After over two weeks of adrenaline-pumping action, Jonathan Tamayo becomes the 2024 World Champion. The 38-year-old from Humble, Texas, who enjoys golfing and daily fantasy sports, bested the record-breaking field of 10,112 entrants in Event #81: $10,000 MAIN EVENT No-Limit Hold’em World Championship of the 2024 World Series of Poker (WSOP) to capture the $10 million and his maiden WSOP bracelet. The long-time poker pro etched his name in poker history books alongside his friend and 2015 Main Event champion Joe McKeehen as the 2024 world champion after defeating Arizona-based data and analytics supply chain manager Jordan Griff in an epic back-and-forth heads-up battle that lasted more than three hours.
“Joe McKeehen told me that this tournament’s impossible to win. And then, when the field size is bigger, you feel like it’s even more impossible to win,” said Tamayo after closing out the historic win. “But, you just sit down on day 1, you’re just like, ‘Okay, eventually I’m going to bust this tournament. It’s not going to be pretty, I’m not going to feel great and you’re going to go on with your life and mentally prepare yourself for it.’ I just can’t believe I did not bust the main event.”
A long-time tournament grinder, Jonathan Tamayo entered this event with four WSOP circuit titles and $2.3 million in prior tournament earnings from over 187 prior recorded live cashes. Now with this historic main event win, he has taken his live earnings to more than $12.3 million.
He had a boisterous rail to support and cheer for him, including his friend and roommate Joe McKeehen. The 2015 WSOP main event winner alongside four-time bracelet winner Dominik Nitscheon were Tamayo’s rail down the stretch, constantly cheering and motivating him to win the title.
Acknowledging their support, the champion said, “Joe and Dom helped. If they weren’t here, I’d likely do not win this tournament. I might be out eighth, I might be out seventh… I might win this tournament, but a whole other bunch of good things would actually would’ve had to happen for that to happen.”
As mentioned, this marked his first bracelet victory, adding to his collection of four WSOP Circuit rings. Prior to this landmark victory, his top score included a 21st-place finish in the 2009 main event for $352,832. He also placed 78th in 2015, earning $79,668 for his efforts. After over 15 years of his 21st place in the event, he is finally the World Champion!
Notably, this marks the second consecutive year that an American player has won the main event title, with Daniel Weinman winning it in 2023. In 2022, the main event title went to Norway’s Espen Jorstad, while Germany’s Koray Aldemir claimed the coveted title in 2021.
Quick Recap- WSOP 2024 Main Event Final Day
On Day 8 of the WSOP Main Event, Tamayo folded his pokcet queens pre-flop on the final table bubble. His move got mixed reactions with many praising and many others criticizing the move on social media. However, his patience paid off handsomely in the end, as he went from seventh in chips on the final table to second place when action was paused Tuesday night.
Tamayo began the final day of this event in second chip position among the final three contenders for the title. Each of the three was battling for $20,000,000 in prize money left to play for from the total $94,041,600 prize pool collected in the historic event.
Niklas Astedt started the day with the chip lead but lost his lead after clashing with start-of-day short stack Jordan Griff, who won a big pot with pocket deuces against Astedt’s ace-high.
The two finally tangled in a hand that shocked the entire room. Astedt raised to 8,000,000 from the button with Ks Jd and Griff three-bet to 28,000,000, which Adstedt called. The flop came down 10c 9d 3d. Griff, who held pocket nines, bet 28,000,000 and Astedt called and Jc appeared on the turn. Griff moved all-in for 159,000,000. Astedt stared over at Griff and spent several minutes before eventually making the call. Astedt was in need of a queen to hit a straight but the river came Kh and Griff’s set took down the pot, busting Astedt in 3rd Place ($4,000,000).
Coming into heads-up, Griff led Tamayo 432,500,000 to 174,500,000. Griff continued his aggression, and on just the second hand of heads-up play, he attempted a triple barrel bluff that was finally picked off by Tamayo, who had flopped top pair of aces with a six kicker. Tamayo went deep into the tank but eventually made the call to overtake the chip lead.
Griff soon found a double up, getting all-in on the turn with jacks and sixes leading the pair of jacks with an ace kicker held by Tamayo. A safe river saw Griff take a slight lead again. Griff continued to extend his advantage, and had a chance to close the win when he got all-in with 7s 7c against the Kh 10s of Tamayo. However, the board gave Tamayo a king-high straight to double back and move ahead.
The chip lead exchanged once again, with Griff doubling with pocket sixes against Tamayo’s Ac 8h. However, that lead was short-lived as Tamayo doubled back to nearly even with his top pair holding against the middle pair.
Tamayo was ahead before the final hand arose. With blinds of 2,500,000-5,000,000 and a big blind ante of 5,000,000, Tamayo raised to 12,500,000 with 8d 3s and Griff called with 9h 6c. The flop came down 9d 8c 3d. Griff checked and Tamayo bet 10,000,000 with his two pairs. Griff check-raised to 40,000,000 with top pair. Tamayo moved all-in and Griff called for 230,000,000. The turn was the Ac, which did give Griff some additional outs, but the 5d appeared on the river, locking up the pot as well as the main event title for Tamayo.
Griff earned a jaw-dropping $6,000,000 as the runner-up finisher, surpassing his previous top score of $18,104 for a final-table finish in a WSOP Circuit event at Thunder Valley Casino Resort in 2023. It was indeed a remarkable showing by the 30-year-old amateur poker player. He came too close to fulfilling his dream, but fell just one spot short of clinching the bracelet.
2024 WSOP Main Event Final Table Payouts
| Place | Player | Payout (USD) |
| 1 | Jonathan Tamayo | $10,000,000 |
| 2 | Jordan Griff | $6,000,000 |
| 3 | Niklas Astedt | $4,000,000 |
| 4 | Jason Sagle | $3,000,000 |
| 5 | Boris Angelov | $2,500,000 |
| 6 | Andres Gonzalez | $2,000,000 |
| 7 | Brian Kim | $1,500,000 |
| 8 | Joe Serock | $1,250,000 |
| 9 | Malo Latinois | $1,000,000 |
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Image & Video Credit: WSOP & PokerGo
