Who will be the next WSOP Main Event champion?

After eight days of thrilling poker action, the World Series of Poker 2023 Main Event has come to its highly-anticipated finale. Now, nine of the best players from this tournament will battle it out for the unofficial title of World Champion of Poker, an exquisite and heavily adorned championship bracelet, and a grand prize of $12.1 million.

10,043 poker players have registered for the 2023 WSOP Main Event, and after eight days of intense competition, only nine have managed to make it through to the final table. On July 16th, these nine will be back in action to determine a new champion among them over the next two days. Who will come out on top?

The current situation

Adam Walton from the US is the chip leader, with a significant gap over his competitors. He will return to play the final table with 143.8 million chips. Following him are two fellow Americans, Steven Jones and Daniel Weinman. The former has 90.3 million, while Weinman holds 81.7 million.

Blinds will be at 600K/1.2M+1.2M BBA when play resumes.

Meet the nine finalists for the 2023 WSOP Main Event

The chip leader Adam Walton is a professional poker player with an impressive live tournament career and winnings of 989.037$. His biggest success to date was a 283.072$ payout for taking second place in the NLH tournament with a buy-in of 3.000$, which was part of the WPT World Championship 2022. A few years ago, Walton moved to Las Vegas from Seattle, where he began to focus on his career as a professional poker player.

The next contestant is from Arizona. He has been playing poker seriously for 10-12 years. Steven Jones (USA) has total live winnings of $245,346. His highest achievement to date is finishing ninth at the 2018 WSOP Colossus tournament.

Daniel Weinman, hailing from Atlanta, Georgia, is one of the most accomplished players in the WSOP Main Event. He boasts a WPT event win and a WSOP championship bracelet for his victory in the $1,000 PLO event last year. His skills at the poker table have earned him much success throughout his career.

Jan-Peter Jachtmann, a renowned figure on the European poker scene, holds the 4th largest stack. His career has yielded him over $1.9 million in winnings and one WSOP bracelet for his victory in the 2012 $10k PLO championship event. He continues to compete at high stakes tournaments all over Europe and is a force to be reckoned with.

Juan Maceiras is a passionate 39-year-old poker enthusiast. With a current stack of 68 big blinds in the game, he’s determined to make this tournament count and increase his career live tournament winnings beyond his current $1.12 million. His ambition is no surprise, given his success at the 2011 European Poker Tour (EPT) in Spain where he won an impressive $467,532 for fifth place.

Ruslan Prydryk is a Ukrainian poker player with $461,758 in live tournament earnings. Little is known about his poker career. His last recorded live cash was from six years ago, and now he is in the limelight at poker’s biggest event. He has a total of four tournament wins to his name, including two in the Russian Poker Tour, one at the France Poker Series, and most recently a €1,100 NLH Turbo event win at EPT Deauville for $21,863. This victory marks his most recent triumph in tournaments.

He recorded his largest payout to date: winning $104,637 for a fifth-place finish at EPT Warsaw in October 2009,. This was the only six-figure score of his career.

Dean Huctchison (Scotland) can boast of winnings totaling 723,865$. In 2014 he won the Main Event at UKIPT Edinburgh, earning 93,900£. His biggest WSOP payout was 35,773$ for finishing ninth in the NLH Freezeout (1,500$; 2023).

Daniel Holzner, an Italian in live tournaments, has gathered 13 payouts with a total prize money of $25,517. During the 2023 WSOP he placed 652nd in the Millionaire Maker (1,500$) for which he received $4,070. This is his only payout record in the history of WSOP performances. – I am a farmer. I work with my dad, who is over there. And yeah, we have apple trees, we work there, and this is my work besides poker – he told PokerNews.

Toby Lewis, hailing from Eastleigh, United Kingdom, is one of the most dangerous players at this final table. Although he starts off with the smallest stack, if he manages to double up quickly, he will easily become a formidable contender for victory. With over $8 million in winnings from tournaments like Aussie Millions and EPT Vilamoura, he is no doubt a truly top-class poker player. All eyes will be on him as the game progresses.

When will the 2023 WSOP Main Event champion be announced?

Players will return to the tables on April 16th. The session will continue until only four players remain with chips left at the table. Those remaining players are guaranteed a payout of $900,000 each. Once the first elimination occurs, millionaires will start to form among the participants. At stake is a total of $12,100,000 for the one who takes all the chips at the end of the tournament. The winner will be announced on July 17th.

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