Defending Champ Eliot Hudon Out; Naj Ajez Leads WPT World Championship

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Dec 17, 2023 3 min read Last updated Dec 20, 2023

During the Day 3 session, we asked the question, will there be a repeat winner in the World Poker Tour (WPT) World Championship. That answer is no after Eliot Hudon, the defending champion, was eliminated late in the day in 186th place for $27,000.

Hudon won it last year for $4.1 million, beating out 2,960 entrants in the first edition of the WPT World Championship at Wynn Las Vegas.

He moved all in with K?J? and a short stack against the A?Q? held by Ardit Kurshumi. No improvement for either hand came on the board, and that was the end of the title defense.

WPT World Championship Day 3 Recap

The defending champion is out, but there are still 132 players with a shot at the $5,678,000 first place prize, the most anyone in the 3,835-entrant field will take home. One possibility as to who will be crowned champion on Dec. 21 is Daniel Sepiol, who is one of a number of players to win some thrilling hands late in Sunday's session.

Sepiol, a Mid-States Poker Tour (MSPT) champion, was all in preflop for about 2.4 million chips with A?J? against the K?K? of Davidi Kitai. The board would run out J?3?2?J?A?, giving Sepiol a full house to suck out, and it brought him up to around 100 big blinds late in the session. Kitai, on the other hand, was left with a small stack.

At the end of the five-level session, Naj Ajez finished with the largest stack at 11,435,000 chips. He built that big of a stack thanks to playing the largest pot of the tournament to date late on Day 3 when he won a race to double through Maxime Chilaud.

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2023 WPT World Championship Day 3 Top Chip Counts

Chance Kornuth, however, had his run stopped just short of Day 4 when he was eliminated in 137th place ($34,100). Other notables to bust on Day 3 include Jason Somerville (140th for $34,100), Hossein Ensan (144th for $34,100), Chris Hunichen (155th for $31,300), Lynn Gilmartin (454th for $18,700), and David Williams (468th for $18,700).

Day 4 begins Monday at noon PT with 132 players remaining. The blinds will jump to 40,000/80,000 (80,000 big blind ante) when play resumes. A complete list of chip counts will be available in the morning.

_{*Image courtesy of World Poker Tour.}

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