Joseph Altomonte claims his first-ever WSOP bracelet

The 2023 World Series of Poker has crowned another winner of a coveted gold bracelet at the Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas. Out of a field of 3,200 entries in Event #13: $600 Pot-Limit Omaha Deepstack, Joseph Altomonte defeated Michael Holmes in a short-lived heads-up duel to claim the biggest slice of the $1,632,000 prize pool.

Altomonte claimed his first bracelet, and for his efforts over the last two days, he earned a payday of $217,102, while Holmes was denied the victory and had to settle for $134,171.

2023 has been quite the year for Altomonte as he is just getting back into the poker lifestyle, as he didn't play for many years due to his ex-girlfriend not liking the idea of it. He has cashed in four WSOPC events online, including a first-place finish in the $3,200 High Roller for $87,676.

He also is racking up quite the list of live results, as he has seven cashes and two first-place victories previously to taking down Event #13 for a total of $180,760 in earnings.

The final day had plenty of bracelet winners in the mix, including Jonathan Dimmig who just missed the final table finishing in 10th place ($16,772), Shaun Deeb (17th -$8,647), Greg Raymer (88th -$2,051) Brandon Shack-Harris (95th -$2,051), and Koray Aldemir (111th -$1,773).

After his dominating victory, Altomonte told PokerNews he was extremely excited to be back in the poker world as he was a professional poker player back in 2010. "My ex said being a poker player wasn't an acceptable occupation, so I quit for a very long time," he explained. The now-single Altomonte has only been playing again since February of this year and is already racking up impressive results.

Altomonte was so excited to win the bracelet that he asked to call his parents before the photos and interview began. "It's a dream come true; you don't even understand."

The day started out with fierce action, and players were being eliminated quickly, including 2021 Main Event Champion Koray Aldemir, who was eliminated in the first level of the day. He got all of the chips in with top pair and a double gut-shot straight draw, but couldn't quite get there against Matthew Grocholsky's set of nines.

The action continued to go quickly as 2004 Main Event Champion Greg Raymer busted shortly after. By the first break, only 67 players were remaining, and only nine players were still alive by the dinner break at 5 p.m.

Altomonte came to the final table as the second largest stack and quickly spun it up, as he battled with Kevin Rand who was the chip leader at the time. After a few hands of back and forth, Altomonte finally put the nail in the coffin as he was able to fade Rand's gutshot and flush draw with his pair of queens, putting him over the 40,000,000 chip mark.

He continued his aggression, raising and three-betting plenty of hands slowly building to have a massive chip advantage entering heads-up as a 12-1 favorite. It was Holmes who was the eventual runner-up, claiming the $134,171 second-place prize, despite doubling up the first hand.

Final table results:
Place Winner Country Prize
1 Joseph Altomonte United States $217,102
2 Michael Holmes United States $134,171
3 Stephen Wheeland United States $100,976
4 Jorge Ufano United States $76,516
5 Clayton Fletcher United States $58,382
6 Xing He Canada $44,856
7 Ardit Bitincka Canada $34,706
8 Jerome Hickel France $27,042