The WSOP Main Event is slowly but surely heading into its final stretch, and tonight we'll find out the final nine. They will have a day off tomorrow, followed by the three-day climax of the festival. And after seven hard days of play, who still has hope for this success?
The last 49 players took to the tables yesterday for the seventh day of play at the WSOP Main Event, which once again produced a long, action-packed night. At the end of it, the top 15 players sit in a field that continues to be led by Juan Maceiras, a former member of the PS Spain team. Two WSOP bracelet holders, German veteran Jan-Peter Jachtmann and local representative Daniel Weinman (both have one bracelet), also continue to play.
The aforementioned fifteen will sit in today's Day 8 this evening, and the goal of this day will be to form the final nine. This will then be followed by one day off, after which the three-day grand climax will follow. Here's what the full chipcount and seeding of the last two tables looks like:
Last night, the poker public was also treated to the induction of a new member into the WSOP Poker Hall of Fame. There were virtually no surprises this year, as many had Brian Rast as the favourite, and those expectations were met thanks to the votes of 31 members of the Hall of Fame. Although many predicted it before the summer, Brian's triumph in the $50,000 Poker Players Championship, the second most important event of the entire WSOP, certainly helped.
Rast established himself as a poker pro on the scene more than a decade ago, during which time he managed to win more than $25 million. His biggest coup is a $7,525,000 first-place finish in the SHRB's premier half-million-dollar event, which adds to six WSOP bracelets, including three titles from the grueling Poker Players Championship. "I'm very happy to receive this recognition for the effort I've put into this game throughout my adult life," Rast said in a nearly 10-minute speech. "I'm very honored to have been selected, it means a lot to me."
It took almost the whole festival, but the young Bosnian couldn't hold on and jumped into the 85th event ($1,500 Shootout). It was the first live tournament for Ali since September 2022, when he and Jake Schindler were banned from all PokerGo events. The Shootout format means that each table is played until there is one player left on it, and that's exactly what Ali did, making his way from 997 entrants to be one of the 100 entrants on Day 2.
Source: PokerNews, WSOP, YouTube
