Scott Seiver reigns victorious in Event #40: $1,500 Razz to win his sixth bracelet and second in as many weeks, along with $141,374 in prize money. It was a dominant performance from start to finish as Seiver came into Day 3 with the chip lead and kept it almost the entire day.
If you had told Seiver two weeks ago that he would be hoisting his sixth bracelet, he would not have thought you were crazy. In fact, this amount of success was what Seiver had been planning for.
“It’s this weird feeling where you set a goal that should be close to impossible and then take the steps to do it.”
Seiver defeated a stacked final table that included previous bracelet winners Ben Yu, Maxx Coleman, and Brandon Shack-Harris. However, winning bracelets is just part of Seiver’s plans for the summer. He has his sights set on both Player of the Year and the Poker Hall of Fame.
“It’s the entire motivator,” explained Seiver. “I really, truly want to win Player of the Year this year. I’m going to do as much as I can to make that happen.”
Seiver also indicated that this victory should help to solidify his resume for the Poker Hall of Fame.
“I’m going to keep going…whatever people need to see.”
Many players who are considered “old school” have enjoyed plenty of success at the 2024 World Series of Poker. Phil Ivey, John Hennigan, and Nick Schulman have all won bracelets this year in addition to Seiver.
However, Seiver doesn’t feel the need for this distinction.
“It’s not that there’s like an old-school resurgence. It’s just that the best players are winning.”
“Phil Ivey was and is one of the greatest players of all time. John Hennigan was and is one of the greatest players of all time. Nick Schulman was and is one of the greatest players of all time.”
Well, if the last two weeks can be used as evidence, then Scott Seiver was and is one of the greatest players of all time.
Following Justin Liberto’s elimination in 10th place, the remaining nine players combined at a single feature table.
Play continued nine-handed for an hour until Steven Abitbol was eliminated in ninth. He was ahead going into seventh street, but Scott Seiver caught a seven on the end to make an eight-seven against the nine-eight of Abitbol.
Over two hours would go by until Ben Yu was the next to fall in eighth place. He got the rest of his short stack in after starting eight-seven-three against Maxx Coleman. An unfortunate runout resulted in Yu hitting the rail in eighth place as the four-time bracelet winner’s run came to an end.
The next casualty was Brad Lindsey, who started four-three-two against Brandon Shack-Harris’s seven-six-five but failed to improve as Shack-Harris made a six-five to eliminate Lindsey in seventh place.
Shortly before dinner, Akihiro Kawaguchi fell in sixth place. After a long stretch of bad cards and depleting antes, Kawaguchi got the last of his chips in the middle against Ingo Klasen. Unfortunately for Kawaguchi, he triple-paired while Klasen made jack-eight.
After the remaining five players went to dinner, Soner Osman was the next to bust. He found himself in a flip situation against Seiver with similar starting hands, but Osman was unable to improve against Seiver’s six-five.
Shortly after, Maxx Coleman hit the rail in fourth place. Coleman defended his bring-in with jack-three-two and got the rest of his stack in on fourth street against Shack-Harris, who made a seven-six to eliminate Coleman.
Seiver had around half the chips in play to start three-handed play. The three players exchanged chips for some time before Seiver won the largest pot of the tournament by far. All three players saw sixth street in a two-bet pot, with Shack-Harris deciding to fold sixth with just 500,000 chips behind. Seiver ended up making nine-seven-five against the nine-seven-six of Ingo Klasen to eliminate the German in third place.
A couple of hands later, Brandon Shack-Harris got the rest of his stack in against Seiver, who ultimately made ten-seven to beat the queen-jack of Shack-Harris.
Seiver joins an elite group of six-time bracelet winners that includes Daniel Negreanu, Shaun Deeb, Josh Arieh, Brian Rast, and many more legends of the game.
Seiver’s ambition does not stop at six, however.
“I want to win five more [this summer]. But realistically, I’ll probably only win two more.”
Final Table Results
1 Scott Seiver United States $141,374
2 Brandon Shack-Harris United States $94,247
3 Ingo Klasen Germany $64,588
4 Maxx Coleman United States $45,117
5 Soner Osman United Kingdom $32,136
6 Akihiro Kawaguchi Japan $23,349
7 Brad Lindsey United States $17,313
8 Ben Yu United States $13,105
9 Steven Abitbol France $10,132
