Only One Past WSOP PPC Champ is Still Standing Before Bubble Bursts
The winner of this year's $50,000 WSOP Poker Players Championship will be a first-time champion, unless Brian Rast wins.
That isn't a prediction, it's a fact. Rast, a three-time winner, was a bet away from elimination in the prestigious mixed games event Tuesday on Day 3, which would have left zero former champions still standing. None of the other former champs reached the money.
Day 3, which began at 1 p.m. PT, started with 39 of the original 108 players remaining. Rast, who won this event in 2011, 2016, and 2023, had the smallest stack with 107,000 chips. For comparison, Kristopher Tong entered the session with the chip lead at 2,428,000. So, it certainly wasn't going to be easy for the Poker Hall of Famer to earn a fourth Poker Players Championship bracelet.