Several players collected their first bracelet in the opening week of the 2024 World Series of Poker. That list includes Asher Conniff, Jose Garcia, Daniel Willis, James Chen, and Darius Samuel. Meanwhile, Johnny "World" Hennigan shipped his seventh-career bracelet with a victory in Event #7 $1,500 Dealer's Choice for a score worth $138,296, and Bryce Yockey took down his second bracelet in Event #8 $5,000 PLO (8-Handed).
The 2024 WSOP kicked off last week, and seven bracelets have been awarded with two pros adding hardware to their collection and five other players stepping into the winner's circle for the first time to win their first WSOP bracelet.
Event #1 $5,000 Champions Reunion NLHE Freezeout attracted 493 runners and a prize pool worth $2,267,800. The top 74 places paid out with $408,468 set aside to the champion. American Asher Conniff outlasted a final table that included Halil Tasyurek, Yuzhou Yin, Jonathan Pastore, Terry Fleischer, David Coleman, Nenad Dukic, and Michael Acevedo. Conniff banked $408K and his first bracelet.
Also cashing in Event #1 were Bryce Welker, Noah Bronstein, Chris Hunichen, Brandon Cantu, Brian Rast, Keith Lehr, Qui Nguyen, Alex Keating, Matt Stout, Dan Zack, Taylor Wilson, Brent Roberts, Dan Harrington, Cary Katz, Chad Eveslage, David Bakes Baker, Michael Gathy, Kristen Foxen, Mitch Halverson, Daniel Negreanu, Maria Ho, Dan Weinman, Robert Mizrachi, Pierre Fromage, David Williams, Greg Merson, and Maria Konnikova.
Event #2 $500 Casino Employees NL attracted 1,189 runners and a prize pool worth almost $500K. First place paid out $79,134 and the top 179 places paid out. Jose Garcia, a dealer at Sandia Casino in New Mexico, was the last player standing.
Event #3 $500 WSOP Kickoff NL Freezeout was popular, as expected, with 3,485 runners and a prize pool over $1.4 million. The top 523 places paid out with $175,578 set aside to the champion. Daniel Negreanu went deep but busted in 16th place. The final table included... Daniel Willis, Michael Wang, Shawn Smith, Steven Borella, Yoshinori Funayama, Daiel Sherer, John Marino, and David Niedringhaus. Willis, a businessman from the UK, denied Wang a shot at his third bracelet. Willis was the last player standing and he won over $175K and his first bracelet.
Among the noteworthy names who went deep in the top 500 in Event #3 included Jason Wheeler, Marco Johnson, Ryan Riess, Craig Varnell, Valentin Vorcnicu, Kenny Hallaert, Kane Kalas, Dmitri Nobles, Cord Garcia, Jim Collopy, Maria Ho, and Hunter Frey.
Event #4 $1,500 Omaha 8 (8-Handed) attracted 928 runners and a prize pool worth $1.23 million. The top 140 places paid out with $209,350 set aside to the champion. James Chen outlasted a final table that included Lewis Brandy, Ada Nattress, Pearce Arnold, Alex Filatov, Curtis Phelps, and Tod Dakake.
Jamie Kerstetter bubbled the final tabble in Event #4, and other noteworthy players who cash included Ben Yu, Eric Baldwin, Upeshka De Silva, Shirley Rosario, Jeff Shulman, Yuval Bronshtein, Chipp Jett, RObert Mizrachi, Brian Yoon, Felipe Ramos, Barry Greenstein, Anon Tang, Sean Yu, Chainsaw Kessler, John Henson, Chris Vitch, and Rey Fishman.
Event #6 $25,000 Heads-Up NL Championship was capped at 64 entries. The prize pool was $1.5 million with $500K set aside to the winner. Only the final eight got pad out. Darius Samuel picked off Faraz Jaka heads up for the title. Nikola Mamut and Arthur Martirosian busted in the semifinals. Among the quarterfinalists were John Smith, Marko Grujic, Own Messere, and Pat Kennedy.
Event #7 $1,500 Dealer's Choice attracted 530 entries and a prize pool worth $707,550. The top 80 places for a cut of the pie with $138,296 se aside to first place. Johnny "World" Hennigan padded his bracelet count when he joined the exclusive seven-timers club. Johnny World outlasted a final table that included Robert Wells, Peter Gelencser, Viktor Blom, Brayden Gazlay, and Clint Wolcyn.
Among the familiar faces who went deep in Event #7 included Shaun Deeb, Roland Israelashvili, Jeff Madsen, Allan Le, Benny Glasser, Phillip Hui, Chino Rheem, Brett Richey, Scott Clements, Taylor Paur, Julien Martini, Dan Weinman, Brandon Shack-Harris, and Dustin Dirksen.
Event #8 $5,000 PLO attracted 733 runners and a prize pool worth $3.37 million. The top 110 places paid out with the winner walking away with $606,654, which was Bryce Yockey who added a second piece of bling to his collection. Among the notables who cashed included Brian Rast, Anson Tang, Dario Sammartino, Anthony Zinno, Natt Stout, Rep Porter, Ryan Laplante, Chance Kornuth, Erick Lindgren, Sam Soverel, Gary Benson, Phil Ivey, Nacho Barbero, Chad Eveslage, Dan Zack, Dylan Linde, Chino Rheem, Amnon Filippi, Kane Kalas, and Dan Shak.
