Khang Pham Wins First Gold Bracelet and $677k in Seniors Championship

Khang Pham‘s first ever 2024 World Series of Poker (WSOP) final table resulted in a gold bracelet and a life-changing score. Pham bested a field of 7,954 entries, which generated a prize pool of $6,999,520, to secure the first-place prize of $677,326 in Event #46: $1,000 Seniors No-Limit Hold’em Championship at the Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas.

“I should have got knocked out at the end of Day 3 but I ended up getting really lucky against a great player,” Pham told PokerNews after his victory. From there, he gained momentum and steadily added chips to his stack.

Final Table Results

Day 4 Action

Twenty-six players returned for Day 4, Marc Wolpert was in pole position with 17,900,000. Wolpert started the final table with roughly thirty percent of the chips in play before getting heads-up with Pham.

Pham needed some luck along the way and got some when his ace-four clashed against Luke Graham’s ace-eight.

The sole remaining bracelet holder was eliminated in 12th place, as Mark Seif could not add a third bracelet to his collection, but he did have an impressive run.

After roughly three hours of play, the unofficial final table was reached. Ken Deng was the first elimination in 10th place when he ran his nine-eight of spades into Wolpert’s pocket aces.

Final Table Action

Wolpert took a commanding chip lead during the early stages of the final table when his pocket tens bested William Byrne’s pocket eights, eliminating Byrne in ninth place.

Shawn Stuart was eliminated in eighth Place when his flush draw did not improve against Khang Pham’s top pair.

Randy Levin took his last stand with queen-nine but could not catch up when he was all-in preflop against Mark Bramley’s king-nine, eliminating Levin in seventh place.

Ray Devita suffered a similar fate when he went all-in off a short stack with ace-six and was called by Luke Graham’s ace-jack and did not improve, ending his ride in sixth place.

Luke Graham was eliminated in fifth place when he ran his pocket eights into Wolpert’s pocket jacks on a clean board for Wolpert.

Mark Bramley’s impressive tournament run ended in fourth place when he shoved all-in off a short stack with king-six and could not improve against Renmei Liu’s ace-four.

Pham boosted his chipstack when he eliminated Renmei Liu in third place . Setting up a heads up battle where the two players had almost identical chip counts to start.

Once the players got heads up a key hand occurred when both players flopped trips but Pham had the superior kicker, giving Pham a commanding chip lead. The final hand of the tournament occured when Pham flopped top pair against Wolpert’s open ended straight draw and all the chips got in on the turn. When the dealer placed a clean river card on the table Pham’s rail exploded in cheers as they were ecstatic that Pham had fulfilled one of his lifelong dreams.

In large field No Limit Hold’em tournaments, you need to get lucky and pick your spots. Pham was trying his best to balance those two skills.

“With twelve players left, I made a move on the river with only about five million chips left and if that hand goes differently then who knows. In this tournament there are some key hands you need to win and some key hands I lost too. I should have got knocked in 50th but i didn’t, so it’s my moment and my tournament.”

Pham’s biggest supporter was bracelet winner Arash Ghaneian, who convinced him to play in the event. “Without him, I wouldn’t be in this event and I certainly wouldn’t have a gold bracelet around my wrist, his support meant everything.”