Arieh Achieves Victory for Third Career Gold at WSOP 2021
There are some names that longtime poker fans will always remember, players who were ever-present during the poker boom and made their mark on the game in one way or another. Some of them are back at the tables this year, like David Benyamine, and some never left, like Erik Seidel.
Josh Arieh was one of them. He took his breaks through the years to focus on family, but he never lost his love for the game. And a decade and a half after his last World Serie of Poker bracelet win, he broke out of that dry spell with a win on Day 23 of the WSOP.
His emotion, his passion for poker…all of it reminds us of what we love about it.
Event 39: $1,500 PLO
After taking the chip lead on Day 1, Josh Arieh took it into Day 2 and didn’t let go. He faced very tough competition, especially up against Tommy Le, the only other previous bracelet winner in the final five. But Arieh took the lead into heads-up and never relented. Afterward, he told PokerNews:
“I was just texting my girls. It’s like the whole reason why I work, and it’s tough being out here for so long. I actually just came back, had some good times with them. But I was just thinking about my girls and life, and thinking about everything, and just really f**king excited.”
| Event 39: Day 3 of 3 | $1,500 buy-in | PLO (1RE) |
| Total entries: | 821 | |
| Total prize pool: | $1,096,035 | |
| Players paid: | 124 | |
| Minimum payout: | $2,400 | |
| Final table results: | 1st place: | Josh Arieh (USA) $204,766 |
| 2nd place: | Tommy Le (USA) $126,549 | |
| 3rd place: | Robert Blair (USA) $89,968 | |
| 4th place: | Ivan Deyra (France) $64,890 | |
| 5th place: | Gabriel Andrade (Ecuador) $47,492 | |
| 6th place: | Nitesh Rawtani (USA) $35,278 | |
| 7th place: | Lior Abudi (Israel) $26,603 | |
| 8th place: | Charles Wilt (USA) $20,371 |
. @golferjosh takes down Event #39: $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha, in dominant fashion, to win his third gold bracelet. Arieh's previous first-place finishes at the annual WSOP date back to 2005 and 1999.
📸 @hayleyocho https://t.co/VVCqClJ5z7 pic.twitter.com/QfC8rs4imK
— WSOP – World Series of Poker (@WSOP) October 23, 2021
Event 40: $10K HORSE Championship
Day 3 of this tournament took eight hours to play from 16 players down to just five. Max Pescatori exited in 14th place for $20,272, denied a fifth WSOP bracelet. Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier busted in tenth for $26,171, Benny Glaser exited in ninth place, unable to secure a fourth bracelet. David Benyamine busted in eighth place, followed by Jake Schwartz and Chris Vitch, to set a table of five for today.
| Event 40: Day 3 of 4 | $10K buy-in | HORSE Championship |
| Total entries: | 149 | |
| Registration still open? | no | |
| Total prize pool: | $1,389,425 | |
| Players paid: | 23 | |
| Minimum payout: | $16,218 | |
| Winner payout: | $361,124 | |
| Chip leader: | Kevin Gerhart | Kevin Gerhart = 2.72M chips |
| Players remaining: | 5 | Eddie Blumenthal = 2.4M chips |
| Restart: | 2pm Saturday | Marco Johnson = 1.84M chips |
| Bryce Yockey = 1.445M chips | ||
| Brandon Shack-Harris = 540K chips |
Event 41: $2,500 NLHE Freezeout
A long second day of No Limit Hold’em took this field down to just eight players. Near the end of the day, original chipleader Dominykas Mikolaitis busted in 13th place for $18,768. And after the ninth-place exit of Christopher Basile, play stopped with eight remaining, only one – Sung Joo Hyun – of whom is a previous bracelet winner.
| Event 41: Day 2 of 3 | $2,500 buy-in | NLHE Freezeout |
| Total entries: | 896 | |
| Registration still open? | no | |
| Total prize pool: | $1,993,600 | |
| Players paid: | 135 | |
| Minimum payout: | $4,009 | |
| Winner payout: | $364,589 | |
| Chip leader: | Carlos Chang | Carlos Chang = 8.14M chips |
| Players remaining: | 8 | Brady Osterman = 7.69M chips |
| Restart: | 12pm Saturday | Arthur Conan = 4.8M chips |
| Quang Ngo = 4.3M chips | ||
| Gerald Cunniff = 2M chips | ||
| Sung Joo Hyun = 1.815M chips | ||
| Adrien Delmas = 1.4M chips | ||
| Sergi Reixach = 1.19M chips |
Event 42: $1,500 Razz
The money bubble burst a bit into Day 2, and then players like David “Bakes” Baker and Anthony Zinno led the way to the payout window. Robert Campbell and Brock Parker headed there as well. Later in the evening, Ryan Riess and Julien Martini busted, Frank Kassela followed, and Perry Friedman exited in 18th place. After Joe Paz-Gutierrez departed in ninth place with $6,801, the final eight bagged their chips. Several bracelet winners remain, as Matt Grapenthien goes for his second, Yuri Dzivielevski his third, Bradley Ruben his third, and David “ODB” Baker plays for his third.
| Event 42: Day 2 of 3 | $1,500 buy-in | Razz |
| Total entries: | 311 | |
| Registration still open? | no | |
| Total prize pool: | $563,370 | |
| Players paid: | 47 | |
| Minimum payout: | $2,431 | |
| Winner payout: | $99,188 | |
| Chip leader: | Charles Sinn | Charles Sinn = 2,345,000 chips |
| Players remaining: | 8 | Brett Feldman = 1,230,000 chips |
| Restart: | 2pm Saturday | Matt Grapenthien = 1,215,000 chips |
| Yuri Dzivielevski = 1,015,000 chips | ||
| Alex Livingston = 860K chips | ||
| Bradley Ruben = 855K chips | ||
| David “ODB” Baker = 180K chips | ||
| Hassan Kamoei = 80K chips |
Event 43: $1K NLHE Double Stack
The first of two starting days drew nearly 2K entries but whittled the field down to little more than 500 players by the end of the night. Today brings a new crowd to the tables, and all survivors will join together on Sunday to play down toward the money.
| Event 43: Day 1A of 5 | $1K buy-in | NLHE Double Stack (1RE) |
| Total entries: | 1,937 | |
| Registration still open? | yes | |
| Total prize pool: | TBD | |
| Players paid: | TBD | |
| Minimum payout: | TBD | |
| Winner payout: | TBD | |
| Chip leader: | Alexander Farahi | |
| Players remaining: | 506 | |
| Day 1B start: | 11am Saturday |
Event 44: $3K LHE
A solid field of Limit Hold’em players took their seats on Friday to play for gold, but only 78 of them made it through the pro-heavy field. Dozens return today to play toward the money. After the top 25 secure payouts, they will go for their seats at the final table
| Event 44: Day 1 of 3 | $3K buy-in | LHE 6-Handed |
| Total entries: | 162 | |
| Registration still open? | no | |
| Total prize pool: | $432,540 | |
| Players paid: | 25 | |
| Minimum payout: | $4,830 | |
| Winner payout: | $109,692 | |
| Chip leader: | Ray Henson | |
| Players remaining: | 78 | |
| Restart: | 2pm Saturday |
Highlight of the Day
At this point in the WSOP, after three weeks of action have already passed, it can be easy to forget that some players are hitting the Rio to play in the WSOP for the first time this year. And many of them feel a certain way about walking into those ballrooms. For example, Tim Reilly is a seasoned pro but still gets excited about his first event of the WSOP season.
Me walking into the Amazon room heading to my seat for my first WSOP event pic.twitter.com/AJ0I17Mkjr
— Tim Reilly 🇺🇸🇮🇪🇫🇷 (@TimReillyPoker) October 23, 2021
