There are just three players left competing for the biggest prize in poker, and Swedish online wizard Niklas “Lena900” Astedt is the man with the chips. He brings almost 225 million into the final day of play, worth about 74 big blinds, but he’s not in front by a mile.
In fact, Astedt is barely a nose ahead of Jonathan Tomayo (2nd, 197m) and Jordan Griff in third with 187m. That puts Astedt’s two competitors just 8 and 12 big blinds back, respectively, a deficit that’s pretty easy to make up.
After a break in the action on Monday, Tuesday was a grueling day that played down from 9 to the final three. While they were only at the table for less than 8 hours on Day 9, there was a lot of high-stakes poker action throughout the day.
Final Three Players for 2024 Main Event
| Seat | Player | Home | Chips | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Niklas Astedt | Sweden | 223,000,000 | 74 |
| 2 | Jordan Griff | United States | 187,000,000 | 62 |
| 3 | Jonathan Tamayo | United States | 197,000,000 | 66 |
Final Table Results So Far from 2024 Main Event
| Place | Player | Home | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 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 |
$6 Million Sit & Go for Day 10
All three returning players are guaranteed at least $4 million now, the posted prize for 3rd place. Second place gets a $2 million pay jump to $6 million, while the winner jumps another four to a cool $10 million.
That makes the final day of play roughly equivalent to a three-handed sit & go with about $6 million to divvy up between the three players. While Astedt is known to play some pretty eye-watering stakes online, this is likely the biggest three-way game any of them have ever been in.
Day 9 Action
The penultimate day of play in the 2024 Main Event kicked off at 3 pm on Tuesday and while Jordan Griff brought the only 100m+ stack to Day 9, early action saw him getting chipped down as he doubled up Andres Gonzalez early in a pair under pair situation, among other hands.
run in 9th place.
Within the first 20 hands of the day, Astedt was already cutting into Griff’s lead after taking down a pot against Brian Kim for more than 100 million. It would take more than an hour and a half to find the first elimination, however, and it was the Day 7 chip leader, Malo Latinois, who was the first to exit.
Latinois found a spot with big slick to three-bet shove for a bit more than 13 million over an open from Griff. It was a race against Griff’s treys and Latinois flopped his ace, but Griff turned the trey for a set, then rivered a boat while Latinois was left to collect his things with just trip aces.
By the time 50 hands were in the books on Day 9, Griff and Astedt were the only players with 100m or more with play still 8-handed. It took a full hour after the elimination of Latinois to see Joe Serock hit the rail in 8th place in a hand that propelled Astedt into the chip lead.
After Griff put in a raise, Asedt smooth-called from the small blind, but Joe Serock, in the big, woke up with ace-jack and came over the top with a shove for almost 40 million. Griff got out of the way with his pocket sevens, but Astedt snapped it off with his ladies. Serock, who was one of just two players at the FT with a bracelet already, turned his jack but it wasn’t enough to best the queens and he was out in 8th place.
in Day 9
About 10 hands later, Brian Kim was on his way to the exits. Kim five-bet shoved for almost 54m after Boris Angelov opened to 4.6m, Kim three-bet the small blind to 11.8m, and Astedt clicked it back from the big to 18m.
That sent Angelov’ to the sidelines’s hand to the muck, but Astedt eventually made an unhappy call. Kim was on a suited king, but Astedt was way ahead with pocket tens and held.
Tamayo was nearly out in 6th place when he got ace-nine in against the big slick for Griff at hand #64. Tomayo was one card away from exiting the FT early but he spiked his nine on the river to survive with a double.
There were a couple of hours of back-and-forth play following Kim’s exit and Tamayo’s double. Angelov found a double with a dominated ace against Astedt.
It would be another four hours in total after Kim hit the rail in 7th before Andres Gonzalez ended his day in 6th place. He got into a near-classic race with jacks into ace-queen for Astedt and the Swede flopped his ace to send Gonzalez home and stack up nearly 225m for the chip lead.
2024 Main Event for $3 million
That opened the floodgates as Angelov busted just a few hands later for 5th place when his pocket sixes couldn’t hold against the king-six for Tamayo. Canadian Jason Sagle was the final elimination on Day 9 in 4th place after Astedt wheeled over his pocket jacks with runner-runner to the ace-three.
Tha brought Day 9 play to a close around 10:45 pm, just shy of 8 hours after cards went in the air and setting up the massive final day where one of the three remaining players will pocket $10 million.
Will the Swedish online wizard take down his first bracelet? Can Jordan Griff regain his Day 8 form and retake the lead? Can Jonathan Tamayo find a way to prevail? These questions will all be answered on the final day of play for the 2024 World Series of Poker — follow the cards-up action on PokerGO.
