2023 WSOP Day 44: Joshua Payne Leads Final 49 in Main Event; Josh Arieh Wins Sixth Bracelet

Many 2023 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event players experienced true emotional pain after busting out of this year’s biggest poker event with nearly 10,000 players already hitting the rail. There shouldn’t be any pain for Joshua Payne who leads the way heading into Day 7 on Thursday at noon.
 
Another Joshua in Josh Arieh is solidifying his run for a potential Poker Hall of Fame induction in the coming years after nailing down his second WSOP bracelet of the year and sixth of his poker career after shipping the prestigious Event #80: $25,000 H.O.R.S.E.
 
Meanwhile, Samuel Bernabeu won his maiden bracelet in Event #79: $2,500 No-Limit Hold’em with a handful of other events getting one step closer to crowning their champions. Read more about what went down on Day 43 of the 2023 WSOP:

Joshua Payne Leads Final 49 Players in 2023 WSOP $10K Main Event

If you have been following our reports, you are already aware that the 11-day Event #76: $10,000 Main Event No-Limit Hold’em World Championship set a new record for not only the largest WSOP Main Event but the largest poker tournament in history with 10,043 entries creating a $93,399,900 prize pool. The action has gotten serious with yesterday’s Day 6 witnessing the field trimmed from 149 players down to just 49 hopefuls in the hunt for the prestigious title.
 
Joshua Payne delivered pain to his opponents throughout the day including busting Day 5 chip leader Zachary Hall near the end of the day and will start Day 7 with a chip-leading stack of 47,950,000 for 192 big blinds. Payne has just three WSOP cashes to his name including a deep run in last year’s WSOP Main Event where he took 553^rd place for $25,500. He has already locked up a lot more with the final 49 players locking up at least $188,400. Of course, Payne and all of the other players have their eyes on something even bigger than that with a $12,100,000 top prize going to the eventual champion.
 
Juan Maceiras Lapido (40,500,000) was the only other player to bag over 40 million. In fact, nobody else advanced with more than 30 million with WSOP bracelet winner Daniel Weinmann (24,375,000), Richard Ryder (22,650,000), and Tim Van Loo (21,700,000) rounding out the top five players on the leaderboard.
 
In addition to Weinmann, only two other remaining players found WSOP gold in the past with King’s Resort regular Jan-Peter Jachtmann with 14,975,000 and Raj Vohra with a short stack of 4,300,000.
 
Meanwhile, Day 4 chip leader Ryan Tosoc (9,450,000) and Day 2d chip leader and 15-time WSOP Circuit ring winner Maurice Hawkins (4,475,000) both still have some chips.
 
Unfortunately, this will be the last time we mention “Dirty Diaper” in our Main Event reports as Day 1d chip leader Nicholas Rigby, who affectionately earned that nickname thanks to his love of trey-deuce suited during a prior WSOP Main Event, hit the rail on a cooler on Day 6. He got it in with jacks against big slick. He flopped a set but his opponent rivered a straight to send him packing.

2023 WSOP Main Event Day 5 Top 10 Leaderboard

Place	Name	Country	Chips	Big Blinds
1	Joshua Payne	United States	47,950,000	192
2	Juan Macieras Lapido	Spain	40,500,000	162
3	Daniel Weinmann	United States	24,375,000	98
4	Richard Ryder	United States	22,650,000	91
5	Tim Van Loo	Germany	21,700,000	87
6	Alec Torelli	United States	21,075,000	84
7	Daniel Scroggins	United States	20,800,000	83
8	Ryan Tamanini	United States	19,200,000	77
9	Pierpaola Lamanna	Italy	18,875,000	76
10	Nicholas Gerrity	United States	18,075,000	72

2023 WSOP Main Event Remaining Payouts

Players returning to action on Day 7 already locked up a healthy $188,400. The payouts will continue to jump as the event moves on. Check out all of the payouts below:

Place	Prize
1	$12,100,000
2	$6,500,000
3	$4,000,000
4	$3,000,000
5	$2,400,000
6	$1,850,000
7	$1,425,000
8	$1,125,000
9	$900,000
10-11	$700,000
12-13	$535,000
14-17	$430,200
18-26	$345,000
27-35	$280,100
36-44	$229,000
45-49	$188,400

Samuel Bernabeu Wins Event #79: $2,500 No-Limit Hold’em ($682,436)

Samuel Bernabeu defeated James Anderson heads-up to win Event #79: $2,500 No-Limit Hold’em in front of a vibrant Spanish rail to earn his maiden WSOP gold bracelet and the $682,436 top prize.
 
Bernabeu shared after the win that he took a long break from poker after moving from Spain to Mexico where he now calls home.
 
“I used to play a lot in Spain, but when I moved to Mexico, I took a lot of time off,” Bernabeu shared after his victory according to WSOP. “But I felt like something was missing in my life being away for so long. It just feels amazing to actually win one after everything that has happened.”
 
Despite being away from the game, 888poker Ambassador Ana Marquez, who was rooting for her friend on his large rail, shared Bernabeu invented his own poker deck that we may see catch on in smaller communities.
 
He’s a really great guy and poker player,” Marquez shared. “He loves the game and is very creative. He even created his own revolutionary poker deck with five suits instead of four and wants to introduce it to the world at some point.”
 
Bernabeu began the final day in sixth place among the 24 players remaining in the field and was still in sixth place when the final table began. He chipped up after eliminating both Ramon Fernandez in seventh place and Daniel Schill in ninth place and it was nearly evenly stacked during three handed play with Anderson and Zlatin Penev after Bernabeu ousted Day 1 and Day 2 chip leader Seth Davies in fourth place when his jacks were good against king-ten.
 
The lead shifted back and forth between Penev and Anderson until Penev took a commanding lead. A break took place and momentum quickly shifted to Bernabeu who doubled through Penev to take a commanding lead himself after picking off his opponent’s bluff with top pair.
 
Bernabeu ousted Penev in third place a short while later after winning a flip with ace-queen against fives and held a nearly 4:1 chip advantage over Anderson to commence the heads-up action.
 
The heads-up play didn’t last too long and ended on a cooler for Anderson as he unsuccessfully jammed with ace-queen suited only to run into Bernabeu’s cowboys to come one player shy of WSOP glory.

Event #79: $2,500 No-Limit Hold’em Final Table Results

The three-day Event #79: $2,500 No-Limit Hold’em attracted 2,068 entries to create a $4,601,300 prize pool with the top 311 players collecting at least a $4,002 min-cash. Check out the final table results below:

Place	Player	Country	Prize
1	Samuel Bernabeu	Spain	$682,432
2	James Anderson	United States	$421,761
3	Zlatin Penev	Italy	$310,528
4	Seth Davies	United States	$310,528
5	Diego Vaz Sorgatto	Brazil	$230,772
6	Justin Kindred	United States	$137,121
7	Ramon Fernandez	Spain	$100,252
8	Derek Normand	United States	$77,401
9	Daniel Schill	United States	$60,346

Josh Arieh Wins Event #80: $25,000 H.O.R.S.E. High Roller ($711,313)

Earlier this summer, Josh Arieh won his fifth WSOP bracelet by shipping Event #22: $10,000 Limit Hold’em Championship for the $316,226 top prize. The poker OG is solidifying his case to be inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame after just shipping his sixth WSOP bracelet on Wednesday after defeating another poker OG in Dan Heimiller heads-up in Event #80: $25,000 H.O.R.S.E. High Roller for $711,313.
 
Despite two WSOP bracelets, Arieh will have to keep playing if he wants to win the 2023 WSOP Player of the Year race as he is in second place only behind Ian Matakis, who won a bracelet earlier this summer in an online bracelet event.
 
“I’m so stoked,” Arieh said about his victory according to the WSOP. “It was a tough field and I was the last person to go on a heater. I feel amazing and I’m very fortunate.”
 
Arieh credits getting his act together outside of poker as one of the reasons for his success over the past two years where he has earned four of his six career WSOP bracelets.
 
“My life is so amazing outside of poker,” Arieh said. “I got my shit straight and my relationships with my daughters and with Rachel… everything is just great. It’s definitely helped my career.”
 
If Arieh continues to notch up bracelets, he won’t be ignored by the Hall of Fame but perhaps he already deserves to be there now. Arieh believes that more than one player should be admitted to this exclusive club and that another player is more deserving than him this time around.
 
“It’s definitely in the back of my mind,” Arieh shared. “This year belongs to (Brian) Rast, he’s an absolute crusher and he did what he had to do. Maybe one year when they fix the nomination process and more than one player gets in, then maybe I’ll have my turn. I’ll just keep playing and doing what I do and whatever happens, happens.”

Event #80: $25,000 H.O.R.S.E. High Roller Final Table Results

Event #80: $25,000 H.O.R.S.E. High Roller was originally scheduled as a four-day affair. Usually, we have witnessed at the WSOP that days will be added to events but this is the rare time that instead a day was removed making this event a three-day affair. A total of 112 players got into the mix to create a $2,632,000 prize pool with the top 17 players earning at least a $41,869 min-cash. Check out the final table results below: 

Place	Player	Country	Prize
1	Josh Arieh	United States	$711,313
2	Dan Heimiller	United States	$439,622
3	Yingui Li	China	$319,906
4	Joao Vieira	Portugal	$236,163
5	Mike Matusow	United States	$176,904
6	John Hennigan	United States	$134,491
7	Johannes Becker	Germany	$103,795
8	Scott Seiver	United States	$81,337
9	Hal Rotholz	United States	$64,733

Ongoing Events

The WSOP was buzzing once again not just because of the Main Event and the two bracelets claimed but also due to four other events getting one step closer to crowning their champions on Wednesday, July 12.
 
The three-day Event #81: $600 Ultra Stack No-Limit Hold’em completed its second opening flight with the field growing to 7,207 entries for a $3,675,570 prize pool. The payouts will likely be released around the start of Day 2 on Thursday at 10 a.m. but we do know that the 555 remaining players are already in the money. Day 1b chip leader Rassoul Malboudi leads the way with a 90 big blind stack of 3,615,000 with Leonard Clementi not too far behind with 3,500,000.
 
Event #82: $3,000 6-Handed Pot-Limit Omaha progressed to its third and final day with Dustin Goldklang leading the way with a 169 big blind stack of 4,225,000 among the 35 survivors when the action resumes at 1 p.m. on Thursday. He was helped along by eliminating the poker legend Sammy Farha and Francisco Perez in the same hand. The top 35 players already locked up $13,343 with all eyes on the coveted bracelet and the $480,122 top prize.
 
Event #83: $1,500 Short Deck wasn’t one of the more popular events at the WSOP with just 363 entries getting into the mix to create a $484,605. Players like Allen “The Chainsaw” Kessler suggested that they substitute the Short Deck in the future with different events. If the WSOP would do this, we would suggest a fun game like Drawmaha or Chinese Poker but if numbers are the issue no-limit hold’em always gets the job done.

https://twitter.com/AllenKessler/status/1679261446369349632

This event was originally scheduled for three days. However, the action is down to just nine hopefuls who each locked up $8,586 with the bracelet and the $111,170 top prize on the line. David Prociak will kick off the action with a chip-leading stack of 2,040,000 in the hunt for his second taste at WSOP gold. Ryan Laplante is the only other former bracelet winner that is in the mix, albeit with a much shorter stack of 770,000 when the action resumes on Thursday at 12 p.m.
 
The three-day Event #84: $50,000 No-Limit Hold’em High Roller lived up to its billing with many big names among the 133 entries with more to come as late registration will remain open until cards are in the air for Day 2 on Thursday at 1 p.m. It wasn’t a big name to secure the overnight chip lead. Instead, it was China’s Yang Wang leading the way with a 109 big blind stack of 2,175,000 with Pokercode Founder Fedor Holz hot on his tail in the hunt for his second WSOP gold bracelet.

July 13 WSOP Schedule

The schedule is jammed packed for Thursday, July 13 with two bracelets scheduled to be awarded. The WSOP Main Event will get closer to its final table with five more levels of two hours each scheduled and three new bracelet events will provide players fresh opportunities to claim a piece of WSOP hardware.
 
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.

Time	Event	Info
10 a.m.	Event #81: $600 Ultra Stack – No-limit Hold’em	Day 2 of 3
10 a.m.	Event #85: $1,500 SHOOTOUT No-Limit Hold’em	Day 1 of 3
12 p.m.	Event #83: $1,500 Short Deck No-Limit Hold’em	Day 2 of 2
12 p.m.	Event #86: $1,979 Poker Hall of Fame Bounty No-Limit Hold’em	Day 1 of 2
1 p.m.	Event #82: $3,000 6-Handed Pot-Limit Omaha	Day 3 of 3
1 p.m.	Event #84: $50,000 HIGH ROLLER No-Limit Hold’em	Day 2 of 3
2 p.m.	Event #87: $2,500 Mixed	Day 1 of 3

Images and hand details courtesy of WSOP/PokerNews.