It is the third weekend of action at the 2023 World Series of Poker, and there is action everywhere you look at the Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas. A trio of bracelets were handed out on Friday night, while one of the largest buy-in tournaments in WSOP history opened action. Saturday will be the day when another Championship event will take place, this time in Lowball Triple Draw, as ten players come back to determine who takes the bracelet.
He’s Alive! Chris Klodnicki Returns in Championship Fashion
He may have ridden a rollercoaster at the final table, both with his chip stack and with his emotions, but it was all worth it for Chris Klodnicki. In the end, he would walk away with his second WSOP bracelet and the championship of the $10,000 “Secret Bounty” No Limit Hold’em event.
Klodnicki came to the final table with the chip lead, but he would lose that edge on the first hand dealt. Klodnicki raised out of early position with only a K-10, but he ran into a serious threat at the final table in Jeremy Ausmus. Ausmus, on the button, held pocket Aces and made a significant three-bet that put Klodnicki to the test. Klodnicki would release his hand, but his adventurous ways cost him the lead as Ausmus surged ahead.
Things would get worse for Klodnicki as he decided to knock heads with Tracy Nguyen. This time it was Nguyen with the pocket Aces and, while he held a much better hand this time with Big Slick, Klodnicki couldn’t find anything to work with and doubled Nguyen up. That would help propel Nguyen to the lead over Ausmus.
Apparently Ausmus was not pleased with that, because he made it a point to become the powerhouse at the table, taking down Eric Yanovsky and Daniel Rezaei in eighth and seventh places, respectively, to crack the twelve million mark in chips. But Klodnicki wasn’t done yet, getting a monstrous double up through Ausmus when his Big Slick found some river magic in an Ace against Ausmus’ pocket Queens. Once Klodnicki eliminated Nguyen in fifth place, flopping an Ace with A-Q against Nguyen’s pocket tens, he was in command with over 22 million chips.
From there, Klodnicki would storm to the title. He would take down Ausmus, Barak Wisbrod, and Aram Oganyan in rapid fashion to capture the championship of the Secret Bounty tournament, take home his second WSOP bracelet, and bank a $733,317 payday.
1. Chris Klodnicki, $733,317
2. Aram Oganyan, $453,226
3. Barak Wisbrod, $323,181
4. Jeremy Ausmus, $233,690
5. Tracy Nguyen, $171,389
6. Angel Guillen, $127,515
7. Daniel Rezaei, $96,265
8. Eric Yanovsky, $73,756
9. Johannes Straver, $57,365*
(* – eliminated on Thursday night, official member of the final table)
Got a Spare $250,000? The WSOP Has a Tournament for You!
Day One of the $250,000 Super High Roller tournament at the 2023 WSOP, Event #40 on your scorecard, is in the books and it has the potential to best last year’s numbers. In 2022, the tournament drew 56 entries, with Alex Foxen winning the championship. In 2023, the tournament has already reached the same number of entries and has the potential, with late registration going on until the start of Day Two play, to eclipse that mark.
37 players are still around for the start of Day Two on Saturday, with each table looking like a “Who’s Who” of poker. Phil Hellmuth slightly increased his 1.5 million starting stack (to 1.59 million) to stay viable for the Saturday fun and games, but he isn’t the “best” of the World Champions in the tournament. Both 2021 champion Koray Aldemir and defending champion Espen Jorstad are up the leaderboard, with Aldemir cracking the Top Ten. Add in powerhouse pros like Phil Ivey, Cary Katz, Nick Schulman, Stephen Chidwick, and a plethora of others – and the expected arrivals of Sam Soverel and Sean Winter, plus the reentry of Foxen – and the tournament will shatter the performance from last year.
They are all chasing Dustin Bailey, who sits on top of the leaderboard with 4.85 million in chips. If you’re asking yourself “Who?” then you wouldn’t be the only one. A quick perusal of The Hendon Mob database only shows one ‘Dustin Bailey’ who has a grand total of $21K in tournament earnings to his name. That’s not even a tenth of the buy-in for this tournament, so it might not be the same person. If it is, however, it is a massive step up for Bailey as he looks to fend off the wolves in the Super High Roller.
1. Dustin Bailey, 4.85 million
2. Chance Kornuth, 4.34 million
3. Steven Veneziano, 4.315 million
4. Henrik Hecklen, 4.285 million
5. Artur Martirosian, 3.785 million
6. Ben Heath, 3.72 million
7. Alex Kulev, 3.625 million
8. Koray Aldemir, 3.535 million
9. James Chen, 3.485 million
10. Espen Jorstad, 2.8 million
Benny Glaser Flirts with Another Final Table
In the $10,000 Deuce to Seven Triple Draw Championship, ten men remain in contention for the bracelet in one of the more difficult versions of poker. Leading the way is Benny Glaser, who has been close to tasting the WSOP gold this year but has come up just short. He, Finland’s Sampo Ryynanen, and Portugal’s Joao Vieira are the only three men over the million-chip mark, but there are other players in shouting distance that might have something to say about the conclusion of this tournament on Saturday.
1. Benny Glaser, 1.695 million
2. Sampo Ryynanen, 1.24 million
3. Joao Vieira, 1.105 million
4. Jason Papastavrou, 860,000
5. David “Bakes” Baker, 750,000
With the MONSTER STACK tournament running its second of two-Day Ones on Saturday, the corridors of the Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas will be extremely crowded. But the players – and the fans in attendance – at the 2023 World Series of Poker wouldn’t want it any other way.
