2021 WSOP Online [International]: Henry Luo, Jase Regina, Ruslan Rishko, & Arnaud Enselme capture the last four bracelets

After 43 days of nonstop action, the 2021 World Series of Poker Online [International] came to a close with four players capturing their first ever dream gold bracelet. The newly minted champions were Jase “RetiredFedor” Regina, Ruslan “Sovs20” Rishko, Arnaud “Chocolatine” Enselme, and Asian player Henry “Coke@Macu” Luo who brought Hong Kong its first gold in this series. We have those success stories down below.

WSOP #30: $525 Beat the Pros [Freezeout] – JASE “RetiredFedor” REGINA – US$ 75,342

Online MTT player Jase “RetiredFedor” Regina earned his first ever WSOP title and gold bracelet after topping the 1,594 player field of the $525 Beat the Pros [Freezeout, Bounty] tournament. Along with the shine, he banked US$ 32,856 and a larger US$ 42,486 in bounties for a cool US$ 75,342 payout, making this his largest series score to date. At the final table, Regina eliminated the last four players including 2020 WSOP Online Main Event champion Stoyan Madanzhiev to give Canada its first victory. Based on his stats on PocketFives, this win brings Regina’s lifetime earnings to over US$ 3.2 Million.

Event recap

The 1,594 field amassed a prize pool of US$ 797,000. The money flowed starting at 224th place. Among the Asia Pacific players cashing in on Day 1 were Jiazhi “pipozbb” Zhong (28th), King Yin “pokerfrank” Liu (37th), Matthew “Un Gamja!” Wakeman (47th), Ho Yin “etdakilla” Tam (55th), Takumi “TTAAKK_SHAARK” Samejima (60th), Anshul “ISILDUR99” Rajput (63rd), Ben “barcs69” Barclay (68th), Cuong “CLVT” Trinh (111st), Xiongbin “zxb8553624” Zhang (132nd), Thananat Therdtakoonrat (150th), Arsh Grover (154th), Benjamin “RiverKillMe” Tan (156th), Guoxin “GGSIR” Huang (162nd), Jaime “wifichick” King (183rd), Sriharsha “Upswinger” Doddapaneni (190th), Michael “sabai” Sideridis (193rd), Koki “kirrard28” Kudo (197th), Dicky “Floatinworld” Tsang (205th), and Kazuki “8809” Ikeuchi (218th).

Date: September 11 to 12
Buy in: US$ 525
Players: 1,594
Prize pool: US$ 797,000
ITM: 224 places

The final day opened with 19 players led by Stoyan Madanzhiev who was running red hot with 9 previous cashes in this series including a 5th place finish at the WSOP #12: $10,000 Super MILLION$ High Roller NLH. The lone Asian player remaining, China’s Lin “op1” Lin fell in 15th place, eventual champion Regina eliminated both Ukraine’s Volodymyr “k7Scooter” Legkyl (12th) and Russia’s Aleksandr “gipotenuza” Ovechkin (10th) to carry the biggest stack into the final table. The only other WSOP decorated player in the lineup aside from bracelet winner Madanzhiev was USA’s William Wolf with two circuit rings. Also advancing was Israel’s Alon “ArtinB” Huberman who made his series final table debut having missed it by one spot at the WSOP #4: $800 Double Chance.

Within the first ten minutes, two players quickly exited. On the first hand, Lithuania’s Arunas “AngryGoose” Sapitavicius booted short stacked Scott “Abracadabraa” Hill then Madanzhiev rivered two pair holding to eliminate Huberman top pair.

Seven handed witnessed plenty of thrilling action as players vied for the top spot. During the one hour race, Regina was dethroned by Stefan “Stiopata” Atanasov who was later bumped down by Sebastian “flashlight99” Mueller. Mueller won two double ups with the second one crippling Sapitavicius down to less than one small blind. Impressively, Sapitavicius recovered, first landing a triple up to 3.4 BB then two double ups with the last one costing Wolf. The round ended with Wolf outdrawn by Mueller’s , seven on the flop. The next bust came much quicker with Julien “LittlebeAAr” Achard-Stropoli falling to Atanasov’s .

Five handed was another heated race with Madanzhiev grinding his way to the top while Mueller went south, losing three sizable pots to drop to 3.9 BB and out. On the next showdown, Regina skyrocketed to the top with over Madanzhiev’s . This sent Madanzhiev plunging to 5 BB then out in 4th place with K-10 missing the board against Regina’s pocket Eights.

Sitting on a massive stack, Regina proceeded to rail Sapitavicius in 3rd place with both pairing up to dust . Ahead over 4:1 at heads up, Regina quickly shipped it with defeating Atanasov’s on a board .

Final table payouts

1st Jase “RetiredFedor” Regina – Canada – US$ 32,856 + US$ 42,486 bounty = US$ 75,342
2nd Stefan “Stiopata” Atanasov – Bulgaria – US$ 32,775 + US$ 9,667 bounty = US$ 42,442
3rd Arunas “AngryGoose” Sapitavicius – Lithuania – US$ 24,707 + US$ 3,451 bounty = US$ 28,158
4th Stoyan Madanzhiev – Bulgaria – US$ 18,602 + US$ bounty = US$
5th Sebastian “flashlight99” Mueller – Germany -US$ 14,005 + US$ 10,712 bounty = US$ 24,717
6th Julien “LittlebeAAr” Achard-Stropoli – France – US$ 10,545 + US$ 8,639 bounty = US$ 18,914
7th William Wolf – USA – US$ 7,939 + US$ 9,075 bounty = US$ 17,014
8th Alon “ArtinB” Huberman – Israel – US$ 5,978 + US$ 2,917bounty = US$ 8,895
9th Scott “Abracadabraa” Hill – Canada – US$ 4,501 + US$ 5,089 bounty = US$ 9,590

WSOP #31: ￥815 Zodiac Autumn Festival – HENRY “Coke@Macu” LUO – CN￥563,256 (~US$ 87,403)

One of the last gold bracelets went to Hong Kong player Henry “Coke@Macu” Luo for his victory at the WSOP #31: ￥815 Zodiac Autumn Festival. Luo outlasted the 1,102 final day qualifiers to seize the CN￥563,256 (~US$ 87,403) first prize and his first ever WSOP title. This bumped up his total earnings on the GG Network to US$ 105,719. Luo became the fourth bracelet winner from Hong Kong, joining previous winners Danny Tang and double bracelet holder Tan Shing “Anson” Tsang.

Event recap

The WSOP #31: ￥815 Zodiac Autumn Festival attracted 7,036 entries across multiple starting days to crush the guarantee for a much richer CN￥ 5,275,592.80 (~US$ 818,645) prize pool. 1,102 players advanced to the final day with only the top 800 profiting.

Buy in: CN￥ 815 (~US$ 126)
Guarantee: CN￥ 2,888,888 (~US$ 448,285)
Entries: 7,036 (5,693 uniques, 1,343 re-entries)
Prize pool: CN￥ 5,275,592.80 (~US$ 818,645)
Day 2 qualifiers: 1,102
ITM: 800 places

Among the Asia Pacific top 400 were Yan ”eight0129” Du (31st), Jun-Shan “defreak” Yeh (37th), Ken “ken@king” Okada (48th), Cuong “CLVT” Trinh (68th), Veeramanikandan “upay4myweed” Kaliyaperumal (82nd), Tung-Yu “unodostres” Chen (122nd), Cliff “TicTacTok” Chow (124th), Tarun “AreYouAhead” Goyal (126th), Jacky “MCPJ” Wong (131st), Haibo “iskyer” Sun (149th), Takya “T-Sasa@GG” Sasaki (168th), Jinhyang “SON_7” Lee (170th), Louis “ChinaTown44” Doherty (180th), Jaime “wifichick” King (181st), Yake “RossCola” Wu (183rd), Wuyi “Loris51” Wang (194th), Ryan “moopa” Ong (217th), Tawei “davidtou” You (230th), Leo “mommyfinger” Pang (234th), Li-Ta “Kench” Hsu (254th), Takashi “IKAIKA” Ogura (263rd), Neel Joshi (276th), Jinho Hong (302nd), Wei Guo “SPARK1207” Liang (325th), Yuta “HAKU06” Aikawa (326th), Hon Cheong “GoodahGoodah” Lee (331st), Anmol “Anzzz” Mehta (333rd), Yen-Liang “yao_poker” Yao (347th), Masakazu “Brian-Miyamoto” Miyamoto (349th), Jinlong “yiliuqi” Hu (364th), and Sanat “menro2511” Mehrotra (385th).

Five hours in, it was down to the final two tables. China’s Yuhan “HansNeverLose” Liu doubled up twice then knocked out China’s Zhitoa “Merek1206” Fu (13th) and Vadim “Danis_Love” Stoyanov (12th) to zoom to the top. After Henry “Coke@Macu” Luo eliminated Alfredo “Fl0pthenuts” Fischetto, Mark “garretajax” Vinsky busted in 10th place to Germany’s Yannick “ProbierEs” Schumacher, to form the final nine.

The table consisted of four Asians led by Liu with over 100 BB. The only WSOP decorated player was Brazil’s Carlos Henrique Ferreira “Wtfisthis” Silva who won a ring at last year’s Winter Online Circuit. Silva’s bid for a matching bracelet was crushed when he paid a double up to Japan’s Ryosuke “KBD05” Kubodera – Aces versus Queens – to drop to 2.6 BB. Schumacher claimed the rest then did the same to short stacked Sota “shishi44” Yamashita who was down to just 5 BB at the shove.

The next casualty was a three way all in that saw Luo claim the main pot, Schumacher took the side pot, and Robert “Aerius” Kaggerud departed in 7th place. Six handed ran for one hour. During that time, the average stack dropped to 19 BB and so did Liu’s stack from top of the heap to 6th place. Liu’s bricked against Martin “titan64” Pochat’s . The other Brazilian hope, Tiago “catukeira” Lessa, was downed in 5th place withSchumacher’s holding strong to beat overcards. Pochat earned his second bust, ending Japan’s last contender Ryosuke “KBD05” Kubodera in 4th place.

It was a tight race at three handed as each one claimed the chip lead. Luo landed a big pot (pictured above) when his improved to a flush on a board to overtake Schumacher’s top pair. With blinds climbing, stacks shortened. Schumacher bumped it with missing the mark against Pochat’s . This gave Pochat the advantage at heads up. His lead widened until he gambled and lost to Luo’s . Luo went on to ship it with over on a board .

Final table payouts

1st Henry “Coke@Macu” Luo – Hong Kong – CN￥563,256
2nd Martin “titan64” Pochat – Argentina – CN￥422,380
3rd Yannick “ProbierEs” Schumacher – Germany – CN￥316,740
4th Ryosuke “KBD05” Kubodera – Japan – CN￥ 237,522
5th Tiago “catukeira” Lessa – Brazil – CN￥178,116
6th Yuhan “HansNeverLose” Liu – China – CN￥ 133,568
7th Robert “Aerius” Kaggerud – Norway – CN￥100,162
8th Sota “shishi44” Yamashita – Japan – CN￥ 75,111
9th Carlos Henrique Ferreira “Wtfisthis” Silva – Brazil – CN￥ 56,325

WSOP #32: $210 Bounty Double MILLION$ – RUSLAN “Sovs20” RISHKO – US$ 194,095

While many players hope to win a WSOP bracelet on their first deep run, not many achieve it, however for Ruslan “Sovs20” Rishko, it was a dream come true. Rishko bulldozed to victory at the WSOP #32: $210 Bounty Double MILLION$ to capture the coveted gold bracelet and US$ 105,606. In addition, Rishko picked up a hefty US$ 88,489 in bounties for a combined payout of US$ 194,905.

Event recap

It was another guarantee smashed with 14,162 entering the WSOP #32: $210 Bounty Double MILLION$ for a US$ 2,832,400 prize pool. 2,143 advanced to the final day with the top 1,500 profiting. Leading the chase was double bracelet winner / Hong Kong pro Tan Shing “Anson” Tsang who fell in 314th place.

Buy in: US$ 210
Guarantee: US$ 2,000,000
Entries: 14,162 (11,792 uniques, 2,370 re-entries)
Prize pool: US$ 2,832,400
ITM: 1,500 places

Among the Asia Pacific players in the top 300 were Zeyu “zzyy8888” Zhang (24th), Czardy “CECR” Rivera (37th), Shardul “tiltjam” Parthasarathi (60th), Shunsuke “IGACHAN56” Igarashi (62nd), Yake “Rosscola” Wu (85th), Kazuki “8809” Ikeuchi (104th), Phachara Wongwichit (110th), Chung Yi “hohoyypo” Ho (111th), Xi “hulahula666” Lu (164th), Chan Yan Alfred “jomud9ahsorjai” Iu (180th), Paul “Rahchan” Hong (185th), Ashish “NewGambler” Gupta (225th), Lili “Austin22” Zhuang (227th), Anmol “Anzzz” Mehta (245th), Hon Cheong “GoodahGoodah” Lee (246th), Daisuke “REDJOE” Ogita (247th), Cuong “CLVT” Trinh (254th), Jalani “NUCLE” Atari (259th), Sean “Raggaz” Ragozzin (263rd), and Abhinav “OBellaCiao” (278th).

Six hours in, it was down to the final two tables. Canadian pro Amichai Barer was eliminated in 16th place by Vitor “SPEWberg” Adiron with pocket Kings over pocket Queens. After Ignas “Ligonis” Navickas’pocket Jacks bad beat Evgeny “pro_nl” Kochubey’s pocket Kings, Rishko railed Francis “GGsirrrrr” Cruz in 14th place then followed it up with a double knockout to Alexander “0_really” and Masafumi “soji!!” Matsushita with straight on a board . This awarded Rishko an enormous stack which he carried all the way to the throne.

With the fall of Korea’s Jaesong “ssori” Kim in 11th place, the only Asian in the final table lineup was Vietnam’s Tien Thanh “Terryboom” Nguyen who entered as the shortest stack. No bracelet holders pulled through however WSOP decorated ring winner Oleg “Ad Astra” Vasylchenko made the cut.

With his commanding stack, Rishko was on attack mode, firing big bets and raises at nearly every hand. Vasylchenko took on the challenge with and paired his jack for a double up against Rishko’s . Next all in was a three way with Ales “Dzemaili” Lekse improving to a full house while Nguyen was booted in the process. Shortly after, Vasylchenko joined at the rail with outdrawn by Rishko’s straight on a board . By this time, Rishko had over sixty percent of the chips.

Another bad beat was tabled, this time it was Lithuania’s Ignas “Ligonis” Navickas with set eliminating Danilo “Olag” Costa Gomez when a seven graced the board. Rishko lost the next two all in showdowns, however on his third, he cleaned out Navickas with pocket Kings dominating pocket Eights. Lekse claimed his second bust in Stefan “shetlef12” Nemetz and Bruno Igor “PISTOLEIRO” Marques Reis Medalha railed Adiron to bring the table down to the final three. Rishko had 106 BB, Marques 45 BB, and Lekse with 26 BB.

The shorter stacks were no match for the overwhelming chip leader. It took Rishko just over ten minutes to nail it shut. He eliminated Marques with flush over on a board , then finished off Lekse with besting .

Final table payouts

1st Ruslan “Sovs20” Rishko – Canada – US$ 105,606 + US$ 88,489 bounty = US$ 194,095
2nd Ales “Dzemaili” Lekse – Boznia – US$ 105,316 + US$ 13,967 bounty = US$ 119,283
3rd Bruno Igor “PISTOLEIRO” Marques – Brazil – US$ 78,353 + US$ 18,124 bounty = US$ 96,478
4th Vitor “SPEWberg” Adiron – Brazil – US$ 58,216 + US$ 9,852 bounty = US$ 68,068
5th Stefan “shetlef12” Nemetz – Austria – US$ 43,255 + US$ 6,625 bounty = US$ 49,880
6th Ignas “Ligonis” Navickas – Lithuania – US$ 32,138 + US$ 12,279 bounty = US$ 44,417
7th Danilo “Olag” Costa Gomez – Brazil – US$ 23,878 + US$ 7,593 bounty = US$ 31,471
8th Oleg “Ad Astra” Vasylchenko – Ukraine – US$ 17,741 + US$ 8,407 bounty = US$ 26,148
9th Tien Thanh “Terryboom” Nguyen – Vietnam – US$ 13,182 + US$ 2,865 bounty = US$ 16,047

WSOP #33: $500 The Closer – ARNAUD “Chocolatine” ENSELME – US$ 360,223

The last bracelet event was the WSOP #33: $500 The Closer and this too surged past its advertised guarantee. 7,103 entered across multiple starting days for a prize pool of US$ 3,373,925, making it the 26th event paying out seven figures. The final day kicked off with 1,089 players. Nine hours later, the champion emerged. Frenchman Arnaud “Chocolatine” Enselme put the brakes on Japanese pro Kazuki “8809” Ikeuchi to seize his first ever WSOP title and gold bracelet. Ensleme earned a career high US$ 360,223 to bring his total tracked earnings on The Hendon Mob to over US$ 1.2 Million.

Event recap

Among the Asia Pacific players in the top 250 were Akshay “minfold” Bharadwaj (26th), Jonathan “CheekySleek” Karamalikis (29th), Jinhyang “SON_7” Lee (33rd), Czardy “CECR” Rivera (57th), Tomoyuki “anjuna35” Yoshimiya (69th), Thananat Therdtakoonrat (71st), Sutthichi “Whattherules” Audhnun (84th), Veeramanikandan “upay4myweed” Kaliyaperumal (91st), Jihoon “908011_703285” Lee (92nd), Kartik “Mandovi” Ved (134th), Wei Zhao (136th), Sean “Raggaz” Ragozzini (148th), Apratim “checm@te” Sharma (149th), Li-Ta “Kench” Hsu (157th), Youngseok “Humandent” Kim (177th), Anshu “ISILDUR99” Rajput (187th), Luke “Imar54” Martinelli (196th), Jingxiang “Fuzzy Wuzzy!” Ong (202nd), Daisuke “REDJOE” Ogita (217th), Yuichi “dars999” Sumida (224th), and Xinlong “XLongHuang” Huang (235th).

Buy in: US$ 500
Guarantee: US$ 2,021,000
Entries: 7,103 (5,658 uniques, 1,445 re-entries)
Prize pool: US$ 3,373,925
Final day qualifiers: 1,089
ITM: 800 places

After seven hours of play, the final table was formed with fiveAsia Pacific playersin the lineup. Japanese pro Kazuki “8809” Ikeuchi was the frontrunner and was closely trailed by France’s Arnaud “Chocolatine” Enselme. Brazil’s Hernando “dardusss” Guzman was back for his second final table visit.

First shove nearly saw the end of Australia’s Ethan “Bubbles12” Reid but a lucky flush on the river with on a board kept him in the running with a double up off Japan’s Koki “kirrard28” Kudo . Not so fortunate for China’s Qiu “yuyue105200” Kefei whose overcards bricked to fall in 9th place. Reid’s next shove sent him crashing as well with top pair on the flop burned by Enselme’s ace on the river. Kudo joined the railbirds with pocket Nines crushed by Greece’s Ioannis Angelous Konstas’ pocket Kings, then Russia’s Yakov “YaNesterov” Nesterov knocked out Japan’s Ryosuke “allin-ryo” Matsumoto with pocket Kings dominating KQ.

At five remaining, Ikeuchi took control. He eliminated Nesterov with set over top pair on a board , then ousted Guzman (4th) followed by Konstas (5th). On a river board , Ikeuchi fired a push bet with overpair, Konstas tank-called with . This gave Ikeuchi a massive 106 BB stack at heads up against Enselme’s 41 BB.

With the average stack at a deep 73 BB, Ikeuchi pressed hard and widened his lead. However, Enselme answered with a double up, holding two pair over Ikeuchi’s top pair on a board . The winning momentum continued. Enselme won a succession of pots to surpass Ikeuchi and surge to a sizable 30 BB gap. The final hand landed with Ikeuchi shoving , Enselme was ahead with , the board ran for a game-ender top pair. Enselme seized the last bracelet of the series while Ikeuchi had to settle for another runner up finish. This was the third time throughout his WSOP career.

Final table payouts

1st Arnaud “Chocolatine” Enselme – France – US$ 360,223
2nd Kazuki “8809” Ikeuchi – Japan – US$ 270,127
3rd Ioannis Angelous Konstas – Greece – US$ 202,566
4th Hernando “dardusss” Guzman – Brazil – US$ 151,903
5th Yakov “YaNesterov” Nesterov – Russia – US$ 113,911
6th Ryosuke “allin-ryo” Matsumoto – Japan – US$ 85,421
7th Koki “kirrard28” Kudo – Japan – US$ 64,057
8th Ethan “Bubbles12” Reid – Australia – US$ 48,036
9th Qiu “yuyue105200” Kefei – China – US$ 36,022

That concludes our coverage of the 2021 WSOP Online [International]. Stay tuned for the final wrap. Up next for the brand is the live edition which is scheduled to take place from September 30 to November 23 at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino.