McMillan and Yu Win and Brunson Enters WSOP on Day 32
BOO.
The last day of October – or Halloween, if you prefer – was an unusual one at the Rio. Most years, the World Series of Poker takes place in Las Vegas in the summer months. The biggest concern then is dressing in layers for the cold air conditioning inside versus the desert heat outside. This fall WSOP gave players the chance to dress up for Halloween…and play for WSOP gold at the same time.
That didn’t mean there wasn’t some serious poker happening. The Colossus played down, players 60 and older gathered for the Super Seniors, duos came out for the Tag Team event, and those with $50K anted up for the Poker Players Championship. Other tournaments played down, two of which declared winners. Robert McMillan grabbed his first gold at the WSOP, and Ben Yu won his fourth.
With only a few days before the Main Event begins, let’s wrap up a busy Halloween Sunday with the bottom-line numbers.
Event 52: $1K Seniors NLHE Championship
Sunday brought two tables of senior players – 50 and up, which I prefer to simply call middle-aged – back to the tournament area to play for the win. When they reached a final table, players like Todd Hansen and Christopher Cummings bowed out, and it boiled down two Roberts. McMillan took a sizeable lead into heads-up play against Davis, but just when the latter nearly overcame that lead, McMillan busted him to take the title and his first bracelet. He told PokerNews:
“I’m so proud of making that last call. That’s what’s gonna stay with me because it’s for the whole thing. … I felt it yesterday especially. I dreamt this (win) was going to happen.”
| Event 52: Day 4 of 4 | $1K buy-in | Seniors NLHE Championship (1RE) |
| Total entries: | 5,404 | |
| Total prize pool: | $4,809,560 | |
| Players paid: | 811 | |
| Minimum payout: | $1,601 | |
| Final table results: | 1st place: | Robert McMillan (USA) $561,060 |
| 2nd place: | Robert Davis (USA) $346,743 | |
| 3rd place: | Daniel Stebbins (USA) $263,640 | |
| 4th place: | Jonathan Ingalls (USA) $201,753 | |
| 5th place: | Christopher Cummings (USA) $155,401 | |
| 6th place: | Dennis Jensen (USA) $120,484 | |
| 7th place: | Louis Cheffy (USA) $94,030 | |
| 8th place: | Todd Hansen (USA) $73,873 | |
| 9th place: | Daniel Lujano (USA) $58,425 |
Robert McMillan outlasts 5,404 entrants in the $1,000 Seniors event to earn $561,060 and his first WSOP bracelet.
📸: @hayleyocho https://t.co/xmxsLByKmP pic.twitter.com/uf7fSDvbF5— WSOP – World Series of Poker (@WSOP) November 1, 2021
Event 55: $400 NLHE Colossus
More than 9K entries started the colossal tournament, and more than 1,100 of them made it to Day 2. But that day pushed most of them out, as many collected payouts for their work and 49 of them bagged chips again. Some of the shorter stacks include Carlos Chang and Barbara Enright, as well as former chip leader Frank Flowers. Most players, though, are eyeing their first bracelet and hoping to win it today.
| Event 55: Day 2 of 3 | $400 buy-in | Colossus NLHE (1RE/flight) |
| Total entries: | 9,399 | |
| Registration still open? | no | |
| Total prize pool: | $3,101,670 | |
| Players paid: | 1391 | |
| Minimum payout: | $640 | |
| Winner payout: | $314,705 | |
| Chip leader: | Rafael Fernandes | |
| Players remaining: | 49 | |
| Restart: | 10am Monday |
Event 56: $10K NLHE 6-Handed Championship
Hundreds of players participated in this championship-level event. Nineteen of them made it to Day 3. Names like Nacho Barbero and Sam Grafton busted early, and JJ Liu exited in 13th place for $33,042. Matt Berkey busted in eighth place and the day’s original chipleader, Boris Kolev, followed in seventh – both missing the final table of six but each winning $62,505. Four-time bracelet winner Asi Moshe left in sixth place, but Ben Yu went from the shortest stack and didn’t take the lead until well into three-handed play, but he never looked back from there. Yu won his fourth bracelet, telling PokerNews:
“Every time you win one of these, it’s pretty special. This one, in particular, was a fairly tough event…and a fairly large field, too. I don’t think I’m able to process this yet.”
| Event 56: Day 3 of 3 | $10K buy-in | NLHE 6-Handed Championship |
| Total entries: | 329 | |
| Total prize pool: | $3,067,925 | |
| Players paid: | 50 | |
| Minimum payout: | $16,098 | |
| Final table results: | 1st place: | Ben Yu (USA) $721,453 |
| 2nd place: | Nikita Kuznetsov (Russia) $445,892 | |
| 3rd place: | Ariel Mantel (Argentina) $293,578 | |
| 4th place: | Mike Sowers (USA) $198,205 | |
| 5th place: | Steve Yea (South Korea) $137,303 | |
| 6th place: | Asi Moshe (Israel) $97,660 |
Ben Yu grabs his fourth WSOP bracelet and $721,453 after taking down the $10,000 6-handed NLH Championship.
📸: @timeweavers https://t.co/GB6JX5dtEw pic.twitter.com/i3wGnwzy2n— WSOP – World Series of Poker (@WSOP) November 1, 2021
Event 57: $10K Limit 2-7 Lowball Triple Draw Championship
A few players bought in just before the start of Day 2 of this championship event, pushing the number of total entries to 90. But considering the bustouts on Day 1, little more than 40 players started Day 2, and only eight made it through. Danny Wong had the chip lead at the end of both days thus far, and his distance from the others may translate into WSOP gold.
| Event 57: Day 2 of 3 | $10K buy-in | Limit 2-7 Lowball Triple Draw Championship |
| Total entries: | 90 | |
| Registration still open? | no | |
| Total prize pool: | $746,000 | |
| Players paid: | 14 | |
| Minimum payout: | $16,552 | |
| Winner payout: | $240,341 | |
| Chip leader: | Danny Wong | Danny Wong = 1,755,000 chips |
| Players remaining: | 8 | Brian Yoon = 1,170,000 chips |
| Restart: | 2pm Monday | Wil Wilkinson = 945K chips |
| Don Nguyen = 565K chips | ||
| Jordan Siegel = 300K chips | ||
| Joao Vieira = 290K chips | ||
| Brandon Shack-Harris = 275K chips | ||
| Mike Thorpe = 110K chips |
Event 58: $1K Super Seniors NLHE
Players aged 60 and over came to the Rio in droves on Sunday to play this event. It was so appealing that even Doyle Brunson made his first appearance at the Rio in several years. He took lots of photos and indulged a lot of fans, but he didn’t play much poker. He didn’t even play an hour and then pushed his last chips all-in blind to bust. In the end, fewer than 500 players bagged any chips. Farhad Davoudzadeh had the distinction of being the day’s chipleader.
| Event 58: Day 1 of 3 | $1K buy-in | Super Seniors NLHE (1RE) |
| Total entries: | 1,893 | |
| Registration still open? | no | |
| Total prize pool: | $1,684,770 | |
| Players paid: | 234 | |
| Minimum payout: | $1,605 | |
| Winner payout: | $255,623 | |
| Chip leader: | Farhad Davoudzadeh | |
| Players remaining: | 490 | |
| Restart: | 10am Monday |
https://twitter.com/hayleyocho/status/1454957624055648257?s=20
Event 59: $1K NLHE Tag Team
This is always a fun event, as a lot of players bring their significant others to the tables, or event a parent or grandparent. What is normally a solitary game becomes a team sport, and it’s every team for itself. Hundreds of two-person teams bought in to play, and the madness stopped with just 127 teams moving forward. Many more will exit today, but take a look at the photos on the PokerNews event page for this tournament to see some of the pairs and Halloween costumes.
| Event 59: Day 1 of 3 | $1K buy-in/team | Tag Team NLHE (2-person teams) |
| Total entries: | 641 | |
| Registration still open? | no | |
| Total prize pool: | $285,245 | |
| Players paid: | unknown | |
| Minimum payout: | unknown | |
| Winner payout: | unknown | |
| Chip leader: | Team Ruter | |
| Players remaining: | 127 | |
| Restart: | 1pm Monday |
Event 60: $50K Poker Players Championship
One of the most anticipated tournaments of the year, the Poker Players Championship awards a trophy that honors Chip Reese to go with the WSOP bracelet. It has a very slow structure to give players maximum play over the course of five days, should they make it that far.
Day 1 only got things going with 43 players, but several of them didn’t make it through the first evening: Matthew Ashton, Michael Noori, Jake Schwartz, and Albert Daher. Big names remain among the 39 with Bryce Yockey holding the lead and Dario Sammartino following behind. Final numbers and more of a playdown will happen today.
| Event 60: Day 1 of 5 | $50K buy-in | Poker Players Championship 6-Handed |
| Total entries: | 43 | |
| Registration still open? | yes | |
| Total prize pool: | TBD | |
| Players paid: | TBD | |
| Minimum payout: | TBD | |
| Winner payout: | TBD | |
| Chip leader: | Bryce Yockey | |
| Players remaining: | 39 | |
| Restart: | 2pm Monday |
Event OB6: $666 NLHE Online
This spooky online event played out online with no live reporting coverage. Since players need not use their real names, we don’t yet know who won this event.
| Online OB Event 6 | $666 buy-in | NLHE (2x RE) |
| Total entries: | 720 | |
| Total prize pool: | $617,400 | |
| Players paid: | 167 | |
| Minimum payout: | $926.10 | |
| Final table results: | 1st place: | “Relevancy” (USA) $114,898.14 |
| 2nd place: | “Sucra71” (Canada) $71,001 | |
| 3rd place: | “legend92782” (USA) $50,256.36 | |
| 4th place: | “miguelfiesta” (USA) $36,056.16 | |
| 5th place: | “livinmydream” (Austria) $26,177.76 | |
| 6th place: | “Cushty” (USA) $19,262.88 | |
| 7th place: | “Estakeking87” (USA) $14,385.42 | |
| 8th place: | “SlaweelRyam” (USA) $10,866.24 | |
| 9th place: | “NWPoker88” (USA) $8,334.90 |
Highlight of the Day
For many poker players, the highlight of the year was seeing Doyle Brunson back at the WSOP tables. While he has stayed away since 2018, choosing to focus on cash games, he made a quick appearance in the Super Seniors event. He didn’t appear too serious about being there or doing well in the tournament, but he made a lot of poker fans very happy.
