The 52nd Annual World Series of Poker at the Rio All Suite Hotel & Casino awarded its first two time champion, Anthony Zinno, who clinched a second gold bracelet just four days after winning his first of the series. This brought Zinno’s total number of career bracelets to four. Also in the spotlight were three other minted champions Lara Eisenberg, Scott Ball, and Dalibor Dula, each one securing their first career gold bracelets. We’ve got their stories down below.
The ongoing series has been heating up Las Vegas since September 30 and with games running through November 23, there’s plenty of action ahead including the Main Event. Good news to players looking to catch the tail end, with the US recently announcing the lifting of travel ban restrictions on November 8, the WSOP has revised its Main Event schedule. Two Day 1 flights have been added – Day 1E on November 8 and Day 1F on November 9. To date, the series has awarded 27 out of 88 bracelets plus three to WSOP.com online winners.
*Information collected from WSOP.com, PokerNews live updates, and The Hendon Mob
Event #27: $1,500 H.O.R.S.E. – ANTHONY ZINNO – US$ 160,636
Just four days after winning the third gold bracelet of his career at Event #19: $10K Seven Card Stud Championship, Anthony Zinno took down Event #27: H.O.R.S.E. to lock up bracelet #4 and the accompanying US$ 160,636 first prize. In turn, he became the first player to win two bracelets in this year’s series. Zinno leads the WSOP Player of the Year race with 2,127.07 points.
When reviewing Zinno’s past performance, his WSOP hot streak began back in 2015. Although he only cashed five times that year, in each one, he reached the final table and won his first bracelet at the $25K High Roller Pot Limit Omaha along with a jaw dropping US$ 1,122,196 payout. In 2017, he cashed seven times, of which four were final tables, then upped his stats in 2018 with 14 deep runs and two final tables.
The following year saw more impressive marks with 13 cashes, of which three were final tables and landed his second bracelet at the $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better. He also placed 3rd at the WSOP Europe €10,350 Main Event NL Hold’em. With live games cancelled in 2020, he took on the online bracelet series and cashed at 14 out 31 events, then in the summer of 2021, he earned at 15 out of 33 online bracelet games. With all these deep runs, it was just a matter of time before he would capture more gold bracelets. To date, Zinno has over US$ 4.2 Million in WSOP earnings.
Outside of series games, Zinno also boasts three WPT titles and was awarded Season XIII WPT Player of the Year. His first million was at the 2015 L.A. Poker Classic $10K NL Hold’em Championship, just four months before winning his first WSOP bracelet.
The $1,500 H.O.R.S.E. event attracted 594 for a prize pool of US$ 792,990. A long list of decorated players reached the money including 4x bracelet winners Shaun Deeb (49th) and John Monnette (39th). By the end of Day 2, it was obvious that Zinno’s winning momentum carried onto this event as he closed out the heat with a commanding chip lead over 17 other players. On the final day, 3x bracelet winner Joe McKeehen (13th) and 2x bracelet winner Ari Engel (10th) both busted with Engel missing the final table by one point. Among those who joined Zinno at the final round were 4x bracelet winner/ double ring winner Max Pescatori, bracelet winner Randy Ohel, and Curtis Phelps who was on his second final table having placed 8th at Event #5: $1,500 Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better.
It was at three handed where Zinno fully dominated. He shaved down Christopher Adams to enter heads up with the advantage over Ohel. After several big hands, his lead widened to 4:1 and from there, he nailed it shut at Razz variant for his fourth career gold bracelet.
Date: October 13 to 15
Buy in: US$ 1,500
Entries: 594
Prize pool: US$ 792,990
ITM: 89 places
Final table payouts
1st Anthony Zinno – USA – US$ 160,636
2nd Randy Ohel – USA – US$ 99,276
3rd Christopher Adams – USA – US$ 69,585
4th Kao Chieng Saechao – USA – US$ 49,597
5th Darren Kennedy – Canada – US$ 35,957
6th Paul Holder – USA – US$ 26,523
7th Curtis Phelps – USA – US$ 19,911
8th Max Pescatori – Italy – US$ 15,218
9th Michael Rosenberg – USA – US$ 11,845
Event #22: $1,000 Ladies NLH Championship – LARA EISENBERG – US$ 115,694
A couple of firsts for Lara Eisenberg at the series. She locked up her first gold bracelet at Event #22: $1,000 Ladies No Limit Hold’em Championship and banked her first six figure payout of US$ 115,694. This win comes just over two years after winning her first WSOP circuit ring. To date, Eisenberg has over US$ 336K in live tournament earnings. Interviewed by PokerNews,
“It’s an absolute dream come true. I came into this event hoping that maybe sometime I would make a final table, and to walk away winning it is an indescribable feeling. The event has been really amazing. It was so much fun. There was a lot of joking around and everyone was really supportive. It was all around just a fabulous event. There were some really tough competitors.”
The event had an impressive turnout of 644 ladies for a prize pool of US$ 573,160. At the final table kickoff, Eisenberg was wedged in the middle and dropped to the shortest stack when half the table was wiped out. In command was Mikiyo Aoki who placed 2nd at this event in 2014. On the final day, the most accomplished WSOP player at the table was Taiwanese player JJ Liu with 71 cashes under her belt however she couldn’t break from bottom rank and fell in 5th place. At four remaining, Eisenberg began her ascent, taking down two big pots against Aoki to take the lead. From there, she crushed the table, railing each one of her opponents to lift her first gold bracelet.
Date: October 11 to 13
Buy in: US$ 1,000
Entries: 644
Prize pool: US$ 573,160
ITM: 97 places
Final table payouts
1st Lara Eisenberg – USA – US$ 115,694
2nd Debora Brooke – USA – US$ 71,507
3rd Mikiyo Aoki – USA – US$ 50,525
4th Diane Cooley – USA – US$ 36,269
5th JJ Liu – Taiwan – US$ 26,458
6th Qing Lu – USA – US$ 19,619
7th Marie Cordeiro – USA – US$ 14,791
8th Cherish Andrews – USA – US$ 11,341
9th Tiffany Lee – USA – US$ 8,847
10th Thi Nguyen – Canada – US$ 7,023
Event #25: $5,000 6-Handed NL Hold’em – SCOTT BALL – US$ 562,667
Plenty of excitement at Event #25: $5,000 6-Handed NL Hold’em as Taiwanese pro Ting Yi “Eric” Tsai entered the final day as chip leader with six players remaining. Tsai went on to finish in 4th place, banking a substantial six figures for his series debut. Earning all the glory was Scott Ball who denied bracelet winner Galen Hall at heads up to capture the coveted gold bracelet and the hefty US$ 562,667 first prize.
Prior to this dream victory, Ball had cashed 18 times at the series since 2017. This past summer he nearly won a circuit ring, placing second at the $100K GTD NLH High Roller 6-Max for a career high US$ 29,594 payout. That high score was more than crushed by his latest win, boosting his WSOP total earnings to nearly US$ 660K. Interviewed by PokerNews,
“I can’t explain it man, I had a tough year last year, a lot of stuff and like a lot of desire to prove myself that I can play this game and play it well, and these big six-max tournaments are the hardest tournaments in the series, minus like the 50K and the 100K and stuff. I play a lot of six-max online and I study a lot really hard, like really hard. So to come in here and show, and not suck and do well, kinda means the world to me.”
The event pulled in 578 runners for a juicy prize pool of US$ 2,666,025. Among the players that cashed in were 9x bracelet winner Erik Seidel (88th), 2013 Main Event champion Ryan Riess (69th), 6x bracelet winner Daniel Negreanu (22nd), 3x bracelet winner Benjamin Yu (20th), two time bracelet winners Chris Moorman (62nd), Chance Kornuth (36th), Yuri Dzivielevski (30th), and Nick Petrangelo (13th).
When the final table was reached, high performing players filled the seats that included bracelet winners Galen Hall and John Racener. Racener was on his second final table having placed 6th at Event #16: $10,000 Limit Hold’em Championship. Also sitting on their second series finals were Craig Mason and Jonathan Jaffe. Jaffe took 4th at Event #6: $25K HR NL Hold’em 8-Handed and Mason placed 7th at Event #13: $3,000 Freezeout NL Hold’em. At the runout, Mason settled for 7th again, Racener another 6th place, and Jaffe gained a notch up to 3rd place. At heads up, Hall lost the advantage and the momentum to Ball to bow out runner up.
Date: October 12 to 14
Buy in: US$ 5,000
Entries: 578
Prize pool: US$ 2,666,025
ITM: 90 places
Final table payouts
1st Scott Ball – USA – US$ 562,667
2nd Galen Hall – USA – US$ 347,757
3rd Jonathan Jaffe – USA – US$ 234,781
4th Ting Yi Tsai – Taiwan – US$ 161,756
5th Bin Weng – USA – US$ 113,775
6th John Racener – USA – US$ 81,736
7th Craig Mason – USA – US$ 60,001
Event #26: $1,000 Freezeout NL Hold’em – DALIBOR DULA – US$ 199,227
The two day Event #26: $1,000 Freezeout NL Hold’em saw a heavy turnout of 1,358 for a prize pool of US$ 1,280,620. Among those in the list of cashouts were well known Korean players Steve Yea (53rd), Seungmook Jung (97th), Sang Yeon Hwang (105th), and Sungwoon Park (186th). Also dipping in the money jar were Japan’s Jun Obara (172nd) and China’s Ye Yuan (98th). Running the deepest were Yen Han “Pete” Chen (20th) and Kazuki Ikeuchi (17th). While Chen finally won that coveted first bracelet at an earlier event, Ikeuchi had yet to snatch his first having been denied the glory in back to back years – 2018 and 2019 – with 2nd place finishes.
Another player hoping to land that first bracelet was Maurice Hawkins who was decorated with an unfathomable 14 circuit rings. However, Hawkins would have to try again having missed the mark in 9th place. Ring winner Maxx Coleman fared better but still couldn’t rein it in with a 5th place finish. Taking it down was Czech Republic’s Dalibor Dula for his first ever gold bracelet and a career high payout of US$ 199,227. This was the first series bracelet for his home country, and eighth in total.
Date: October 13 to 14
Buy in: US$ 1,000
Entries: 1,358
Prize pool: US$ 1,280,620
ITM: 204 places
Final table payouts
1st Dalibor Dula – Czech Republic – US$ 199,227
2nd Cole Ferraro – USA – US$ 123,142
3rd Edward Welch – USA – US$ 89,875
4th Guowei Zhang – USA – US$ 66,335
5th Maxx Coleman – USA – US$ 49,519
6th Anthony Askey – USA – US$ 37,393
7th Nicolo Audannio – USA – US$ 28,565
8th Levi Klump – USA – US$ 22,080
9th Maurice Hawkins – USA – US$ 17,270
10th John Roh – USA – US$ 13,672
Here’s a look at some of the series numbers and player achievements. The list of bracelet winners included and multi-final tables.
2021 WSOP Tally
Event #1 – #27 prize pool: US$ 41,107,605
Online Event #1 – #3 prize pool: US$ 1,748,670
Entries: 36,839
Online entries: 1,921
Largest prize pool: Event #17: $1,500 MILLIONAIRE MAKER – US$ 7,110,210
Largest payout: Daniel Lazrus – US$ 1,000,000 – Event #17: $1,500 MILLIONAIRE MAKER
Asia bracelet winner: Pete Chen – Online Event #3: $400 NLH Ultra Deepstack
First time bracelet winners: 17 (live) / 1 (online)
Multiple final tables: 13 players (listed at the bottom)
Two series wins
Anthony Zinno
Event #19: $10K Seven Card Stud Championship
Event #27: $1,500 H.O.R.S.E.
Second career bracelet won
Jeremy Ausmus – Event #3: $1K Covid-19 Charity Relief
Connor Drinan – Event #5: $1,500 Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better
Martin “BathroomLine” Zamani – Online #1: $5,300 NLH Freezeout
Mark “NJ_AcesmarkA” Herm – Online #2: $500 NL Hold’em BIG 500
Ari Engel – Event #9: $10K Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better Championship
Yuval Bronshtein – Event #12: $1,500 Limit Hold’em
Rafael Lebron – Event #14: $1,500 Seven Card Stud
Daniel Lazrus – Event #17: $1,500 Millionaire Maker NL Hold’em
Third career bracelet won
Ryan Leng – Event #23: $1,500 Eight Game Mix 6-Handed
Fourth career bracelet won
John Monnette – Event #16: Limit Hold’em Championship
2021 WSOP Winners
Event #1: James Barnett – USA – Casino Employees – US$ 39,013
Event #2: Jesse Klein – USA – $25K H.O.R.S.E. – US$ 552,182
Event #3: Jeremy Ausmus – USA – $1K Covid-19 Charity Relief – US$ 48,687
Event #4: Long Ma – USA – $500 The Reunion 5M GTD – US$ 514,604
Event #5: Connor Drinan – USA – $1,500 Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better – US$ 163,252
Event #6: Tyler Cornell – USA – $25K HR NL Hold’em 8-Handed – US$ 833,289
Event #7: Jaswinder “Jesse” Lally – Canada – $1,500 Dealer’s Choice 6-Handed – US$ 97,915
Event #8: Zhi Wu – USA – $600 NL Hold’em Deepstack – US$ 281,406
Event #9: Ari Engel – Canada – $10K Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better Championship – US$ 317,076
Event #10: Michael Perrone – USA – $1K Super Turbo Bounty NLH Freezeout – US$ 152,173
Event #11: Jason Koon – USA – $25K Heads-Up NL Hold’em Championship – US$ 243,981
Event #12: Yuval Bronshtein – Israel – $1,500 Limit Hold’em – US$ 124,374
Event #13: Harvey Mathews – USA – $3,000 Freezeout NL Hold’em – US$ 371,914
Event #14: Rafael Lebron – USA – $1,500 Seven Card Stud – US$ 82,262
Event #15: Bradley Jansen – USA – $1,500 6-Handed NL Hold’em – US$ 313,403
Event #16: John Monnette – USA – $10,000 Limit Hold’em Championship – US$ 245,680
Event #17: Daniel Larzrus – USA – $1,500 Millionaire Maker NL Hold’em – US$ 1,000,000
Event #18: Vladimir Peck – USA – $2,500 Mixed Triple Draw Lowball – US$ 134,390
Event #19: Anthony Zinno – USA – US$ 10,000 Seven Card Stud Championship – US$ 182,872
Event #20: Dejuante Alexander – USA – $1,000 Flip & Go NL Hold’em – US$ 180,665
Event #21: Dylan Linde – USA – $1,500 Mixed PLO / Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better; 5 Card PLO – US$ 170,269
Event #22: Lara Eisenberg – USA – $1,000 Ladies NLH Championship – US$ 115,694
Event #23: Ryan Leng – USA – $1,500 Eight Game Mix 6-Handed – US$ 137,969
Event #24: Michael Prendergast – $600 Pot Limit Omaha Deepstack 8-Handed – US$ 127,348
Event #25: Scott Ball – USA – $5,000 6-Handed No Limit Hold’em – US$ 562,667
Event #26: Dalibor Dula – Czech Republic – $1,000 Freezeout No Limit Hold’em – US$ 199,227
Event #27: Anthony Zinno – USA – $1,500 H.O.R.S.E. – US$ 160,636
Online #1: Martin “BathroomLine” Zamani – USA – $5,300 NLH Freezeout – US$ 210,600
Online #2: Mark “NJ_AcesmarkA” Herm – USA – $500 NL Hold’em BIG 500 – US$ 89,356
Online #3: Pete Chen – Taiwan – $400 NL Hold’em Ultra Deepstack – US$ 82,560
Multiple final tables
Jason Koon
9th – Event #6: $10K High Roller NL Hold’em 8-Handed
6th – Online Event #1: $5,300 NLH Freezeout
1st – Event #11: $10K Heads Up NL Hold’em Championship
Phil Hellmuth
6th – Event #2: $25K H.O.R.S.E
5th – Event #9: $10K Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better Championship
4th – Event #19: #10K Seven Card Stud
Anthony Zinno
1st – Event #19: $10K Seven Card Stud Championship
1st – Event #27: $1,500 H.O.R.S.E.
Connor Drinan
1st – Event #5: $1,500 Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better
2nd – Event #23: $1,500 Eight Game Mix 6-Handed
Robert Mizrachi
3rd – Event #5: $1,500 Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better
7th – Event #9: $10K Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better Championship
Jesse Yaginuma
6th – Online Event #2: $500 WSOP.com NLHold’em BIG 500
6th – Event 15: $1,500 6-Handed NL Hold’em
Hal Rotholz
8th – Event #14: $1,500 Seven Card Stud
6th – Event #18: $2,500 Mixed Triple Draw Lowball (Limit)
Michael Gathy
3rd – Event #13: $3,000 Freezeout No Limit Hold’em
4th – Event #17: $1,500 MILLIONAIRE MAKER No Limit Hold’em
John Bunch
4th – Event #12: $1,500 Limit Hold’em
8th – Event #24: $600 Pot Limit Omaha Deepstack 8-Handed
Curtis Phelps
8th – Event #5: $1,500 Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better
7th – Event #27: $1,500 H.O.R.S.E.
John Racener
6th – Event #16: $10,000 Limit Hold’em Championship
6th – Event $25: $5,000 6-Handed No Limit Hold’em
Jonathan Jaffe
4th – Event #6: $25K HR NL Hold’em 8-Handed
3rd – Event $25: $5,000 6-Handed No Limit Hold’em
Craig Mason
7th – Event #13: $3,000 Freezeout NL Hold’em
7th – Event #25: $5,000 6-Handed No Limit Hold’em
Stay tuned to Somuchpoker as we bring you updates and recaps throughout the series.
Tricia David
Tricia David has long experience as a recreational poker player and has been covering poker events since 2010 for numerous outfits in Asia. She spent one year working part time with Poker Portal Asia then became editor and lead writer for all event coverage of the Philippine Poker Tour (PPT). Under the PPT, she overlooked content for their website, and produced live updates on all their events. In addition, she served as the live and online events website content writer for the Asian Poker Tour. Currently, she does live events reporting in Asia for online news site Somuchpoker and is also one of their news contributors.
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