The first WSOP tournament took place at the end of the WSOPC festival at The Commerce Casino in Los Angeles. The WSOP Tournament of Champions was open to any bracelet or ring holder who had won one in the past year. Yes, both WSOPE bracelet holders and those who won a piece of jewelry online were eligible to participate.
Thechange of venue didn't attract people
The WSOP Tournament of Champions is held every year in Las Vegas during the ongoing festival. This year, however, the organizers decided to move the tournament to the end of the WSOPC festival in Los Angeles. This move is likely to be reconsidered by the organizers as the numbers have set a clear mirror to them.
The WSOP Tournament of Champions is a $1,000,000 freeroll where a bracelet and a $200,000 prize awaited the winner. As many as 1,175 of last year's champions were eligible to play this event, but this year brought only 559 entries, less than half. Compared to 2023 and 2022, that's quite a difference. In 2023 there were 989 qualifiers and the tournament brought in 741 entries, in 2022 there were 569 qualifiers and 470 players played the tournament. The change of venue away from the WSOP venue has clearly put players off.
Final Table
As many as 6 players from the USA sat at the 8 seat final table here. The overall chipleader was Kevin Will with a stack of 4,830,000, followed by Cody Bell with a stack of 4,805,000. All of them had already pocketed at least $20,000 here.
Cody Bell eventually finished in 5th place for $46,000 and Kevin Will battled his way through to the final heads-up. Going into that, Will entered with a stack of 5,225,000, and sitting across from him was Chinese player Dong Meng with a stack as high as 16,675,000. Heads-up play lasted just 30 minutes, after which we met the first WSOP gold bracelet winner of the year. That was Dong Meng, who won his second bracelet and took home $200,000 to boot. Kevin Will had to settle for second place and $120,000. Congratulations!
| PLACE | PLAYER | COUNTRY | PRIZE | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dong Meng | China | $200,000 | |
| 2 | Kevin Will | USA | $120,000 | |
| 3 | Nathan Wasson | USA | $87,000 | |
| 4 | Rick Gebhart | USA | $63,000 | |
| 5 | Cody Bell | USA | $46,000 | |
| 6 | Ramon Kropmanns | Brazil | $35,000 | |
| 7 | Scott Dulaney | USA | $26,000 | |
| 8 | Alan Merdita | USA | $20,000 |
Don't forget that the WSOP kicks off in Las Vegas on May 28 and runs until July 17. The very first event will be the Champions Reunion NLH Freezeout with a buy-in of $5,000. The Main Event is scheduled to kick off on July 3 and we will meet the new champion on July 17. We will of course be following all the action and will always bring you the latest information.
Source - wsop, the commerce, 8131media, poker.org, youtube, alicia skillman, pokernews
