Jason Daly is now part of the WSOP club

The final day of Event #58: $3,000 Limit Hold'em (6-Handed) has concluded at the 2023 World Series of Poker at Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas. Jason Daly has emerged victorious after a dominant final table performance to take home $165,250 and his first gold bracelet.

The event attracted 263 total entrants, up from last year's attendance of 213, to generate a total prize pool of $702,210. Only 17 of those initial entrants found a bag for Day 3 to battle it out for the top prize.

"It means a lot," said Daly when asked what this win meant to him. "On the grind, I moved out to Vegas when I was 21, and that didn't work out. I'm 41 now, so I've come full circle. It's the first limit hold'em tournament I've ever played, so it's pretty cool. It's a bucket list item, and I'm just kind of speechless right now."

Daly, who started playing poker online in college during the Moneymaker era, mentioned that he's never experienced a final table run quite as dominant as he was today.

"This is my third World Series final table,” said Daly . “I had a huge chip lead like this last year and blew it, so I was focused, and I was doing everything I could not to screw this one up".

Daly, who has several WSOP cashes across different mixed games such as Triple Draw and H.O.R.S.E., credited his success to his ability to adapt to other opponents' strategies and use them to his advantage.

"I think with the mixed games, I learn quickly, and I kind of use people's strategies against them,” said Daly. “Coming from Texas, you don't get to play a lot of mix, so when I'm out here, it's the only time I get to play them. I just kind of watch good players, see what they're doing, try to emulate it, and use it against them a little bit. But I've fared pretty well in mixed games".

The final day started with 17 players, and that number was quickly reduced to the unofficial final table of seven. Early exits to start the day included Joe McKeehen, Daniel Idema, Matt Szymaszek, Dan Shak, Alex Torry, Daniel Maczuga, Michael Senter, Robert Como, Tom Koral and David Bach.

Jeffrey Lo was next to be eliminated when he got his last chips in preflop with a short-stack holding ace-five and failed to catch up to Mavrick Yoo's ace-king. Lo's elimination marked the start of the official final table.

Six-handed play lasted for about 30 minutes before Yoo became the first official final table casualty. He was left short-stacked after folding a big pot to Freddy Sageer and got the last of his chips in against Daniel Young, who turned a pair of jacks against Yoo's flopped pair eights to knock him out of the tournament.

Five-handed play went on for nearly two hours, and it was during this time that Daly started to separate himself from the rest of the pack, particularly after winning a colossal pot against Nick Pupillo with the nut-flush versus Pupillo's king-high flush.

Eventually Daniel Young, who started the final table with a slight chip lead over Daly, found himself short-stacked during five-handed play after losing a few pivotal hands against Sageer and Daly. He bowed out in fifth after getting the last of his chips in against Sageer, who had flopped a pair of queens to secure the knockout.

Four-handed play saw Daly extend his lead over the rest of the field significantly, holding more than eighty percent of the chips in play for nearly the entire time. Freddy Sageer was the next to fall to Daly from this point, getting the last of his chips in against Daly preflop and failing to catch up when Daly flopped a pair of tens.

Three-handed play was a brief affair, with Daly beginning with just under ten million chips while his two opponents had less than one million each. Nick Pupillo got his final few chips in good against Daly preflop, holding a queen versus Daly's low unsuited connectors. Daly would spike a pair of fives on the turn to pull ahead and eliminate Pupillo in third, setting up heads-up play.

Brent Mutter had done an excellent job throughout the day, picking his spots and laddering up. His time in the tournament finally ran out when he flopped a set of twos against Daly's combo draw. Daly would end up rivering a straight flush to end Mutter's tournament run and take home his first gold bracelet in spectacular fashion.

Final table results:
Place Player Country Prize
1 Jason Daly United States $165,250
2 Brent Mutter United States $102,132
3 Nick Pupillo United States $72,681
4 Freddy Sageer United States $52,056
5 Daniel Young United States $37,526
6 Mavrick Yoo United States $27,228