The 2024 World Series of Poker is officially underway, and there was a new tournament scheduled to help celebrate the launch. While most of the events at the WSOP are going to be open to anyone, the Tournament of Champions invited past winners to be a part of the big event.
There were more than 1,000 players that qualified to compete in the Tournament of Champions as it was reserved for previous bracelet winners at the WSOP. Those players were given a free roll into this tournament, while other challengers could also pay the buy-in for a shot at defeating some of the legends.
There was over $1 million in the total prize pool, and a majority of that money went to the players that were at the final table. When everything was said and done at this event it was Dong Meng that walked away with $200,000, and a WSOP bracelet.
For whatever reason, only 569 of the past champions showed up to battle it out in this tournament, and that was a much smaller number than a year ago. Many of the top players are currently waiting around for bigger tournaments, but Meng was gladly willing to accept his win.
Some Great Action
Since the majority of the players in this tournament have had a ton of success on the WSOP schedule, it was easy to predict that there would be some great action. That did end up being the case as Meng had to push hard in order to walk away with the big cash prize.
There were three full days of action for the Tournament of Champions, as only those nine at the final table were invited back for Day 3 action. Meng was actually in fourth place heading into the final table, and he had to come up with clutch plays in order to get on top.
Kevin Will was sitting in a great position heading into Day 3 as he was clearly in the lead when it came to the total number of chips. Ramon Kropmanns made a huge move early in Day 3 as he won a big hand that allowed him to take over the chip lead on the rest of the field.
While a number of poker players were battling it out to try to take the chip lead, Meng was comfortable sitting back and watching the action unfold. By the time that heads up play began, Meng had nearly tripled his chip lead, and that allowed him to cruise to a big win.
Big Winners
Meng cashed in while also getting a WSOP bracelet in the process, but other former champions cashed in as well. Will was able to win $120,000 by finishing in second place, and that’s a great way to start the WSOP run.
Payouts did start to get much smaller from there, but everyone in the top eight won at least $20,000 on a freeroll entry. This tournament set the stage for the 2024 WSOP, and there are much bigger events coming.
