By the end of the night on Wednesday, the 2024 World Series of Poker will officially be halfway through its schedule of 99 gold bracelet events. Millions of dollars of prizes have been awarded, and history has already been made several times over.
Phil Ivey won his 11th WSOP bracelet. John Hennigan broke out of the logjam tied at 6 with his 7th career WSOP win. And then Scott Seiver promptly joined that extraordinary group at 6 by becoming the first two-time WSOP bracelet winner in the summer of 2024.
There’s plenty more to come from Las Vegas this summer, including the $50,000 Poker Players Championship, $100,000 and $250,000 High Rollers and, of course, the Main Event.
But now seems as good a time as any to check in on the race to crown the 2024 WSOP Player of the Year. By virtue of his two bracelet wins, Seiver has taken over the lead, but he has a lot of familiar faces chasing him.
All totals calculated according to WSOP.com records, as of June 19.
1. Scott Seiver – 2,566.73
2024 WSOP Bracelets: 2 (6 total)
2024 WSOP Final Tables: 2
2024 WSOP Cashes: 7
So far, it’s been the “Summer of Seiver” at the 2024 WSOP. In the opening week, Scott Seiver pushed his career total to five gold bracelets by winning the $10,000 Omaha Hi-Lo Championship, and then doubled up over this weekend by taking down the $1,500 Razz.
With his Hall of Fame eligibility coming up next year, Seiver is bolstering his case with every passing result as he goes out every single day in search of more gold.
“I truly think I was made for it,” Seiver said. “And I’ve always had a little bit of regret that I’ve never really gone all out and shown that that’s what I can do. But from a career of playing many 24 hour, even 48 hour and some even longer cash sessions before, this is something I knew I’m like very good at. I wanted to show what it would be like if I just really buckled down.”
Even as he plays one of his most rigorous tournament schedules in years, Seiver was still chomping at the bit for more immediately following his victory in the Razz.
“I feel great,” said Seiver. “I feel like I’m playing well. I feel fresh. I feel sharp. If anything, I’m a little disappointed there’s not a tournament for me to reg right now, today. There’s nothing until tomorrow. I guess I’m gonna be forced to go get some sleep, but I’ll be back here tomorrow. I’m still looking to win two, three more bracelets this year.”
In the aftermath of his Razz win, his second career bracelet in that game, Seiver was feeling especially sentimental about the non-Hold’em events and the space and role they occupy on the WSOP schedule each year.
“Mix game tournaments are so special because it’s a really close knit group,” said Seiver. “These are people that especially of my age and my generation, we’ve grown up playing together. I started playing when I’m 21, I’m 39. now. You see the same people over a real large portion of your adult life, and unlike cash games where you’re really like ‘one man is an island’ type thing, in the tournaments there’s so many times for camaraderie and to root for other people without feeling you’re rooting against yourself.”
2. Nick Schulman – 1,890.12
2024 WSOP Bracelets: 1 (5 total)
2024 WSOP Final Tables: 1
2024 WSOP Cashes: 6
Any WSOP gold bracelet can go a long way as a career-defining achievement, but every summer there are a handful of events that hit harder in terms of both prestige and payout. Nick Schulman won his fifth career WSOP bracelet in just such an event, taking down the $25,000 High Roller for $1,667,842.
It’s the second-largest result of his career, behind only the $2,167,500 Schulman won all the way back in 2005 for his victory at the WPT World Poker Finals in Season IV.
Like Seiver, Schulman is nearing the age of Poker Hall of Fame eligibility, and between his performances on the table and at the commentary desk, Schulman has a very strong case of his own when that moment comes around this time next year.
3. Robert Mizrachi – 1,853.87
2024 WSOP Bracelets: 1 (5 total)
2024 WSOP Final Tables: 2
2024 WSOP Cashes: 6
Like Schulman, Robert Mizrachi officially entered the WSOP’s five-times club in 2024. Mizrachi’s victory in the $10,000 Dealer’s Choice Championship was the second WSOP victory in that format for Mizrachi, and all five of his WSOP gold bracelets have come in non-Hold’em formats.
Robert is now tied with his brother Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi at five WSOP bracelets. Both brothers are also WPT Champions Club members.
Mizrachi is in limited company by virtue of making two final tables thus far at the 2024 WSOP, and he will almost certainly have his eyes focused squarely on the upcoming $50,000 Poker Players Championship. Robert’s best career finish in the standout mixed game event of the summer was 5th, in 2010.
4. John Racener – 1,850.35
2024 WSOP Bracelets: 1 (2 total)
2024 WSOP Final Tables: 1
2024 WSOP Cashes: 11
John Racener, the runner-up in the 2010 WSOP Main Event, has proved to have considerably longer staying power than many of the players who have fallen just short of a Main Event title. After a fourth-place finish in the WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic to cap off a career-launching 2010 campaign, Racener has been a regular presence in tournament poker.
Racener recorded his first career WSOP bracelet win in 2017 in the $10,000 Dealer’s Choice Championship, and returned to the winner’s circle in early June by winning the $10,000 Limit Hold’em Championship.
That’s Racener’s only final table appearance of 2024 thus far, and he’s already run up against one of the new rules in the 2024 WSOP Player of the Year race by hitting the 10-cash cap; only the 10 highest point-accumulating cashes will count towards his final total. In order to increase his points total and make a run at POY, Racener will likely have to make at least another deep run or two to improve upon his current standing.
5. Phil Ivey – 1,755.26
2024 WSOP Bracelets: 1 (11 total)
2024 WSOP Final Tables: 1
2024 WSOP Cashes: 8
After an improbable 10-year run without winning a WSOP bracelet, Phil Ivey finally broke that streak by winning the $10,000 Deuce-to-Seven Triple Draw Championship last week. His 11th career WSOP bracelet pushed him to a standalone second place on the all-time list behind only Phil Hellmuth, and no player is better positioned over the next few years to put a little extra pressure on Hellmuth and his 17 career WSOP wins than Ivey.
It’s been the most active summer of WSOP action for Ivey in quite some time, with eight cashes already before the halfway point of the series. He’s made several other deep runs thus far, and Ivey’s even gotten into the mix in the online bracelet events on tap, cashing twice.
6. Sean Troha – 1,646.44
2024 WSOP Bracelets: 1 (3 total)
2024 WSOP Final Tables: 1
2024 WSOP Cashes: 5
Sean Troha‘s prowess in Pot Limit Omaha is clear, and it’s hard for many others to measure up to what he’s accomplished in that game over the last few years at the WSOP.
After winning the $10,000 Pot Limit Omaha Championship in 2022, and a $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha event in 2023, Troha bagged a PLO bracelet for the third consecutive year by taking down the $10,000 Pot Limit Omaha Hi-Lo Championship earlier this summer.
Add in a PokerGO Tour PLO title in 2023, and Troha has made a career out of crushing the four-card game. All five of his WSOP cashes thus far in 2024 have come in a format including Omaha in some way.
7. Ilija Savevski – 1,605.97
2024 WSOP Bracelets: 1 (2 total)
2024 WSOP Final Tables: 1
2024 WSOP Cashes: 8
Ilija Savevski is proof positive that the online WSOP bracelet events going on this summer have a very real chance to impact the overall race. Savevski, who is from North Macedonia and resides in Austria, recorded his second career WSOP bracelet win in a No Limit Hold’em Progressive Knockout tournament on June 15.
Savevski’s first career WSOP bracelet came at WSOP Europe in 2022, where he won the €1,350 Mini Main Event. Savevksi also final tabled the 2021 WSOPE Main Event.
Like several others on this list, Savevski is coming up on his 10-cash limit, but with only one other deep run (9th in the $1,500 Deuce-to-Seven Triple Draw), he has plenty of room for improvement.
8. Timur Margolin – 1,600.17
2024 WSOP Bracelets: 1 (3 total)
2024 WSOP Final Tables: 1
2024 WSOP Cashes: 4
Where Troha’s proven his specialty is PLO, Timur Margolin has made a habit of tearing through massive fields in lower buy-in No Limit Hold’em events. Margolin won an $800 Deepstack event with 4,278 players, a year after making a deep run in that same event as well as the $1,000 Mini Main Event.
Margolin also finished 65th in the $1,500 Monster Stack, and finished in the money in both the $300 Gladiators of Poker and another $800 event.
His other bracelets were both won in 2018. Margolin won a career-best $507,274 in his $2,500 No Limit Hold’em victory over that summer, and then added an €1,100 Monster Stack win at that year’s WSOP Europe.
9. Malcolm Trayner – 1,598.18
2024 WSOP Bracelets: 1 (1 total)
2024 WSOP Final Tables: 1
2024 WSOP Cashes: 3
Three millionaires were made in a single tournament, the now annual WSOP Mystery Millions, but Malcolm Trayner of Australia got his the hard way in the $1,000 buy-in event – he won it outright.
The 24-year-old, who has been a regular presence at WPT events at The Star Gold Coast in recent years, outlasted a field of 18,409 to win his first career WSOP bracelet. He has two other cashes thus far, including another in-the-money finish in another massive field, the $1,500 Monster Stack.
10. Dylan Weisman – 1,575.39
2024 WSOP Bracelets: 1 (2 total)
2024 WSOP Final Tables: 2
2024 WSOP Cashes: 3
Dylan Weisman is another player who has been knocking it out of the park in Omaha events. He opened his summer of 2024 by winning the $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha evet for his second career bracelet and then made a deep run in the $10,000 Pot Limit Omaha Hi-Lo Championship, finishing 28th.
Weisman then made his second WSOP final table of the year in the $10,000 Big O Championship, finishing fifth.
It’s been another chapter in a tremendous breakout year in Weisman’s tournament career. Before the summer began, Weisman finished second in a Triton Super High Roller Series $104,000 PLO event for over $1.6 million, and won a pair of titles inside of the PokerGO studios.
Others in contention: 11. Dan Sepiol; 12. Shaun Deeb; 13. Nicholas Seward; 14. Cal Anderson; 15. Xixiang Luo; 16. David Prociak; 17. Joseph Couden; 18. Darius Samual; 19. Phillip Hui; 20. Evan Sandberg