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38-year-old Humble, Texas resident Jonathan Tamayo became the 2024 world champion after defeating Jordan Griff in an epic back-and-forth heads-up match.
Tamayo defeated a pool of 10,112 players, the largest field in Main Event history, and hoisted the diamond-encrusted gold bracelet over his head.
"Not real life. My roommate's picture is right there from 2015. We both have banners now. What in the world just happened," the newly-crowned champion said, finally taking in the enormity of the environment he found himself in and the achievement he had just pulled off.
"I'm just kind of taking it in right now. Because this perspective, and actually, let's take a perspective photo just so I can have one for myself. This is what it looks like from here."
"Leading up to it, Joe was just like, play your game. I realized you're never going to play perfect poker, and weird things happen," Tamayo said. "And it's just unreal."
"I remember…I shouldn't have been here after Day 4. There was a crazy series of events on Day 4 where I was all in, and if one certain individual didn't fold their hand pre, I'm not here."
Tamayo had shoved ten big blinds with ace-queen late in Day 4 and beat pocket jacks to stay alive.
"[Someone] folded ace-king in the cutoff, and the other two jacks were dead because the big blind on seven or eight big blinds folded jacks. And the turn is an ace. If that chain of events doesn't happen, I don't have that bracelet and I'm not here."
2024 WSOP Main Event Final Table Payouts
| Place | Player | Country | Payout (USD) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jonathan Tamayo | United States | $10,000,000 |
| 2 | Jordan Griff | United States | $6,000,000 |
| 3 | Niklas Astedt | Sweden | $4,000,000 |
| 4 | Jason Sagle | Canada | $3,000,000 |
| 5 | Boris Angelov | Bulgaria | $2,500,000 |
| 6 | Andres Gonzalez | Spain | $2,000,000 |
| 7 | Brian Kim | United States | $1,500,000 |
| 8 | Joe Serock | United States | $1,250,000 |
| 9 | Malo Latinois | France | $1,000,000 |
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