Phil Hellmuth did it. He won his sixteenth career World Series of Poker title and his first in Deuce-to-Seven. His last gold bracelet came in the summer of 2018 when he won a $5K NLHE event at the Rio in Las Vegas. He now holds 13 Hold’em bracelets, two Razz, and now one Deuce-to-Seven.
The only players anywhere close to Hellmuth’s record are Doyle Brunson, Johnny Chan, and Phil Ivey with 10 WSOP wins each. Ivey is the only one of those without a Main Event win included. In the category of nine bracelets, Erik Seidel and Johnny Moss hold those places.
Hellmuth is nothing if not determined and confident. There’s something to be said for being your own hype person and your own biggest cheerleader. A lot of poker fans do like him and believe he is the GOAT (greatest of all time). No one will talk about that more than Hellmuth himself.
Say what you want – I have and will – about Hellmuth’s antics and attitude, ego and privilege, but he does work hard. And he did earn his 16th bracelet at the 2021 WSOP.
Other things happened at the WSOP on Day 18 as well, so let’s get into it.
Event 30: $1,500 Monster Stack NLHE
The numbers still don’t add up for this one. The official WSOP sites put the total number of players at 3,520, but simple math says it should be 4,328 if the Day 1A and Day 1B numbers were correct. It would be nice if someone would figure this out.
Regardless, the field thinned a great deal when all players combined on Day 2. They played into the money and down to just 148. And the chip leader just happens to be a person who won a bracelet a few days ago in Event 23. Ryan Leng did say then that he wants to be the Player of the Year. He’s certainly working hard to make that happen.
“I’ve been fighting so f**king hard for this bracelet for so long in the deuce-to-seven. My game has gotten better and better and better. I’ve worked really hard at it, and I know all of these tricks because I’ve been playing it since the 1980s. … I’ve wanted a deuce-to-seven bracelet ever since the 1980s because it was the coolest bracelet to win. It was the one tournament that Chip and Doyle showed up for. … I wanted this bracelet so badly.”
The second day of this event played it down to just 20 survivors. Eli Elezra leads the pack, with Maria Ho fifth in chips and familiar faces like Daniel Negreanu, David Williams, and Barbara Enright still in it. They will play for the win today.
Event 32: Day 2 of 3
$3K buy-in
HORSE
Total entries:
282
Registration still open?
no
Total prize pool:
$752,940
Players paid:
43
Minimum payout:
$4,817
Winner payout:
$173,823
Chip leader:
Eli Elezra
Players remaining:
20
Restart:
1pm Monday
Event 33: $800 NLHE Deepstack
This low buy-in two-day event brought a couple thousand players to the WSOP tables on Sunday, and the top 417 already made the money. Little more than 150 players remain for the final day, which should start rather quickly and slow up – as much as the structure allows – as the final table nears.
Event 33: Day 1 of 2
$800 buy-in
NLHE Deepstack (1RE)
Total entries:
2,778
Registration still open?
no
Total prize pool:
$1,955,712
Players paid:
417
Minimum payout:
$1,282
Winner payout:
$269,478
Chip leader:
Alex Miles
Players remaining:
159
Restart:
12pm Monday
Event 34: $1,500 Limit 2-7 Lowball Triple Draw
An ever-increasingly popular poker variant, Deuce-to-Seven brought a solid field into play on Sunday, though only 76 remain. Brian Yoon will enter third in chips and seeking his fourth bracelet, and numerous other previous winners look to add to their collections as well. They’ll try to find a final table today.
Event 34: Day 1 of 3
$1,500 buy-in
Limit 2-7 Lowball Triple Draw (1RE)
Total entries:
284
Registration still open?
no
Total prize pool:
$380,475
Players paid:
43
Minimum payout:
$2,434
Winner payout:
$87,837
Chip leader:
Adam Owen
Players remaining:
76
Restart:
2pm Monday
Event OB4: $888 PLO Crazy Eights
With three reentries allowed, players gambled it up in the Crazy Eights event for PLO fans. The entire tournament played out in less than 12 hours, and Ryan Stoker won his first WSOP gold.
Online OB Event 4
$888 buy-in
PLO Crazy Eights (3x RE)
Total entries:
295
Total prize pool:
$417,600
Players paid:
72
Minimum payout:
$1,462
Final table results:
1st place:
Ryan "Santasbzack2" Stoker (USA) $95,338
2nd place:
Tony "tonisinz" Sinishtaj (USA) $58,756
3rd place:
"qpoker205" (USA) $40,131
4th place:
"Draw5" (USA) $27,896
5th place:
Chan Woo "Rikishi" Kim (USA) $19,794
6th place:
Andrew "radylerch" Kelsall (USA) $14,282
7th place:
Edward "eddiesgood598" Espino (USA) $10,524
8th place:
Allan "atl777" Le (USA) $7,983
Highlight of the Day
The women at the World Series of Poker have been working hard. One point of interest in following many of them on Twitter is the positivity – the actual positivity from people who know what the word means. This is just a sampling of some of the women enjoying their poker journeys, including Ebony Kenney who won a tournament at the Orleans yesterday:
https://twitter.com/Sofia_Lovgren/status/1449812189468979204?s=20
https://twitter.com/tucsonmonster/status/1449967529539952640?s=20
https://twitter.com/Kyna_CooL/status/1449849438441066497?s=20
https://twitter.com/MariaHo/status/1449789563317022721?s=20
https://twitter.com/Ebony_Kenney/status/1450009129460723714?s=20
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