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Zhi Wu claimed one of the biggest wins of the 2021 WSOP so far as he won a debut bracelet in the $600-entry NHLE Deepstack event to claim the top prize of $281,604. Elsewhere on a day of drama across six events, Jason Koon and Daniel Zack both made it through to the semifinals of the $25,000 Heads Up Championship.

Wu Wins First-Ever Bracelet in Deepstack

Zhi Wu took down the first bracelet of the day, winning $281,384 by outlasting his final four opponents in Event #8, the $600 Deepstack event in the Thunderdome. In a dramatic final day, Wu took a massive lead into heads-up, only to be pegged back by his fellow American Ari Mezrich, before taking the title in a stunning final hand.

If you want to watch exactly what happened, then head here and enjoy the latest streamed final table on PokerGO!

WSOP 2021 Event #8 $600 NLHE Deepstack
Place Player Country Prize
1st Zhi Wu U.S.A. $281,604
2nd Ari Mezrich U.S.A. $173,998
3rd Chrishan Sivasundaram U.S.A. $131,675
4th Ryan Chan Canada $100,330
5th Nicholas Zautra U.S.A. $76,974

Koon and Zack Reach Heads-Up Semifinals

The last four of the $25,000 NLHE Heads-Up Championship have been reached, as Jason Koon, Daniel Zack, Gabor Szabo and Henri Puustinen all won in the Round of 16 and quarterfinals to progress to the final day of the event.

The round of 16 saw players such as David Peters, Cary Katz, Johannes Becker and Galen Hall all crash out as Jason Koon flew into the next round and was joined by players such as Mikita Badziakouski and Jake Daniels as the competition reached the stage of profit.

With eight players remaining, Badziakouski played off against Gabor Szabo, who prevailed after an awful start then saw a massive turnaround. There was another comeback win for Daniel Zack, who fell 3:1 behind in chips in the early stages of his bout against Bin Weng, and he wasn’t the only big name to make it. Koon’s match against Jake Daniels was a clash between two players in top form, but it was the quickest of the quarterfinals, with Koon making it through in just 13 minutes when pocket queens won a crucial coinflip against ace-king suited.

There will be $89,787 guaranteed to each player when the semifinals commence on Thursday, but each of the four men will have their sights set on the $243,981 top prize and fabled gold WSOP bracelet. Jason Koon will play Henri Puustinen, while Daniel Zack will take on Gabor Szabo, with Zack the only remaining WSOP bracelet holder remaining.

Jason Koon Day 7
Jason Koon flew through his quarterfinal i the $25,000 NLHE Heads Up Championship and is two victories away from his first bracelet.

Event #9 on the schedule reached the final table as Phil Hellmuth, who is aiming to win his 16th WSOP bracelet and extend his record, will go into the final day as the short-stack in the $10,000-entry Omaha Hi/Lo 8 or Better event.

It is Ari Engel who leads the final five and it’s a big lead, too, with the only other former bracelet winner holding over 3.4 million chips, more than double his nearest challenger, Zachary Milchman, who has 1.6m.

Hellmuth will go into play behind those two players as well as Andrew Yeh (1,105,000) and Eddie Blumenthal (1,405,000), holding just 390,000. No-one should discount a miraculous comeback from The Poker Brat, however, with Hellmuth’s record in the Rio unsurpassed by anyone.

WSOP 2021 Event #9 $10,000 Omaha Hi/Lo 8 or Better
Position Player Chips
1st Ari Engel 3,485,000
2nd Zachary Milchman 1,660,000
3rd Eddie Blumenthal 1,405,000
4th Andrew Yeh 1,105,000
5th Phil Hellmuth 390,000

Day 2 of Event #12 on the 2021 WSOP schedule saw 133 players play down to just sixteen final day survivors in the $1,500 Limit Hold’em tournament. Two men were at the top of the chipcounts on Day 1, but both Jeremy Maher and Anthony Zinno failed to make the final day, with both men sneaking into the money along with former WSOP Main Event winner Joe McKeehen but going no further.

Of the final 16 players, only Jorden Fox and Yuval Bronshtein have won a WSOP bracelet before, and neither have the lead, with Kevin Erickson (1,610,000) leading the way from Mike Lancaster (1,000,000) and Tina Tateossian (890,000).

WSOP 2021 Event #12 $1,500 Limit Hold’em Top 10 Chipcounts
Position Player Chips
1st Kevin Erickson 1,435,000
2nd Mike Lancaster 1,240,000
3rd Tony Nasr 885,000
4th Guy Cicconi 830,000
5th Ian Glycenfer 795,000
6th John Bunch 795,000
7th Tom McCormick 775,000
8th Yuval Bronshtein 770,000
9th Tina Tateossian 700,000
10th Anh Van Nguyen 685,000

Event #13, the $3,000 No-Limit Hold’em Freezeout, saw 108 players survive from a field of 720 across Day 1. Top stack of the day belonged to Andrew Jeong, who topped a million chips with 1,003,000 to lead from Antony Darmani (888,000) and Brandon Caputo (883,000).

Others to survive included four-time WSOP winner Michael Gathy (590,000), Betran ‘ElkY’ Grospellier (335,000), Scottish poker pro Niall Farrell (330,000) and Christian Harder (293,000), all of whom have above average stacks with which to attack Day 2 of the event, which has a prizepool of $1.9m and a top prize of $371,914.

WSOP 2021 Event #13 $3,000 NLHE Freezeout
Place Player Country Chips
1st Andrew Jeong U.S.A. 1,003,000
2nd Antony Darmani France 888,000
3rd Brandon Caputo U.S.A. 883,000
4th Landen Lucas U.S.A. 753,000
5th Yohwan Lim South Korea 720,000
6th Brock Parker U.S.A. 680,000
7th Frederic Heller U.S.A. 635,000
8th Steve Foutty U.S.A. 612,000
9th Ben Farrell United Kingdom 607,000
10th Michael Gathy Belgium 590,000

Finally, Event #14 saw 260 players in the $1,500 Seven Card Stud event reduced to just 89 players as superstars of the game such as former WSOP bracelet winners Brendan Taylor (236,500), Kevin Gerhart (220,500) and Dan Heimiller (184,000) all bagged up top 10 stacks.

Elias Hourani (240,000) leads the way, with others such as former gold holders Yueqi Zhu (122,000) and Brandon Shack-Harris (95,500) both above average in their pursuit of a bracelet tomorrow.

WSOP 2021 Event #14 $1,500 Seven Card Stud Top 10 Chipcounts:
Position Player Chips
1 Elias Hourani 240,000
2 Brendan Taylor 236,500
3 Jeffrey Mitseff 228,000
4 Kevin Gerhart 220,500
5 Dan Heimiller 184,000
6 Steve Albini 174,500
7 David Williams 172,500
8 Hal Rotholz 154,500
9 William Buckley 138,000
10 David Singer 128,000

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