Caesars Outage Delays All on Day 7 of WSOP 2021
Poker information and WSOP social media guru Kevin Mathers decided to take a day off after nearly a week straight of long hours. He started work before the World Series of Poker even began. So, he planned to take Wednesday for himself…and everything conspired against him to keep that from happening.
The entirety of the Caesars computer system – apparently nationwide – kept Caesars employees from doing anything. They couldn’t verify anyone’s vaccine compliance, register anyone for tournaments, or create seat assignments. It took hours to fix.
Eventually, everything returned to working order, but some of the daily tournaments had already been cancelled and the start of bracelet events delayed. Let’s see what all happened when the action did get underway.
Event 8: $600 NLHE Deepstack
Five players started the day, and little more than an hour later, Zhi Wu of Massachusetts won. With friends by his side, Wu celebrated his first WSOP victory and biggest poker score of his career thus far. He talked briefly via a translator to PokerNews:
“I am not a professional, but I have some experience. I am going to play the Millionaire Maker, Main Event, and a few others. We plan to party a little bit but stick to the schedule.”
| Event 8: Day 3 of 3 | $600 buy-in | NLHE Deepstack (1 RE) |
| Total entries: | 4,527 | |
| Total prize pool: | $2,309,280 | |
| Players paid: | 680 | |
| Minimum payout: | $960 | |
| Final table results: | 1st place: | Zhi Wu (USA) $281,604 |
| 2nd place: | Ari Mezrich (USA) $173,998 | |
| 3rd place: | Chrishan Sivasundaram (Canada) $131,675 | |
| 4th place: | Ryan Chan (USA) $100,330 | |
| 5th place: | Nicholas Zautra (USA) $76,974 | |
| 6th place: | Alexander Tafesh (USA) $59,466 | |
| 7th place: | Amalim Onyia (USA) $46,262 | |
| 8th place: | Hannes Jeschka (France) $36,243 | |
| 9th place: | Daniel Lowery (USA) $28,596 |
Zhi Wu takes down the $600 No-Limit Hold'em Deepstack for $281,604 and his first gold bracelet. https://t.co/2E5NuhOKXk pic.twitter.com/AJLZ50ikYk
— WSOP – World Series of Poker (@WSOP) October 7, 2021
Event 9: $10K Omaha Hi-Lo 8-or-Better Championship
He’s doing it again. Phil Hellmuth is at another final table. Within the first nine events alone, he took sixth place in Event 2 and 18th place in Event 7. And he may be very short-stacked at this Event 9 final table, but he’s hungry for that 16th bracelet.
However, Ari Engel has a significant chip lead and wants his second piece of WSOP gold. He’s the man to watch. Andrew Yeh may not have a bracelet yet, but he was the chip leader going into Wednesday’s play and made the final table, so he is closely eyeing his first bracelet.
All five players want it. Stay tuned to the live updates over on PokerNews to see how it plays out. (This is not scheduled to be a PokerGO livestream event, but Hellmuth says it will be.)
| Event 9: Day 3 of 4 | $10K buy-in | Omaha Hi-Lo 8-or-Better Championship |
| Total entries: | 134 | |
| Registration still open? | no | |
| Total prize pool: | $1,193,600 | |
| Players paid: | 21 | |
| Minimum payout: | $16,000 | |
| Winner payout: | $317,076 | |
| Chip leader: | Ari Engel | Ari Engel = 3,485,000 chips |
| Players remaining: | 5 | Zachary Milchman = 1,660,000 chips |
| Restart: | 4pm Thursday | Eddie Blumenthal = 1,405,000 chips |
| Andrew Yeh = 1,105,000 chips | ||
| Phil Hellmuth = 390K chips |
Made it! 5 left, but I am the short stack… #POSITIVITY pic.twitter.com/k6bTVaE6lr
— phil_hellmuth (@phil_hellmuth) October 7, 2021
Event 11: $25K Heads-Up Championship
The immediate goal was to play the Round of 16 and emerge with eight players. Cary Katz was the last of that group to bust, which opened up the payouts and kicked off the quarter-finals.
Jason Koon wasted no time eliminating Jake Daniels, but the others took their time to play out. Eventually, Henri Puustinen busted Benjamin Reason, Daniel Zack did the same to Bin Weng, and Gabor Szabo outlasted Mikita Badziakouski. Those who had to leave did so with $36,280 for their troubles.
Each of the Final Four will start with 2.4M chips (200 big blinds).
| Event 11: Day 2 of 3 | $25K buy-in | NLHE Heads-Up Championship |
| Total entries: | 57 | |
| Registration still open? | no | |
| Total prize pool: | $721,625 | |
| Players paid: | 8 | |
| Minimum payout: | $36,820 | |
| Winner payout: | $243,981 | |
| Chip leader: | n/a | Jason Koon v Henri Puustinen |
| Players remaining: | 4 | Daniel Zack v Gabor Szabo |
| Restart: | 4pm Thursday |
Event 12: $1,500 Limit Hold’em
Limit poker only plays so fast, so the action ended with 16 players still in the running. Multiple bracelet winners like Marco Johnson and Rep Porter just missed their opportunity for another day of play. However, Yuval Bronshtein will return to try to win a second bracelet, as will Jorden Fox. Anh Van Nguyen will try to take home another piece of gold for Canada.
| Event 12: Day 2 of 3 | $1,500 buy-in | Limit Hold’em |
| Total entries: | 422 | |
| Registration still open? | no | |
| Total prize pool: | $563,370 | |
| Players paid: | 64 | |
| Minimum payout: | $2,406 | |
| Winner payout: | $124,374 | |
| Chip leader: | Kevin Erickson | |
| Players remaining: | 16 | |
| Restart: | 2pm Thursday |
Event 13: $3K NLHE Freezeout
A diverse field showed up for the single buy-in hold’em action early in the series. But by the end of the night, little more than 100 players remained in contention. And when Silvio Costa busted in 109th place, that burst the money bubble and stopped play for the night. With everyone in the money on Thursday, play will likely start quickly and not slow until later in the afternoon or evening.
| Event 13: Day 1 of 3 | $3K buy-in | NLHE Freezeout |
| Total entries: | 720 | |
| Registration still open? | no | |
| Total prize pool: | $1,922,400 | |
| Players paid: | 108 | |
| Minimum payout: | $4,840 | |
| Winner payout: | $371,914 | |
| Chip leader: | Andrew Jeong | |
| Players remaining: | 108 | |
| Restart: | 12pm Thursday |
Event 14: $1,500 Seven-Card Stud
The 2019 WSOP corresponding stud event delivered 285 entries, and this year’s nearly hit that mark with 261. Defending champion Eli Elezra didn’t make it through the first day this year, but Dan Heimiller and David Williams both made the top ten chip counts at the end of the night.
| Event 14: Day 1 of 3 | $1,500 buy-in | Seven-Card Stud |
| Total entries: | 261 | |
| Registration still open? | no | |
| Total prize pool: | $348,435 | |
| Players paid: | 39 | |
| Minimum payout: | $2,457 | |
| Winner payout: | $82,262 | |
| Chip leader: | Elias Hourani | |
| Players remaining: | 75 | |
| Restart: | 2pm Thursday |
Highlight of the Day
At the end of the second online bracelet event of this series, one that was open to players in Nevada and New Jersey, reports did not display the real names of the players. It turned out that the winner of OB #2 was Mark Herm, and that was his second gold bracelet in 2021. Further, Martin Zamani, who won the first one last weekend, claimed his second bracelet with that win.
So, there are now two double bracelet winners in 2021.
He joins @martin_zamani as the only players to win a second WSOP bracelet in 2021.
My apologies Martni.
— Kevin Mathers (@Kevmath) October 6, 2021
