2023 WSOP Online: Main Event Champ Espen Jorstad Denied Third Bracelet

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Senior Editor & Live Events Executive
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Espen Jorstad

Four more gold bracelets have been dished out in the 2023 WSOP Online on GGPoker since PokerNews' last round-up for the online festival.

Paulius "redpillgame" Vaitiekunas, "EEewashu99", Yurii "pumbiko_O" Olinyk and Terrence "fr33hongkong" Chan are the latest names to claim their own piece of WSOP hardware. The latter also denied 2022 Main Event champ Espen Jorstad his third bracelet after sending the Norwegian to the wrong side of the rail at heads-up play.

Day 1b of the $25 million guaranteed Main Event also played out with a further 325 players paying the $5,000 buy-in while China's Xinwen Zhang sits in pole position for Day 2 of the $500 Ladies Championship.

Vaitiekunas Grabs Fifth Bracelet for Lithuania

Paulius Vaitiekunas
Paulius Vaitiekunas

Vaitiekunas got his hands around the fourth bracelet up for grabs after being the last player standing in #4: $840 Bounty Pot-Limit Omaha. He topped the 706-entry field and secured the largest slice of the $564,800 prize pool. His run to the bracelet awarded him a final prize of $81,848, with $56,953 of that coming from bounties.

Vaitiekunas triumph marks the fifth bracelet winner to come from Lithuania, which puts the country on par with other nations such as Indonesia, Belarus, Switzerland, and the Republic of Korea.

Many of poker's biggest names also took a shot, with a few making the money but falling short of a notable run. Felipe Ramos (95th - $1,144 + $200), David Peters (88th - $1,144) and Dario Sammartino (81st - $1,144+$200) were some of those famous faces to depart well before the final table.

#4: $840 Bounty Pot-Limit Omaha Final Table Results

PlacePlayerCountryBountyPrizeTotal
1Paulius "redpillgame" VaitiekunasLithuania$56,953$24,895$81,848
2"The Harvester"Mexico$23,003$24,839$47,842
3Dante GoyaBrazil$5,138$19,808$24,946
4"TUL!"Finland$7,169$15,779$22,948
5"big pot boy"Finland$7,475$12,569$20,044
6"y Frankfurt"Israel$2,488$10,012$12,500
7Bernardo "GGeKKo" DiasBrazil$4,075$7,975$12,050
8"Riki_top"Russia$1,050$6,353$7,403
9"The Prestige"China$2,525$5,061$7,586

Teusl On Course For Second Ladies Championship

Jessica Teusl
Jessica Teusl

The first stage of the #5: $500 Ladies No-Limit Hold'em Championship has also wrapped up proceedings with the 36 remaining players returning to the virtual felt on Saturday, September 2.

Leading the way is the aforementioned Zhang, who comes back with 96 big blinds, while the likes of the Tatiana Rangel and Zhanna Hodovanets are not too far behind.

Jessica Teusl also sits in the top ten chip counts and is looking to add a second Ladies Championship title to her list of accomplishments. Teusl took down the live version of this event at the 2022 WSOP for $166,975.

After late registration closed on Day 1, there were 167 confirmed entries that created a $79,325 prize pool. The money bubble will burst when just 27 are still in contention, and then anyone left will be battling out for the $16,613 set aside for the winner.

#5: $500 Ladies No-Limit Hold'em Championship Top Ten Chip Counts

PlacePlayerCountryChip CountBig Blinds
1Xinwen ZhangChina288,04696
2Tatiana RangelBrazil255,72885
3Zhanna HodovanetsPoland247,24882
4Carla Di MarcoArgentina238,51580
5Julia BondarovichRussia219,85073
6Jessica TeuslAustria206,45769
7Maria KorablevaRussia202,34867
8Jessica PilkingtonUnited Kingdom186,51762
9Ann-Roos CallensBelgium184,20061
10Mary DvorkinIsrael154,91052

Vogelsang Pipped to Monster Stack Title

Christoph Vogelsang
Christoph Vogelsang

Aptly, #6: $1,500 MONSTER STACK No-Limit Hold'em pulled in some behemothic numbers with 1,207 entries recorded in the registration period, resulting in a seven-figure prize pool of $1,719,975.

Sean "EEewashu99" Boyle overcame a tough final table that included tournament experts Shannon Shorr and Christoph Vogelsang. Shorr was the first to leave the final table, while Vogelsang bowed out in fifth place, meaning both players are still searching for their first bracelet win.

#6: $1,500 MONSTER STACK No-Limit Hold'em Final Table Results

PlacePlayerCountryPrize
1Sean "EEewashu99" BoyleAustria$231,821
2Hristo "icho" AnastassovAustria$173,841
3"Moose is Loose'Cyprus$130,362
4Guilherme CarmoBrazil$97,758
5Christoph VogelsangGermany$73,308
6Vitalijs "chegochego" ZavorotnijsAustria$54,973
7"fer_90_1"Ecuador$41,224
8"GodsofMongols"Austria$30,914
9Shannon ShorrUnited States$23,182

Liszewski Bags Best in Day 1B of Main Event

Arkadiusz Liszewski
Arkadiusz Liszewski

The second qualifying flight for the Main Event has also taken place within the last week, with 325 players taking their shot at the big one. Poland's Arkadiusz "Noksukow" Liszewski bagged best from Day 1B, ending the session with 1,441,156.

The esteemed Ole Schemion was also in attendance and cruised through to Day 2 and will resume the Main Event with a 913,947 stack.

2020 runner-up of the International Leg of the Main Event Brunno Botteon and Bruno Volkmann were also apart of the class of 39 players to advance.

So far, there have been 568 entries into the Main, with 69 of those still with chips.

#28: $5,000 WSOP Online Main Event Day 1B Top Ten Chip Counts

PlacePlayerCountryChip Count
1Arkadiusz "Noksukow" LiszewskiPoland1,441,156
2"loafabread"Canada1,201,310
3"KeepControl"Brazil984,507
4Ole SchemionGermany913,947
5"Eleon"Russia836,202
6Itai "PokerSmart" DroryIsrael814,976
7"caballou44"Guatemala726,379
8Zhao Fu ZhangAustria665,705
9"muck4fcKK"Croatia644,012
10Miguel "kryingkid10" SilvaRomania630,321

Mystery Bounty Eclipses $10M Guarantee

The first eight-figure prize pool of the online festival has also come around with #7: $210 Mystery Millions breaching the $10 million guarantee. The final tally ended up at $10,242,200.

A gigantic 51,211 entries were seen across the wave of starting flights, with just 4,472 of those making it through to the Mystery Bounty stage, which featured a $1 million top bounty prize. "John Milly", a rightly fitting name, pulled the jackpot bounty within the first five minutes of play restarting.

Ukraine's Yurii "pumbiko_O" Olinyk was the one to take it down and saw $360,139 go into their GGPoker purse after he defeated Gilles "23 Savage" Simon in heads-up play.

#7: $210 Mystery Millions - $1M Top, $10M GTD

PlacePlayerCountryBountyPrizeTotal
1Yurii "pumbiko_O" OlinykUkraine$5,488$354,651$360,139
2Gilles "23 Savage" SimonNetherlands$1,978$255,055$257,033
3"Crayola8"Ukraine$6,271$183,847$190,118
4"Flash_ua"Ukraine$423$132,523$132,946
5"sixsett"Russia$6,474$95,529$102,003
6"Sens @[-_-]@"Indonesia$2,747$68,864$71,611
7"ungkangkang"Singapore$2,422$49,645$52,067
8"carter66"Canada$486$35,792$36,278
9"AK9696"Malaysia$1,828$25,807$27,635

Chan Ends 18-Year Bracelet Pursuit

Terrance Chan
Terrance Chan

The most recent online bracelet event to reach its conclusion was #8: $2,500 Limit Hold'em Championship, which saw 124 entries generate a $294,500 prize fund.

Bryn Kenney, who recently returned to the top spot on the All-Time Money List, was unable to add to his winnings and crashed out well before the money in 65th. Daniel Negreanu, who has had two consecutive losing years at the series, saw his WSOP woes continue after his run ended in 31st place.

Limit Hold'em maestro Terrence "fr33hongkong" Chan ended his long-awaited bracelet drought after beating Jorstad in the final showdown. Chan's first-ever WSOP cash came all the way back in 2005, and he has made seven WSOP final tables since then. After a few close calls, Chan finally etched his name in the WSOP history books, much to the delight of the wider poker community.

#8: $2,500 Limit Hold'em Championship Final Table Results

PlacePlayerCountryPrize
1Terrence "fr33hongkong" ChanCanada$64,021
2Espen JorstadNorway$48,330
3Kostya HolskiyUkraine$35,485
4"Ramsau"Austria$27,542
5"JESUISYAAZY"Austria$20,792
6Jesse LonisUnited States$15,696
7Timothy "JoeExotic69" RutherfordCanada$11,849
8Samuel "vivaegipto" BernabeuMexico$8,945
9Ben "RumpelTiltSkin" UnderwoodCanada$6,753
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Senior Editor & Live Events Executive

Calum has been a part of the PokerNews team since September 2021 after working in the UK energy sector. He played his first hand of poker in 2017 and immediately fell in love with the game. Calum has written for various poker outlets but found his home at PokerNews, where he has contributed to various articles and live updates, providing insights and reporting on major poker events, including the World Series of Poker (WSOP).

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