Leon Sturm Wins Debut WSOP Bracelet in $50,000 High Roller

Leon Sturm won his first World Series of Poker gold bracelet in one of the highest buy-in tournaments of the summer, topping a field of 124 entries to secure the title in the 2023 WSOP $50,000 no-limit hold’em eight-max event. The 22-year-old German earned $1,546,024 as the last player standing, by far the largest live score on his nascent resume.

According to PokerNews live reporters, Sturm won his way into this event via a $5,000 buy-in satellite. While this was his first live seven-figure score, he apparently took down a $10,000 buy-in event on GGPoker earlier this month for $1,518,400.

“Financially, I’ve had a pretty surreal month,” he said after closing out his latest big win. “It adds up. It’s nice. A lot of winnings coming together.”

This was Sturm’s second live final-table finish of 2023. The 1,122 Card Player Player of the Year points he was awarded as the champion were enough to see him move into 150th place in the 2023 POY race standings presented by Global Poker.

He also earned 750 PokerGO Tour points for the win, which was sufficient to catapult him into ninth place in that high-stakes-centric points race.

This tournament ran from June 9-11 inside the Paris and Horseshoe Las Vegas properties on the Las Vegas strip. The solid turnout built a prize pool of $5,921,000, with the top 19 finishers making the money.

All-time money leader Justin Bonomo was knocked out in sixth place ($295,169) to bring day 2 action to a close. The score increased Bonomo’s total earnings to more than $63.6 million. 2022 WSOP $250,000 buy-in event winner Alex Foxen held the chip lead heading into day 3, with Sturm in the middle of the pack to start.

World Poker Tour champion Seth Davies was the first to fall, with his trip fives running into a straight for Sturm. Davies surpassed $21.5 million in total earnings thanks to the $385,617 he earned as the fifth-place finisher.

Foxen had slid down to third place in the chip counts by the time the next big hand arrived. With a flop of 864, Sturm checked with 86 for top two pair. Foxen bet with 98 for top pair. Sturm check-raised and Foxen moved all-in. Sturm called and the turn brought the A. The K on the end sent Foxen to the rail in fourth place. The $512,824 payday increased Foxen’s lifetime earnings to more than $29.8 million. He also earned 561 POY points for his 14th final-table showing of the year. With three titles, 5,015 total points, and nearly $2.2 million in to-date POY earnings, Foxen is now the fifth-ranked contender in the 2023 POY race.

Successful businessman and frequent high-stakes poker player Bill Klein overtook the lead during three-handed play thanks to a big move he made with pocket fours that ultimately pushed bracelet winner Jans Arends off of pocket eights. Check out a video replay of the key hand from PokerGO’s exclusive streaming coverage of the WSOP below:

Bill Klein pulls off an absolutely MONSTER bluff against Jans Arends (@Graftekkel).

With Arends’ fold, Klein takes over the chip lead while Arends drops to the shortest stack of the final three.

– Watch live here: https://t.co/nAi7qdBuVj pic.twitter.com/3altEc2dmL

— PokerGO (@PokerGO) June 12, 2023

Arends was ultimately knocked out in third place after he got all-in on the flop with top pair of nines with a ten kicker, only to find himself up against the same pair with a queen kicker for Sturm. The Dutch player secured $694,019 as the third-place finisher, increasing his career live earnings to nearly $3 million, with plenty more accrued online in events without full real-name results listed.

Klein came into heads-up with the lead, but a big pot went Sturms way when his busted flush draw became a pair of fours on the river, which still bested the A-K high of Klein.

In the final hand, Sturm raised on the button with QJ and Klein called out of the big blind with 85. The flop came J83 and Klein checked. Sturm bet and Klein called. The turn brought the 6 and Klein moved all-in with his second pair. Sturm called with top pair and the 2 completed the board to bring the tournament to an end.

Klein earned $955,513 as the runner-up finisher. This was his second-largest score ever, trailing only the $2,465,522 he took home as the runner-up in the $111,111 One Drop High Roller at the 2015 series. He now has nearly $7 million in lifetime cashes after this latest deep run.

Here is a look at the payouts and rankings points awarded at the final table:

Visit the Card Player 2023 World Series of Poker page for schedules, news, interviews, and the latest event results.

Winner photo credit: WSOP / Spenser Sembrat.