The WSOP Main Event had a much-needed off day for the final nine participants on Monday, but the action didn’t stop at Paris and Horseshoe casinos in Las Vegas. Day 49 of the 2024 World Series of Poker had seven events in motion, including the return of “The Closer” for players looking for one last chance to spin up a far score to bookend the summer. Two more WSOP gold bracelets were given out, and plenty of big names secured big bags in the final tournaments of the series.

Rocco Runs Pure to Win $10k 6-Max Championship

In a span of two hands, Michael Rocco went from a likely runner-up performance to WSOP gold bracelet winner in Event #94: $10,000 6-Handed No-Limit Hold’em Championship, keeping Alexandre Reard from going back-to-back in this event after he won it last year. Rocco, who earned $924,922 for the win, topped a field of 502 players, including 28 who returned for today’s final day of action.

Andrew Moreno, Viktor Blom, and Eric Baldwin all fell before the final table of six was reached, which alongside Rocco and Reard featured bracelet winners Aram Zobian and Adrian Mateos. Reard held more than half the chips in play at this point, and was able to get lucky and spike a three-outer to eliminate Mateos in fifth before swiftly knocking Zobian out in fourth. Reard then found a lucky seven on the turn to make a higher two pair on Aleks Dimitrov, giving him a sizable chip lead heading into heads-up action with Rocco.

Rocco’s first bit of good fortune came soon after, as he ripped it in preflop with sevens and was called by Reard’s eights. A seven on the flop and no eight on the turn or river flipped the stacks and put Rocco in control.  Soon after, Reard min-raised the button and Rocco defended his big blind. Rocco check-called the same bet size on a flop, and checked the turn as well. Reard bet just under four big blinds, and Rocco check-raised all in. Reard called off his last 32 big blinds with for queens-up, and Rocco would need a lot of help to prevent flipping the stacks again with his . Lightning struck twice for the long-time California pro, as the binked the river and Rocco earned his first piece of WSOP gold.

Richez Denies Owen for Mid-Stakes Championship

From a total field of 3,117, just 17 returned for the final day of action in Event #89: $3,000 Mid-Stakes Championship. Clement Richez navigated an accomplished field in a ten-hour day to earn his first WSOP gold bracelet and $1,041,989, more than tripling his career Hendon Mob earnings in the process. Clementz made a deep run in last year’s WSOP Main Event, eventually falling in 50th, but the bracelet win clearly was the highlight of his poker career. He told PokerNews after the win that “I was very focused and didn’t feel any doubt” despite a brutal final table filled with long-time grinders.

WSOP bracelet winner Xing He was one of the early casualties on the day, and Stefan Dimitrov bubbled the official final table, falling to start of the day chip leader Taylor Black. Adam Owen started the final table with a sizable chip lead, and flexed his muscles in eliminating David Brehme, Boris Kuzmanovic and Andrey Pateychuk to kick things off. Black spent the final table watching his stack erode away, and he fell to Richez in sixth. Alec Torelli then got into the elimination spirit, winning a flip to dispatch David Uvaydov.

Dong Chen, the final WSOP bracelet winner in the field got his short stack immediately after doubling, but ran into the aces of Richez to fall in fourth. The final three were neck-and-neck in chips, but Alec Torelli bricked a combo draw against Owen’s top pair, and Owen took a 2:1 chip lead into heads-up action with Richez. The Frenchman would go on a massive rush, however, winning a series of pots without ever being at risk, and Owen saw his stack dwindle to around 28 big blinds before the final hand of the tourney. Owen limp-jammed with over a 3.6x raise from Richez, who eventually called off with . Owen would have to settle for his second silver medal of the 2024 WSOP when a runout left him dead on the turn.

Star-Studded Field Survives Day 2 of $25k H.O.R.S.E.

A total of 25 new entries took the felt alongside the 58 returning players in Day 2 of Event #96: $25,000 High Roller H.O.R.S.E., which pushed the total number of entries to 120. Only 10 will return for the final day of action, with Albert Daher (3,630,000) holding a slim lead over Michael Moncek (3,245,000) and David Benyamine (3,235,000). Poker Hall of Famer Phil Ivey (1,210,000) and likely future Poker Hall of Famer Scott Seiver (830,000) bagged up shorter stacks, while Adam Friedman (370,000) is just happy to survive, holding just under four big bets left in his stack.

Defending champ Josh Arieh was one of the throng of late entrants, but bowed out early on, as did Daniel Negreanu. Cary Katz, Jared Bleznick, Jeremy Ausmus and Shaun Deeb all failed to make the money, as did bubble boy Matthew Ashton. Phil Hellmuth was the first to min-cash, and Paul Volpe, Kane Kalas and Ali Eslami joined him. Jason Mercier managed a single pay jump before becoming the final player to exit the proceedings, falling to Moncek in Razz in consecutive hands.

Hendrix in Hunt for First Bracelet in HOF Bounty

167 players (and three bounties) returned for Day 2 action in Event #95: $1,979 Poker Hall of Fame Bounty No-Limit Hold’em, and only the final table of nine will return for Day 2 action. Naseem Salem (6,125,000) will return with the chip lead, while Adam Hendrix (4,475,000) and Martin Finger (1,800,000) both managed to survive the day. The stacks are quite shallow heading into tomorrow’s final day, as the average stack will be just under 18 big blinds to start.

Three Hall of Fame bounties were left in play to start Day 2, and Daniel Chase claimed the first one, busting Mori Eskandani with the nut flush to claim a $2,018 bounty. Erik Seidel’s $2,010 bounty was the next to go, as he fell in 17th to Akinobu Maeda. Jack McClelland was the final bounty member to fall, and Hendrix would be the recipient of the $2,014 bounty when he flopped eights-full against McClelland’s pocket sixes. 

Trio of Day 1’s in Action

Event #93: $777 Lucky Sevens No-Limit Hold’em had a monster field of 3,235 entrants fire a lucky bullet, bringing the total field to 6,292 entrants. 150 survived and will join the 150 who made it through the first two flights, with Marc Rivera (3,255,000), Jack Duong (1,145,000), Jessica Vierling (1,095,000) and Jack Salter (945,000) among the survivors.

PLO players had one final chance to flex their skills with Event #97: $3,000 6-Handed Pot-Limit Omaha, and a total of 844 players ponied up a buy-in. Scott Ball (1,015,000) will return as the chip leader among the 134 survivors, with Shaun Deeb (761,000), Ian Matakis (405,000) and Ethan “Rampage” Yau (275,000) still in contention.

And finally, Event #98: $1,500 The Closer saw 816 players enter the Day 1a flight, with a total of 387 remaining in the field as of press time.

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