This week’s poker news continues to focus on the World Series of Poker, which is the biggest event of the year. A number of players earned big wins this weekend and we’ll start our recap of the news there:
Bellande Claims First World Series of Poker Bracelet
It was a memorable Sunday for Jean-Robert Bellande as he finally claimed his first World Series of Poker bracelet. The former Survivor contestant had previously finished as the runner-up twice in WSOP events. That includes an event where he at one point held a 19-1 chip lead.
As a result, the American claimed a huge prize of $616,302 for his first-place finish. He was one of four Americans in the top five as Dean Lyall of Scotland, who finished second, was the only non-American in the top five. Andrew Graham won $254,684 for his third-place finish, Tan Nguyen took home $173,598 for his fourth-place result and Eric Blair won $120,669 for placing fifth.
Overall, there were 621 entries in the field at this No. 58 event.
Dawley Secures WSOP Ladies Championship
Jessica Dawley outlasted a field of 696 female players from all around the world to claim the No. 57 event at the World Series of Poker: the Ladies No-Limit Hold’em Championship. The win netted her $130,230 along with her first WSOP bracelet.
While a six-figure prize is always nice, the win was undoubtedly the most significant of Dawley’s career. She has finished in the money four times now at the WSOP, though. For second-place finisher Jill Pike, it was her first WSOP paycheck of any kind. She took home $80,444 for her second-place result. Heads-up play between the final two lasted only four hands before Pike faded. Lisa Fong won $55,812 for finishing third, Mesha James won $39,334 for fourth and Jacqueline Burkhart collected $28,167 for fifth.
Every player in the final table was from the United States.
Kornuth Triumphant In Online High Roller
Talk about a productive 12 hours. Chance Kornuth collected $341,598 by winning the $3,200 WSOP.com Online No-Limit Hold’em High Roller event on Saturday evening, needing only 12 hours to finish the job.
Although it was just the second running of the event, there was a record field of 480 entries who logged in for the action. That surpassed the 424 from 2017. As a result, the prize pool ballooned to $1,459,200, allowing the top 63 players to finish in the money.
Kornuth, who is known as “BingShui” online, ended up with $341,598 for first. David “bewater” Goodman collected $212,021 for his second-place finish and Timothy “poker” Nuter took home $144,168 for third. Overall, the top seven finishers were all from the United States with Jonas “LobyPewis” Macoff from Canada being the first non-American on the list at eighth.
While the field was whittled down quickly at this event, the final three players needed over an hour of action before Kornuth was able to separate from the field.