The 5 Worst Bad Beats from the 2024 World Series of Poker

A glittering line-up of poker stars gathered in Las Vegas, Nevada, for the 2024 World Series of Poker (WSOP). Some of them collected gold bracelets, while others saw hopes disappear in the blink of an eye as one card took them from poker hero to poker zero. We’ve taken a look back at the WSOP and along with GGPoker, who have recently bought out the WSOP brand for $500 million, come up with the story behind five of the worst bad beats this summer just gone.

1. Yosifov Sees Kings Straightened Out

It’s difficult not to feel slightly sorry for the Bulgarian player Nikolay Yosifov. After playing poker in ranking events for a decade, the talented professional made it all the way to heads-up for the gold WSOP in Event #49, the $3,000-entry No Limit Hold’em freezeout event.

With freezeout events not permitting rebuys or re-entries, Yosifov had one shot at glory and ran his stack all the way to the final showdown with Norwegian player Erlend Melsom, a player with fewer than a dozen Hendon Mob cashes and no win bigger than $75k in his entire career.

Yosifov must have thought that his long wait for a WSOP title was over when he held pocket kings and the bigger stack, leading 2:1 in chips when Melsom committed his stack with ace-ten of diamonds pre-flop. Yosifov called and had ‘one hand on the bracelet’ according to the commentators. A flop of Q-9-5 with just one diamond looked terrible for Melsom, who had less than a 20% chance of victory.

A jack on the turn gave the Norwegian nine outs, and a king on the river gave him a vital reprieve, flipping the lead. As Yosifov buried his head in his hands and sat down again, Melsom barely celebrated. A few hands later, the Norwegian had the title and over $523,000, and Yosifov’s long-held dream was crushed.

Here’s to the next decade, buddy.

2. Nick Seward Slays Holskyi

Ukraine have been experiencing their toughest period in political history, with the war against Russia raging on. Ukrainian poker players have long been some of the best in the game, so Konstantyn Holskyi’s emergence in 2024 has been something of an inspiration to fans from his home country.

Reaching the final stages of Event #55, Holskyi got heads-up with the infinitely more experienced Nicholas Seward. The chips were almost even when a flop of T-9-2 hit both players square in the face, with Seward leading by just a couple of million chips out of 50 million of them.

Seward bet to 1.2m, Holskyi raised to 4m and Seward three-bet all-in. Holskyi correctly called and with almost all of the chips in the event, only had to fade a king or an eight after the queen on the river. Incredibly, a king landed on the river, handing Seward the gold and breaking Holskyi’s heart in the process.

3. Bonomo and Big Huni Dig It

The $100,000-entry Super High Roller series was supposed to be the moment for Justin Bonomo to get a lot closer to Bryn Kenney at the summit of the All-Time Money List on The Hendon Mob. Instead, it turned out to be a fine example of how the cards don’t care if you’re number two on the all-time list, they just don’t.

Chris ‘Big Huni’ Hunichen held king-jack of spades and Bonomo had queen-ten of spades and a thrilling board of A-Q-9-4-2 landed with three spades coming on flop, turn and river. There was no getting away from the hit for Bonomo, who lost the vent and the chance of winning millions of dollars by running the second nuts into the absolute nuts. Ouch!

“That was a gross one,” admitted Hunichen as the cards were turned over.

4. Ausmus Also Falls to the Honey Monster

Same tournament, same problem, different victim. Hunichen was on the march to the title but in this hand, he might not have known it on the flop. The dealer fanned 9-5-2 and Hunichen shoved only to be called by Jeremy Ausmus with pocket jacks and the bigger stack.

“We need a nine or a seven,” Big Huni told his rail. The king of clubs on the turn was no good and the ‘Honey Monster’ was an 11% shot to hit gold.

“I don’t wanna get second in another one of these tournaments!” said Hunichen, and a miraculous nine popped up on the river to deny Ausmus the bracelet and ultimately, the WSOP Player of the Year title shot too. Hunichen won the event with that dream river.

5. Seidel Slumps to a Straight Flush

All the pointers were that Erik Seidel was going to have a great summer. And they were pointing in the right direction; Erik Seidel did have a great summer, winning big and reaching two final tables. His 2024 WSOP Will be remembered for a very different reason, however.

On a board showing Q-T-2-J with three spades, all the chips were in the middle, with Seidel’s queen-four of spades giving him a better flush than Sami Bechahed with the nine-seven of spades. Bechahed wasn’t technically drawing dead but had only a 2% chance of spiking the ludicrously implausible eight of spades and that card alone to create a straight flush.

That, of course, is exactly what happened. Seidel slid from the event in 21^st place instead of doubling back into heavy contention for the 11^th bracelet of his career, a feat that would have tied him with Phil Ivey behind Phil Hellmuth. Bechahed didn’t even use those chips for a run to the final table, busting six places later.

Want to watch all the bust-outs from this cavalcade of calamity? Of course you do! Here’s GGPoker’s rundown of the action for you to watch between your fingers. If you want to qualify for next year’s World Series of Poker in Las Vegas and inflict a bad beat like this yourself, there’s only one thing to do – get on GGPoker today!

Headline image by Danny Maxwell for PokerNews.