Ashton looking to join elite club
The $10,000 Main Event is the most famous poker tournament at the World Series of Poker (and in poker, in general), but the most prestigious event just may be the $50,000 Poker Players Championship. It is called a championship for poker players, after all. With the sky-high buy-in and mix of nine different games, it is seen as arguably the truest test of poker skill against the most skilled field in the Series. And now the tournament is almost down to the final table.
Going into the PPC’s penultimate day, Matthew Ashton leads the remaining 12 players with 4.45 million chips. He won this tournament ten years ago and is trying to become the fourth player to win it more than once. Michael Mizrachi has won the PPC three times and Brian Rast and Dan Cates have won it twice each. Rast is still alive in the tournament this year in pretty comfortable position, though he is more than a million chips behind Ashton.
Though numbers for the WSOP are up this year, this is one of the events that has seen a decline in participation since 2022, though to be fair, at these buy-in levels, one would think there is going to be higher variance in field size year-to-year. The 2022 edition attracted 112 entries, while this year brought in 99 entries to generate a prize pool of $4,727,250.
The most entries the PPC has had is 148, both in 2007 and 2008, the second and third years of the tournament’s existence, when it was still a H.O.R.S.E. event.
As one would expect, the task ahead is daunting for whomever is going to come out on top. Nine of the 12 players have won WSOP bracelets, including the man that most fans will be watching: Phil Ivey.
Ivey looking to join a club by himself
Ivey is trying for his 11th career WSOP gold bracelet, which would break the current three-way tie with Johnny Chan and Doyle Brunson for second on the all-time list. Phil Hellmuth is first with 16 bracelets. Ivey’s last World Series of Poker win came in 2014, when he finished atop the standings in the $1,500 8-Game Mix event.
He came close several times last year, with seventh place finishes in the $100,000 High Roller Bounty event and the $250,000 Super High Roller No-Limit Hold’em event, a third place finish in the $10,000 Seven Card Stud Championship, and a runner-up in the $100,000 High Roller No-Limit Hold’em event.
Among the many other players of note remaining in the PPC is Josh Arieh, who won his fifth career bracelet earlier in the Series.
The plan for Wednesday is to play six 100-minute levels or down to five players, whichever comes first.
