It took three full days to find a winner in Event #37: $2,000 No-Limit Hold’em and China’s Yuan Li emerged as the latest 2023 World Series of Poker bracelet winner inside Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas.
Li defeated Jonathan Camara in heads-up play for $524,777 and his first career bracelet.
The event, which ran for the second year in a row at the WSOP, drew 1,962 runners and generated a prize pool of $3,492,360.
Li, who has over $1.5 million in tournament earnings, came into the day in pole position and stayed atop the leaderboard for much of the day. Once on the final table, Li kept his foot on the gas pedal until eventually being crowned the champion.
Event #37: $2,000 No-Limit Hold’em Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize (USD) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Yuan Li | China | $524,777 |
| 2 | Jonathan Camara | Canada | $324,355 |
| 3 | Pavels Spirins | Latvia | $238,129 |
| 4 | Jeremy Joseph | United States | $176,529 |
| 5 | Patrick Truong | United States | $132,153 |
| 6 | Mark Seif | United States | $99,916 |
| 7 | James Kraetz | United States | $76,302 |
| 8 | Yuriy Boyko | Ireland | $58,860 |
| 9 | Frank Weigel | United States | $45,871 |
| 10 | Darryl Ronconi | United States | $36,118 |
Similar to last year, this tournament attracted some of the biggest and best players in the world. Notable names fortunate enough to make a deep run included 2009 WSOP Main Event champion Joe Cada (43rd, $12,807), three-time bracelet winner Jim Collopy (40th, $12,807), PokerGO’s Donnie Peters (47th, $10,753), and four-time WSOP bracelet winner Dominik Nitsche (172nd, $4,002).
Final Table Action
The unofficial final table kicked off as a ten-handed affair, and it didn’t take long for the first elimination to take place. Darryl Ronconi came into the final table as the shortest stack and was almost all in from the big blind. Jeremy Joseph raised to cover Ronconi’s stack from the small blind, and Ronconi tossed in his last few chips to make the call. The runout did not help Ronconi, and he was sent to the exit in tenth place.
Shortly after, Frank Weigel was on a short stack and moved in with ace-deuce. Pavels Spirins made the call with pocket tens. The board ran out jack-high, marking the end of the road for Weigel.
The remaining eight players took an extended break for the PokerGO team to set up their live stream cards-up coverage. Once everything was up and running, Yuriy Boyko picked up ace-king and was all in against the ace-nine held by Mark Seif. Boyko looked poised for a double, but the board ran out with four hearts for Seif to make a flush.
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James Kraetz moved all in for around ten big blinds with king-nine suited and was called by Patrick Truong, who woke up with pocket jacks. The pocket pair held out to bring to the tournament to its final six players.
Seif, who was chip leader for some of the day, found himself on a 12-big blind stack and called a preflop raise with ten-nine suited from Joseph, who held queens. The flop came nine-high, and all the chips hit the middle. Seif could not improve on the turn and river and departed.
Within the same orbit, Truong was on the wrong side of a preflop cooler after he ran his ace-king into Li’s pocket aces. Li’s conquest to the bracelet then inched closer after he rivered a flush to crack Joseph’s pair of queens after the chips piled in on the flop.
Spirins was the next to leave after his dominated ace could not leapfrog Camara’s ace-jack to set up heads-up play.
The battle between Li and Camara started almost even in chips and was 70 big blinds deep. Play went back and forth for a long time until Li picked up pocket jacks and had Camara shove into him with pocket eights. After the board ran out with a full house for Li, Camara had only a single T-25,000 chip left.
On the final hand of the night, Li secured the win when his ten-nine and held up against his opponent’s seven-six to secure the victory.
- 1 Peter Thai Wins First Bracelet of the 2023 WSOP: Event #1: $500 Casino Employees ($75,535)
- 2 Alexandre Vuilleumier Captures 2023 WSOP Event #2: $25K High Roller Title
- 3 Cody “1eggadaymike” Bell Wins WSOP Bracelet and $87,665 in the Triple Treys Summer Tip Off
- 4 Michael Moncek Wins Event #6: $5,000 Mixed No-Limit Hold’em/Pot-Limit Omaha for $534,499
- 5 Chad Eveslage Steamrolls to Second WSOP Bracelet in Event #5: $1,500 Dealer’s Choice (6-Handed) ($131,879)
- 6 Ronnie Day Reigns Supreme in Event #4: Tournament of Champions ($200,000)
- 7 Vadim Shlez Takes Down Event #7: $1,500 Limit Hold’em For $146,835
- 8 Chanracy Khun Wins Event #8: $25,000 Heads-Up No-Limit Hold’em Championship
- 9 Nick Schulman Wins Event #9: Seven Card Stud For Fourth WSOP Bracelet ($110,800)
- 10 Ian “IanMa” Matakis Wins Online Event #2: $500 No-Limit Hold’em Bankroll Builder for $120,686
- 11 Ryan “dna2rna” Hughes Wins Third Bracelet, Defeats Shaun “fortnite” Deeb in Online Battle
- 12 Tyler Brown Crowned Champion of Event #3: $1,000 Mystery Millions ($1,000,000)
- 13 Kenneth O’Donnell Wins Event #11: $600 No-Limit Hold’em Deepstack For $351,098
- 14 The Chosen One: Chad Eveslage Wins Third Bracelet in the $10,000 Dealer’s Choice Championship
- 15 Estes Nabs Second WSOP MI Online Bracelet; Kershaw Victorious in First PA Event
- 16 Joseph Altomonte Returns to Poker With a Bang; Rakes in $217,102 and a WSOP Bracelet
- 17 Jeremy Eyer Defeats Felipe Ramos in Gruelling Heads Up Duel for $5K Freezeout Title ($649,550)
- 18 Danny “jackdaniels1” Wong Finally Bags WSOP Bracelet After 13 Hour Day
- 19 Isaac Haxton Removes Name from “Best Without a Bracelet” List w/ $25K High Roller Win
- 20 Brian Yoon Wins 5th WSOP Bracelet in $10,000 Seven Card Stud Championship
- 21 Brazil Out in Force for Reis’ First Bracelet in $1,500 6-Handed No-Limit Hold’em
- 22 Three Isn’t a Crowd for Jim Collopy Who Wins His Third WSOP Bracelet
- 23 Valentino Konakchiev Denies Andres Korn a Second Bracelet in $2.5K NLHE Freezeout
- 24 Michael Rodrigues Becomes First Badugi Champion in Event #20: $1,500 Badugi
- 25 Stephen Nahm Toasts To His Victory in Event #21: $1k Pot-Limit Omaha
- 26 Fifth Bracelet for Josh Arieh in Event #22: $10,000 Limit Hold’em Championship for $316,226
- 27 Leon Sturm Bests Bill Klein in Event #23: $50,000 High Roller ($1,546,024)
- 28 Two Big Bets and a Chair – David “ODB” Baker Fights Back from the Felt to Win His Third Bracelet
- 29 Jason Simon Becomes WSOP’s First Gladiator of Poker for $499,852
- 30 Renji Mao’s Deepstack Aggression Earns Him First WSOP Bracelet ($402,588)
- 31 Belyalovsky Defeats 2020 WSOP Online Domestic Main Event Champion Hebert
- 32 12 Year Drought Ends: Ben Lamb Runs “Hotter Than the Sun” to Win 2nd WSOP Gold Bracelet
- 33 Six is Sweet For Shaun Deeb in Event #27: $1,500 Eight Game Mix
- 34 Jans Arends Tops Star-Studded Final Table to Win $100K High Roller for $2,576,729
- 35 Benjamin Ector Busts Seven Straight to Win Event #28: $1,500 NLH Freezeout ($406,403)
- 36 Houston Firefighter Scott Dulaney Extinguishes the Opposition in Event #31 of 2023 WSOP
- 37 Cash Game Specialist Mark Ioli Wins First WSOP Bracelet for $558,266
- 38 John Monnette Joins Five-Timers Club With $1,500 Triple Draw WSOP Title
- 39 Sean Troha Wins 2nd WSOP Bracelet; Takes Down Event #34: $1,500 PLO for $298,192
- 40 “It’s Gonna Be Tough for You” Says Jerry Wong on Way to Winning 1st WSOP Bracelet
- 41 Chris Klodnicki Returns to WSOP, Wins $10,000 NLH Secret Bounty for 2nd Career Bracelet
- 42 Ryutaro Suzuki Becomes Japan’s Mixed-Game Master in Event #36: $3,000 Nine Game Mix
- 43 Yuan Li Adds Name to List of 2023 WSOP Bracelet Winners after $2K NLHE Triumph ($524,777)