The 2021 WSOP Online Events on the GGPoker Network are gearing up for the next highlights as the starting days for the PLOSSUS are underway and the first flight of the $5,000 Main Event is scheduled for August 22. In the meantime, three bracelet winners have been crowned and among them was also one of the all-time greats in the history of the WSOP.
Erik Seidel claimed his ninth victory and is now tied with the legendary Johnny Moss. Furthermore, players from Hungary and Hong Kong joined the winner’s circle as more than one-third of the series has now wrapped up. Read more about the last three champions in the summary below.
Roland Czika Wins Sixth WSOP Bracelet for Hungary
Four-card lovers entered the fray for one of the bargain tournaments of the festival. Event #10: $400 DOUBLE CHANCE Pot-Limit Omaha had no guarantee but pulled in very solid 975 entries, which created a prize pool of $366,600.
The top 152 spots were paid but “qiaoben” and “Elodin” received one of their buy-ins back as tournament dollars thanks to the bubble protection. All remaining players locked up a cash of $667.63 and among the early casualties in the money were Arnaud Enselme, Rui Bouquet, Aki “Seabossss” Virtanen and Manuel Ruivo.
Kosei Ichinose finished in 102nd place for $787.20 while other notables such as Mikhail Semin, Wiktor Malinowski and Dmitry Yurasov fell just inside the top 100. As the first day raced to the conclusion, only 12 players remained and among them were also the Natural8 players Jingxiang “Fuzzy Wuzzy!” Ong and Mike Watson.
Ong would bust in 11th place the following day and earned a payday of $4,086.92, the same payout was also reserved for George Wolff and Vangelis “love4betting” Kaimakamis. The elimination of Pulkit Goyal set up the seven-handed final table with Watson still in the mix.
The hopes of a third bracelet for Poland during the festival ended in 6th place as Arkadiusz “Noksukow” Liszewski came up a few spots short of victory. Several players battled for the lead and Watson made it to three-handed play. However, one of his bluffs failed and he was then eliminated by Roland “Quina Quen” Czika shortly after. The Canadian once more missed out on his maiden WSOP bracelet and collected $28,944.48.
Heads-up play didn’t last long as Czika opened a big lead over Lei “A LEI” Yang thanks to a rivered flush. Yang then got it in with a flush draw, gutshot and bottom pair but Cizka prevailed with just the top pair. For Yang, the runner-up finish came with a consolation prize worth $40,032.77 while Czika earned the maiden gold bracelet and $55,369.38 score.
Erik Seidel Takes Down $10,000 Super MILLION$ High Roller for Ninth Bracelet
One of the highlights of the 2021 WSOP Online Bracelet Events on the GGPoker Network was certainly the highly anticipated high-stakes showdown in Event #11: $10,000 Super MILLION$ High Roller. As part of the festival, the tournament came with a $5 million guarantee and that was easily surpassed thanks to 624 entries in total.
The top 60 finishers shared a portion of the $6,052,800 prize pool and plenty of big names came and left multiple times without anything to show for. That included Samuel Vousden, Wei Zhao, Dario Sammartino, David Yan, Niklas Astedt and Bruno Volkmann to name all but a few. None of the GGPoker ambassadors or streamers made the cut, Bertrand “ElkY” Grospelier was the last man standing and exited more than 30 spots away from a payday.
South Africa’s Jean-Pierre “Kunkuwap” Van Der Spuy ended up as the bubble boy when a five-bet jam for more than 25 big blinds with ace-nine came at the wrong time as Natural8’s Michael Addamo prevailed with pocket kings. That triggered rapid-fire eliminations in quick succession with the likes of Kenny Hallaert, Daniel Dvoress, Mikita Badziakouski, Georgios Sotiropoulos and Adrian Mateos all heading to the rail.
Two-time WSOP bracelet winner Anson Tsang cashed in 35th place for $33,222.11 and Malta-based French streamer Johan “YoHViraL” Guilbert was the first casualty on the final three tables. Addamo steam-rolled with a big stack and knocked out Isaac Haxton, among others, but his run at another bracelet ended in 12th place. Kosei Ichinose was the next to call, banking $85,803.07 for the efforts.
Only nine players bagged up chips and Uruguay’s Francisco Benitez had fired as many entries before finishing Day 1 at the top of the leaderboard. Rui Ferreira became the first casualty on the final table and he was followed by Isaac Baron and Claas Segebrecht.
The next two hopefuls to depart were the only Natural8 players on the final table. Joachim Haraldstad committed most of his chips and then got it in with ace-eight only to see Benitez prevail with ace-king. The Norwegian padded his bankroll with a payday of $276,268.78. Chin-Wei “davidchien88” Chien was left short in a previous hand and departed in a flip with fours versus ace-jack, banking a prize of $355,728.91.
Benitez then knocked out Shyngis Satubayev and Thomas Muehloecker to enter the heads-up against Erik Seidel with a lead of more than 4-1. However, Seidel doubled with queens versus jacks and then rivered a flush with ace-eight suited versus ace-king to win his ninth WSOP bracelet. His last victory prior came 14 years ago and the American earned $977,842.10, while Benitez scored an equally impressive $759,418.90.
Hinojas Jerome Defeats Felipe Ramos to Win Event #12 $1,000 DOUBLE STACK
One of the popular mid-stakes tournaments came with a massive $4 million guarantee. Event #12 DOUBLE STACK No-Limit Hold’em was a thorough success as 5,894 entries emerged throughout the 15 starting days. The $5,599,300 prize pool was split among the top 600 finishers, which meant more than one-third of the 972 survivors walked home empty-handed.
Andrey Pateychuk and GGPoker ambassador Fedor Holz were among those who came up short of the money and “Raggaz” bubbled, locking up a cash of $2,625.75 for all remaining contenders. The Natural8 Team Hot ambassadors Phachara Wongwichit and Pete Chen made it to the top 150 and took home $6,853.26 each for their efforts. Fellow ambassador Bryan Paris finished in 83rd place for $9,014.92, GGPoker ambassador Daniel Negreanu and Stream Squad member Patrick “Egption” Tardif earned the same payout.
For Natural8 streamer Hristo “icho” Anastassov, the end came in 51st place for $11,857.96. Plenty of other notables came close to reaching the final table such as 2021 WSOP bracelet winner Thiago “IneedWasabi” Crema, David Miscikowski, Nick Maimone, Dante Goya, Vicente Delgado and Rodrigo Sirichuk.
Three big names and one Natural8 player were among the finalists. Anton Yakuba departed in sixth for $150,718.24 and the 2020 WSOP Online Main Event champion Stoyan Madanzhiev was the next to fall for $200,985.88. India’s Sriharsha “Upswinger” Doddapaneni recorded yet another major result and podium spot for a Natural8 contender, finishing in third place for $357,408.59.
That left GGPoker ambassador Felipe Ramos and Hinojas “POLALIFE!” Jerome to battle for the title, and the heads-up duel lasted only a couple of hands. Ramos got it in with ace-jack and Jerome had the dominated ace-six. Both paired their kicker on the flop and a brick turn changed nothing yet. However, a miracle six on the river knocked out Ramos in second place for $476,612.20 while Jerome banked the biggest slice worth $635,575.76.
Which Events are Coming Next?
Two mid-week tournaments await. First up it is the $5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Championship on August 17 and 18 that will award a gold bracelet. That is followed by Event #14: $500 THE BIG 500 on August 19 and 20. Players can still enter plenty of flights for the PLOSSUS, which concludes this upcoming Sunday.
Furthermore, the weekend will feature Event #15: $10,000 Heads Up NLHE Championship and Event #16: $1,050 WSOP GGMasters HR Freezeout which are certain to attract some of the biggest names in the world of live and online poker.