The World Series of Poker is nearing the conclusion of its biggest tournament this weekend as the Main Event World Championship plays down to the Final Table. This year's WSOP Main Event drew a record 10,043 entries to shatter the 2006 turnout of 8,773. The $10,000 buy-in for the Main Event created a record prize pool of $93.4 million. 

The top 1,507 finishers were guaranteed a payout of at least $15,000. Heading into Day 8 on Friday, July 14, there are 15 players remaining with those massive payouts as follows.

1st - $12.1 million
2nd - $6.5 million
3rd - $4 million
4th - $3 million
5th - $2.4 million
6th - $1.85 million
7th - $1.425 million
8th - $1.125 million
9th - 900,000
10th & 11th - $700,000
12th & 13th - $535,000     
14th & 15th - $430,200

WSOP Main Event Chip Leaders 

The blinds and antes for Day 8 and Level 35 are 300,000/600,000 with a 600,000 big blind ante.

Juan Maceiras - 108,000,000 - Lapido La Coruna, ES
Adam Walton - 79,475,000 - Thousand Oaks, CA, US
Jan-Peter Jachtmann - 70,775,000 - Roggenkamp, DE
Steven Jones Phoenix - 67,700,000 - AZ, US
Toby Lewis Eastleigh - 50,000,000 - GB
Ruslan Prydryk - 45,750,000 - Lugansk, UA
Jose Aguilera Cardiff - 37,600,000, ES
Joshua Payne - 31,000,000 - Berkeley Lake, GA, US
Sachin Joshi - 27,775,000 - GB
Daniel Weinman - 21,750,000 - Atlanta, GA, US
Dean Hutchison - 17,500,000 - Glasgow, GB
Daniel Holzner - 14,750,000 - Italy, IT
Alec Torelli - 14,275,000 - Las Vegas, NV, US
Jack O'Neill - 11,700,000 - Kinoulton, GB
Cong Pham - 8,700,000 - Naples, FL, US

Many top pros were eliminated earlier including Phil Hellmuth, who just days before the WSOP Main Event won his record-extending 17th WSOP Gold Bracelet in the $10,000 buy-in Super Turbo Bounty to cash-in for $803,818. But other notable players in poker were still alive in Day 6 with less than 80 players remaining, includuing WPT commentator Tony Dunst.

Two past WSOP Main Event champions busted early in Day 5 with less than 450 players remaining - Joe Hachem and Chris Moneymaker, a former Poker Stars ambassador who created the rising wave of poker interest back in 2003. High stakes crushers Jason Koon and Chris Brewer also busted in Day 5 along with Chance Kornuth, the Chip Leader Coaching founder, who had a big stack but was busted when his A-K of hearts called a four-bet jam by the loose, aggressive Dirty Diaper, Nicholas Rigby who had the goods with pocket aces (AA). Rigby, who made the dirty diaper hand (2-3) famous, busted in Day 6 in 131st place for $67,700. He was all-in with pocket Jacks (JJ) and flopped a set of Jacks. But his opponent's A-K caught a four-outer Queen on the river to make a straight. I feel his disgust, but not the cash payoff (below). 

Also, this year's WSOP Hall of Fame inductee Brian Rast won the prestigious $50,000 buy-in WSOP Poker Players Championship for the third time this year to cash-in for $1.3 million. Notable FiveThirtyEight founder and statistician Nate Silver made a deep run and busted with a flopped set of 6s vs flopped top set of 7s to finish 87th and cash-in for $92,600. 

World Poker Tour (WPT) Commentator Tony Dunst, who lives in Las Vegas, made a deep run in the WSOP Main Event. He won a huge pot in Day 5 with pocket Aces (AA) vs top pro John Racener's pocket Kings (KK). That got him into top-10 in chips with 150 players remaining, but he talked with PokerGo after he busted Day 6 against a straigh flush to finish in 66th place for $130,300. 

I provided other poker updates on the WSOP for select sites and states, including Maryland, while also reporting for Forbes on the record-breaking Main Event. 

Poker in the U.S. 

Poker is growing again, but still faces hurdles. Poker is a form of entertainment, and also a way to make money. Knowledge is experience and poker is a learning curve.

I took my experience and poker-parlay shot to play in five WSOP No-Limit Hold 'em bracelet events this year and cashed twice including top-100 (2%) in the $600 Deep Stack event that drew more than 6,000 entries.

In addition, my pursuit of poker and profit continued as I also won a mega satellite seat into a WPT event at Wynn Las Vegas for a $1,600 Mystery Bounty event that had a big turnout and prize pool of more than $4 million. From a third to halfway through Day 1B, I had moved up in chips only to lose massive pots at the time, a few of which could have catapulted me to among the chip leaders. I had four dominant hands all lose all-in bigger pots, including my pocket Tens (10-10) to 2-3, who called a big 3-bet in the blind with deuce-three and then an all-in call on the flop to get lucky (again) and make a flush on the river. Twice I lost all-in hands to two-outers (92% favorite after flop) including my AA vs KK when a King hit the river to bust me. Pictures and proof again shows the poker-parlay effect of No-Limit Hold 'em tournament poker, and the tough 'bad beats' that send players to the rail (smh). 

As part of my coverage for the World Poker Tour (WPT) and the ongoing EveryOne for OneDrop event, the Final Table of the huge No-Limit Hold 'em tournament will crown a winner this weekend at Wynn Las Vegas. The prize pool soared to more than $16 million from 1,676 entries ($10,400 buy-in), and 210 players cashed-in for a minimum of $17,200, including Chris Moneymaker. But Phil Ivey busted just before the money after a re-buy and bold, but not wise massive re-jam all-in with A-10 only to have the raiser with Q-Q call and bust him.

Day 3 saw 71 players return, and these heavy hitters cashed-in but were unable to make the WPT Final Table. WPT Prime Championship winner Stephen Song, WPT Champions Joe Tehan and Dominik Nitsche, Bryce Yockey, Adrian Mateos, Paul Volpe, and Darren Elias - the current record holder for WPT titles with four.

The Final Table of the WPT EveryOne for OneDrop includes: Bin Weng (21 million, chip leader), Niko Koop (14.8M), Scott Baumstein (10.9M), Freddy Heller (9.3M), high roller Dominik Nitsche (8.1M), who towers the remaining players with $19.6 million in lifetime live tournament earnings, and Tom Cannuli (2.8M), a 2017 WSOP Gold Bracelet winner.

The live-streamed Final Table of 6 players will see the winner take home $2.56 million and 6th place win $524,500. More than $334,000 will be donated to the OneDrop Foundation to help underserved communities achieve sustainable access to safe, clean water.

Poker News live updates

Check back for any additional updates and player info as the WSOP Main Event crowns its next poker World Champion on Monday, July 17 from the Horseshoe Hotel & Casino on the Las Vegas Strip. 

Top Online Poker Sites 

Many players who qualified for WSOP events played in online poker tournaments. And BetOnline has reduced rake structures at low and medium stakes cash games, along with one of the largest selections of deposit and payout options in the industry. All of them 100% secure and reliable, and a Crypto tutorial provides Bitcoin deposit options and dollar-for-dollar match up to $1,000 when you make your initial deposit. Simply use the promo code POKER1000 for regular deposits or promo code CRYPTO100 for your first-ever Cryptocurrency deposit to double your funds instantly. 

America's Card Room is also a top U.S. facing poker site. They are loaded with daily tournaments and players are entered into a $250 freeroll just by making their first deposit. They offer enormous tournaments like the Venom and Online Super Series and are a player favorite. ACR is the flagship site on the Winning Poker Network.

FairwayJay is a proven poker player in Las Vegas playing cash games and select No-Limit Hold 'em tournaments. He cashed in 2-of-5 WSOP events in 2023 and went very deep (top 2%) in Event #11 - $600 NL Hold 'em Deep Stack. FairwayJay chips in sports betting and handicapping insight along with reporting on poker and sports news with information you can bet on. Follow FairwayJay here at OSGA.com and on Twitter @FairwayJay for more betting insights.