A dozen days have passed in the 2024 World Series of Poker, and with two more winners on a superb Saturday of action, proceedings drew to a thrilling climax in the $25,000 6-Max High Roller and $1,500 Limit 2-7 Lowball Triple Draw 6-Max events in Las Vegas. With four more events in action, it was a busy day at both the Horseshoe and Paris casinos in Sin City.

Schutten Shuts Down Opposition in High Roller

Brek Schutten won his first-ever high roller as he saw off the opposition in the $25,000 High Roller. Coming into the final nine, only Masashi Oya and Ognyan Dimov had previously won bracelets but with both those players busting outside the final five, there was a race to the gold between five potential first-time winners.

After Bulgarian WSOP Online Main Event winner Stoyan Madazhiev busted in 10^th place, the final nine were set and Eli Berg busted for $128,604, his losing a flip to Taylor von Kriegenbergh’s pocket nines. Soon after, Chongxian Yang joined his on the rail for the same amount, losing to the same player as von Kriegenbergh’s pocket jacks beat Yang’s with all the chips committed pre-flop.

Both Dimov and Oya bowed out next, the Bulgarian running out of luck when his short stack shove with lost to Schutten’s after a jack came on the river, before Oya lost a flip to von Kriegenbergh to cash for $229,002 in sixth place. Michael Rocco briefly took over at the top but when Schutten’s easily beat Brandon Wilson’s to knock out the overnight chip leader, Schutten began his domination.

Rocco dominated von Kriegenbergh to defeat in fourth, before Michael Rocco suffered the same fate in third place, his ill-timed shove with running into Tyler Stafman’s . Heading into the final duel, Stafman had somehow got 15,375,000 together to battle Schutten, but the latter went into heads-up with 25,450,000. Stafman, undeterred, did manage to take the lead but Schutten flopped the nut flush and made full value against Stafman’s top pair, taking a 7:1 chip lead. Soon after, Stafman shoved with and couldn’t overcome Schutten’s , a jack-high board coming to confirm Schutten as the champion and winner of the $1.4m top prize.

Cummings Controls Lowball Streets for $146k

The $1,500-entry Limit 2-7 Lowball Triple Draw 6-Max Event #22 saw Aaron Cummings win his first WSOP bracelet as a stirring performance from PokerStake player Heather Alcorn saw the former WSOP Dealer of the Year finish fourth after a hugely unlucky exit.

With 13 players beginning in seats on the final day, former chip leader James Williams was one of the players to exit before the final table. Once there, bracelet winner Danny Wong was outdrawn by the skilful Alcorn before she also took care of Anthony Lazar in sixth place.

An extended period without an elimination followed as Alexander Wilkinson busted Sean Yu for $30,800. Wilkinson also took Alcorn out, but only courtesy of a three-outer on the river which while it will have hurt, only showed just how well Alcorn played. Only extremely bad luck took her out in fourth for a fine return of $43,984.

Three-handed, Wilkinson needed to draw anything but a deuce or seven and failed, as his own fortunes balanced out and he left in third for $64,256. Heads-up was a lengthy battle between Yuichi Kanai, who led the final table when it began, and Cummings. Ultimately, the American prevailed after his perfect eight-six was the winning hand. Turning to his rail, Cummings yelled: “We got ‘em!” as he celebrated with his friends and family, before lifting the bracelet and collecting the $146,516 top prize.

Ausmus and Samual Among Final 16 in Shootout Event

The second day of three in the $1,500 NLHE Shootout Event #23 saw 160 players trimmed to just 16 as some big names made the final day where players will battle to win a top prize of $305,849. Each 10-handed table needed to be won for the player to progress and earn at least $15,027 instead of a min-cash of $6,243 that everyone who started Day 2 had already won.

After an intense day at the felt, a slew of American poker heroes headlined the survivors. The six-time WSOP bracelet winner Jeremy Ausmus will be tough to stop on the final day, as will two-time former winners Daniel Strelitz and Scott Ball, with the latter a big WSOP $25k Fantasy Draft pick.

Others to survive include British $25,000 Heads Up champion Darius Samual, who would become the first player to win two bracelet this series if he can outlast just 15 more opponents tomorrow. Brazilian player Vitor Dzivielevski – brother of online crusher Yuri – could have no better rail as he hopes to end Brazil’s hopes for a bracelet winner in the second week of the WSOP.

Day 2 sent legends such as Erick Lindgren, Boris Kolev, Julien Sitbon, Espen Jorstad, David Pham, Landon Tice and Michael Acevedo to the rail as the remaining 16 players look forward to a high noon shootout tomorrow where they will play regular NLHE down to a winner with short 40-minute levels.

PLO Hi-Lo Championship Reaches Final 13 as Brazil’s Finest Hunt Gold

A busy day of action on Day 2 of the $10,000 Pot Limit Omaha Hi-Lo Championship saw a starting field of whittled down to just 13 survivors, with two very famous Brazilian players heading to the final furlong in search of gold. It is Robert Tanita (2.99m) who leads the field, hoping to end his personal wait for a WSOP bracelet. Behind him, however, lurk luminaries of the game who know exactly how to close out WSOP events.

Joao Simao (1.84m) is second in chips as he seeks to win a third WSOP title, while his fellow Brazilian Yuri Dzivielevski (1,275,000) will start his race to a potential fifth bracelet from sixth on the grid. Both Tyler Brown (1,705,000) and Luis Velado (1.7m) are in the top four chipcounts as they bid for a second and third bracelet respectively.

$3k Six-Max and Gladiators of Poker Battle on Busy Day 1s

Two other events concluded Day 1s on the 12^th day of action in this year’s WSOP in Las Vegas. They were very different events, affected by a single zero on the end of the buy-in, with thousands of ‘weekend warriors’ playing Day 1c of the $300 Gladiators of Poker (Event #20) and hundreds taking on the $3,000-entry 6-Max NLHE (Event #25).

In The Gladiators of Poker event, strong performances from players such as Andreas Kniep – he of the pocket aces hand in the WSOP Main Event – reached the upper limits of the leaderboard made it to Day 2 along with former bracelet winner Tamas Lendvai and popular American player Barry Shultz.

In the $3,000 6-Max NLHE event, Jared Bleznick (226,000) bagged a top ten stack as play ended with Brian Tate (327,000) and Alex Keating (306,000) dueling for control of the event at the top of the charts. Strong showings from Florian Pesce (294,000) Jason Daly (265,000) and Daniel Idema (230,000) mean it will be a top quality field on Day 2 tomorrow.

With thanks to PokerGO for their official WSOP photography. The 2024 World Series of Poker is available to watch exclusively on PokerGO. Subscribe today and watch all the drama play out in Las Vegas!