Let's start with the huge record-breaking $1,000 buy-in Mystery Millions tournament, which brought in a whopping 18,409 entries, 221 more than last year. This brought the prizepool to $16,199,920, of which $5,523,000 was earmarked for bounties.
Win 1 million and show no emotion?
Thanks to the huge prizepool, up to two $1,000,000 bounty envelopes were prepared for players. One envelope contained a $500,000 prize, one contained a $250,000 prize, 3 contained a $100,000 prize and 5 envelopes had a $50,000 prize in them.
| Number of Bounties | Bounty Prize | Total |
|---|---|---|
| 2 | $1,000,000 | $2,000,000 |
| 1 | $500,000 | $500,000 |
| 1 | $250,000 | $250,000 |
| 3 | $100,000 | $300,000 |
| 5 | $50,000 | $250,000 |
| 38 | $25,000 | $950,000 |
| 17 | $10,000 | $170,000 |
| 38 | $5,000 | $190,000 |
| 46 | $2,500 | $115,000 |
| 798 | $1,000 | $798,000 |
950 players made it to Day 2, and it was on this day that the biggest prizes were handed out. The first million-dollar envelope was pulled by Ukrainian player Valentyn Shabelnyk, who is sure to make history with his zero-happiness. Immediately after pulling out this beautiful prize, he quickly rushed to his table without emotion so as not to miss any hands. One of the commenters on the social network wrote that even those who win a $5 discount coupon to a restaurant are more excited than this guy about the fact that he just won a million dollars.
WE HAVE A MILLION DOLLAR CHEST AT THE @WSOP MYSTERY MILLIONS 🔥
- PokerGO (@PokerGO) June 3, 2024
Congrats to Valentyn Shabelnyk pic.twitter.com/fApp6NbLZ4
The second million-dollar prize was claimed by DJ Buckley, and he's already shown at least a little bit of joy. Interestingly, the players who pulled in much smaller sums rejoiced much more than these two gentlemen.
đź’° Both ONE MILLION BOUNTIES have now been claimed in the @WSOP Mystery Millions!
- PokerNews (@PokerNews) June 4, 2024
CONGRATULATIONS to DJ Buckley on snagging the second one! 🙌 pic.twitter.com/95YhKe0qbd
Only 18 players advanced from Day 2 to the final table and the winner of the $1,000,000 for the champion was 24-year-old Australian Malcolm Trayner, for whom it was also the first gold bracelet. The achievement took Trayner from 170th to 35th on the Australian All-Time Money List and more than doubled his lifetime tournament winnings. Interestingly enough, this was the first WSOP tournament he ever played, and he went on to win it outright.
| Place | Player | Country | Cash Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Malcolm Trayner | Australia | $1,000,000 |
| 2 | Carson Richards | United States | $536,080 |
| 3 | Eugene Tito | United States | $407,970 |
| 4 | Junho Song | United States | $312,250 |
| 5 | Oshri Azran | United States | $240,350 |
| 6 | Amir Mirrasouli | United States | $186,080 |
| 7 | Michael Miller | United States | $144,900 |
| 8 | Christopher Castellan | United States | $113,490 |
| 9 | Jake Brown | United States | $89,411 |
Scott Seiver with fifth bracelet
Let's move on to tournament number 10, which was the $10,000 buy-in Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better Championship (8-Handed). That one brought in a prizepool of $1,832,100 thanks to 197 entries. The tournament attracted the likes of Shaun Deeb, Robert Mizrachi, John Hennigan, Scott Seiver, Patrick Leonard, Josh Arieh, Stephen Chidwick, Daniel Negreanu, Phil Hellmuth and Benny Glaser.
Of these big names, however, only Scott Seiver and Benny Glaser made the final table. Benny finished in 6th place with a $75,678 prize, and Scott also made it to an unscheduled fourth day of play, where only the top four players made it in. Here Scott was the chipleader and he made the most of his chance. He was the champion of this tournament, which earned him $426,744 and put his fifth WSOP bracelet on his hand.
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Scott Seiver | United Staes | $426,744 |
| 2 | Jonathan Cohen | Canada | $284,495 |
| 3 | Calvin Anderson | United States | $197,582 |
| 4 | Paul Zappulla | United States | $140,273 |
| 5 | Sami Saad El-Dein | United States | $101,853 |
| 6 | Benny Glaser | United Kingdom | $75,678 |
| 7 | Jake Schwartz | United States | $57,570 |
| 8 | Jared Bleznick | United States | $44,864 |
| 9 | Patrick Moulder | United States | $35,838 |
WSOP comments on the use of solvers
James Chen is the man who lit a fire on Twitter (x) about the use of solvers during play by taking a picture of the player sitting next to him opening the GTO Wizard at the table. Players immediately began to comment on the topic, leading to calls for an outright ban on such software, or even a complete ban on smartphones during the game.
After a heated debate, we were all waiting for the WSOP organizers to make a statement. Once again, it was James Chen who tweeted a video from the WSOP tournament hall sharing the following announcement at the start of the tournament: "We ask that you do not use any type of poker solver at any time at the table or in the tournament area. If we discover that you are using any of the poker solvers, there is a possibility that you will be disqualified from the tournament."
Announced at start of each @WSOP event:
- James Chen (@ChipBurglar) June 4, 2024
"We do ask you to please do not use any type of poker solvers at any point in time at the table or in the tournament area. If you're found using one of these poker solvers, there's a possibility of being disqualified from this tournament." https://t.co/wrhOTvJb4Q pic.twitter.com/hsMjrj5iiL
There continues to be debate, however, about whether smartphones should be banned from the table altogether. Well-known tournament director Matt Savage has joined the debate, posting a poll on Twitter (x). In it, Matt asked the debaters:"With all the new AI technology, solvers, text and audio features, are you ready for a ban on phones at the table? Is this even worth discussing at the upcoming Tournament Directors Association meeting on June 29-30?" Nearly 3,000 people voted, and of those, nearly 48 percent were in favor of banning phones at the table, more than 22 percent voted to allow phones, and more than 30 percent were in favor of the "Don't be stupid, it's impossible" option.
With all of the new AI technology, solvers, texting and audio capabilities at your ready for a ban of phones at the table?
- Matt Savage (@SavagePoker) June 2, 2024
Is it even worth a discussion at upcoming @PokerTDA Summit June 29-30th?
Why or why not?
"I think it's crazy to control what people do between hands," Matt Berkey said on the Solve For Why podcast. However, this opinion of his is likely to be shared by a lot of players. You also have to take into account the fact that many players need their phones for work or family reasons. The other thing is also that if you ban phones at the table, mainly to prevent solvers from being used, where are you guaranteed that a solver player won't look two steps away from the table?
What do you think about this issue? Are you in favour of a full ban on smartphones at the table? Are you in favor of a complete ban on solvers at the table, or would you allow this option? Let us know in the comments on our social media.
Source - pokernews, wsop, poker.org, twitter (x), pokergo, youtube
