Margets Becomes First Woman to Win Open 2021 WSOP Event

Written by Jennifer Newell

Last updated on November 22nd, 2021

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With only a couple days left of the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas, one might think Sunday was a slow day. There might have been some movement of tables to storage, but there was some exciting action taking place at the tables still standing in the ballrooms.

The Closer did wrap up after a long day and night, and the last person standing was Leo Margets, longtime poker pro and member of Team Winamax, who finally took down her first bracelet event. On top of that feat, she also became the first woman to win an open event at the 2021 WSOP. It came down to the wire, and Margets claimed that bracelet while representing so many women in the poker community.

Meanwhile, a $50K High Roller wrapped with a new bracelet winner while a $100K buy-in High Roller got underway. But back on the normal buy-in side of things, the Super Turbo Bounty event went from more than 1K players down to a winner in just 16 hours.

While things will calm down from here with the last WSOP Las Vegas action set for Tuesday, let’s take a closer look at what happened on Sunday.

Event 83: $1,500 NLHE Closer

The survivors of two starting flights took their seats and unbagged their chips on Day 2 of this event. Players like Joao Simao, Rainer Kempe, Martins Adeniya, and David Lappin busted early in the day. Later, Landon Tice exited, as did Yuval Bronshtein, Dimitar Danchev, Melanie Weisner, and Kenny Hallaert.

The unofficial final table of 10 became official when Ofer Wexler departed in tenth place. By dinner break, only seven remained with Alex Kulev dominating, Aleksandr Shevliakov in second, and Leo Margets in third on the leaderboard. One of two women remaining, Cherish Andrews, left in sixth place, while Margets played quietly and Kulev continued to chip up. The latter then eliminated Stephen Song in third to take 40M chips into heads-up against the 7M of Margets.

She started off with a double-up and then took a solid pot with quad fours. Margets stayed aggressive and chipped up, evening the stacks and then scoring a massive double-up to leave Kulev with fewer than 2M chips. He pushed that with T-4, and Margets’ K-J held up for the win. She collected her first-ever WSOP bracelet and the first open-event win for a woman at the 2021 WSOP. She spoke to PokerNews:

“What a comeback. … Usually, it’s going to be harder for a woman to get a bracelet because (women) are a few … (the win) might motivate women to be interested. … I hope there is one day when there isn’t such an issue.”

 

SOOOOOO HAPPYYYYY!!!! 💃🏻🔥@Winamax_Espana https://t.co/i1yHZzq14s

— Leo Margets (@LeoMargets) November 22, 2021

Leo Margets takes down The Closer and becomes the first female of this year's series to win an open bracelet event. The Spain native earns $376,850 for the momentous victory.
📸: @timeweavers https://t.co/2YkEoc4cm2 pic.twitter.com/0726xMCW43

— WSOP – World Series of Poker (@WSOP) November 22, 2021

Event 85: $50K NLHE High Roller

There was a couple dozen players that started Day 2, but the semi-quick structure allowed them to play down to a winner. Thomas Winters was the first player to cash in the tournament in 17^th place, followed by Shaun Deeb, Barry Hutter, and Christoph Vogelsang. Recent bracelet winner Ole Schemion busted in 11^th place, and Elio Fox did the same in tenth place, each of them collecting $105,607.

The final table saw some of the shorter stacks bust quickly, and Mikita Badziakouski took over the chip lead during six-handed play. He ultimately took a massive chip lead into heads-up play with Ren Lin, though Lin didn’t give up easily. Lin started a comeback, but Badziakouski then did the same and won his first piece of WSOP gold. He chatted with PokerNews:

“Honestly, the bracelet is not as important for me as it is for many other players. I will just say it feels great to win a High Roller. … I’ve played many final tables. You just try to perform your best; there’s no special or unique ideas. You just do what you’ve learned before and that’s it.”

 

Mikita Badziakouski tops a field of 113 entrants in the $50,000 NLH High Roller to earn $1,462,043 and his first gold bracelet.
📸: @timeweavers https://t.co/ks2EYLev1G pic.twitter.com/jnDAaZT2Y0

— WSOP – World Series of Poker (@WSOP) November 22, 2021

Event 86: $1K NLHE Super Turbo

It started on Sunday and ended in the wee hours of Monday morning. A super-turbo structure can do that. As the tournament played into the money and approached the final table, the 11^th place bustout of Ryan Snyder set the unofficial table, but Josh Arieh busting in tenth made it official. It took a couple of hours to play out, but Dara O’Kearney and Yuval Bronshtein busted on the way to Michael McCauley taking it home. He then told PokerNews:

“This is my first WSOP, so it’s pretty amazing to come out here and win a bracelet. I was nervous, but after I won a couple of pots, I settled down and trusted my reads. I tried not to pay attention to the field, trusted my game, and I believe I can play with the best of them.”

 

Michael McCauley outlasts 1,025 players in the $1,000 NLH Super Turbo to earn $161,384 and his first WSOP bracelet.
📸: @timeweavers https://t.co/QxbEpcIHK7 pic.twitter.com/aKSoXlc9ja

— WSOP – World Series of Poker (@WSOP) November 22, 2021

Event 87: $100K NLHE High Roller

The last High Roller of the 2021 WSOP in Las Vegas – and the second-last tournament ever at the Rio – brought in 53 entries. But only 28 players managed to bag chips at the end of the night. The one with the most was Fedor Holz, though David Peters isn’t far behind. Many other well-known pros are in the field as well, and registration remains open for entries and reentries until the start of Day 2. Anything can happen.

Event OB 10: $1K NLHE Mini Main Event

The last online bracelet event for players in Nevada and New Jersey delivered a solid field.

 

Event PA-OB 1: $1K NLHE Mini Main Event

This event was for players located in Pennsylvania only. The WSOP has provided no names for the players.