Who will win Event #65 of the 2023 World Series of Poker? That's the question everyone following the $5,000 6-Handed No-Limit Hold'em is asking.
There are just six of the original 1,199 entries left to answer this question and win the tournament. After three days, the favorite is two-time WSOP bracelet winner Norbert Szecsi, arriving as the chip leader of the final table with 18,600,000 chips, which is nearly 100 big blinds.
However, Angelina Rich, a player from Down Under, will be close behind him with 14,000,000 chips.
Final Table Chip Counts
Seat
Player
Country
Chip Count
Big Blinds
1
Norbert Szecsi
Hungary
18,600,000
93
2
Vitor Dzivielevski
Brazil
5,850,000
29
3
Tyler Cornell
United States
7,475,000
37
4
Angelina Rich
Australia
14,000,000
70
5
Pedro Garagnani
Brazil
4,725,000
24
6
Weiran Pu
China
10,475,000
52
Weiran Pu will be the outsider of this final table as he'll have the third-largest chip stack. Despite being down to just a few blinds on Day 3, he made an impressive comeback and finished with 10,475,000 chips.
However, to reach the first place, he will have to fight with Tyler Cornell. The American player, in his pursuit of a second WSOP bracelet, will restart with 7,475,000 chips.
The chip counts on Day 2 showed Vitor Dzivielevski (5,850,000) and Pedro Garagnani (4,725,000) in first and second place, respectively. They are now occupying the last two positions. However, both players still have room to maneuver with more than 20 blinds. Dzivielevski will attempt to imitate his brother, Yuri, who won his third WSOP bracelet this summer in the $1,500 H.O.R.S.E. event.
The game will resume in Paris and Horseshoe Las Vegas at 4 p.m. on Level 30 (small blind 100,000, big blind 200,000, ante 200,000) and will end when a winner takes the $938,244 prize and the bracelet.
The PokerNews live reporting team will provide you with all the action with a delay, as the final table will be streamed on PokerGo.
In the hijack, Vitor Dzivielevski went all-in for 2,050,000 chips. On his left, it took 20 seconds for Tyler Cornell to also push his entire stack in the middle, for a total of 3,525,000 chips. The button and the blinds folded.
Vitor Dzivielevski: K♥9♥
Tyler Cornell: A♦Q♥
With a loud Brazilian rail supporting him, Dzivielevski found a nine on the flop Q♠9♦8♠, but at the same time, Cornell hit a pair of queens, keeping the lead. The rail asked for a king for Dzivielevski, but the 6♣ appeared on the turn and the A♣ on the river.
While his brother Yuri Dzivielevski is still in at 10 players left in the $10,000 No-Limit 2-7 Single Draw Championship at another featured table, Vitor Dzivielevski is eliminated in 6th place from the $5,000 No-Limit Hold'em (6-Handed), and wins $153,485.
Pedro Garagnani opened to 525,000 from the cutoff and Tyler Cornell defended from the big blind.
Cornell led out for 350,000 on the 4♦8♥6♠ flop and Garagnani made the call.
The turn came the 10♣ and Cornell fired a second barrel for 1,400,000. Garagnani raised to 5,800,000, enough to put Cornell all in. Cornell made the call and was at risk.
Tyler Cornell: 8♣6♦
Pedro Garagnani: A♣10♠
Cornell was in great shape with a flopped two pair versus Garagnani's turned top pair. The Q♦ river was clean for Cornell, who collected a full double up while Garagnani was left with just under 15 big blinds.
Angelina Rich moved all in for her last 2,300,000 from under the gun and Pedro Garagnani reraised all in himself for 5,030,000 to put Rich at risk.
Angelina Rich: 4♦4♣
Pedro Garagnani: K♦K♠
Garagnani was well ahead with the higher pocket pair. Rich failed to find a four on the 8♠J♥2♥5♥8♥ flop and was sent to the rail while Garagnani began to close the gap between himself and the other three players.
Pedro Garagnani opened to 3,000,000 from the button, leaving only 325,000 behind. Weiran Pu made the call from the small blind.
The flop came A♣8♣3♥. Pu checked and called when Garagnani moved all in for his last 325,000 to put himself at risk.
Pedro Garagnani: A♥2♦
Weiran Pu: A♠6♦
Garagnani was in bad shape against a bigger ace and found no improvement on the 5♣ turn and 7♦ river, ending his deep run while Pu ascended into the chip lead.
In the small blind, Tyler Cornell opened to 1,200,000. On his left, in the big blind, Weiran Pu three-bet to 3,000,000. Action back to him, Cornell four-bet all in to 9,630,000, and Pu snap called.
Tyler Cornell: A♥J♠
Weiran Pu: A♠A♦
In very bad shape, Cornell was almost drawing dead after the flop 4♦10♦10♠. The 5♥ definitively sent him to the rail, as the 9♦ completed the board.
Cornell will not win a second bracelet in this tournament. Finishing in 3rd place, he goes back home with $407,040.
Norbert Szecsi opened to 1,100,000 on the button, then Weiran Pu three-bet to 4,500,000 in the big blind. In response to this bet, Szecsi counted his stack and moved all in for 24,900,000 chips. Pu called immediately.
Norbert Szecsi: A♣Q♥
Weiran Pu: A♦K♦
The Chinese rail was full of excitement after the dealer revealed a flop of 7♠J♦K♥, giving Pu a pair of kings. But they couldn't celebrate yet, as the turn Q♠ gave Szecsi a pair of queens. But the 8♦ came on the river, securing Pu's victory.
Norbert Szecsi won't win a fourth bracelet today and finished second, winning a prize of $579,892.
Stay tuned for PokerNews' full recap of Event #65: $5,000 No-Limit Hold'em (6-Handed)!
Weiran Pu has emerged victorious in Event #65: $5,000 6-Handed No-Limit Hold'em, capturing his first bracelet and China's fifth this year after defeating Hungarian Norbert Szecsi in heads-up play.
There were a total of 1,199 entrants in this event, an increase from last year's attendance of 920. Those 1,199 entrants created a total prize pool of $5,046,200, which paid out 180 places. The money was reached during Day 2 and a who's who of big names secured a cash in this event including Stephen Song, Chris Brewer, James Obst, Phil Ivey, Scott Seiver, David "Bakes" Baker, Ryan Leng and Ian Matakis.
When asked how he felt, Pu said that he was still in game mode, and hasn't come back to the real word just yet.
"I'm so thankful. I didn't start traveling to play poker until this year. I went to the PCA and other events like EPT's and the results were not what I expected. This is a big moment. It's a big surprise because the first half of this year wasn't so smooth. Right now I'm a social media influencer for poker in China. I've made hundreds of vlogs, but this one may be my biggest".
Pu, who's been playing poker for 13 years, previously had a top cash of approximately $187,000 in Macau before this event. When asked how this win (worth over five times that amount) compared, he mentioned it was more meaningful due to the high level of competition.
"The win was more meaningful because the players were more competitive. It's probably the second toughest field I've competed in, next to the $25,000 WSOP event I placed 15th in earlier this year".
This is Pu's first bracelet, but the fifth bracelet won by a Chinese player this year. When asked what it was like having his friends and fellow players to support him on the rail during his final table, he described the group as a close-knit community.
"So this is China's fifth bracelet of the series. I feel we're not only a team, but also a family. All the members support each other and cheer for each other. I not only played a final table this series, but also cheered for the previous gold bracelet winners".
When asked what it was like facing Norbert Szecsi in heads-up play, Pu mentioned that he was surprised at how quickly the match went but that he still had full respect for his opponent.
"So Norbert is a very strong player, but early on we had a cooler against him. Norbert flopped two pair but I had a pair of kings. I called him on two streets and on the river caught another king and he made a very good fold. But he was behind because of that hand. And the last hand was the same, like Ace-Queen versus Ace-King was a cooler, two monster hands going heads up. So I was expecting the heads-up match to be much longer than this but it kind of came to a stop all of a sudden. Still, I was prepared for an extended battle. If the match kept going I would've been prepared".
When asked about his plans for the rest of the series, he said he was planning to play "from start to finish, every Texas Hold'em event of the series".
Final Day Recap
Vitor Dzivielevski was the first to be eliminated from the final table today. Dzivielevski came to the final table short-stacked and ultimately lost a preflop confrontation versus Tyler Cornell when his king-nine could not catch up to Cornell's Ace-Queen.
Angelina Rich was next to be sent to the rail. Rich began the day with the second-biggest stack, but lost two big pots against Weiran Pu where both players caught a significant piece of the board. She later doubled up Pedro Garagnani in a preflop, blind versus blind confrontation to be left as the short-stack before running into Garagnani's pocket kings to lose the rest of her chips.
Garagnani himself was next to be sent to the rail. Garagnani was a short-stack throughout most of the day, but did a good job of finding the right spots to accumulate chips and ladder up. His luck ran out when he got the last of his chips in against Weiran Pu who had him dominated with a bigger ace.
Heads-up play lasted approximately one hour. Day 4 chip leader Norbert Szecsi put up a valiant effort, but was on the wrong side of the deck after his flopped two pair was counterfeited and he was left short-stacked against Pu. Szecsi would get the last of his chips in against Pu in a major cooler with Szecsi's ace-queen being dominated by Pu's ace-king.
This concludes the PokerNews coverage of the event, but there is still plenty of more action to come at the 2023 World Series of Poker at Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas so stay tuned for all your live coverage needs.