Miracle River on First Hand Propels Griff to Chip Lead WSOP Main Event Final Table
The record-breaking 2024 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event in Las Vegas has reached its final nine players, and each of them are guaranteed a seven-figure payday with a chance to make poker history and walk away with $10 million.
Leading the way is Illinois native Jordan Griff, who had just $47,192 in live earnings heading into poker's biggest event and has now locked up a minimum cash that is more than 50 times his previous best score of $18,104. Griff was all in on the first hand of the day against a flopped set but managed to river a bigger set in a miraculous shift of events that will almost certainly end up being worth several million.
"It was a roller coaster of emotions, that hand," Griff told PokerNews at the end of Day 8. "The very first hand of the day, I pick up queens. I'm excited about it. There was a big pay jump, too, so I'm a little nervous. I get it in most of my stack pre-flop, assuming we're just committed ... He beat me to the pot (on the flop) ... I saw the threes, and I was just, like, in shock ... And then, you know, I heard the noises that something happened. I look back, I see the queen, and I let out some sort of noise. I don't remember what it was, but just pure emotion from it."
Griff has an uphill battle as two of poker's most accomplished players, American high roller regular Brian Kim and Swedish online poker legend Niklas "Lena900" Astedt, both bagged impressive stacks that will see them return to the final table with over 50 big blinds.
Astedt, who is widely recognized as one of the greatest online players of all time, will look to scrub his name from the "best without a bracelet" list, while Kim will seek redemption after a 23rd-place finish in the 2022 Main Event and his second WSOP bracelet.
"I think that run is the only reason why I'm here today," Kim said. "I never really played tournaments. I actually just played the Main once every year. So from that run, I got interested in tournaments and started doing a lot of work and playing them a lot, and now I have quite a bit of experience."
Astedt may be known as an online player, but make no mistake—he has not been fatigued by the long hours in the live arena.
"(This is a) piece of cake compared to SCOOP," laughed Astedt. "People say this is a marathon; they should try 23 tables for 40 days during SCOOP. That's what I say."
Another player seeking redemption is Boris Angelov, who earlier this year finished runner-up in the EPT Monte Carlo Main Event for $663,565 in what he told PokerNews felt like a disappointing finish.
Meanwhile, Joe Serock, New Mexico's all-time money leader and the only player at the final table with a bracelet other than Kim, will seek a second piece of WSOP hardware after winning last year's online $500 PLO 8-Max and qualifying into the Main Event on GGPoker.
Day 7 chip leader Malo Latinois ended the night toward the bottom of the counts alongside Texan four-time Circuit ring winner Jonathan Tamayo (who finished 21st in the 2009 Main Event) and Spain's Andres Gonzalez, while Canada's Jason Sagle rounds out the final nine as a middling stack.
2024 WSOP Main Event Final Table
| Seat | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Boris Angelov | Bulgaria | 52,900,000 | 33 |
| 2 | Malo Latinois | France | 25,500,000 | 16 |
| 3 | Brian Kim | United States | 94,600,000 | 59 |
| 4 | Niklas Astedt | Sweden | 94,200,000 | 59 |
| 5 | Joe Serock | United States | 83,600,000 | 52 |
| 6 | Jordan Griff | United States | 143,700,000 | 90 |
| 7 | Jonathan Tamayo | United States | 26,700,000 | 17 |
| 8 | Andres Gonzalez | Spain | 18,300,000 | 11 |
| 9 | Jason Sagle | Canada | 67,300,000 | 42 |
Foxen Falls Ahead of Final Table
It took just one hand for Griff to find himself all in with queens, and it was shaping to be his only hand of the day as he was against Jessie Bryant's flopped set of threes. But as luck would have it, the river brought one of two queens left in the deck, and Griff made a better set to stay alive and make a run to the final table.
The ghillie-suit-wearing Southerner soon after doubled up Angelov to be left short to fall in 17th place after the elimination of Gerardo Hernandez in 18th place, who went out in painful fashion as a double-paired board counterfeited his pocket sixes to lose to ace-high.
There was another painful elimination after the first break as Guillermo Sanchez Otero got it in with ace-queen to be in front of the offsuit nine-seven of his opponent. A double appeared imminent for Otero as his ace-high stayed ahead until a seven landed on the river to send him out in 16th place.
It was around this time that Foxen took the chip lead as she outflopped Diogo Coelho in a three-bet pot with ace-queen to the Portgeuese grinder's Big Slick.
Though it was an exciting development for the thousands of poker enthusiasts hoping to see the first woman Main Event champion crowned, it was short-lived. As the field got smaller with the exits of Jason James and the jovial Yegor Moroz, Foxen lost a sizable pot against Kim before a hand that will likely be discussed for the remainder of the event.
After defending her big blind with king-queen in a heads-up pot against Serock, Foxen check-called on a board of A?K?J? before check-jamming on the turn. Unfortunately for the four-time bracelet winner, Serock wasn't going anywhere with top two pair and "Krissyb" couldn't hit Broadway for a painful exit for one of the best woman players in poker history.
Foxen was consoled after her elimination by her husband, fellow crusher Alex Foxen, and those on the rail roared and applauded as she left the table.
Action picked up after dinner break, and it didn't take long for Brazil's Gabriel Moura, who had one of the loudest and most enthusiastic rails of Day 8, to go out in 12th place as his flopped middle pair couldn't hold up against the straight draw of Sagle, who binked the turn to leave the Brazilian drawing to a bigger straight draw that didn't hit.
Not long after, France's Malcolm Franchi got it in with ace-queen only to find himself dominated by the ace-king of Griff to go out on the unofficial final table bubble.
Griff's spin-up only continued from there as he hit quads before the elimination of Portugal's Diogo Coelho, who entered the ten-handed table with crumbs and ran ace-jack into the ace-king of Astedt to mark the end of Day 8.
Final Tablists Get a Day Off
After bagging their chips, posing for photos, and doing media interviews, the nine players left the Horseshoe Event Center to further prepare for their quest for eight figures.
The players will have a day off on Monday, July 15, before returning for Day 9 on Tuesday, July 16 at 2 p.m. local time. Action will pick back up with 51:20 left in Level 39 with blinds of 800,000/1,600,000/1,600,000. The plan for Day 9 is to play down to four players with TV breaks throughout play and no extended breaks.
Stay tuned as the PokerNews live reporting team will return on-site on Tuesday for continued coverage of the record-breaking 2024 WSOP Main Event. Be sure to check out the live reporting hub in the meantime.
Remaining Payouts
| Place | Prize (in USD) |
|---|---|
| 1 | $10,000,000 |
| 2 | $6,000,000 |
| 3 | $4,000,000 |
| 4 | $3,000,000 |
| 5 | $2,500,000 |
| 6 | $2,000,000 |
| 7 | $1,500,000 |
| 8 | $1,250,000 |
| 9 | $1,000,000 |