Khang Pham wins the 2024 World Series of Poker Seniors Event

A total of 7,984 players aged 50 or over took part in the 2024 World Cup. World Series of Poker $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em Seniors Championship, resulting in a prize pool of $6,999,520. Khang Pham walked away with the biggest chunk, winning $677,326 and his first gold bracelet as champion.

This was by far the biggest live tournament win for Pham, who entered the tournament with nearly $293,000 in winnings from 63 previous money finishes. The Southern California resident’s previous biggest win was a $54,864 win in a $545 buy-in event in 2009. LA Poker Classic.

This event included two starting flights and three more days of action. The top 1,196 finishers made it into the money, including big names like Card player Columnist and 2004 WSOP Main Event champion Greg Raymer (39th), bracelet winner Tamas Lendvai (27th) and two-time bracelet winner Mark Seif (12th) all hit a home run.

Pham entered the final day fourth out of the remaining 26 entrants. He was in the middle of the pack when the unofficial final table of 10 entrants was set. Pham made it to the top eight, then knocked out Shawn Stuart (8th – $90,060) and began to climb the leaderboard.

Randy Levin was eliminated in seventh place ($115,823) and was soon joined by Ray Devita (6th – $149,989). Pham was able to double up during five-hand play by moving all-in with A-4 against Luke Graham’s A-9 and flopping two pair to double up. Graham then ran pocket eights against Marc Wolpert’s pocket jacks and finished in fifth place ($195,573).

Shortly after the final four returned from their lunch break, Mark David Bramley moved all-in with K-6 after Renmei Liu played A-4 suited. Bramley was unable to catch up and was eliminated in fourth place ($256,754).

A classic race ended Liu’s run in the event. He moved all-in preflop with pocket eights against Pham’s AK suited. The flop came two spades, giving Pham the nut flush draw and two overcards. A third spade on the turn left Liu dead. He won $339,366 in third place. This was his second career third-place finish in a bracelet event, having also finished in the top three in the 2017 $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em Freezeout.

Heads-up play began with Pham holding 88,000,000 and Wolpert holding 71,000,000. Pham won a decent pot with a flush early on to extend his lead, then won an even bigger no-showdown matchup to take a more than 4-1 lead.

In the last hand, Pham limped from the button with J9 and Wolpert checked from the big blind with 109. The flop brought J8th2. Wolpert checked and called 1,600,000 and the 10 appeared on the turn. Wolpert went all-in for 24,500,000 with his open-ended straight flush draw and a pair of tens. Pham called with his top pair and open-ended straight draw. The 8 made Pham the champion and sent Wolpert home in second place with $451,585.

Here is a look at the payouts awarded at the final table:

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Photo credit winning photo: WSOP / Spenser Sembrat.