta Nakai and Jonathan Little in the top ten. Event #100: $1,000 Super Turbo, a one-day event with 20-minute levels, kicks off the last bracelet chase of the summer; Mitchell Hynam is the defending champion. First prize in the $5K is $695,256.
Why it mattersHellmuth chasing bracelet 18 with 13 big blinds on the last day of the series is the most on-brand possible ending to this summer, and the room knows it. Hendrix has $10.5 million in live earnings and zero bracelets, the most decorated empty trophy case in the field. And the Super Turbo means someone will win a bracelet tonight in roughly the time it takes to valet a car. Four bracelets today, then everything goes quiet until the August Nine.
Three bracelets were awarded Tuesday, July 14 (Peters, Wang, Dwire), and WSOP.com confirmed Johnny Oshana's Gladiators of Poker win, which our tally had been missing. Count now stands at 96 of 100. The last four Vegas bracelets (Events #97, #98, #99, #100) are all scheduled to be decided today, July 15. The Main Event bracelet waits until August 5.
Fifth bracelet, topped 558 entries, beat Fahredin Mustafov heads-up after the event needed an extra day, per PokerNews and Card Player. Re-entered the workforce in Event #99 the same night.
First bracelet for the recreational player, beat Erik Seidel heads-up and denied the legend an 11th bracelet, per PokerNews.
First bracelet and a career-best score, beat 4,621 opponents in the cheapest open event left on the schedule, per PokerNews.
Topped an 11,185-entry field, per WSOP.com. Newly confirmed; exact completion date not stated in our source, so this resolves the gap we flagged in the previous two briefs.
Counts are end-of-Day-50 bags per PokerNews. Event #97 resumes at 1 p.m. with 16 left, Event #99 at 1 p.m. with 72 left, Event #98 at 11 a.m. with 129 left. All finish today.
A quiet day for marquee bustouts by July standards. Day 50 attrition in Events #97, #98, and #99 was not itemized with notable names and payouts in our sources.
Beaten heads-up by recreational player Joshua Wang, denied an 11th bracelet, per PokerNews. Runner-up prize not stated in our sources.
Fell heads-up to David Peters in the extra-day finale, per PokerNews and Card Player. Runner-up prize not stated in our sources.
Second in chips among the POY trio in the $25K H.O.R.S.E. with 930,000 and 16 left. A win pays 877.62 points and would make him the first player past 4,000 this year.
The Main Event points landed and he has overtaken Kihara, exactly as forecast. Now sitting on 550,000 in the H.O.R.S.E., 22 stud hands from flipping the race. Still chasing the first-ever third POY title and a first-ever repeat.
Eighth in chips with 1,060,000, the best-stacked of the trio. PokerNews notes he can pass both rivals with a deep run if they bust early, and they are seated close enough to watch it happen.
Quietly ahead of Arieh, Lonis, and Negreanu in the published standings. Needs a Paradise miracle but the top five was not on anyone's bingo card in May.
PokerNews reports he is wrapping up a highly profitable summer, with bracelet number eight and $2.25 million already banked from the $100K PLO. The POY math needs Paradise, but the year is already a win.