Jonathan Tamayo has achieved his dream result after defeating 10,111 rivals to take down the WSOP 2024 Main Event for a $10,000,000 prize.
The American has etched his name into 54 years of poker history alongside names such as Doyle Brunson, Phil Hellmuth, and Johnny Chan.
The 38-year-old Texan is a former roommate of 2015 champion Joe McKeehen and couldn’t believe what had just happened after the final hand was completed.
“Not real life. My roommate’s picture is right there from 2015. We both have banners now. What in the world just happened?”
“I’m just kind of taking it in right now. Because this perspective, and actually, let’s take a perspective photo just so I can have one for myself. This is what it looks like from here.”
McKeehen was ever-present on the rail to support his friend, giving advice during each break on how best to proceed in certain spots.
Jonathan Tamayo is the 2024 World Champion!
Tamayo takes home the $10,000,000 top prize in the largest WSOP Main Event in history!
Congratulations to Jonathan Tamayo, your 2024 Main Event Champion! #wsop2024 pic.twitter.com/qnsKNwjILa
— WSOP – World Series of Poker (@WSOP) July 18, 2024
The 2015 Main Event winner was constantly trying to make Tamayo understand that it was imperative that he just played his game and didn’t overthink the situation too much.
In the end, the advice was clearly heeded and Jonathan Tamayo now has a career earnings total of $12,301,219.
Final Action
After nine days of the most intense competition imaginable, it all came down to only three players out of a record starting field of 10,112.
Swede Niklas Astedt was voted the best online poker player of all time only three years ago, and his career record was head and shoulders above his two rivals for the crown.
He was also entering the final session as the chip leader, although it was still close.
Astedt had bagged up 223,000,000 chips to Tamayo’s 197,000,000 and the 187,000,000 held by Jordan Griff. It was basically anybody’s title at this stage; great for the fans.
But then no sooner had the action kicked off, the rail was stunned by what happened next.
Griff had just shoved all in on the turn to put Astedt to a decision for all of his chips early in the day.
Astedt raised to 8,000,000 on the button with K♠ J♦ and Jordan Griff three-bet to 28,000,000 from the small blind 9♠ 9♣ . Astedt called.
The flop came down 10♣ 9♦ 3♦ and Griff led out for 28,000,000. Astedt called.
The turn was J♣ and Griff shoved all-in.
Astedt was clearly shocked at what was happening, quickly removing his sunglasses and glaring over at his opponent.
Several minutes passed before the Swede called off the rest of his chips only to see a K♥ river end his tournament.
Astedt spoke to a reporter as he left the table, saying:
“Yeah, tough one. I’m not sure. He’s a bit of a wild one, so sometimes you have to guess. This time I was wrong.”
The unexpected big win left Griff with 432,500,000 chips to Tamayo’s 174,500,000.
It might have been looking good for Griff but an ill-timed bluff in a huge pot handed over the advantage to Tamayo in just a single hand.
But then straight away most of the chips were back in the hands of Griff after Tamayo called off a massive bet with only second pair only to see he was up against second and third pair.
A series of coinflip all-in confrontations followed until Tamayo made a couple of good calls, including picking off another bluff from Griff to give him a commanding lead.
The final hand was Tamayo raising to 12,500,000 and Griff calling preflop.
The flop was 9♦ 8♣ 3♦ and Tamayo bet 10,000,000.
Griff then came back over the top, bumping it up to 40,000,000 only for Tamayo to jam the rest of his stack into the middle.
Griff pondered before calling off his remaining 230,000,000.
Griff flipped over 9♥ 6♣ and Tamayo 8♦ 3♠ to give him two pair and the lead.
The turn was A♣ and the river 5♦ and after 235 hands of heads-up poker a new Main Event champion was crowned.
WSOP 2024 Main Event Final Table Results
| Place | Name | Country | Prize (USD) |
| 1 | Jonathan Tamayo | United States | $10,000,000 |
| 2 | Jordan Griff | United States | $6,000,000 |
| 3 | Niklas Astedt | Sweden | $4,000,000 |
| 4 | Jason Sagle | Canada | $3,000,000 |
| 5 | Boris Angelov | Bulgaria | $2,500,000 |
| 6 | Andres Gonzalez | Spain | $2,000,000 |
| 7 | Brian Kim | United States | $1,500,000 |
| 8 | Joe Serock | United States | $1,250,000 |
| 9 | Malo Latinois | France | $1,000,000 |
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