Event #3: $500 WSOP Kickoff No-Limit Hold'em Freezeout

A British businessman and a two-time WSOP bracelet winner went heads up for the title, and it was the former who stood alone in the end.

Daniel Willis defeated Michael Wang on Day 3 to take down Event #3: $500 Kickoff No-Limit Hold'em Freezeout, securing Willis a $175,578 winning prize and his first WSOP bracelet after he outlasted the final eight players. Wang collected $117,046 as the runner-up.

"Coming off the first event I played and have a huge win, it's a dream come true moment," Willis said with a smile.

Willis, who entered Day 3 as the chip leader, didn't falter at the final table and credits the momentum he gained late in Day 2.

"In deep fields, thousands of players, you get these really crucial spots where you get your chips in and it's a really critical hand to keep that momentum going," Willis said. "And so many times when I played poker professionally 10-15 years ago before I started my music journey and business, I found that those crucial spots weren't going my way really deep for very big prize money.

"But in this tournament, it just went really, really well in those crucial spots, like (Thursday) when I was like fifth or sixth in chips, perhaps seventh, and someone shoved all in, another big stack re-raised all in, and then I got kings in the big blind, so I call. I was up against jacks, Q3 suited. The flop came 2, 4, 5, so I had to dodge an Ace, a Jack, a 6, and I did. Those are the key spots where I just kept gaining momentum."

Not only did Willis gain momentum, he sustained it throughout Day 3 while in good spots en route to winning the event.

"The final table seemed to go really smoothly," Willis said. "Someone shoved all in and I have kings; obviously an easy call. The same thing happened again and I had Aces, and it just kept going like that where I was in those dream scenarios, spots that a lot of poker players would just love to be in and would just appreciate that the luck is on your side."

Final Table Results

While luck is a factor, there is arguably a level of skill required to navigate the minefield of not just players, but capable players.

The overall field boasted multiple WSOP bracelet winners, including Wang, Poker Hall of Famer Daniel Negreanu, Ryan Riess, Tamas Lendvai, Jason Wheeler, Joseph Altomonte, Qiang Xu, andMarco Johnson, among others.

Going through all the tough competition isn't lost on the WSOP's newest bracelet winner.

"I'm just really grateful for this amazing opportunity," Willis said. "And how everything unfolded to be here and to be the winner."

With a major tournament win in his back pocket and a shiny WSOP gold bracelet on his wrist, Willis now looks forward to the future, which includes sticking around for a few more weeks in Las Vegas before he heads home.

"I'm definitely going to try and play the Mystery Bounty, probably take a day off and celebrate," he said. "I'll probably play a few more events, and then I got to get back to work."

THREE-DAY SNAPSHOT

A new event for 2024, the $500 Kickoff No-Limit Hold'em Event secured a sizeable 3,485 total entries, building a prize pool of $1,442,960. There were plenty of notables in the field, including Joe Cada, Greg Raymer, Brad Owen, Shaun Deeb, Josh Arieh, and Jeremy Ausmus but were not successful in making the money.

The bubble burst on Day 1 with Deeb losing out on the score. Maria Ho and Justin Saliba were sent to the rail shortly after making the money and didn't get to advance to Day 2.

Day 1 finished at the end of level 22 with 151 remaining players, including WSOP bracelet winner and 25K fantasy draft player Qiang Xu. Steven Borella was second in chips going into Day 2 with Gregory Snyder close behind in third.

Day 2 saw some big bust-outs with Xu eliminated in 37th place for $4,596, Ryan Riess (63rd - $2,679), Marco Johnson (47th - $3,805), Daniel Negreanu (16th - $8,541) and Jason Wheeler (14th - $8,541) before the final table was reached.

Play stopped when the field reached 8, with the final table redraw seeing Willis have 47 big blinds and the short stack David Niedringhaus with seven big blinds.

Day 3 resumed at 1 p.m. with the final table action being streamed by PokerGO on a two-hour delay, which saw Willis prevail as the event champion.

Three hands after losing a massive pot to Daniel Willis, two-time WSOP bracelet winner Michael Wang was looking up to Willis' stack and a 2,500,000 preflop raise. Willis made the action after looking at   .

Wang, who started the hand with 19,200,000, peeked down at    and called.

The dealer fanned     on the flop. While both players hit a pair, they each checked their respective action.

The   appeared on the turn, prompting Wang to bet 4,000,000 on his top pair, but Willis, holding second pair, called.

The dealer placed   on the turn, giving Willis a hammerlock on the hand with trip Jacks. Wang checked and Willis applied maximum pressure by moving all in, a bet that covered Wang's remaining stack.

Wang took his time, shifting in his seat and shuffling chips for a few minutes. He then called and shook his head after seeing Willis' hand.

Wang earned $117,006 for his second-place finish in the event.

Daniel Willis	87,300,000	17,200,000
Michael Wang	0	-17,200,000

It didn't take long for heads-up play to heat up.

Just a few hands into the competition, Michael Wang and Daniel Willis were involved in a large pot, which swung the balance to Willis at the end.

Wang peeked down at    and raised 2,500,000, which Willis called holding   .

The dealer fanned an action flop of    , giving Wang top pair with top kicker, while Willis flopped a flush draw. Wang bet 3,500,000, only to see Willis check-call the action.

Then, it got interesting on the turn after the dealer placed   on the board.

Willis checked, and Wang bet 7,500,000. Willis responded with a check-raise to 16,500,000. Wang took his time before announcing an all-in bet, which covered his opponent's stack.

Willis snap-called and tabled his flush, which had Wang drawing dead.

The   didn't change the outcome of the hand, but the 69,600,000 pot gave Willis the chip lead and left Wang with 17,700,000.

Daniel Willis	69,600,000	26,800,000
Michael Wang	17,700,000	-14,650,000

Michael Wang raised on the button with   . Steven Borella moved all in from the small blind with his remaining 7,775,000 stack.
Daniel Willis called in the big blind, and Wang quickly got out of the way.

Steven Borella:   [allin]
Daniel Willis:   

Borella hopefully said to Willis, "If I do suck out, I apologize" before seeing the     flop. Borella decided to stand and put on his backpack as he prepared himself to leave the tournament.

The   turn and the   river, left three at the table and Borella went home in fourth place.

Daniel Willis	42,800,000	10,975,000
Michael Wang	32,350,000	-1,600,000
Steven Borella	0	-12,875,000

Michael Wang woke up with    under the gun and raised to 1,600,000 prompting folds all around, allowing Wang to add more chips to his monster stack.

In the next hand, Daniel Willis sat with    on the button and raised to 1,750,000 and Wang defended the big blind with   .

The action flop came     which gave Willis top pair and a flush draw for Wang.

Wang opted for a check and Willis bet out 1,600,000, getting a quick call from Wang.

The   turn swayed things in Willis's favor. Wang checked and faced a bet of 2,700,000 from Willis. Wang took some time, but eventually found a fold, allowing Willis to get closer to chip leading.

Michael Wang	33,950,000	-1,550,000
Daniel Willis	25,675,000	-250,000

Michael Wang raised to 1,600,000 from under the gun which was met with a jam from Daniel Sherer on the button for 7,225,000.

Daniel Sherer:   [allin]
Michael Wang:   

Sherer got up from the table and congratulated Wang's "nice hand" as he waited for the runout.

Wang flopped top set on the     flop and Sherer called for a "jack on the turn".

The   turn sealed Sherer's fate as Wang's tens were filled with nines.

As the dealer peeled the   river, Sherer shook the new chip leader Wang's hand, and left the tournament in sixth place.

Michael Wang	33,500,000	17,125,000
Daniel Sherer	0	-5,025,000

Michael Wang raised to 1,200,000 from the hijack with   , which got a call from Steven Borella in the cutoff with   . Yoshinori Funayama then moved all in for 8,200,000 on the button with his pocket tens.

Yoshinori Funayama:   [allin]

Funayama got two folds and added a sizeable 3,3600,000 chips to his stack.

Steven Borella	13,575,000	0
Yoshinori Funayama	11,850,000	0
Michael Wang	9,675,000	0