Phil Hellmuth made another final table at the 2021 WSOP in his pursuit of bracelet #16, but he could only muster up a fifth-place finish in Event #9 $10,000 Omaha 8 Championship when the Poker Brat entered the final day as the short stack. Ari Engel outlasted 134 runners to win the bracelet and $317,076 after winning a marathon heads-up battle. Jason Koon shipped Event #11 $25,000 Heads-Up Championship by defeating Gabor Szabo heads up for his first-ever bling. Meanwhile, Zhi Wu won Event #8 $600 NL Deepstack and banked $281,604 and his first bracelet by outlasting a hefty field of 4,527 runners. Also, Michal Perrone edged out Pierre Calamusa and a field of 1,640 entrants to win Event #10 $1,000 Super Turbo Bounty NL for $152,173.
The action at the 2021 WSOP continued and Phil Hellmuth continued his relentless pursuit at padding his stats with bracelet #16. For a second time in a week, Hellmuth went deep in a non-hold'em event. This time, he was among the final five in the Omaha 8 Championship.
2021 WSOP Event #9 $10,000 Omaha 8 Championship attracted 134 entrants and a prize pool worth $1.25 million. Only the top 21 places paid out of this $10K championship event, but all eyes were on Hellmuth between the few loyal followers and legion of haters.
George Wolff bubbled the stream with a sixth-place bustout. Robert Mizrachi was bracelet hunting once again, but he fell short of adding #5 to his collection. Other notables who cashed in Event #9 but missed the final table included Dylan Linde, Paul Volpe, Brian Rast, Jerry Wong, Michael Noori, Mark Gregorich, Ben Yu, and Ryan Laplante.
Ari Engel bagged the chip lead with nearly 3.5M, while Phil Hellmuth was the shorty with 390K. Also still alive were Zach Michman, Eddie Blumenthal, and Andrew Yeh.
Hellmuth was on a mission for bling #16 but he needed a lot of help from the poker gods to pull off the miraculous comeback. Alas, it was not meant to be. Hellmuth busted in fifth place in a multi-way pot. Ari Engel and Eddie Blumenthal split the pot and the Poker Brat will have to wait another day for #16.
Ari Engel took out Blumenthal in fourth place with a flush over flush. That pot pushed Engel over 5M in chips, while Blumenthal walked away $104K richer.
Engel continued his terminator ways when Andrew Yeah failed to double through Engel. Engel caught a runner-runner flush to sink Yeh in third place, which paid out $143,988.
When heads-up began. Zachary Milchman trailed Engel 6.6M to 1.4M. It took roughly a half hour before Engel squandered his lead. The two went back and forth late into the night before Engel finally landed the knock-out blow well after midnight.
2021 WSOP Event #11 $25,000 Heads-Up Championship was capped at 64 but only 57 high-ballas showed up. The prize pool was $1,346,625 with only the top eight places earning prize money and $244K set aside to the champion.
The semifinals included Henri Puustinen and Daniel Zack. The quarterfinals included Mikita Badziakouski, Bin Weng, Benjamin Reason, and Jake Daniels.
Jason Koon defeated Gabor Szabo in a battle between Hungary and USA for the bling. When the dust settled, Szabo won $150,790 for a runner-up finish. Koon banked $243,981 and his first-ever bracelet. Not bad for the newest GGPoker ambassador.
In other action, a couple more bracelets were doled out mid-week. 2021 WSOP Event #8 $600 NL Deepstack attracted 4,527 entrants and a prize pool worth over $2,308,770. The top 680 places paid out with the top four places notching six-figure payouts and $281K to the champion.
Event #8 Deepstack final table included Zhi Wu, Ari Mezrich, Chrishan Sivasundaram, Ryan Chan, Nicholas Zautra, Alexander Tafesh, Amalim Onyia, and Hannes Jeschka.
Ari Mezrich and Zhi Wu were heads-up for the bracelet and the mound of cash. Mezrich was unable to come from behind and busted in second place. Mezrich earned $173,960 for the runner-up finish. Not too shabby, eh?
Wu's payday was worth $281,406, which is substantial considering his only other cash was for less than $3K at a WSOP Circuit event at Foxwoods in the summer of 2019.
Notables who cashed in Event #8 Deepstack included Joey Weissman, Philip Chow, Victor Paredes, Aaron Hendrix, Eric Baldwin, Alex Bolotin, Kenny Nguyen, Craig Varnell, Mike Woods, David Simon, Anton Wigg, Nathan Baum, Tony Miles, Ricky Lee, Sean Perry, Garry Gates, Louise Francoeur, Chris Bonita, Willie Hill, Kim Kelly, Ryan Riess, Mike Shin, Sofia Lovgren, Maurice Hawkins, Ryan Depaulo, Ari Engel, Barry Greenstein, Maria Konnikova, David 'The Dragon' Pham, Shaun Deeb, and Bong Yang.
Event #10 $1,000 Super Turbo Bounty NL attracted 1,640 runners and a prize pool worth $1,459,600. The top 246 places paid out with $152K set aside to the winner.
The Super Turbo final table included Michael Perrone, Pierre Calamusa, Jeremiah Fitzpatrick, Scott Podolsky, Paul Dhaliwal, John Moss, Paul Jain, Badr Imejjane, and Gabriel Ramos. Brock Wilson bubbled the final table in tenth place.
Notables who cashed in Event #10 included Joe Lee, Allan Le, Vinny Pahuja, Paul Schiff, James Brown, Shaun Deeb, Viet Vo, Ted Martinez, Vojtech Ruzicka, Cate Hall, David Simon, Barry Shulman, Ben Mintz, Vanessa Kade, Hami Awad, and Corey Mew.
2021 WSOP Event #11 Heads-Up Championship
Buy-in: $25,000
Entrants: 57
Prize Pool: $1,346,625
Payouts: 8
Final Table Results:
1. Jason Koon (USA) $243,981
2. Gabor Szabo (Hungary) $150,790
3. Henri Puustinen (Finland) $89,787
4. Daniel Zack (USA) $89,787
5. Mikita Badziakouski (Belarus) $36,280
6. Bin Weng (USA) $36,280
7. Benjamin Reason (USA) $36,280
8. Jake Daniels (USA) $36,280
