David Guay joins WSOP bracelet club

A new champion has been crowned at the 2023 World Series of Poker (WSOP) at Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas. After four days of play, Canada's David Guay was victorious in Event #64: $600 No-Limit Hold'em Deepstack Championship after defeating John Taylor in heads-up play to take down the coveted bracelet and $271,032 first-place prize.

Guay, who had over $1.2 million in live earnings, added to his impressive poker resume with a win and first career WSOP bracelet. After the win, Guay was at a loss for words and looked to be emotional after the victory finally set in.

"I'm definitely going to be more emotional later," said Guay after being asked how he felt to win the bracelet. "I'm going to call my mom soon to let her know.”

Guay also had one of the loudest final table rails and was thrilled to have the support.

"It's great, I had a lot of friends and family here on the rail and some I only know from way back at Playground Poker in Canada,” said Guay.

Guay was able to celebrate the win on Canada Day and was on his way out with his large group of friends and family to soak it all in.

A total of 4,303 entrants joined the action on Day 1 to create a massive $2,194,530 prize pool. Many notable names were in the mix and some who found a cash included Kristen Deardorff (427th - $1,200), Conrad Simpson (398th - $1,200), Martin Zamani (336th - $1,299), Matt Affleck (293rd - $1,418), and bracelet winner Erik Cajelais (19th - $10,249), who fell just short of the final table when he exited in 19th.

On Day 3 it took only five hours of play for the unofficial final table to be set when Christian Dalder got in his king-queen ahead of Steven Stolzenfeld who held queen-ten. The ten hit the turn and Dalder exited in 11th to bring the event down to one table.

Soon after, the bust outs were fast and furious with David Stellmon eliminated in 10th place, Ahmed Karrim out in ninth, Paul Hindmarch in eighth and David Sebesfi exited in seventh.

The final six players moved to the outer table on the main stage and it didn't take long for the chips to hit the middle. Gaetan Balleur was the first casualty when he moved in with king-nine but was up against the king-jack for Taylor who held to send Balleur out in sixth place.

Shortly after, Romain Kowalczyk would try to bluff his way out of a big pot with ace-high against Stolzenfeld, but hit the rail in fifth when Stolzenfeld snap-called his shove with the nut-straight.

Jonathan Fhima was at the top of the leaderboard for much of Day 3, but his day would come to an end when he couldn't win a flip with ace-seven against the pocket sixes for Guay to send him out in fourth place.

The three-handed battle started with the average stack being 73 big blinds, but Stolzenfeld was well in the lead. After many back-and-forth pots, the chips started to move away from Stolzenfeld and the stacks evened out. Guay found a much-needed double when he made the nut-straight on the river and snap-called the shove from Stolzenfeld who had trip queens.

Initially, the plan was to play down to a winner, but after close to four hours of three-handed play, the tournament director announced the remaining three would bag for the night and come back for a Day 4.

Day 4 started with Taylor in the chip lead, Guay in second and Stolzenfeld in third. The action got off to a hot start with Taylor extending his lead by taking back-to-back pots from Stolzenfeld who became short. A few hands later Guay moved all in on Stolzenfeld who called with queen-four in the big blind for his last 11 big blinds. Guay held jack-ten suited and couldn't connect to secure the double up for Stolzenfeld to get back into contention.

Unfortunately for Stolzenfeld, his run would come to an end when he called preflop for his tournament life with ace-king against the ten-nine for Guay. The flop fanned out a ten and the rest was no improvement for Stolzenfeld who was sent to the payout desk in third place for a six-figure score.

The final two players took a quick five-minute break to talk to their rails, but Guay started with an over 6-1 chip lead on Taylor. The heads-up match lasted only one hand when Guay moved in his big stack with nine-six and was called by Taylor who held queen-ten for his tournament life.

The flop ran out with a six and when the rest of the board bricked off, Taylor was forced to settle with a runner-up finish. Guay scored the victory and WSOP gold bracelet.

Final table results:
Place Player Country Prize (USD)
1 David Guay Canada $271,032
2 John Taylor United States $167,483
3 Steven Stolzenfeld United States $124,850
4 Jonathan Fhima France $93,795
5 Romain Kowalczyk France $71,018
6 Gaetan Balleur France $54,199
7 David Sebesfi Australia $41,694
8 Paul Hindmarch United Kingdom $32,332
9 Ahmed Karrim South-Africa $25,276