WSOP Bracelet 2021
Players battling for the Thunderdome experience on Day 30 played in Pot Limit Omaha, Nine-Game Mix and No Limit Hold'em

A busy day in the Rio saw the $25,000-entry Pot Limit Omaha High Roller event work its way to a final table of five players who will battle for the bracelet tomorrow in the Thunderdome.

Deeb Chasing Fifth Bracelet in PLO High Roller

The day began with 25 players, but action was uncommonly pedestrian for some time until a wave of eliminations pushed play nearer the final eight who would form the final table.

By the time the final eight was reached, players such as Gabriel Andrade (25th for $4,807), Jerry Wong (22nd for $48,007), Joao Vieira (18th for $51,208), Jeremy Ausmus (14th for $57,741), and Tommy Le (9th for $97,254) had all missed out on the final stages. For Le, it would have been a rueful exit, with his imperious nature of winning final tables in PLO Championships self-evident after his back-to-back bracelet win in the format just the other day.

At the final table of eight, three more needed to bust for the final five to be reached. It was Charles Sinn who went in eighth place, earning $121,816 when his set of aces was flushed away by Maxx Coleman. Overnight chip leader Ben Lamb went out in seventh place for $156,387 when his flush was skittled by John Beauprez’s full house of fours over kings, with Beauprez correctly calling out ‘King!’ before the fateful card hit the felt.

Finally, the night was over and the final table was set when French star David Benyamine failed in his attempt to clinch a second WSOP bracelet, busting in sixth for $205,655. Benyamine’s straight draws both bricked against Shaun Deeb, giving the four-time WSOP bracelet winner a vital pot to put him fourth in chips as the night drew to a close.

WSOP 2021 Event #53 $25,000 Pot Limit Omaha High Roller Final Table Chipcounts:

  1. Ka Kwan Lau – 10,750,000
  2. John Beauprez – 8,725,000
  3. Maxx Coleman – 5,730,000
  4. Shaun Deeb – 3,640,000
  5. Veselin Karakitukov – 2,745,000

Elezra Near the Top of Seniors Leaderboard

Day 2 of the Seniors Event saw 1,107 players battle hard to play down to 148 bracelet chasers by the close of play. Eli Elezra was one big name who made the top 10 chip counts, with the four-time WSOP winner sitting on 1,515,000 chips by the close of play. It was David Kluchman (2,745,000) who took the chip lead by the end of Day 2, with April Facey looking for her first WSOP final table behind him on 2,330,000 chips.

Other big names to survive included Bruno Lopes (1,380,000), Timothy Little (855,000), Allen ‘Chainsaw’ Kessler (325,000) and the ‘Robin Hood of Poker’, Barry Greenstein (810,000), but others weren’t so fortunate, with Kathy Liebert (314th for $2,832), John Esposito (193rd for $3,528), John Cernuto (176th for $3,983) and Greg Raymer (710st for $1,601) all busting.

WSOP 2021 Event #52 $1,000 Seniors Event Top 10 Chipcounts:

  1. David Kluchman – 2,745,000
  2. April Facey – 2,330,000
  3. Marc Walter – 1,675,000
  4. Robert Sun – 1,615,000
  5. Clyde Reed – 1,600,000
  6. David Slaughter – 1,545,000
  7. Eli Elezra – 1,515,000
  8. Sean Moore – 1,445,000
  9. Dennis McKelvey – 1,415,000
  10. Chris Wa – 1,390,000

In Event #54, the Nine-Game Mix Six-Max event, Nicholas Julia bagged the chip lead, with 2,150,000 a massive stack at the close of Day 2. In fact, Julia piled up more than double his nearest challenger in Robert McLaughlin (1,013,000).

There are some high-profile players in the top 10 alone, with Kenny Hsiung (822,000), James Woods (649,000), and Mike Matusow (559,000) all surviving as just 17 players remain from the 319 total entries in the event.

Others who weren’t so fortunate to make the next day included Matt Waxman, Maria Ho, David Williams, Jim Collopy, Andrew Kelsall, and Adam Owen, all of whom will need to refocus on other events starting across a busy weekend of WSOP action.

WSOP 2021 Event #54 $2,500 Nine-Game Mix 6-Max Top 10 Chipcounts:

  1. Nicholas Julia – 2,150,000
  2. Robert McLaughlin – 1,013,000
  3. Aditya Prasetyo – 829,000
  4. Kenny Hsiung – 822,000
  5. Kristan Lord – 820,000
  6. Justin Liberto – 715,000
  7. James Woods – 649,000
  8. Matt Vengrin – 635,000
  9. Marco Johnson – 603,000
  10. Mike Matusow – 559,000

Event #55 is one of the cheapest yet best-value events on the schedule, as The Colossus looks set to crown another winner in the coming days.

Ryan Depaulo kicked off action looking to see if he can reach the podium as he did in 2019, winning $208,643 when he came in behind Georgios Kapalas (2nd for $278k) and the winner Sejin Park who won the $451k top prize.

PokerGO presenter and fourth-place finisher in the Double Stack Event #43 Jeff Platt had another great day at the felt, bagging a massive stack.

The chip leader at the end of play was Hiep Tran, who totaled 1.3 million chips. Behind him, Hogyun Kang (1,297,000) and Vincas Tamasauskas (1,241,000) hover ominously, while stars such as Justin Lapka (384,000) and Robert Varkonyi (175,000) both lived to three-bet another day.

WSOP 2021 Event #55 $400 Colossus Top 10 Chipcounts:

  1. Hiep Tran – 1,308,000
  2. Hogyun Kang – 1,297,000
  3. Vincas Tamasauskas – 1,241,000
  4. Martin Ryan – 1,178,000
  5. Charbel Kanterjian – 1,118,000
  6. Lucas Tabarin – 1,116,000
  7. Joseph Malebranche – 1,098,000
  8. Erikas Laugzemys – 1,048,000
  9. Michael Marder – 1,018,000
  10. Ivan Barnes – 900,000

There were 306 entries in Event #56, the $10,000-entry Six-Handed No Limit Hold’em Championship, with just 113 making it through to Day 2, with Indian player Abhinav Iyer (483,500) capturing the chip lead and holding it to the closing of the bags.

Belgian player Kenny Hallaert (468,000) and Matt Berkey (320,300) are both in hot pursuit of the leader with other superstars such as Asi Moshe (346,0000), Adrian Mateos (232,000), Justin Bonomo (175,500), Darren Elias (114,000), Tommy Le (109,000), Stephen Chidwick (102,500), and Maria Ho (59,500) all making it through to Day 2.

Plenty of others were less fortunate, with Daniel Negreanu, Joseph Cheong, Ryan Leng, Ali Imsirovic, as well as 2019 and 2020 WSOP Main Event winners Hossein Ensan and Damian Salas all looking to the registration desk for what to play next.

WSOP 2021 Event #56 $10,000 NLHE Six-Max Top 10 Chipcounts:

  1. Abhinav Iyer – 483,500
  2. Kenny Hallaert – 468,000
  3. Matt Berkey – 394,000
  4. Ian Steinman – 360,500
  5. Roland Rokita – 358,500
  6. Jimmy D’Ambrosio – 340,000
  7. Giuseppe Iadisernia – 340,000
  8. Jeff Frerichs – 324,000
  9. Nikita Kuznetcov – 300,000
  10. Arian Stolt – 288,500

Finally, if you wondered whether Phil ‘The Poker Brat’ Hellmuth was pressing ahead with his entrance outfit, then be reminded that you should never doubt ‘The Greatest Showman’ in World Series of Poker history.