Christopher Claassen: 5♥2♠/8♥4♥9♦9♣/10♣
Brad Ruben: 6♠6♥/5♠6♦9♠6♣/4♣
Mike Gorodinsky: J♠7♥/J♦7♣Q♥3♦/A♣
Christopher Claassen completed the bring-in and got raised by Brad Ruben. Mike Gorodinsky called, and Claassen then moved all in for 225,000 total. Ruben and Gorodinsky called.
Gorodinsky check-called a bet on fourth making two pair against Ruben's trip sixes.
On fifth street, Gorodinsky led out with his two pair, but Ruben then raised and Gorodinsky called, building a sizeable side pot.
Ruben then made quad sixes on sixth and led out with the betting lead. Gorodinsky peeled again to see seventh.
On seventh, Claassen's hopes to grab half the pot and survive evaporated as he picked up a final brick after starting with four to a low, meanwhile, Ruben bet again and got a final call from Gorodinsky to drag a huge pot and eliminate Claassen.
Many were shocked this week when Ali Imsirovicbroke his silence this week more than a year after being accused of cheating by other high-stakes poker pros.
But few were satisfied with the answers provided by the 2021 GPI Player of the Year, who admitted to multi-accounting for several months in 2020, and again in 2022, while dismissing other allegations as "ridiculous," including that he's used real-time assistance (RTA) and recently been running an online cheating ring.
The poker community's reactions to Imsirovic's video make up the latest edition of The Muck.
The players are currently going through pregame interviews and getting mic'd up for the PokerGO stream, and the final table should be underway momentarily.
PokerNews updates will be on a delay to avoid spoilers with the stream.
Tournament officials decided to rescind Scott Seiver's one-round penalty he received last night, and he's sitting along with the other six finalists to begin play.
Seven players with a combined 17 World Series of Poker titles between them are all that remain from a field of 185. One more shiny gold bracelet and $422,747 awaits one of them when the final day of Event #54: $10,000 H.O.R.S.E. Championship gets underway at 4 p.m. local time.
This prestigious event, combining five poker variants and forcing players to utilize every facet of their knowledge and talent, is the ultimate test of poker acumen. So it’s no surprise that Mike Gorodinsky is atop the leaderboard heading into the final table. Gorodinsky won the $50,000 Poker Players Championship and Player of the Year in 2015, establishing himself as one of the top mixed-game players in the poker world. A victory today would only bolster that reputation. Like Secretariat at the Belmont, he accumulated chips late yesterday like a tremendous machine and pulled away from the field, ending up with 3,695,000.
Final Table Chip Counts
Rank
Player
Country
Chip Count
Big Bets
1
Mike Gorodinsky
United States
3,695,000
23
2
Alex Livingston
Canada
2,160,000
14
3
Brad Ruben
United States
1,930,000
12
4
Brian Yoon
United States
1,445,000
9
5
Scott Seiver
United States
990,000
6
6
Carol Fuchs
United States
515,000
3
7
Christopher Claassen
United States
265,000
2
Gorodinsky’s six challengers each have something to play for today besides the bracelet and the money. Canada’s Alex Livingston had made five WSOP final tables, including a third-place run in the 2019 Main Event, before breaking through with his first WSOP bracelet last year. He comes into today in second place with 2,160,000 as he looks to get into the winner’s circle for the second straight year and capture the biggest title of his career.
Brad Ruben has made winning WSOP bracelets seem easy in the last three years. He’s won four, all since 2020, in a variety of games including the Dealers Choice event in 2022. He’s in third place with 1,930,000 and is trying to join an exclusive list of poker legends with five bracelets. The short length of time it would’ve taken him to get there would also place him in an elite pantheon. Only Jeremy Ausmus, Jeff Lisandro, and Chris Ferguson won five bracelets in a span of four WSOPs over the last 40 years.
Brad Ruben
In fourth place is five-time bracelet winner Brian Yoon, who already has one at the 2023 WSOP in the $10,000 Seven Card Stud Championship. Yoon would become just the 21st player in WSOP history to win six bracelets, joining Brian Rast and Shaun Deeb who already won their sixth this series, and begins today with 1,445,000.
Scott Seiver can join Yoon in the five-bracelet club with a victory today, but he’ll be playing catchup right from the start. Not only is Seiver coming back on a short stack of 990,000, but he also faces a one-round penalty to begin the day after crumpling up one of his cards on the final hand of Day 3.
No woman has won a WSOP bracelet so far at the 2023 WSOP. Los Angeles entertainment attorney and screenwriter Carol Fuchs (515,000) can change that today. Fuchs already has a bracelet, taking down the Dealers Choice event in 2015. If she can overcome the odds and make a move up the leaderboard at this final table, she’ll join Jen Harman, Kristen Foxen, Loni Hui, and Vanessa Selbst as the only women to win multiple WSOP bracelets in open-field events.
Christopher Claassen enters today’s final table as the short-stack with just 265,000, good for only two big bets. Claassen is the only player at the table without a bracelet already on his resume. His lone WSOP final table came in the $10,000 Dealers Choice Championship in 2022. He’s already guaranteed the second-largest tournament cash of his career; the top prize today is nearly triple his previous tournament earnings.
Final Table Payouts
Place
Player
Prize
1
$422,747
2
$261,278
3
$187,406
4
$136,649
5
$101,319
6
$76,412
7
$58,633
8
Esther Taylor
$45,789
The race to be the last player standing begins at 4 p.m. on the main feature table inside the Horseshoe Event Center. PokerGO will stream the action on a 60-minute delay beginning at 5 p.m.
These seven players have already navigated through one of the most stacked fields on the WSOP calendar. All that remains is to see who will be the one to cross the finish line. PokerNews will be following all the action and providing updates as one player seeks to make WSOP history here today.
