Three Still in WSOP Main as Hastings Among New Champs

Written by Jennifer Newell

Last updated on November 17th, 2021

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And then there were three. An Austrian, Brit, and American will walk into the Rio today, each vying for the title of WSOP Main Event champion. The 2021 World Series of Poker NLHE World Championship will play for the win today.

Day 48 of the WSOP brought that Main Event number from nine down to three in a very exciting part of the tournament. Pay jumps were relatively small in the beginning – $1M to $1.1M to $1.225M – but grew quickly late into the night. The last elimination of the night was Joshua Remitio, who went to the cashier cage to talk about his payout of $2.3M.

In other news, several more players won WSOP bracelets as the rest of the series played on. David Moses won his first, Romain Lewis took down his first, Denis Strebkov won his second, and veteran player Brian Hastings won his fifth career WSOP gold.

Let’s get to all of the action from Day 48.

Event 67: $10K WSOP Main Event

When play started in the late afternoon of Tuesday, November 16, nine players were guaranteed at least $1M for making it that far. But there was a very expensive gold bracelet at the top, alongside a top cash prize of $8, so all eyes were on those prizes.

It only took five hands for Chase Bianchi to move all-in with K-Q, but Jack Oliver had A-K, which held up to eliminate Bianchi in ninth place.

On the very next hand, Jareth East made his move with A-J but ran into the queens of Holmes. The board failed for East, who departed in eighth place.

Play then slowed dramatically for about the next several hours and sixty hands. Finally, Alejandro Lococo tangled with Koray Aldemir in a battle of the big stacks. The man known at home as Papo MC took his pocket tens into a J-J-9 flop, little did he know that Aldemir had pocket nines. Lococo busted in seventh place.

About 20 hands later, Hye (also known as Henry) Park risked his 20.6M chips with pocket sevens from the small blind, and Aldemir called with A-Q from the big blind. A queen on the turn was enough to oust Park in sixth place.

Turkish player Ozgur Secilmis was the next with his tournament on the line, He took a chance with K-5 suited under the gun, and Aldemir woke up with pocket nines in the small blind. The board of J-A-A-A-8 only improved Aldemir and sent the Turk out in fifth place.

The tournament was supposed to pause at four players, but everyone agreed to keep going. Short-stacked Jack Oliver tripled his stack through Aldemir and Josh Remitio. The latter and his 13.8M-chip stack moved all-in on the next hand with J-7 suited, and Jack Oliver called with A-2 from the big blind. The A-T-7-4-2 ended Remitio’s run in fourth place.

The final three bagged their chips and will return to play for the win today.

 

End of day wrap-up with our chip leader, Koray Aldemir, and our 4th-place finisher, Josh Remetio pic.twitter.com/M8P59RjYno

— Jeff Platt (@jeffplatt) November 17, 2021

Event 70: $888 Crazy Eights NLHE

A fast structure in the aptly-named Crazy Eights event delivered a champion on Tuesday. Only six players returned for Day 3 of the tournament, and three-time bracelet winner Georgios Sotiropoulos was the first of them to leave the table on Tuesday. The heads-up match came down to previous bracelet winner Sejin Park of South Korea versus David Moses, the latter with the chip lead. Park doubled up but couldn’t take over, leaving Moses to win it. He told PokerNews:

“Everybody wants a bracelet. They asked me if I wanted a picture of it when we got head-up, and I said I’ll get a picture when I win. Just being honest, the money mattered a lot more. It’s a huge amount of money for an $800 tournament. It’s life-changing money. I’ve got too amazing backers. The series has been kind of rough, but it’s definitely not rough anymore.”

 

WSOP gold ring owner, @realruetama , took on a field of 5,252 players in the NLH Crazy Eights Event and came away with his first gold bracelet as well as a payday of $888,888.

📸 @hayleyochohttps://t.co/nb96ZaFwuG pic.twitter.com/jmHXwXeopt

— WSOP – World Series of Poker (@WSOP) November 17, 2021

Event 73: $10K Seven-Card Stud-8 Championship

Four players returned on Tuesday to play for the Stud-8 Championship title with Yuval Bronshtein in the lead. Scott Seiver was the first to bust from this four-handed game, with Bronshtein losing ground and then out in third. Ian O’Hara had the upper hand going into heads-up play, but Brian Hastings was chasing his fifth bracelet and quickly took over. And Hastings did it, telling PokerNews afterward:

“I feel great. It’s hard to have it even sink in. I was just so focused on playing. I cand into Day 4 fourth out of four, so I really wasn’t expecting it, but I’m really happy with how I played, happy with how I ran, and excited about it.”

 

Another winner on the day, and another bracelet for the one and only @brianchastings .

Hastings conquered Event #73: $10,000 Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo 8 or Better to grab an outstanding fifth WSOP title!

📸 @k8te_lookhttps://t.co/uPotb0CY2H pic.twitter.com/qdC725ThBn

— WSOP – World Series of Poker (@WSOP) November 17, 2021

Event 74: $2,500 Mixed Big Bet

Just more than a dozen players returned for the final day of this Big Bet Mix tournament, with Denis Strebkov of Russia in top chip position. Well-known players like Noah Boeken and Amnon Filippi were the first to bust, with Jon Turner and Scott Bohlman following later in the day. When it came to the final duel, Jerry Wong sought his first piece of WSOP gold and Denis Strebkov his second. It didn’t take long, actually, for Strebkov to take it to PLO-8 and win it. He then spoke to PokerNews:

“This is fantastic. I am glad I can play. … I am just speechless right now. The second bracelet is very good! …I like the mixed format because I play a lot of games. I play a lot of mixed. I don’t like to play hold’em, but I like some other games where you can play a lot of hands and have more fun.”

 

Our final bracelet winner of the night has been crowned, and another repeat winner has arisen.

Denis Strebkov, hailing from Russia, grabbed his second gold bracelet by winning Event #74: $2,500 Mixed Big Bet.

📸 Alec Romehttps://t.co/pi1QqQnzmt pic.twitter.com/O5qjkUNALT

— WSOP – World Series of Poker (@WSOP) November 17, 2021

Event 75: $1,500 NLHE Freezeout

More than 100 players started Day 2 of the freezeout, but only eight survived to play on. In a rare occurrence, the day’s original chipleader finished his day in the same position. Renmei Liu of Canada will lead the final table today, an international one that will feature players from Brazil, Israel, France, Germany, and the United States.

 

Event 76: $10K NLHE Super Turbo Bounty

Normally, turbo tournaments finish in a single day. This one, however, was a big buy-in with a little more room for play. The final seven players agreed to add a second day to this one and returned on Tuesday. It didn’t take long to play it out, though, as the first eliminations were in order of chip counts. Ultimately, chipleader Aditya Agarwal did take the lead into heads-up play against Frenchman Romain Lewis, but the latter put up a fight and eventually won. Lewis chatted with PokerNews:

“All the different deep runs I made a couple years ago, I was so happy with those results, but when I looked back a few years later, I was like, wow, bracelets are not that easy. These spots don’t come that often. It’s been a ten-year dream, and I put a five- or six-year objective to win one, and for it to happen now, it makes me ecstatic. It really does.”

 

The moment @RomainLewis won his first @WSOP bracelet, in the $10,000 NL Super Turbo Bounty. pic.twitter.com/7Vn1TQl5wP

— Kevin Mathers (@Kevmath) November 16, 2021

Event 77: $1,500 NLHE Fifty Stack

With a fast structure, this is supposed to be a two-day event. That’s how it could start with more than 1500 entries and work its way into the money and through to just 226 players surviving the first day. The goal of Day 2 is to find a winner, and they’ll at least come close to that if not go all the way. Ryan Depaulo leads and will search for his second bracelet, but 2020 WSOP Main Event champion Damian Salas is in 11^th and wants to win it just as much.

 

Event 78: $10K Razz Championship

There are players who love razz, and there are players who love it enough to pay $10K to play the championship-level razz event. There were more than 100 of those people who entered on the first day of this tournament, but registration remains open until the start of Day 2 to boost the field. This is already a star-studded field, complete with Jeff Lisandro in the lead, Phil Hellmuth in second, and the aforementioned Brian Hastings in third.