Coming in 2023 world championship of poker, Isaac Haxton was the highest-earning tournament player in the world without a WSOP Gold bracelet with their name. The 37-year-old poker pro had more than $37.7 million in cash back before his 54th birthday. WSOP Launched.
After completing the $25,000 No Limit Hold’em 8 max event in this year’s series, Haxton can draw his name off the top of that dreaded list of “best without a bracelet.” He has headlined the largest $25,000 buyout event ever held at… WSOPAnd Emerging triumphed from a record-setting field of 301 entries with hardware and $1,698,215 in prize money.
“I agree it’s a little monkey-like off my back, I guess,” Haxton admitted. “I’ve had a funny career in terms of final hands. Before this year, all of my biggest scores were like second and third places except for winning the Super High Roller Bowl. And then this year I got six wins, all of them in very big things. “
Haxton has already won six titles this year, with 14 final table appearances and nearly $7.5 million in prize money earned across those scores. This last huge win won 1512 card player Player of the Year points, enough points to overtake Jose Nacho Barbero for the lead in 2023. POY Run the race Global Poker. He also won first place in the PokerGo Tour Leaderboard thanks to 750 PGT The points he collected with his last win.
Haxton’s other seven-figure wins in 2023 were a pair of titles at PokerStars Caribbean Adventure $100,000 super roller events for $1,555,360 and $1,082,230.
He now has over $39,418,364 in lifetime winnings, good for 11th on the all-time poker money list. His longtime friend Justin Bonomo, who sits atop the leaderboard with nearly $63.3 million in total cash, was there to support Haxton throughout his bracelet-winning run. When asked if he had plans to catch up to Bonomo, Haxton said, “No, I don’t think about the money list all the time at all. It feels good to still be around and still be able to win the big tournaments. I like to play cards and make money.”
This event took three days to round out the winner. The record turnout resulted in a prize pool of $6,204,000, with the top 46 winners taking home the money. The final day of the event started with only 13 competitors remaining, Czech Republic’s Roman Hrapek leading and Haxton near the middle of the pack.
Heavy hitters like World Poker Tour Champion Taylor von Kriegenberg (13), three-time bracelet winner Christine Fox (12), and two-time bracelet winner Alexei Bonakov (10) hit a rail early.
Haxton had risen to the lead by the time the final table was decided. Two-time bracelet winner Joao Vieira was beaten to eighth place ($155,037) by five-time bracelet winner Brian Rast.
On the seven move, UK’s Louis Spencer doubled across Haxton to move into the lead. He then took out Rast (7th place – $202,532) to move forward on the chip count.
Possessing a crushing hand, Spencer looked on in his near-bluff shove of bracelet winner Frank Funaro with an open-ended straight draw. Spencer held from there to thwart Funaro in sixth place ($270.238).
Hrabec soon followed when his AJ suit hit the Pocket Kings for a four count WPT The hero Darren Elias. Hrabec botched a pair of jacks, but didn’t get any extra help from the plate and ended up in fifth place ($368,134).
Elias overtook the lead after this hand. He quickly extended his advantage by making a full house in the big pot playing against Spencer. Haxton followed that up by winning another big showdown with Spencer, pitting the Kings against Spencer’s flopped pair of aces that ended with the Lewis stack in a tattered state.
He quickly got the last of his few big blinds with K-9 facing Jeb Elias’ scores. Spencer got a flush draw to go with his overcard, but a brick on the river saw him eliminated in fourth place ($511,782). This was his biggest direct score in the tournament to date. His career earnings increased to over $1.1 million.
One of the coin arches beforehand saw Elias and Haxton swap spots on the leaderboard. Haxton’s AJ edged Elias’ pocket sevens, making two doubles to double him for the lead. Haxton and Elias would collide several times, and would trade the lead back and forth. Elias lost one of these encounters to become the clear short stack, but managed to bounce back in time to get the next hand.
Elias got it all going with his AJ led by Ryan O’Donnell’s KJ. The flop gave O’Donnell an open draw in the straight, which came on the river to see Elias out in third. He earned $725,790 as the third-place finisher, the second-most hit of his career. He now has approximately $12.4 million in career earnings after that platform ended.
With that, Haxton almost got a 5:4 lead in a one-on-one match with O’Donnell, who fans on the rail describe as an online player and poker coach. Haxton was able to extend his lead to nearly 3:1 by the time the last hand appeared. O’Donnell entered, limping to the button with an A.10. Haxton moved it all in with the A.I.. O’Donnell made the call and the board went down 1033sj To give Haxton Jacks on the river to win.
O’Donnell earned $1,049,577 as runner-up, far and away for the most direct cash of his career.
Here is a look at the payouts and ranking points awarded in the final table:
place | player | earnings | POY points | PGT points |
1 | Isaac Haxton | $1,698,215 | 1512 | 750 |
2 | Ryan O’Donnell | $1,049,577 | 1260 | 700 |
3 | Darren Elias | $725,790 | 1008 | 435 |
4 | Louis Spencer | $511,782 | 756 | 307 |
5 | Roman Harabek | $368,134 | 630 | 221 |
6 | Frank Fonarow | $270,238 | 504 | 162 |
7 | Brian Rast | $202,532 | 378 | 122 |
8 | Joao Vieira | $155,037 | 252 | 93 |
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