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First-time WSOP bracelet winner Harvey Mathews claimed gold at the 2021 World Series of Poker in Las Vegas as Rafael Lebron also marked a memorable victory after winning against his poker hero on Day 9 of the world’s biggest poker festival.

Mathews Wins First Bracelet in Miracle Comeback

Harvey Mathews was the first big winner of the night on Day 9 as he won a maiden WSOP bracelet in stunning fashion. Mathews entered the day as the shortest stack remaining but went on the attack from the off to force himself back into contention and hit a six-outer on the river to win when heads-up.

Just seven players kicked off the action in the Thunderdome on the final day, with Mathews going from the player with the least chips to the most on a heater no one saw coming. You can watch all the action in the final table replay exclusively on PokerGO.

WSOP 2021 Event #13 $3,000 NLHE Freezeout
Place Player Country Prize
1st Harvey Mathews U.S.A. $371,914
2nd Gabriel Andrade U.S.A. $229,848
3rd Michael Gathy Belgium $164,083
4th Girish Apte U.S.A. $118,815
5th Brandon Caputo U.S.A. $87,288
6th David Lolis U.S.A. $65,072
7th Craig Mason U.S.A. $49,238
8th Andrew Jeong U.S.A. $37,824
9th Freddy Heller U.S.A. $29,504

Lebron Takes Title After Heroic Heads Up Victory

Another winner was crowned in Las Vegas on Friday night as Rafael Lebron won his second WSOP after he took down Event #14, the $1,500-entry Seven Card Stud tournament.

With six players remaining at the end of Day 2, the final kicked off with Lebron in the lead, but he only had a marginal advantage over players that included former WSOP Player of the Year Shaun Deeb and WSOP Main Event runner-up David Williams, who Lebron admitted was a bit of a hero when he got into the game.

Shaun Deeb busted in fifth place for $18,475 to open up the field and after Christina Hill had laddered to fourth for $25,344, Lebron and Williams seemed on a collision course. That was exactly what happened after David Moskowitz was eliminated in third place for $35,521. The final duel saw Lebron take a big lead into the action and he closed it out to win his second WSOP bracelet and deny Williams that exact achievement.

WSOP 2021 Event #14 $1,500 Seven Card Stud
Place Player Country Prize
1st Rafael Lebron U.S.A. $82,262
2nd David Williams U.S.A. $50,842
3rd David Moskowitz U.S.A. $35,521
4th Christina Hill U.S.A. $25,344
5th Shaun Deeb U.S.A. $18,475
6th Nicholas Seiken U.S.A. $13,766
7th Maurizio Melara Italy $10,490
8th Hal Rotholz U.S.A. $8,179
9th Steven Albini U.S.A. $6,528

There were four other events taking place in the Rio on Day 9 of the 2021 WSOP and one that made the final table was Event #15, the $1,500-entry six-handed tournament.

Jeremy Malod will have the biggest stack of chips heading into the final day, with over 7.5 million chips to Bradley Jansen’s 6 million. Of the other six players to make the final table, everyone is shooting to become a first-time bracelet winner, with Sean Hegarty short-stacked on 1.45m.

Players to cash but not run to the final table included Joni Jouhkimainen, who busted in 11th place for $22,044, Jonas Mackoff (13th for $17,141) and Melanie Wesner, who missed out on the last lap of the race, busting in 17th for an impressive $17,141 score.

WSOP 2021 Event #15 $1,500 NLHE Six-Handed
Position Player Chips
1st Jeremy Malod 7,570,000
2nd Bradley Jansen 6,075,000
3rd Jesse Yaginuma 5,415,000
4th Ryan Andrada 4,495,000
5th Ryan Pedigo 4,270,000
6th Mark Liedke 2,950,000
7th Jon Baylor 2,130,000
8th Sean Hegarty 1,450,000

It took a massive 13 hours to find a final table of 10 players in the $10,000-entry Limit Hold’em Championship, with John Racener the cream of the crop. Racener was the only player to bag up over a million chips with the former bracelet winner totalling 1,090,000.

Racener’s nearest rival is Eric Kurtzman, who ended the day with 975,000, while other bracelet winners to have made the final are Jason Somerville (670,000), Kevin Song (515,000), Ray Dehkharghani (315,000) and John Monette (270,000).

With a massive $245,680 top prize and just $18,506 being on offer for 10th place, it’s sure to be an intense final day showdown to see who walks away with the latest bracelet.

WSOP 2021 Event #16 $10,000 Limit Hold’em Championship
Position Player Country Chips
1st John Racener U.S.A. 1,090,000
2nd Eric Kurtzman U.S.A. 975,000
3rd Jason Somerville U.S.A. 670,000
4th Scott Tuttle U.S.A. 650,000
5th Kevin Song U.S.A. 515,000
6th Nate Silver U.S.A. 440,000
7th Terrence Chan Canada 350,000
8th Ray Dehkharghani U.S.A. 315,000
9th John Monnette U.S.A. 270,000
10th Christopher Chung U.S.A. 250,000

Everyone was excited for just how many players would take to the felt on Day 1a of The Millionaire Maker, otherwise known as the $1,500-entry Event #17. With a mammoth field of 2,564 players, just 567 of those survived to Day 2, including our own Jeff Platt with 65,000 chips.

Other big names to bag up even bigger stacks included former WSOP bracelet winner Chance Kornuth (324,000), Kitty Kuo (276,500), Jason Wheeler (254,000) and former WSOP Main Event champion Ryan Riess (97,000).

WSOP 2021 Event #17 $1,500 Millionaire Maker
Position Player Chips
1st Yiming Li 487,000
2nd Donavan Dean 391,500
3rd Mark Dube 375,000
4th Shan Jing 374,500
5th R.A. Villaluna 366,000
6th David Siegel 363,000
7th Nicholas Lebherz 360,000
8th Frank Bonacci 352,500
9th Keyu Qu 347,500
10th William Nguyen 341,000

In Event #18, the $2,500 Mixed Triple Draw Lowball event, Robert Mizrachi piled up 201,000 chips on Day 1 to lead some superstar players into Day 2. Plenty of other big names bagged up chips too, with last year’s event winner Dan Zack amongst them with 127,500.

Others who made Day 2 included Scott Seiver (177,000), Benny Glaser (129,000), David Benyamine (112,000), Daniel Negreanu (61,000) and David ‘ODB’ Baker (50,000).

WSOP 2021 Event #18 $2,500 Mixed Triple Draw Lowball
Position Player Chips
1 Robert Mizrachi 201,000
2 Julien Martini 180,000
3 Scott Seiver 177,000
4 Carlos Rodriguez 174,500
5 Domnick Sarle 173,500
6 Brian Tate 173,000
7 Philip Sternheimer 168,000
8 Schuyler Thornton 166,500
9 Craig Love 161,000
10 Steve Lee 160,000

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