Viktor Blom Leads the Final Six in Event #47: $100,000 High Roller No-Limit Hold'em
The 2024 World Series of Poker at the Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas is one step closer to crowning a winner in one of the high-stakes showdowns. Only six players remain with a shot at the title in Event #47: $100,000 High Roller No-Limit Hold'em and they have their eyes set on the top prize of $2,838,389.
Leading the way by some margin is Swedish online sensation Viktor "Isildur1" Blom, who already had a close call for his maiden gold bracelet in Event #39: $50,000 High Roller No-Limit Hold'em (8-Handed), in which he finished third. This time, he has 27,675,000 at his disposal, and Chris Hunichen follows in second place with 16,475,000. Both big stacks have a large lead over the other four contenders, who have fewer than 30 big blinds at their disposal.
Chance Kornuth is the only late entrant from today to make it through with 8,900,000 while Aleksejs Ponakovs (6,475,000) and Jeremy Ausmus (6,100,000) are separated by fewer than two big blinds. Shortest stack by a large margin is Justin Saliba, who will return with 1,575,000 - good enough for slightly more than five big blinds.
The registration for the high-stakes contest was open for one more level at the start of the day and numerous late entrants pushed the field size up to 112 entries, surpassing the 105 entries from 2018. This generated a prize pool of $10,932,750 with the top 17 spots paid at least $209,346 for their efforts.
Seat Draw for the Final Day
| Seat | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chance Kornuth | United States | 8,900,000 | 30 |
| 2 | Viktor Blom | Sweden | 27,675,000 | 92 |
| 3 | Chris Hunichen | United States | 16,475,000 | 55 |
| 4 | Justin Saliba | United States | 1,575,000 | 5 |
| 5 | Aleksejs Ponakovs | Latvia | 6,475,000 | 22 |
| 6 | Jeremy Ausmus | United States | 6,100,000 | 20 |
A flurry of late entries brought rapid changes to the leaderboard in the early stages but most of those jumping in with 12 big blinds bowed out soon after. Alex Foxen, for example, played only a single hand before he was sent to the rail. Many other big names such as Phil Ivey, Nick Schulman, Artur Martirosian, Scott Seiver, and Adrian Mateos left without anything to show for but expensive tournament entry slips.
Just before the redraw of the final three tables, Masashi Oya was eliminated in a three-way all-in showdown in which Sergio Aido tripled up while Blom won the side pot to climb up on the leaderboard. Aido also knocked out Seth Davies whereas Ponakovs won a flip to knock out Indian businessman Santhosh Suvarna. It was then Hong Kong's Danny Tang who came up second-best to Johannes Straver to let the bubble burst.
Blom had doubled prior to the bubble, and was responsible for the first knockout in the money when he sent Orpen Kisacikoglu to the payout desk. Aido's bid for a second bracelet of the year ended soon after, and Straver did not make the redraw of the final two tables either, as Ponakovs turned the nut straight.
Day 1 chip leader Henrik Hecklen and Andrew Lichtenberger were the next two high-profile casualties, joined soon after on the payout desk by Nick Petrangelo as the rapid action continued without much of a hitch. Justin Bonomo was eliminated on the bubble of the unofficial final table, and Blom was the chip leader ahead of Hunichen, which then also carried over to the end of the day as well.
The duo was responsible for the last three eliminations of the night with Blom dispatching Michael Jozoff as well as Isaac Haxton, before Hunichen claimed the stack of Daniel Aharoni with queens versus ace-queen in a preflop contest.
Final Table Results and Remaining Payouts
| Place | Winner | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $2,838,389 | ||
| 2 | $1,892,260 | ||
| 3 | $1,311,091 | ||
| 4 | $932,725 | ||
| 5 | $681,796 | ||
| 6 | $512,465 | ||
| 7 | Daniel Aharoni | United States | $396,396 |
| 8 | Isaac Haxton | United States | $315,805 |
That ended the evening with 37:25 minutes left in Level 22, which features blinds of 150,000-300,000 and a big blind ante of 300,000. The final six players will return to the main feature stage at 1 p.m. local time on Thursday, June 20, and the PokerGO live stream will kick off with a one-hour delay as of 2 p.m. local time.
PokerNews live updates will be published on a delay, in sync with the stream to avoid spoilers, until a winner has been determined, so stay tuned!