# 2018 World Series of Poker

The 2018 World Series of Poker (WSOP) is the 49th annual tournament, and took place from May 30 to July 17 at the Rio All Suite Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. There was a record 78 bracelet events. The $10,000 No Limit Hold'em Main Event began on July 2 and concluded on July 15.
The Main Event, as well as the Big One for One Drop, were again streamed in their entirety on ESPN and Poker Central.
The 2018 World Series of Poker featured the announced retirement of ten-time bracelet winner and Poker Hall of Fame member Doyle Brunson from tournament poker, an announcement that came after he registered for the $10,000 No Limit 2-7 Lowball Draw Championship (Event 23). Brunson made the final table of the event and finished in sixth place.

## Schedule changes

The World Series of Poker introduced the Big Blind Ante to eight events. This format made the big blind pay the ante for the entire table. It was utilized for events 13, 20, 45, 54, 74, 77 and 78.

## Event schedule

Source:
| # | Event | Entrants | Winner | Prize | Runner-up | Results |
| 1 | $565 Casino Employees No Limit Hold'em | 566 | Jordan Hufty (1/1) | $61,909 | Jodie Sanders | Results |
| 2 | $10,000 No Limit Hold'em Super Turbo Bounty | 243 | Elio Fox (1/2) | $393,693 | Adam Adler | Results |
| 3 | $3,000 No Limit Hold'em Shootout | 363 | Joe Cada (1/3) | $226,218 | Sam Phillips | Results |
| 4 | $1,500 Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better | 911 | Julien Martini (1/1) | $239,771 | Kate Hoang | Results |
| 5 | $100,000 No Limit Hold'em High Roller | 105 | Nick Petrangelo (1/2) | $2,910,227 | Elio Fox (1/2) | Results |
| 6 | $365 Giant No Limit Hold'em | 8,920 | Jeremy Perrin (1/1) | $250,000 | Luis Vazquez | Results |
| 7 | $565 Colossus No Limit Hold'em | 13,070 | Roberly Felicio (1/1) | $1,000,000 | Sang Liu | Results |
| 8 | $2,500 Mixed Triple Draw Lowball | 321 | Johannes Becker (1/1) | $180,455 | Scott Seiver (0/1) | Results |
| 9 | $10,000 Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better Championship | 169 | Paul Volpe (1/3) | $417,921 | Eli Elezra (0/3) | Results |
| 10 | $365 WSOP.com Online No Limit Hold'em | 2,972 | William Reymond (1/1) | $154,996 | Shawn Stroke | Results |
| 11 | $365 Giant Pot Limit Omaha | 3,250 | Tim Andrew (1/1) | $116,015 | Pete Arroyos | Results |
| 12 | $1,500 Dealers Choice 6-Handed | 406 | Jeremy Harkin (1/1) | $129,882 | Frankie O'Dell (0/2) | Results |
| 13 | $1,500 Big Blind Antes No Limit Hold'em | 1,306 | Benjamin Moon (1/1) | $315,346 | Romain Lewis | Results |
| 14 | $1,500 No Limit 2-7 Lowball Draw | 260 | Daniel Ospina (1/1) | $87,678 | Tim McDermott | Results |
| 15 | $1,500 H.O.R.S.E. | 731 | Andrey Zhigalov (1/1) | $202,787 | Timothy Frazin | Results |
| 16 | $10,000 Heads Up No Limit Hold'em Championship | 114 | Justin Bonomo (1/2) | $185,965 | Jason McConnon | Results |
| 17 | $1,500 No Limit Hold'em 6-Handed | 1,663 | Ognyan Dimov (1/1) | $378,743 | Antonio Barbato | Results |
| 18 | $10,000 Dealers Choice 6-Handed | 111 | Adam Friedman (1/2) | $293,275 | Stuart Rutter | Results |
| 19 | $565 Pot Limit Omaha | 2,419 | Craig Varnell (1/1) | $181,790 | Seth Zimmerman | Results |
| 20 | $5,000 Big Blind Antes No Limit Hold'em | 518 | Jeremy Wien (1/1) | $537,710 | David Laka | Results |
| 21 | $1,500 No Limit Hold'em Millionaire Maker | 7,361 | Arne Kern (1/1) | $1,173,223 | Sam Razavi | Results |
| 22 | $1,500 Eight Game Mix | 481 | Philip Long (1/1) | $147,348 | Kevin Malis | Results |
| 23 | $10,000 No Limit 2-7 Lowball Draw Championship | 95 | Brian Rast (1/4) | $259,670 | Mike Wattel (0/2) | Results |
| 24 | $2,620 The Marathon No Limit Hold'em | 1,637 | Michael Addamo (1/1) | $653,581 | Mark Sleet | Results |
| 25 | $1,500 Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo 8 or Better | 596 | Benjamin Dobson (1/1) | $173,528 | Tim Finne | Results |
| 26 | $1,000 Pot Limit Omaha | 986 | Filippos Stavrakis (1/1) | $169,842 | Jordan Siegel | Results |
| 27 | $10,000 H.O.R.S.E. | 166 | John Hennigan (1/5) | $414,692 | David "Bakes" Baker (0/2) | Results |
| 28 | $3,000 No Limit Hold'em 6-Handed | 868 | Gal Yifrach (1/1) | $461,798 | James Mackey (0/1) | Results |
| 29 | $1,500 Limit 2-7 Lowball Triple Draw | 356 | Hanh Tran (1/1) | $117,282 | Oscar Johansson | Results |
| 30 | $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha | 799 | Ryan Bambrick (1/1) | $217,123 | Sampo Ryynanen | Results |
| 31 | $1,500 Seven Card Stud | 310 | Steven Albini (1/1) | $105,629 | Jeff Lisandro (0/6) | Results |
| 32 | $1,000 Seniors No Limit Hold'em | 5,919 | Matthew Davis(1/1) | $662,983 | Bill Stabler | Results |
| 33 | $50,000 Poker Players Championship | 87 | Michael Mizrachi (1/4) | $1,239,126 | John Hennigan (1/5) | Results |
| 34 | $1,000 Double Stack No Limit Hold'em | 5,700 | Robert Peacock (1/1) | $644,224 | Nicholas Salimbene | Results |
| 35 | $1,500 Mixed Pot Limit Omaha Hi-Lo/Big O | 773 | Yueqi Zhu (1/1) | $211,781 | Gabe Ramos | Results |
| 36 | $1,000 Super Seniors No Limit Hold'em | 2,191 | Farhintaj Bonyadi (1/1) | $311,451 | Robert Beach | Results |
| 37 | $1,500 No Limit Hold'em | 1,330 | Eric Baldwin (1/2) | $319,580 | Ian Steinman | Results |
| 38 | $10,000 Seven Card Stud Championship | 83 | Yaniv Birman (1/1) | $236,238 | Jesse Martin (0/2) | Results |
| 39 | $1,500 No Limit Hold'em Shootout | 908 | Preston Lee (1/1) | $236,498 | Corey Dodd | Results |
| 40 | $2,500 Mixed Big Bet | 205 | Scott Bohlman (1/1) | $122,138 | Ryan Hughes (0/2) | Results |
| 41 | $1,500 Limit Hold'em | 596 | Robert Nehorayan (1/1) | $173,568 | Kevin Song (0/1) | Results |
| 42 | $25,000 Pot Limit Omaha 8-Handed High Roller | 230 | Shaun Deeb (1/3) | $1,402,683 | Ben Yu (0/2) | Results |
| 43 | $2,500 No Limit Hold'em | 1,248 | Timur Margolin (1/1) | $507,274 | Ismael Bojang | Results |
| 44 | $10,000 Limit 2-7 Lowball Triple Draw Championship | 109 | Nicholas Seiken (1/1) | $287,987 | Randy Ohel | Results |
| 45 | $1,000 Big Blind Antes No Limit Hold'em | 1,712 | Mario Prats (1/1) | $258,255 | Matthew Hunt | Results |
| 46 | $2,500 Mixed Omaha/Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo 8 or Better | 402 | David Brookshire (1/1) | $214,291 | Brendan Taylor (0/1) | Results |
| 47 | $565 WSOP.com Online Pot Limit Omaha 6-Handed | 1,223 | Matthew Mendez (1/1) | $135,078 | Marton Czuczor | Results |
| 48 | $1,500 No Limit Hold'em Monster Stack | 6,260 | Tommy Nguyen (1/1) | $1,037,451 | James Carroll | Results |
| 49 | $10,000 Pot Limit Omaha 8-Handed Championship | 476 | Loren Klein (1/3) | $1,018,336 | Rep Porter (0/3) | Results |
| 50 | $1,500 Razz | 389 | Jay Kwon (1/1) | $125,431 | Dzmitry Urbanovich | Results |
| 51 | $1,500 No Limit Hold'em Bounty | 1,983 | Ryan Leng (1/1) | $272,765 | Ranno Sootla | Results |
| 52 | $10,000 Limit Hold'em Championship | 114 | Scott Seiver (1/2) | $296,222 | Matt Szymaszek | Results |
| 53 | $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better | 935 | Joey Couden (1/1) | $244,370 | Bruno Fitoussi | Results |
| 54 | $3,000 Big Blind Antes No Limit Hold'em | 1,020 | Diogo Veiga (1/1) | $522,715 | Barry Hutter (0/1) | Results |
| 55 | $1,000 Tag Team No Limit Hold'em | 1,032 | Nikita Luther (1/1) Giuseppe Pantaleo (1/1) | $175,805 | Kazuki Ikeuchi Hiroki Iwata Sho Mori | Results |
| 56 | $10,000 Razz Championship | 119 | Calvin Anderson (1/2) | $309,220 | Frank Kassela (0/3) | Results |
| 57 | $1,000/$10,000 Ladies No Limit Hold'em Championship | 696 | Jessica Dawley (1/1) | $130,230 | Jill Pike | Results |
| 58 | $5,000 No Limit Hold'em 6-Handed | 621 | Jean-Robert Bellande (1/1) | $616,302 | Dean Lyall | Results |
| 59 | $1,000 No Limit Hold'em Super Turbo Bounty | 2,065 | Mike Takayama (1/1) | $198,568 | Lorenc Puka | Results |
| 60 | $10,000 Pot Limit Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better Championship | 237 | Phil Galfond (1/3) | $567,790 | Michael McKenna | Results |
| 61 | $1,000 WSOP.com Online No Limit Hold'em Championship | 1,635 | Ryan Tosoc (1/1) | $238,778 | Anthony Maio | Results |
| 62 | $888 Crazy Eights No Limit Hold'em 8-Handed | 8,598 | Galen Hall (1/1) | $888,888 | Eduards Kudrjavcevs | Results |
| 63 | $3,200 WSOP.com Online No Limit Hold'em High Roller | 480 | Chance Kornuth (1/2) | $341,598 | David Goodman | Results |
| 64 | $10,000 Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo 8 or Better Championship | 141 | Dan Matsuzuki (1/1) | $364,387 | Scott Bohlman (1/1) | Results |
| 65 | $10,000 No Limit Hold'em Main Event | 7,874 | John Cynn (1/1) | $8,800,000 | Tony Miles | Results |
| 66 | $1,500 No Limit Hold'em | 1,351 | Longsheng Tan (1/1) | $323,472 | Lanny Levine | Results |
| 67 | $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha Bounty | 833 | Anderson Ireland (1/1) | $141,161 | Matt O'Donnell(0/1) | Results |
| 68 | $1,111 The Little One for One Drop No Limit Hold'em | 4,732 | Guoliang Wei (1/1) | $559,332 | Francois Tosques | Results |
| 69 | $3,000 Pot Limit Omaha 6-Handed | 901 | Ronald Keijzer (1/1) | $475,033 | Romain Lewis | Results |
| 70 | $3,000 Limit Hold'em 6-Handed | 221 | Yaser Al-Keliddar (1/1) | $154,338 | Juha Helppi | Results |
| 71 | $5,000 No Limit Hold'em | 452 | Phil Hellmuth (1/15) | $485,082 | Steven Wolansky (0/2) | Results |
| 72 | $1,500 Mixed No Limit Hold'em/Pot Limit Omaha 8-Handed | 707 | Jordan Polk (1/1) | $197,461 | Fernando Brito | Results |
| 73 | $1,000 Double Stack No Limit Hold'em | 1,221 | Denis Timofeev (1/1) | $199,586 | Leo Margets | Results |
| 74 | $10,000 Big Blind Antes No Limit Hold'em 6-Handed Championship | 355 | Shaun Deeb (2/4) | $814,179 | Paul Volpe (1/3) | Results |
| 75 | $1,500 The Closer No Limit Hold'em | 3,120 | Joe Cada (2/4) | $612,886 | Paawan Bansal | Results |
| 76 | $3,000 H.O.R.S.E. | 354 | Brian Hastings (1/4) | $233,202 | Andrew Brown (0/1) | Results |
| 77 | $50,000 Big Blind Antes No Limit Hold'em High Roller | 128 | Ben Yu (1/3) | $1,650,773 | Sean Winter | Results |
| 78 | $1,000,000 The Big One for One Drop No Limit Hold'em | 27 | Justin Bonomo (2/3) | $10,000,000 | Fedor Holz (0/1) | Results |

## Player of the Year

Final standings as of November 2 (end of WSOPE):
Standings :
| Rank | Name | Points | Bracelets |
| 1 | Shaun Deeb | 5,050.01 | 2 |
| 2 | Ben Yu | 3,746.04 | 1 |
| 3 | Joe Cada | 3,531.86 | 2 |
| 4 | John Hennigan | 3,440.13 | 1 |
| 5 | Scott Bohlman | 3,155.88 | 1 |
| 6 | Michael Addamo | 3,046.88 | 2 |
| 7 | Paul Volpe | 2,863.10 | 1 |
| 8 | Anthony Zinno | 2,593.34 | 0 |
| 9 | Eric Baldwin | 2,516.30 | 1 |
| 10 | Romain Lewis | 2,460.14 | 0 |

## Main Event

The $10,000 No Limit Hold'em Main Event began on July 2 with the first of three starting flights. There were then 2 day 2 flights (AB and C) and then 5 more days of play before the final table. The final table began on July 12 and played out over three days, with the winner being determined on July 14.
The Main Event drew 7,874 players, the second-largest field in the tournament's history, generating a prize pool of $74,015,600. The top 1,182 players finished in the money. Each player at the final table earned $1,000,000, with the winner getting $8,800,000.

### Performance of past champions

| Name | Championship Year(s) | Day of Elimination |
| Tom McEvoy | 1983 | 4 (430th)* |
| Johnny Chan | 1987, 1988 | 4 (612th)* |
| Phil Hellmuth | 1989 | 3 |
| Dan Harrington | 1995 | 2B |
| Scotty Nguyen | 1998 | 3 |
| Chris Ferguson | 2000 | 3 |
| Robert Varkonyi | 2002 | 3 |
| Chris Moneymaker | 2003 | 1C |
| Greg Raymer | 2004 | 1B |
| Joe Hachem | 2005 | 2A |
| Jamie Gold | 2006 | 1B |
| Jerry Yang | 2007 | 1A |
| Joe Cada | 2009 | 9 (5th)* |
| Jonathan Duhamel | 2010 | 4 (409th)* |
| Greg Merson | 2012 | 3 |
| Ryan Riess | 2013 | 2B |
| Martin Jacobson | 2014 | 2C |
| Joe McKeehen | 2015 | 2A |
| Qui Nguyen | 2016 | 1A |
| Scott Blumstein | 2017 | 1A |
* Indicates the place of a player who finished in the money

### Other notable high finishes

NB: This list is restricted to top 100 finishers with an existing Wikipedia entry.
| Place | Name | Prize |
| 23rd | Eric Froehlich | $282,630 |
| 46th | James Obst | $156,265 |

### Final Table

2009 World Champion Joe Cada made the final table, finishing 5th, making him the first former champion to do so since Dan Harrington finished 4th in 2004. The final table bubble which saw Yueqi Zhu eliminated saw both him and then second place Antoine Labat turn over pocket Kings (Zhu K♥ K♠, Labat K♦ K♣) while Nicolas Manion turned over A♠ A♥. The board ran out 7♣ J♦ 4♣ 3♠ J♣, and Zhu was eliminated in 10th, while Labat was left crippled and Manion was propelled to the chip lead.
Heads up play between Tony Miles and John Cynn lasted for over 10 hours and 199 hands. This set the record for the largest number of hands played heads up during a WSOP Main Event final table. The final table lasted a total of 442 hands.
| Name | Number of chips (percentage of total) | WSOP Bracelets | WSOP Cashes* | WSOP Earnings* |
| Nicolas Manion | 112,775,000 (28.6%) | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Michael Dyer | 109,175,000 (27.7%) | 0 | 3 | $71,515 |
| Tony Miles | 42,750,000 (10.9%) | 0 | 2 | $6,396 |
| John Cynn | 37,075,000 (9.4%) | 0 | 12 | $713,071 |
| Alex Lynskey | 25,925,000 (6.6%) | 0 | 13 | $553,429 |
| Joe Cada | 23,675,000 (6.0%) | 3 | 33 | $10,340,058 |
| Aram Zobian | 18,875,000 (4.8%) | 0 | 3 | $9,735 |
| Artem Metalidi | 15,475,000 (3.9%) | 0 | 25 | $728,254 |
| Antoine Labat | 8,050,000 (2.0%) | 0 | 2 | $6,857 |
*Career statistics prior to the beginning of the 2018 Main Event.

### Final Table results

| Place | Name | Prize |
| 1st | John Cynn | $8,800,000 |
| 2nd | Tony Miles | $5,000,000 |
| 3rd | Michael Dyer | $3,750,000 |
| 4th | Nicolas Manion | $2,825,000 |
| 5th | Joe Cada | $2,150,000 |
| 6th | Aram Zobian | $1,800,000 |
| 7th | Alex Lynskey | $1,500,000 |
| 8th | Artem Metalidi | $1,250,000 |
| 9th | Antoine Labat | $1,000,000 |

## Big One for One Drop

The $1,000,000 Big One for One Drop began on July 15. It is the third time the event was held. Antonio Esfandiari won $18.3 million in the first event in 2012, while Dan Colman was the $15.3 million champion in 2014. Elton Tsang won €11,111,111 in 2016 at Monte-Carlo One Drop Extravaganza in 2016, although since this event was not held at the WSOP, he did not receive a bracelet for it. The One Drop Foundation, founded by Guy Laliberte, received $80,000 from every buy-in. The 2018 event saw 27 players enter, generating a prize pool of $24,840,000. The top five players finished in the money, with the winner getting $10 million. Justin Bonomo won the tournament, and took over from Daniel Negreanu at the top of the all time money list with the victory.

### Performance of past champions

| Name | Championship Year(s) | Day of Elimination |
| Antonio Esfandiari | 2012 | 1 |

### Final Table

| Place | Name | Prize |
| 1st | Justin Bonomo | $10,000,000 |
| 2nd | Fedor Holz | $6,000,000 |
| 3rd | Dan Smith | $4,000,000 |
| 4th | Rick Salomon | $2,840,000 |
| 5th | Byron Kaverman | $2,000,000 |
| 6th | David Einhorn | $0 |
| 7th | Nick Petrangelo | $0 |
| 8th | Phil Ivey | $0 |