Jonathan Tamayo Is the 2024 WSOP Main Event Champion

The last three players all started with similar stacks:

It was a perfectly balanced way to start, with the last three final table protagonists including one of the best online tournament players ever (Astedt), a professional grinder (Tamayo) and an enthusiastic amateur (Griff) playing the game of his life. 

To be fair, it’s the game of their lives for all three players, as very few players have managed to make it this far more than once and especially with growing field size, even harder to achieve in future.

The early exchanges saw Griff and Astedt lock horns, trading the chip lead on more than one occasion in the first half dozen hands of the day. Tamayo then played a couple of pots, by which time Jordan had started frequently employing the all-in re-raise tactic.

Just nine hands after play began Astedt and Griff tangled again in a big hand. With blinds at 2m/4m and  big blind ante of 4m, the Swedish online phenom made it the minimum 8m to play. Griff raised it up to 28m and Astedt called, after which they saw a flop of 10♣9♦3♦.

Griff led out with another 28m sized bet, which was also called, upon which the J♣ was dealt as the turn card. Griff moved all in on this board for his remaining 159m chips, which just had Astedt covered. 

After a long dive into the tank, the Swedish online pro, known online as Lena900 finally made the call, tabling K♠J♦and instantly regretting his decision to call when he was shown 9♣9♠ His very professional top pair was no match for the amateur set of nines, which sent him to the rail tail between his legs, but ultimately $4m richer for the experience.

With Astedt eliminated and Griff being the beneficiary of his entire stack, the amateur player from Illinois went into the heads up stage with a considerable chip lead, possessing 432m chips to Tamayo’s 175m, with Tamayo barely having played a hand to conclusion at this point. 

They were still fairly deep at this stage, with Jordan’s stack representing more than 100 big blinds, but

Buoyant after dispatching Astedt, Griff came out firing and betting big in the first few hands against Tamayo. However these hands went against him and he ended up relinquishing the chip lead to Tamayo within four hands. 

Play then slowed down with a series of cautious hands before Tamayo began to increase his lead and within twenty hands of heads up play he had reversed the chip counts they had begun the final stage of the tournament with.

Just as it looked like Tamayo would pull even further ahead, Griff began a fight back, which resulted in him retaking the chip lead after a double up with J♥6♥ on a Q♦6♠5♣J♦ board. Tamayo had A♣J♣ and could have won the Main Event there and then, but the river was no help, propelling Griff back into a narrow chip lead.

Once again the amateur player was radiant at having taken the lead and rode the wave further to establish a healthy lead. Several hands into this period of Griff dominance it was his turn to be one board away from the title, as Tamayo found himself all-in with KT off-suit to Griff’s pocket sevens. However Tomayo flopped a straight and in doubling, he moved into a slender lead in the chip charts.

Tomayo once again began to establish a decent chip lead, but after the first break of the session, Griff once again won a massive pot, with pocket sixes versus A8 off-suit, to reestablish himself at the top of the table.

However just a fee hands later Tamayo managed to double up again, to once again even up the chip counts and he then moved into the lead a few hands later. 

It was always looking likely that a big hand would settle this tournament and that did indeed turn out to be the way it ended. In the final hand, Jonathan Tamayo raised to 12.5m, which Jordan Griff called.

The flop was 9♦8♣3♦, to which Tamayo led out a 10m bet. Griff upped the stakes to 40m, Tamayo shoved and Griff called, for his last 230m chips.

Jordan had 9♥6♣ for top pair on the flop, however Jonathan had flopped two pair, holding 8♦3♠. The A♠ and 5♦ on the turn and river did not change anything and on that note, the tournament was brought to an end, with Jonathan Tamayo winning his first bracelet and an eight figure payday of $10,000,000.

Griff will be disappointed after the rollercoaster he has ridden took his so close to the title, but $6m in prize money is a pretty decent consolation prize!

Jonathan Tamayo has an interesting and unique story that led him to the pinnacle of the game, becoming the WSOP Main Event Champion. Although this was his first Main Event final table, he had previously run deep in the Main Event, finishing in 21st place in 2008 for $350,000. 

He is also no stranger to the winners circle, as he has captured four WSOPC gold rings during his career and had amassed over $2.3m in live tournament winnings, prior to this year’s Main Event.

He has been very humble throughout the latter stages of the tournament, repeating on more than one occasion how happy he was to have gotten this far again, that he never expected to go deep again in his lifetime. 

He described the situation as like a dream, not reality and that he is still surprised at what has happened. But it is not the first time that Jonathan has celebrated success on the Main Event Final table. 

In 2015, Tamayo’s room-mate Joe McKeehan won the title and Jonathan was not only on the rail to support him, but credits his role in McKeehan’s victory as being the ‘Defensive Coordinator of the 2015 World Champion.’

This time it was McKeehan on the rail and he was the first person to congratulate Tamayo, along with Dominik Nitsche, who may well have been coordinating some aspects of Tamayo’s strategy this time.

Tamayo has recorded all his end of Day chip counts with a photo of his bagged up stack on his Twitter page. Today he simply posted the winning ticket that the floor person handed him.

In the end, it came down to Jordan v Jonathan and a heads-up battle of biblical proportions, as not one, not two, but three floods changed the landscape during the final encounter. They may have gone into the WSOP Ark two-by-two, but in the end, there could be only one survivor and that honour went to the player with the best first name. Congratulations Jonathan,

Yours sincerely, 

Jonathan