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Alexandre Vuilleumier has won the first open bracelet event of the 2023 World Series of Poker. The Swiss player navigated a tough field of 207 entries in the $25,000 buy-in six-max no-limit hold’em event to earn his first WSOP title and the top prize of $1,215,864.
This was Vuilleumier’s first-ever seven-figure score. It increased his career earnings to more than $2.1 million.
Vuilleumier has now made two final tables in 2023 and has come away with the title both times. His earlier win saw him top an 87-entry field in a $10,150 six-max event at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure to earn $237,700. His two wins have seen him accumulate 1,740 Card Player Player of the Year points, enough to move him into a three-way tie with Giorgiy Skhulukhiya and David Yan for 75th place in the 2023 POY standings presented by Global Poker.
This three-day event ran from May 30 through June 1 inside the Paris and Horseshoe properties on the Las Vegas Strip. The top 32 finishers made the money, splitting up a prize pool of $4,864,500. Some of the many notables that ran deep but fell short of the final table included all-time money leader Justin Bonomo (29th), 2021 WSOP main event winner Koray Aldemir (26th), 2022 WSOP main event winner Espen Jorstad (25th), six-time bracelet winner Daniel Negreanu (22nd), high-stakes tournament regular Chris Brewer (21st), four-time bracelet winner Adrian Mateos (14th), recent World Poker tour Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown main event winner Bin Weng (12th), two-time bracelet winner Keith Lehr (11th), and a few more bracelet winners in Andrew Lichtenberger (10th), Jake Schindler (9th), and Elior Sion (8th).
Bracelet winner Joey Weissman was the first to fall at the official final table, with his last few big blinds getting into the middle on the strength of a monster starting hand: pocket kings. Unfortunately for Weissman, that big pocket pair did not hold up against the lowly J-3 offsuit of Vuilleumier, who called from the big blind. Vuilleumier flopped trip threes and made a full house by the river to send Weissman home with $188,219.
Ren Lin was left short after he attempted a triple-barrel bluff that was picked off by Chance Kornuth, who held just king high. Lin was left with fewer than 13 big blinds after that hand. Not long after that, Sean Winter lost all but 1.5 big blinds of his stack in a clash with Vuilleumier, with his rivered second pair against two pair for the Swiss player. Winter quickly pickup himself up off the mat, though, managing two double-ups straight away to give himself some room to operate.
After that, Lin got all-in with A-10 suited facing the pocket kings of Kornuth, which improved to quads by the turn to send Lin to the rail in fifth place ($259,220). This was his 14th final-table finish of the year, with two titles won and more than $2.7 million in to-date POY earnings accrued along the way. As a result, Lin sits in third place in the overall standings. He now trails second-ranked Bin Weng by just 55 POY points.
Winter then doubled his stack yet again, winning a preflop race with K-10 suited against the pocket sevens of Axel Hallay. Winter spiked a king on the flop and held from there to leave Hallay with just over six big blinds. He soon got the rest of his stack in with Q-3 suited dominated by Winter’s K-Q. Winter flopped a king and dodged Hallay’s backdoor flush draw to narrow the field to three. Hallay earned $363,326, his largest live tournament score yet.
Winter’s run came to an end in third place thanks to the following hand. With a flop of 9
4
2
in a limped battle of the blinds, Winter checked with 96 and Vuilleumier bet one big blind with 10
9. Winter called and the 5 hit the turn. Winter checked again and Vuilleumier bet again. Winter check-raised with his top pair and gutshot straight draw. Vuilleumier came along with his top pair and a higher kicker. The 10 on the end saw Winter bet roughly half the size of the pot. Vuilleumier raised all-in and Winter thought it over before making the call with what had become second pair. His hand was second best, though, and he was sent home with $518,106 for his efforts.
This score increased Winter’s lifetime tournament earnings to nearly $27.2 million, while also giving him the lead in the high-stakes-centric PokerGO Tour points race. He has accrued nine cashes in PGT qualified events, with one win and more than $1.1 million in to-date cashes. Lin is second on the PGT leaderboard after this event, while Vuilleumier surged to sixth place thanks to this big win.
Heads-up play began with Vuilleumier holding 19,800,000 to Kornuth’s 11,300,000. That lead was soon greatly extended when Vuilleumier won a sizable pot with queens up besting the hero-calling third pair of Kornuth on the river. Kornuth was left with just shy of 18 big blinds after the hand. He was down 14 big blinds when the final hand of the tournament was dealt. Vuilleumier limped in from the button with AQ. Kornuth moved all-in from the big blind with K3. Vuilleumier quickly called and the board ran out J1089J to give him a winning queen-high straight.
Kornuth fell just short of securing his fourth career WSOP gold bracelet but was awarded a career-best payday of $751,463 as the runner-up. He has now cashed for more than $13.3 million on the tournament circuit.
Here is a look at the payouts and POY points awarded at the final table:
| Place | Player | Earnings | POY Points | PGT Points |
| 1 | Alexandre Vuilleumier | $1,215,864 | 1260 | 700 |
| 2 | Chance Kornuth | $751,463 | 1050 | 451 |
| 3 | Sean Winter | $518,106 | 840 | 311 |
| 4 | Axel Hallay | $363,326 | 630 | 218 |
| 5 | Ren Lin | $259,220 | 525 | 156 |
| 6 | Joey Weissman | $188,219 | 420 | 113 |
Visit the Card Player 2023 World Series of Poker page for schedules, news, interviews, and the latest event results.
Photo credits: Vuilleumier – WSOP / Danny Maxwell. Lin and Kornuth – PokerGO.
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