2023 WSOP Day 12: Michael Rodrigues and Stephen Nahm Win First Bracelets

The 2023 World Series of Poker crowned two new first-time winners at the Horseshoe Las Vegas and the Paris Las Vegas Hotel & Casino.

Michael Rodrigues won the inaugural $1,500 Badugi event for $144,678, while Stephen Nahm reportedly had a drink or 15 on his way to winning Event #21: $1,000 Pot-Limit Omaha for $267,991.

Read on to learn more about these events and others in progress in our daily WSOP recap.

Michael Rodrigues Wins Event #20: $1,500 Badugi

Event #20: $1,500 Badugi was one of the new events on the WSOP schedule this year. It proved to be so popular with 516 entries creating a $688,860 prize pool that the WSOP added a fourth day to what was scheduled to be a three-day event.

For those of you not familiar with the game, Badugi is a triple-draw, lowball poker variant played with four-card hands. The objective of the game is to create the lowest possible hand with cards of different suits and ranks. The best hand in Badugi is A-2-3-4 of four different suits, also known as a Badugi. However, a low three-card hand with three different suits is often a winning hand.

Portugal’s Michael Rodrigues will go down in history as winning his first WSOP bracelet in this new events after defeating Day 3 chip leader Yingui Li from China heads-up to win the $144,678 top prize. According to WSOP, Rodrigues won the final hand without drawing on the final draw with a seven Badugi. Li was drawing one card to a six-high Badugi but bricked his final draw to settle for the runner-up prize of $89,415.

Event #20: $1,500 Badugi Final Table Results

Stephen Nahm Parties His Way to Victory in Event #21: $1,000 Pot-Limit Omaha ($267,991)

It is rare that the PokerNews live reporters will point out that someone is excessively drinking unless they are causing a scene that is hard to ignore. Saturday night was an exception to this unwritten rule in Event #21: $1,000 Pot-Limit Omaha as PokerNews and WSOP reporters shared that Canada’s Stephen Nahm drank no less than 15 beers en route to his making his dream come true with by earning his first WSOP bracelet and the $267,991 top prize.

“Every poker player, obviously, comes here – you dream of this shit, right?” excitedly said to PokerNews before leaving to celebrate. “I kinda made my dream come true a little bit; I’m not going to lie.”

The three-day event grew in numbers from the 1,891 entries in this same event in 2022 to 2,071 entries for a $1,795,130 prize pool this year.

Nahm didn’t have a lengthy heads-up battle. In fact, there was no heads-up battle at all as Nahm busted both Kevin Rand (second – $165,616) and Amir Mirrasouli (third – $123,060) in the same hand.

Event #21: $1,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Final Table Results

Alex Foxen Leads Final 5 in Event #23: $50,000 High Roller

The three-day Event #23: $50,000 High Roller No-Limit Hold’em attracted 124 of the top names in poker to create a $5,921,000 prize pool.

The action is down to just five players hungry for the title and the mouth-watering $1,546,024 top prize on the final day with each player locking up at least a $385,617 prize.

Alex Foxen is in the pole position hunting for his second career WSOP bracelet after bagging the overnight chip lead with Jans Arends, Leon Sturm, Bill Klein and Seth Davies all still in contention. Meanwhile, Justin Bonomo (sixth – $295,169), Sam Soverel (seventh – $230,066), Sung Joo Hyun (eighth – $182,662), and Anton Morgenstern (ninth – $147,776) all appeared at the final table only to fall short of making the cut to the final day.

PokerGO will be live streaming the final day until a winner is crowned with the action resuming at 4 p.m. on Sunday.

William Burke Leads Event #24: $1,500 Razz

Razz is a variation of seven-card stud poker and is often considered the easiest version of stud to learn and play. In Razz, the objective is to make the lowest possible five-card hand using seven cards dealt to each player throughout the hand. Unlike traditional poker games, the highest-ranking hands like straights and flushes are irrelevant in Razz, and aces are always low. The best possible hand in Razz is 5-4-3-2-A, also known as the “wheel.”

This old-school game gained a resurgence in popularity at least this year at the WSOP with Event #24: $1,500 Razz drawing a record-breaking field of 556 entries to create a $742,260 prize pool. After two days of play, the field is down to just 15 hopefuls each guaranteed at least $6,052 with Sunday’s winner claiming both the coveted WSOP bracelet and the $152,991 top prize.

William Burke bagged the overnight chip lead but has his work cut out with him with many big names including former bracelet winners still in the mix including Justin Liberto, Jeff Lisandro, Marco Johnson, and David “ODB” Baker in the mix. Poker reporting Mickey Doft is looking to make some waves but will need an inspired day as he will enter the final day of action with one of the shortest stacks in play when the action resumes on Sunday at 1 p.m.

Event #24: $1,500 Razz Final Day Seat Draw

Late Results

Meanwhile, in other news, Event #18: $300 Gladiators of Poker finished its four opening flights and attracted a whopping 23,102 entries for a $3,603,162 prize pool for the second-largest live poker event in history and to obliterate the $3,000,000 guarantee on this event. We won’t be surprised if this originally scheduled three-day event needs to add a fourth day with 8,467 players still in contention.

In addition, Event #22: $10,000 Limit Hold’em Championship was down to three players in Daniel Idema, Nozomu Shimizu, and Josh Arieh in contention for the title and the $316,226 top prize. A fourth day will be added to this three-day event as it seems unlikely a conclusion will come on Saturday night. We will provide a more detailed recap of these events tomorrow.

Conor Drinan bagged the Day 1 chip lead in Event #25: $10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better Championship. The four-day event thus far attracted 188 entries with more to come with late registration open until the start of Sunday’s Day 2.

June 11, 2023 WSOP Schedule

Two new bracelet events in Event 26: $800 No-Limit Hold’em Deepstack and Event #27: $1,500 Eight Game Mix 6-Handed kick off their opening days on Sunday, June 11 while five other events continue to plug away. Meanwhile, the fifth Online Event with a $400 buy-in also awards a bracelet with players battling it out in Nevada and New Jersey at WSOP.com.

Below is a look at today’s schedule while head to the PokerPro opening WSOP article to check out the full schedule of the 2023 World Series of Poker.

Images courtesy of WSOP/PokerNews.
Article by Jason Glatzer
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