Event #49: $3,000 No-Limit Hold'em Freezeout

Out of the 1,252 players that registered for Event #49: $3,000 Freezeout No-Limit Hold'em at the 2024 World Series of Poker, it was Norwegian Erlend Melsom that ultimately emerged victorious. After three long days of play, Melsom, who is not a frequent tournament or no-limit hold'em player, was able to take down the $523,195 first prize, the biggest live tournament cash of his life by about half a million, and his first WSOP bracelet.

The event collected a prize pool of $3,342,840. Many familiar names and previous bracelet winners entered the field for a shot at a repeat, but when it came down to the final table, all but one player, Maxx Coleman, who already won a bracelet in a $1,500 No-Limit 2-7 Lowball Draw in 2022, were going after their first-ever WSOP jewelry.

Final Table Results

Melsom, who hasn't played much live tournament poker in his life, but spends his time playing pot-limit Omaha cash games, was one of the short stacks going into the final three tables on Day 2, falling to as low as 12 big blinds. However, he was able to turn things around and have a strong finish to end with 42 big blinds for the third biggest stack.

Final Day Action

Thirteen players returned for the last day of play. The start was fast-paced, with four players eliminated within the first level of play. Andjelko Andrejevic, Neil Warren, Ivan Ruban and Clemen Deng were out in 13th to 10th places, respectively. Two of those players, Andrejevic and Ruban, were eliminated by Melsom, within just a couple hands of each other. It was after these and a few other hands that Melsom first felt like he has a good chance to win it all, "I had a good start today; I started with around 5,000,000 chips and was able to get to around 12,000,000 chips, and that was the moment I felt like maybe I can win."

Morgan Petro was next to bust in ninth place, around an hour and a half into play. After that, play quieted down for a few hours, with mostly small bets and small pots being exchanged between players.

It wasn't until right before the final table was getting ready to set up for the livestream, in the fourth hour of the day, that we saw another rapid-fire round of eliminations. Within just a half an hour of each other, Uri Reichenstein, Joseph Carden and Maxx Coleman were eliminated in eighth, seventh and sixth-place, respectively.

David Stamm and Jonathan Schwartz both played a good game, a lot of it on a short stack. Stamm impressed with his precise and aggressive play at the final table, but was unlucky to be eliminated in fifth place after holding the best hand preflop. Schwartz, especially, had to nurture a short stack for the majority of the day, but impressively took it to a fourth-place finish.

Melsom was chip leader going into the final table of nine, but it was far from smooth sailing from there. Players passed around the chip lead many times on Day 3, and Melsom again got as low as eleven big blinds three-handed after losing well over 8,000,000 of his chips in a big hand against Ben Hoy.

He was later able to come back and ultimately eliminate Hoy, but was still the chip-underdog going into heads up against Nikolay Yosifov, who had steadily built a nice chip lead during the last hours of the tournament.

Hoy had climbed up to a big chip lead during the last hours of Day 2 and, despite losing some of that lead, entered Day 3 as the chip leader as well. Throughout the tournament, he was one of the most active players in the field, generating action and putting pressure on his opponents regardless of his chip stack, which indeed saw many ups and downs. Hoy's biggest live score before this deep run was for a bit over $7,000, so any result at this final table was going to be a great achievement; the third-place prize for just under $250,000 certainly was that.

The Drama of the Day

It takes luck to win a tournament and that is what Melsom had in spades in one of the most dramatic hands of the day. It was especially dramatic for Yosifov, who had climbed to a solid chip lead and was, in this hand, just one card away from taking the bracelet and the first prize himself.

Melsom was drawing to six outs on the river and hit one of two remaining kings to complete a broadway straight, leaving Yosifov's rivered set of kings in the dust. Soon after, Yosifov had to make do with the second place after Melsom eliminated him with a better ace.

Despite not being a specialist, Melsom showed on multiple occasions that he is a great player, successfully navigating various situations and chip stacks throughout the tournament. Melsom says that the win won't change his life that much, but felt really great, and also somewhat changed his outlook on tournament poker and no-limit hold'em in particular. "This is my second WSOP. The plan was to mostly play pot-limit Omaha tournaments, but then I jumped into this one," he explained. The reason, he says, was simply because there were no Omaha tournaments for him to play at that moment and he "needed something to play." The win gave him motivation to go for more titles, "Yes, I think after this I will definitely be playing more no-limit hold'em tournaments."

This concludes the coverage of Event #49: $3,000 Freezeout No-Limit Hold'em at the 2024 World Series of Poker, held at the Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas. Stay tuned for many more weeks of action, where many new bracelet winners will be crowned.

Erlend Melsom made it 1,300,000 preflop with the    and Nikolay Yosifov called with the   .

The flop came    . Melsom bet 1,200,000 and Yosikov called.

The turn was the  , it went check-check to the river which was the  . Melsom bet 4,000,000. Yosifov went into the tank before he eventually decided to call and saw the bad news as he lost more of his stack.

Erlend Melsom	43,000,000	7,000,000
Nikolay Yosifov	7,000,000	-8,000,000

Nikolay Yosifov limped the small blind with the   . Erlend Melsom raised from the big blind for 2,100,000 with the    and Yosifov called it.

The flop came    . Melsom bet 1,600,000 and Yosifov folded as the stacks went back to where they started heads up play from.

Nikolay Yosifov	30,000,000	-4,000,000
Erlend Melsom	20,000,000	4,000,000

Ben Hoy raised from the small blind with the   , Erlend Melsom three-bet all in with the    and Hoy snap-called it.

Ben Hoy:   
Erlend Melsom:   

The flop came     to miss Hoy. The turn was the   and the river the   to keep the threes as the strongest hand. The stacks were counted down to make sure Hoy was covered, which he was very slightly.

An amazing accomplishment for Hoy as he takes home $249,005 in what is his first career registered live cash.

Nikolay Yosifov	30,450,000	-1,500,000
Erlend Melsom	19,650,000	13,950,000
Ben Hoy	0	-12,750,000

Ben Hoy raised to 1,000,000 from the small blind with the    while Erlend Melsom had the    in the big blind and defended.

The flop came     to pair both players. Hoy fired 1,000,000 and was called.

The turn was the  . Hoy bet 3,000,000, Melsom called again to go to the river which was the  . Hoy moved all in for 3,625,000 and Melsom took a few moments before he called with the inferior pair to give a large pot and chip swing to Hoy.

Ben Hoy	18,000,000	9,100,000
Erlend Melsom	5,700,000	-7,950,000

From the cutoff, Nikolay Yosifov raised to 1,000,000 with the   . Ben Hoy looked down at    from the button and jammed it all in for 2,675,000. Yosifov called it off.

Ben Hoy:   
Nikolay Yosifov:   

The flop came     to but Hoy ahead as his rail celebrated. The turn was the   and the river came the   to secure the double for Hoy.

Nikolay Yosifov	26,000,000	-600,000
Ben Hoy	6,600,000	1,900,000

Action started with an open jam from Jonathan Schwartz, who was under the gun with the shortest stack at the table, 1,250,000. His hand was   .

Action folded to David Stamm in the small blind, who re-raised all in for 6,600,000 with   . Last to act was Erlend Melsom, who found    in the big blind. He decided that the spot was too good not to take and put in the call for 6,200,000.

Jonathan Schwartz:   
David Stamm:   
Erlend Melsom:   

The flop was great for Melsom and bad for the at-risk players, the    . The turn, however, brought a card for Schwartz, the  . The river   gave Schwartz the triple-up, but meant the elimination of David Stamm.

Erlend Melsom	13,650,000	-1,850,000
Jonathan Schwartz	4,150,000	-1,950,000
David Stamm	0	-7,200,000

From the small blind, Ben Hoy raised it up to 800,000 with the   . In the big blind, David Stamm three-bet to 2,000,000 with the   .

Hoy would not back down as he four-bet jammed with the weak ace. Stamm folded and Hoy gathered the preflop winnings.

Ben Hoy	12,600,000	5,225,000
David Stamm	7,200,000	-1,600,000

Ben Hoy minraised from the cutoff with   . David Stamm decided to three-bet with   . Hoy called.

The flop     got checked through.

The turn was the  . After a check from Hoy, Stamm, who only had about a pot size left behind, decided to bet 2,500,000. He got a quick fold from Hoy and chipped up.

David Stamm	10,400,000	2,300,000
Ben Hoy	7,375,000	-1,600,000