Big Names Still in World Series of Poker Main Event Contention as Bubble Bursts

After four days, the players are finally in the money at World Series of Poker Main Event.

The remaining 1,529 players came into Day 4 knowing that 12 of them would not cash in the 2024 WSOP Main Event. They already outlasted 8,583 of the record-breaking field of 10,112, but had nothing except memories to show for it as the top 1,517 would get paid.

Hand-for-hand play began about 45-minutes into the day, and for the next hour or so, Vice President of the WSOP Jack Effel hopped from all-in hand to all-in hand, a media scrum right on his hip, while the rest of the field squawked and cheered.

It took about an hour before two players were bounced, losing their chance at the $10 million top prize.

The 2024 Main Event “bubble boy” were actually two players —  Lucas Reeves and Christian Stratmeyer — who went out on the same hand at different tables. As a big stack, Reeves took the worst of it. From the WSOP live update report:

Marcelo Tadeu Aziz Junior opened the hijack and was three-bet by Lucas Reeves in the small blind to 80,000. Junior then four-bet to 195,000 before Reeves five-bet to 380,000. The action wasn’t over yet as a six-bet came in from Junior to 565,000, then Reeves seven-bet shoved for around 950,000 total. Junior quickly called. 

Lucas Reeves:  KdKh
Marcelo Tadeu Aziz Junior:  AcAs

As the camera crews and media team arrived to the table, the dealer was given permission to run the board. 

Reeves was looking for a king to survive but the runout of 6h7cJcQd4d  meant he was eliminated on the bubble.

Meanwhile, Stratmeyer went out with a short-stack holding AcKd against Terrence Reid’s 8c3c of clubs. Stratmeyer pushed from the small blind after Reid made a small raise in early position. Reid called and hit trip 8s.

Since both players were eliminated on the same hand, they split a min-cash of $15,000. Also, they drew cards for the traditional bubble boy bonus — a $10,000 entry into the 2025 Main Event. Stratmeyer won it with a jack.

Soon after the bubble burst, players fell like flies. Those who min-cashed included 2024 WSOP Poker Players Champion Daniel Negreanu, Erik Seidel, and the last two Main Event champs Espen Jorstad and Daniel Weinman. Xuan Liu, Alexandros Theologis, and Ladies Event champion Shiina Okamoto all also min-cashed.

The last two Main Event champs were also eliminated in the money. Koray Aldemir, the 2021 Main Event champ, was also knocked out with pocket kings against pocket rockets, while 2015 winner Joe McKeehen, who was the last Main Event champion standing, also didn’t make it to Day 5. 

Song on top

Stephen Song, the 2022 WPT Prime Championship winner who is also coming off a runner-up finish earlier this month at the PokerGO Tour ARIA High Roller Series, leads the remaining 464 players. He’s got plenty of heat on his tail, including $48.4 million dollar man Adrian Mateos and Biao Ding and his $10 million in cashes, both who join Song with top 10 chip stacks.

But there are so many tough players still in contention, like Phil Ivey, who has 26 big blinds, David “Bakes” Baker with 31, Alejandro Lococo with 83, Isaac Kempton with 45, Danielle Andersen with 40, Bin Weng with 26, Brian Rast with 64, and Alex Keating with 115.

All the remaining players are guaranteed to cash at least $37,500, and today’s Day 5 should end with less than 200 players, making those who survive guaranteed at least a $60,000 cash.

The final table will be determined on Sunday. The players then have a day off before playing down the final four on Tuesday, July 16. The winner will be determined the next day.