After two weeks of play, a winner was crowned on Wednesday night in the record-setting $10,000 World Series of Poker Main Event in Las Vegas. American Jonathan Tamayo, of Humble, Texas, bested a field of 10,112 players to score the $10 million top prize and gold bracelet.
The event produced the largest live poker tournament prize pool in history at $94 million and 2015 Main Event winner Joe McKeehen helped0. award the bracelet to his longtime friend Tamayo. The new champion entered the final table seventh in chips, but was able to advance to the final day with only three players remaining on Wednesday.
“We always take our shot here, but it’s just a numbers game,” he told PokerGO after the win. “We never, ever, ever think this is reality and I’m just soaking it in right now. This perspective is kind of nice actually. Everybody plays this tournament. Everybody who’s great at poker plays this tournament, and I somehow won it and I still can’t believe it.”
This marked the second year in a row an American grabbed the title after Daniel Weinman won in 2023. Tamayo now has career tournament winnings of more than $12.3 million as well as his first WSOP bracelet. In 2009, he also finished 21st in the Main Event for $352,000.
Tamayo is a graduate of Cornell University with a degree in hotel management. Fellow American Jordan Griff finished runner-up and won $6 million with Swedish online poker pro Niklas Astedt taking third for $4 million. Here’s a look at the final table payouts.
- Jonathan Tamayo (USA) – $10,000,000
- Jordan Griff (USA) – $6,000,000
- Niklas Astedt (Sweden) – $4,000,000
- Jason Sagle (Canada) – $3,000,000
- Boris Angelov (Bulgaria) – $2,500,000
- Andres Gonzalez (Spain) – $2,000,000
- Brian Kim (USA) – $1,500,000
- Joe Serock (USA) – $1,250,000
- Malo Latinois (France) – $1,000,000
