A British businessman and a two-time WSOP bracelet winner went heads up for the title, and it was the former who stood alone in the end.
Daniel Willis defeated Michael Wang on Day 3 to take down Event #3: $500 Kickoff No-Limit Hold’em Freezeout, securing Willis a $175,578 winning prize and his first WSOP bracelet after he outlasted the final eight players.
Wang collected $117,046 as the runner-up.
“Coming off the first event I played and having a huge win, it’s a dream come true moment,” Willis said with a smile.
Bookmark this page! All you need to know about the 2024 WSOP is here.
Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | Daniel Willis | United Kingdom | $175,578 |
| 2nd | Michael Wang | United States | $117,056 |
| 3rd | Shawn Smith | United States | $86,820 |
| 4th | Steven Borella | United States | $,64,920 |
| 5th | Yoshinori Funayama | Japan | $48,938 |
| 6th | Daniel Sherer | United States | $37,194 |
| 7th | John Marino | United States | $28,501 |
| 8th | David Niedringhaus | United States | $22,022 |
Willis, who entered Day 3 as the chip leader, didn’t falter at the final table and credits the momentum he gained late in Day 2.
“In deep fields, thousands of players, you get these really crucial spots where you get your chips in and it’s a really critical hand to keep that momentum going,” Willis said. “And so many times when I played poker professionally 10-15 years ago before I started my music journey and business, I found that those crucial spots weren’t going my way really deep for very big prize money.
“But in this tournament, it just went really, really well in those crucial spots, like (Thursday) when I was like fifth or sixth in chips, perhaps seventh, and someone shoved all in, another big stack re-raised all in, and then I got kings in the big blind, so I call. I was up against jacks, Q3 suited. The flop came 2, 4, 5, so I had to dodge an Ace, a Jack, a 6, and I did. Those are the key spots where I just kept gaining momentum.”
Not only did Willis gain momentum, he sustained it throughout Day 3 while in good spots en route to winning the event.
“The final table seemed to go really smoothly,” Willis said. “Someone shoved all in and I have kings; obviously an easy call. The same thing happened again and I had Aces, and it just kept going like that where I was in those dream scenarios, spots that a lot of poker players would just love to be in and would just appreciate that the luck is on your side.”
While luck is a factor, there is arguably a level of skill required to navigate the minefield of not just players, but capable players.
The overall field boasted multiple WSOP bracelet winners, including Wang, Poker Hall of Famer Daniel Negreanu, Ryan Riess, Tamas Lendvai, Jason Wheeler, Joseph Altomonte, Qiang Xu, andMarco Johnson, among others.
Going through all the tough competition isn’t lost on the WSOP’s newest bracelet winner.
“I’m just really grateful for this amazing opportunity,” Willis said. “And how everything unfolded to be here and to be the winner.”
With a major tournament win in his back pocket and a shiny WSOP gold bracelet on his wrist, Willis now looks forward to the future, which includes sticking around for a few more weeks in Las Vegas before he heads home.
“I’m definitely going to try and play the Mystery Bounty, probably take a day off and celebrate,” he said. “I’ll probably play a few more events, and then I got to get back to work.”
