Italy’s Nicolo Molinelli became the latest bracelet winner of the 2021 World Series of Poker Online [International] after taking down the WSOP #3: $2,500 Limit Hold’em Championship for his second career gold bracelet. Molinelli kicked off the series on fire. The win came just one day after he shipped the WSOP Side Event High Roller: $1,050 Monday Main Event for US$ 73,346. Check out his road to victory via our recap.
The international bracelet series is ongoing from August 1 to September 12 at Natural8 [GG Network] featuring US$ 53+ Million in guaranteed prize pools. Over US$ 3.1 Million has already been paid out. 30 bracelets remain. For players that sign up on Natural8, expect plenty of added perks amounting to US$ 400,000 in exclusive prizes. Natural8 player Joao Simao has already won one of the Team Bling US$ 10,000 Sponsorship Packages for his victory at the WSOP #2: Caesars Cares Charity Event. You can read up on the perks at the bottom of the page or via this link:
WSOP #3: $2,500 Limit Hold’em Championship – Nicolo Molinelli – US$ 88,461
The two day WSOP #3: $2,500 Limit Hold’em Championship witnessed Italy’s Nicolo Molinelli power through a turbulent final table to capture his second career gold bracelet and a cash prize of US$ 88,461. Molinelli topped the 180 entry field, defeating Brazil’s Renan Bruschi at heads up. This was Molinelli’s second largest known score just behind the US$ 243,415 he won at the 2020 WSOP Online [International] People’s Choice Event where he claimed his first bracelet.
Date: August 3 to 4
Buy in: US$ 2,500
Entries: 180
Prize pool: US$ 427,500
ITM: 31 places
Running time: 3 hours and 50 minutes (final day)
The two day event drew an impressive lineup of noteworthy pros such as six time bracelet winner Daniel Negreanu who sold 25% of his action at no markup. Negreanu just reached the money in 29th place. Bracelet winners Justin “LappyPoker” Lapka and Daniel Dvoress also ran deep for an 18th and 17th place finish, and Italian superstar Dario Sammartino cashed in at 13th place. Last year’s WSOP Online series Main Event champion Stoyan Madanzhiev didn’t have as much luck, falling as the stone cold bubble. Day 1 closed when Japanese player Takashi “IKAIKA” Ogura was bumped out in 10th place to establish the final 9 led by Molinelli.
When the game resumed, it was no walk in the park for Molinelli, especially with other decorated pros at the table. Among those joining him were 2x bracelet winner Mark Radoja, bracelet winner Joao Vieira, ring winner Alex “Pl3ease_MuCk” Fortin-Demers, and Brazilian high roller Renan Bruschi. On just the third hand, Radoja got the boot with Stanislav Kuvaev cleaning him out. One level later, Kuvaev dropped to 5 bb and lost it all to Molinelli leaving seven players. At this point, the game slowed, taking more than an hour for the next bust. As chips shuffled around the virtual felt, Vieira lost a big pot to Milos “Picasso98” Petakovic and never recovered to bow out in 7th place. He was later joined by Romain Jean “Flingue” Dours who was glued to the short end for most of his run.
With the running time at three hours, the average dropped to as low as 12 bb with five still on the hunt. Bruschi dominated the action, first taking a big chunk from Cavailles on a higher flush then pumping in more by railing Fortin-Demers in 4th place. At three handed, average was still 12 bb. Petakovic was ahead, Bruschi just behind, and Molinelli looking to get back on top. Molinelli found the opportune moment, doubling up off Petakovic with 
set over 
two pair on a board 
. A few minutes later, Bruschi eliminated Petakovic to bring about heads up. Despite Bruschi up 2.5:1, it was Molinelli dictating the action to quickly dissolve the deficit. It only took 8 minutes of heads up for Molinelli to regain the lead, drain out Bruschi, and grab his second gold strap. For runner up Bruschi, he collected a personal WSOP high score of US$ 66,356.
Final table payouts
1st Nicolo Molinelli – Italy – US$ 88,461
2nd Renan Bruschi – Brazil – US$ 66,356
3rd Milos “Picasso98” Petakovic – Serbia – US$ 49,745
4th Alex “Pl3ease_MuCk – Fortin-Demers – Canada – US$ 37,303
5th Vincent Cavailles – France – US$ 27,974
6th Romain Jean “Flingue” Dours – France – US$ 20,977
7th Joao Vieira – Luxembourg – US$ 15,731
8th Stanislav Kuvaev – Russia – US$ 11,796
9th Mark Radoja – Canada – US$ 8,846.05
2021 WSOP Online bracelet events numbers and facts
WSOP #1 – #3 prize pool: US$ 3,187,324
Cumulative entries: 32,574
Biggest field: WSOP #1: $50 The Return NLH – 30,810 entries
Biggest pot: WSOP #2: Caesars Cares Charity Event – US$ 1,759,824
Smallest field: WSOP #3: $2500 Limit Hold’em Championship – 180 entries
Smallest pot: WSOP #3: $2500 Limit Hold’em Championship – US$ 427,500
First time bracelet winners: 2
Largest payout: WSOP #2: Caesars Cares Charity Event – Joao Simao – US$ 206,075
2021 WSOP Online champions
WSOP #1: $50 The Return NLH – Bartlomiej “Chester20o” Swieboda – Poland – US$ 161,110
WSOP #2: Caesars Cares Charity Event – Joao Simao – Brazil – US$ 206,075
WSOP #3: $2500 Limit Hold’em Championship – Nicolo Molinelli – Italy – US$ 88,461
Second career bracelet won
Nicolo Molinelli – WSOP #3: $2500 Limit Hold’em Championship
Bracelets by Country
Poland – 1
Brazil – 1
Italy – 1
Natural8 Team Bling Sponsorship Package winners
Joao Simao – WSOP #2: Caesars Cares Charity Event – US$ 10,000 Sponsorship
Exclusive Natural8 promos
To give more value to your buck, Natural8 players can expect added incentives amounting to US$ 400,000 up for grabs throughout the series. We’ve broken them down right here.
WSOP Team Bling Sponsorship
Win any of the 2021 WSOP Online bracelet events and you are assured entry to Team Bling along with one of these fine sponsorship packages listed:
Main Event = $100,000 Team Bling Sponsorship*
Win the WSOP Main Event and you’ll not only become a part of Team Bling, you’ll be the CAPTAIN of the team. This exclusive package includes:
12 month Team Bling Sponsorship
$25,000 for live event buy in sponsorships
$5,000 to cover expenses
T$70,000 in online event sponsorships, paid out over 12 months
Buy-ins of $1,000 and above = $10,000 Team Bling Sponsorship*
Win a WSOP Bracelet from any event with a buy-in of $1,000 and above, and you’ll get a Team Bling package that includes:
6 month Team Bling Sponsorship
$7,500 for live event buy in sponsorships
$2,500 to cover expenses
Buy-ins from $50 to $999 = $5,000 Team Bling Sponsorship*
Win a WSOP Bracelet from any event with a buy-in of $999 and below, and you’ll get a Team Bling package that includes:
6 month Team Bling Sponsorship
$3,500 for live event buy in sponsorships
$1,500 to cover expenses
WSOP Amazing Race
Top the leaderboards to win a piece of the US$ 75,000 prize pool! There are ten leaderboards running throughout the series with varying prizes. Points can only be earned at bracelet events and WSOP side events. Three different LiveX packages up for grabs are listed:
US$ 5,000 LiveX Gold which includes US$ 3,500 live event buy in sponsorship and US$ 1,500 in expenses.
US$ 3,000 LiveX Silver which includes US$ 2,000 live event buy in sponsorship and US$ 1,000 in expenses.
US$ 2,000 LiveX Bronze which includes US$ 1,500 live event buy in sponsorship and US$ 500 in expenses.
WSOP 2-in1 Challenge
Win a share of US$ 30,000 via the WSOP 2-in-1 incentive. This unique perk is only offered in Natural8. To start off, play any of the WSOP bracelet events and WSOP side events to earn points. As written on the website,
“Take part in any WSOP Branded Tournaments to earn points and boost those points by playing in cash games. We’ll multiply the points you’ve earned by playing tournaments with the points from cash games to reveal your chipstack for the final WSOP 2-in-1 Challenge Flipout.“
Plenty of action ahead so stick with us at Somuchpoker as we bring you recaps on the ongoing 2021 WSOP Online on Natural8.
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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