WSOP Day 53 Review: Mikita Badziakouski and Leo Margets Both Win Maiden Bracelets as Negreanu Podiums Again

Another huge day in the 2021 World Series saw three WSOP bracelets won and big names run deep as Mikita Badziakouski, Leo Margets and Michael McCauley all won WSOP gold bracelets for the first time in their careers. The Thunderdome was full of action as three of the four events that took place concluded and there was huge drama in the $100,000-entry High Roller event, too.

Badziakouski Binks First Bracelet

Belarussian powerhouse Mikita Badziakouski is known as one of the toughest poker players in the world, but even he must have thought winning the $50,000 NLHE High Roller was going to be a difficult mission as he entered the nine-handed final table as one of the shorter stacks. Just a few hours later, however, the Belarussian had his first WSOP bracelet in his possession after a masterclass of tournament play concluded with him holding the gold.

After fellow short stack Ryan Leng departed, Badziakouski watched as Joao Vieira and Carlos Villamarin joined Leng on the rail. Down to six players, Badziakouski started to rise after winning a big hand and after the dinner break, he returned to action with the chip lead and a convincing one at that.

As the stars continued to fall, Badziakouski used tactics to allow some of his opponents to take each other out, as he watched Ali Imsirovic and Stephen Chidwick miss out on the top four. Badziakouski continued to chip up during this period and with only three opponents between him and the gold, had 20 million chips, with each of his three opponents between 4 and 5 million.

One by one, Badziakouski took each of his remaining enemies out as he busted Jason Koon in fourth, Daniel Negreanu in third then finally got the better of Ren Lin heads-up to claim a first-ever WSOP bracelet after a stirring final table performance where the Belarussian was simply impossible to live with for his eight opponents.

WSOP 2021 Event #85 $50,000 NLHE High Roller
Place	Player	Country	Prize
1st	Mikita Badziakouski	Belarus	$1,462,043
2nd	Ren Lin	U.S.A.	$903,610
3rd	Daniel Negreanu	Canada	$661,041
4th	Jason Koon	U.S.A.	$489,585
5th	Stephen Chidwick	U.S.A.	$367,153
6th	Ali Imsirovic	Bosnia	$278,840
7th	Carlos Villamarin	U.S.A.	$214,496
8th	Joao Vieira	Portugal	$167,152
9th	Ryan Leng	U.S.A.	$131,982

Margets Makes History in The Closer

In Event #84, Spanish player Leo Margets became the first female winner of a WSOP 2021 event that wasn’t the Ladies Championship as she rallied late to stun Alex Kulev and claim a memorable first bracelet for herself.

A rollercoaster final day saw 63 players return to the felt, with Margets one of many chasing Kulev as he entered the final table with a massive lead. That lead lasted through seven eliminations as with each exit, the Bosnian seemed destined to be lifting the bracelet with everyone else playing for a valuable runner-up spot. Instead, Margets won with nine-four against Kulev’s ace-nine, then made quads to level up the stacks.

Taking out Kulev with a bottom pair and flush draw from the flop as she turned trips fives, Margets leapt into the air upon the river card concluding the event as she triumphed against the odds to win her first-ever WSOP bracelet and become the only female player to win an open event at the 2021 World Series of Poker.

WSOP 2021 Event #83 $1,500 The Closer
Place	Player	Country	Prize
1st	Leo Margets	Spain	$376,850
2nd	Alex Kulev	Bosnia	$232,920
3rd	Stephen Song	U.S.A.	$172,855
4th	Marc Lange	Germany	$129,460
5th	Arturo Segura	U.S.A.	$97,865
6th	Cherish Andrews	U.S.A.	$74,680
7th	Aleksandr Shevliakov	Russia	$57,525
8th	Chris Moorman	U.K.	$44,740
9th	Benjamin Underwood	Canada	$35,131

In the $100,000 NLHE High Roller Event #87, there was a dramatic first day that ended with German crusher Fedor Holz top of the chipcounts on a massive stack of over 3.4 million chips. Closely followed by David Peters on 3.3 million, Holz will have some top-quality opposition on Day 2 of this three-day event as players such as Sam Grafton (2.1 million), Seth Davies (1.2m) and Michael Addamo (885,000) all made the top 10 chipcounts.

There was no way through day 1 for legends of the felt such as Darren Elias, Ole Schemion, Brian Rast, Stephen Chidwick, Justin Bonomo, Dario Sammartino, Adrian Mateos, Ali Imsirovic or Jason Koon.

WSOP 2021 Event #87 $100,000 NLHE High Roller
Place	Player	Country	Prize
1st	Fedor Holz	Germany	3,415,000
2nd	David Peters	U.S.A.	3,305,000
3rd	Orpen Kisacikoglu	Turkey	3,040,000
4th	Sam Grafton	U.K.	2,120,000
5th	Bill Klein	U.S.A.	1,885,000
6th	Jonathan Little	U.S.A.	1,625,000
7th	Seth Davies	U.S.A.	1,260,000
8th	Laszlo Bujtas	Hungary	1,240,000
9th	John Lilic	Canada	1,190,000
10th	Michael Addamo	Australia	885,000

Finally, in the $1,000-entry single-day Event #86, the Super Turbo event, Joash Arieh made another deep run as the current WSOP Player of the Year leader made it all the way to 10th place out of 1,025 entries. With Phil Hellmuth joining the field but unable to go deep, along with players such as Shaun Deeb and recent first-time WSOP bracelet winner Jason Wheeler, it was an event where the final nine-handed table was reached in record time.

Once the final table began, Irish poker legend Dara O’Kearney busted with a dominated ace, before players such as Marc Lomeo, Luigi Curcio and Filippo Ragone all busted at a truly continental final table. Yuval Bronshtein was the only WSOP bracelet winner remaining in the field at that stage, but he busted in fourth place.

The chip leader for much of the final day, Neel Joshi from India, busted in third place. Heads-up was a transatlantic affair, with Britain’s Andrew Wilson quickly overcome by Michael McAuley of the United States, who claimed his first-ever WSOP bracelet and the $161,384 top prize.

WSOP 2021 Event #86 $1,000 Super Turbo
Place	Player	Country	Prize
1st	Michael McCauley	U.S.A.	$161,384
2nd	Andrew Wilson	U.K.	$99,742
3rd	Neel Joshi	India	$72,031
4th	Yuval Bronshtein	Israel	$52,679
5th	Rajvir Dua	U.S.A.	$39,022
6th	Filippo Ragone	U.S.A.	$29,282
7th	Luigi Curcio	Italy	$22,263
8th	Marc Lomeo	U.S.A.	$17,153
9th	Dara O’Kearney	Ireland	$13,395

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