Event #81: $10,000 MAIN EVENT No-Limit Hold'em World Championship

Brian Hawkins open-jammed from middle position for 1,100,000 chips. The action folded to Gabriel Moura in the big blind, who asked for a count and then made the call.

Brian Hawkins:   
Gabriel Moura:   

The     flop made both players a pair, but the   turn gave Moura two pair to take the lead. The   river did not improve Hawkins, eliminating him in 56th place.

Gabriel Moura	16,700,000	1,800,000
Brian Hawkins	0	-1,225,000

Jason Hoffman opened to 500,000 in middle position and Eliott Kessas called from the next seat.

Hoffman checked on the flop of     and Kessas bet 400,000. Hoffman check-raised to 1,200,000 and Kessas laid it down.

Eliott Kessas	8,900,000	-425,000
Jason Hoffman	8,100,000	4,700,000

Shundan Xiao opened to 500,000 with the    and Kristen Foxen three-bet to 1,500,000 with the   . Xiao called.

Xiao checked on the flop of     and Foxen continued for 900,000. Xiao check-raised to 2,500,000 and Foxen folded.

Shundan Xiao	26,000,000	2,075,000
Kristen Foxen	12,000,000	-2,500,000

Daniel Kyosev opened to 500,000 in middle position and Jason Hoffman defended in the big blind.

Hoffman checked on the flop of     and Kyosev continued for 300,000. Hoffman check-jammed a stack of 2,650,000 and Kyosev called with a bigger stack.

Jason Hoffman:   
Daniel Kyosev:   

Hoffman was in front with a pair of sevens and the   turn gave him a lock on the hand with a flush before the   river bricked off to earn him an early double.

Jason Hoffman	6,600,000	3,200,000
Daniel Kyosev	2,900,000	-3,100,050

Joe Serock opened to 500,000 from middle position and Nick Jivkov defended in the big blind.

Jivkov checked following the     flop before folding to a 250,000 continuation from Serock to leave himself with just 1,050,000, a stack worth only four big blinds.

Joe Serock	13,550,000	375,000
Nick Jivkov	1,050,000	-850,000

The 59 returning players for Day 7 of the WSOP Main Event have found their seats, and the cards are in the air in Level 31, 125,000/250,000 with a 250,000 big blind ante.

Those who join the throngs of hopefuls each year putting down five figures to enter the World Series of Poker Main Event can hardly dare dream about making the final table, let alone taking down the tournament for a life-altering score. Yet here on Day 7 of the 2024 World Series of Poker Main Event at the Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas, anyone who still has chips to wager has a decent shot at making poker's biggest stage as just 59 players remain in the hunt for the $10,000,000 top prize and a place in history.

The current chipleader, Kevin Davis, returns with a stack of 26,250,000, good for 105 big blinds. Davis is no stranger to success at WSOP events, having won six rings to go along with 122 cashes for a total of $555,524 in earnings. He has yet to win a bracelet, but now finds himself in pole position to capture the most coveted one of all. Still, just as you cannot win a multi-day poker tournament on Day 1, in the case of the Main Event it is also not possible to take it down on the seventh day, so Davis cannot rest on his laurels just yet.

Davis faces some fierce competition down the leaderboard. Shundan Xiao is his closest competitor, sitting on 23,925,000. While Xiao does not have the live poker resume to stack up against those of many of her competitors, one need only recall that Chris Moneymaker's first recorded cash on Hendon Mob was a victory in the 2003 Main Event that not only reshaped his life but also changed the trajectory of poker across the world. It would be reductive to focus solely on the fact that Xiao is a woman when considering the potentially monumental implications of her winning. Nevertheless, given that is has been almost thirty years since Barbara Enright became the first and, to-date only, woman to make a main event final table, the significant impact were Xiao to make the final table or even go the distance cannot be ignored.

Rounding out the top three counts is Frenchman Malo Latinois, who has already secured a payday worth more than the entirety of his career live earnings. He will be looking to extend his stay in the tournament long enough to put himself in contention for a seven or even eight-figure score.

Start of Day 7 Top Ten Chip Counts

As mentioned, plenty of notable players remain. Online legend Niklas "Lena900" Astedt (15,800,000) returns with an above average stack and, after a couple of runner-up finishes in online bracelet events, will be continuing his quest to capture his first piece of WSOP hardware. Four-time bracelet winner Kristen Foxen (14,500,000) also returns as the only other woman left besides Xiao. Foxen said at the start of Day 6 that things were starting to get real. If that was the case yesterday, then it is even more so now.

Stephen Song was chipleader coming into the past few days but suffered a rough day of play to be cut down to just 2,175,000. Still, a player of his caliber should not be counted out as Brian Kim can attest, having spun his own short stack of less than a million up to 9,975,000 to enter the seventh day.

Play resumes at noon local time in the Horseshoe Event Center in Level 31 at blinds of 125,000/250,000 with a 250,000 big blind ante. The plan is to play five more two-hour levels at which point the remaining players will bag for Day 8, which is slated to be the last day before the final table.

Our reporting will be on a one-hour delay to align with coverage over on PokerGO.

Be sure to stay tuned to PokerNews as its live reporting team continues comprehensive coverage of the 2024 World Series of Poker Main Event.