Opening Week in Las Vegas Sees Wins for John Hennigan, Bryce Yockey and Nick Guagenti

We’ve already told you about the opening event being won by Asher Conniff for his first bracelet. Let’s check out three poker legends who have all added to their tallies this week in Las Vegas.

Hennigan’s World! Johnny Makes it Seven

“Get ready for the burn.”

That’s what John Hennigan told his poker fans and opponents alike as he captured his seventh WSOP bracelet in Event #7, the $1,500 buy-in Dealer’s Choice event.  The final day started before the final table was formed, as another six-time bracelet winner at the start of play, Shaun Deeb, missed out on the end of the event.

After the final table of seven was reached, ‘Johnny World’ as Hennigan is known, wasn’t the aggressor, Viktor Blom taking almost all of Ryan Pedigo’s chips in Triple Draw before Hennigan took the remainder to reduce the field to six players. The overnight leader Clint Wolcyn was the next player to go, before Brayden Gazlay’s elimination was followed by that of the Swedish phenom Blom himself in fourth place.

After the Hungarian player Peter Gelencser went out in third place, Hennigan went into the heads-up battle against British hopeful Robert Wells with around five times the chips of his less-experienced opponent. Johnny ‘World’ made that advantage in chips and know-how count for every cent as he switched from playing hands of Stud to choosing mostly No-Limit 2-7 Single Draw. Soon, a pat-nine for Hennigan gave him the title againt Well’s jack-ten.

“I had a similar experience at PokerGO where I had a huge chip lead and every hand just played themselves,” he told PokerNews after the final duel for the gold. “When you have a monster chip lead, it’s a pretty simple game. I guess I’ll be in the mix for Player of the Year now. Get ready for the burn.”

Bryce Yockey Wins Second Career Bracelet  

If poker players get motivation from anywhere, it is from knowing their value. Bryce Yockey was one of the cheapest picks at Daniel Negreanu’s $25k WSOP Fantasy Draft the night before the WSOP started. Costing just $13, Yockey noted this aberration and made mention of it after proving the doubters wrong by winning Event #8, the $5,000-entry Pot Limit Omaha event.

The final day started with 11 players still left but quick exits for Gabriel Andrade (11^th for $29,145), Poker Hall of Famer Brian Rast (10^th for $36,526) andJapanese professional Naoya Kihara (9^th for $36,526), saw the final table of eight reached. Yockey quickly took out two players in one hand, as Joao Simao (7^th) and Paul Radcliffe (8^th) both busted to Yockey’s jack-high straight.

Farid Jattin took up the mantle of being Yockey’s biggest rival and between them, the apir took out the remaining players to go into a fascinating heads-up fight for the bracelet. Yockey was glad of a 4:1 chip lead when early skirmishes went against him, allowing Jattin to only level when different stacks at the start might have seen the Colombian claim a maiden bracelet win.

Instead, Yockey reestablished his lead and made a pair of eights to win when Jattin was relying on drawing to hands from before the flop when the chips went in.

“I had to be really cautious with him because he was clearly willing to play more hands than ICM would suggest,” Yockey said in the aftermath. “I kind of treated him like a chip leader and gave him a lot of free opportunities. I always play 40 events anyway. If I play another ten, it’s really not that different. I’ll be in here every single day.”

Yockey will battle to be Player of the Year at this year’s WSOP, and after such a strong start, the $13 draft pick is already proving his doubters wrong.

Nick Guagenti ‘Helpps’ Himself to Double Gold Standard

Event #9 of the 2024 WSOP was the $1,500 Limit Hold’em event and it was won by another player to win his second bracelet, Nick Guagenti, for $121,074. Finnish poker legend Juha Helppi began the final table as the short stack, but also as the only other bracelet winner at the felt. The two-time WSOP winner saw Guagenti join him on that total by the close of play.

Helppi initially got off to a brilliant start, winning with flush over flush against the man who busted in sixth place, Bradley Carter. Nick Guagenti then took care of Qinghai Pan in fifth before Helppi ran out of luck on his personal comeback trail. One pair was no good against George Chen’s two pair, but the latter barely had time to stack up his newly-won chips before they were all taken away from him on a permanent basis.

All-in with pocket queens on a board with two jacks, a five and a three, he lost to Guagenti’s king-jack for turned trips and went into heads-up with a better than 2:1 chip lead. Joseph Brodsky was his opponent and chanced his arm with eight-four of spades. Guagenti sniffed out the bluff and won with queen-eight, sending Brodsky home with $80,717 a runner-up, and claiming his first WSOP title at the live felt after winning online in 2020.

“I’m only here to win bracelets,” Guagenti confidently declared afterwards. “I was planning on playing 50-55 events this summer regardless. I could still end up stuck on the Series despite this win, so I’ll be playing!”