Final Starting Flight of $1,000 Seniors Championship Begins at 10 AM
Welcome back to PokerNews, the official media partner of the 2024 World Series of Poker and home of live updates from all bracelet events.
Today sees the continuation of Event #46: $1,000 Seniors No-Limit Hold'em Championship here at Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas.
The final starting flight of this five-day event gets underway at 10 a.m. local time, with late registration open for eight levels. There will be 20-minute breaks every two levels, with a 75-minute dinner break at the end of Level 8 (~7:00 p.m.). Players are permitted one reentry per flight.
Entrants must be at least 50 years of age to participate.
The starting stack is 20,000 chips, with the plan for Day 1 to play 11 60-minute levels. Day 2 resumes at 11 a.m. Thursday for the surviving players and will close after ten more levels of play. Day 3 follows the same structure, while Day 4 plays down to the final five. Day 5 is the finale, where a winner will be crowned.
Day 1a attracted 3,537 entries, with 647 progressing to Day 2. Brent Nelms is the early leader with 525,000 chips.
End of Day 1a Top Ten Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chips | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Brent Nelms | United States | 525,000 | 210 |
| 2 | Carlos Bermudez | United States | 468,000 | 187 |
| 3 | Rafael Benami | Israel | 438,500 | 175 |
| 4 | Brett Reichard | United States | 414,500 | 166 |
| 5 | Steven Cohen | Canada | 400,500 | 160 |
| 6 | Lawrence Lazar | United States | 377,000 | 151 |
| 7 | Derek Ichilcik | Australia | 373,000 | 149 |
| 8 | Kirk Stowell | United States | 372,000 | 149 |
| 9 | Bryan Montgomery | United States | 368,500 | 147 |
| 10 | Mark Rubin | United States | 343,000 | 137 |
Last year’s event was massively attended, attracting a field of 8,140 entries that generated a prize pool of $7,280,200.
At the PokerGO live-streamed final table, 54-year-old Canadian Lonnie Hallett ended up beating seven-time WSOP winner and Poker Hall of Famer Billy Baxter for $765,731 and his first WSOP bracelet.
“I just can’t believe it, such a huge field it's almost impossible to do, and somehow it happened. I’m grateful, can’t believe it, I’m so happy," Hallett told PokerNews. “You can make money, but you can’t buy a bracelet.”
| Year | Entries | Winner | Country | Payout |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 8,180 | Lonnie Hallett | Canada | $765,731 |
| 2022 | 7,188 | Eric Smidinger | United States | $694,909 |
| 2021 | 5,404 | Robert McMillan | United States | $561,060 |
| 2020 | - | Not held | - | - |
| 2019 | 5,916 | Howard Mash | United States | $662,594 |
| 2018 | 5,918 | Matthew Davis | United States | $662,676 |
Planning on playing this event? PokerNews activates MyStack for every WSOP event, regardless of that tournament's buy-in, allowing you to directly adjust your chip counts in our live reporting
MyStack is a free poker tool that puts you in control of your chip counts on our live reporting pages. Once you have created a free PokerNews account, you can use MyStack to update your chip counts in real time; hopefully, your stack will continue increasing throughout the event!
Become a Bigger Part of the Action With MyStack
What Else is Happening at the 2024 WSOP?
- Phil Hellmuth narrowly missed out on winning his 18th bracelet, finishing fourth in the $1,500 Mixed Omaha event, which requires an unscheduled Day 4.
- One of the toughest fields ever assembled at the WSOP is battling away in the $100,000 High Roller No-Limit Hold'em event.
- Another all-star cast makes up the final 17 of the $10,000 H.O.R.S.E. Championship.