Our Top 5 Highlights From The WSOP 2021 So Far

Now that the World Series of Poker Main Event is well and truly underway in Las Vegas, we are looking back at some of our favourite moments from the series so far.

Anthony Zinno might be the most impressive story yet. He made history this year, becoming the only player ever to have won 4 World Series of Poker bracelets and 3 World Poker Tour titles.

Zinno’s impressive run began with Event#19: the $10,000 buy-in seven card stud championship. The field of 62 came down to a tough final table including Phil Hellmuth and Stephen Chidwick, but Zinno came out victorious, earning himself $182,872 and his third WSOP bracelet. 

Just a few days later, Zinno went on to win Event#27, the three-day $1,500 Horse. He outlasted 594 players to win $160,636 and his fourth career bracelet, putting him into an elite group of 4 time series winners including Joe Cada and Eli Elezra. 

The victory brought Zinno’s all-time earnings to an eye-watering $10.7 million dollars (according to The Hendon Mob) and also put him in the running for Player of the Year, temporarily knocking Jason Koon off the top spot.  

Phil Hellmuth silenced his doubters once again, winning his record-furthering 16th bracelet and further cementing his place in the history of the game.

After a strong start to the series, where he reached 4 final tables and cashed 5 times, victory came in Event#31, the $1,500 No Limit 2-7 Lowball Draw. Hellmuth fought his way through a field of 272 players to earn $84,851 and a staggeringly impressive 16th WSOP title.

Hellmuth now has a total of 158 cashes with earnings of $13,748,718 in the World Series of Poker alone!

Brian Rast scored his fifth gold bracelet after winning Event#51, the $3,000 buy-in 6 Max No Limit Hold’em. Rast fought through a field of 997 entries to secure gold and prize money of $474,102.

Next to claim their fifth gold bracelet was Shaun Deeb, winning Event#53, the $25,000 buy-in Pot Limit Omaha High Roller. The prestigious event attracted 212 entries with a $5,008,500 prize pool, of which Deeb took home $1,251,860.

Knock Jason Koon and Dan “Jungleman” Cates off the list of the best players in the world without a bracelet.

Koon took full advantage of his new baby run-good, taking down Event#11, the $25,000 Heads-Up Championship, which saw him outlast 57 players to take home $243,981 and his first, well deserved WSOP title.

When asked about winning his first bracelet, Koon told Poker News “It’s one of those things when you’re on an airplane and a person is like, ‘Do you have a bracelet?’ I’m just like, ‘Nope.’ At least I can finally say yes to that.”

Dan Cates also won his first gold bracelet, battling through 63 players to take down Event#60, the $50,000 buy-in Poker Players Championship. In addition to the bracelet, he took home $954,020 and the right to have his name engraved into the Chip Reese Memorial Trophy.

Father and daughter team David and Amanda Botfield provided a wholesome story during this series, winning third place in Event#59 the $1000 buy-in tag team event.

641 teams entered the event with a prize pool of $590,490. The Botfields took home $49,512, with second place of $70 070 going to Tomer Wolf and David Landell, and first place prize of $113 360 and a gold bracelet going to Mike Ruter and Samy Dighlawi.

Other notable moments included Chance Kornuth winning his third bracelet. Kevin Gerhart, Farzad Bonyadi, Brian Yoon, John Monnette and Joshua Arieh winning their fourth bracelets, and first time gold winner Gershon Distenfield donating all of his $204,063 prize to charity.

The next big story to come from the series is sure to be the winner of the highly anticipated Main Event. Who is your money on?

To celebrate today being the first day that players from Europe are able to join the tournament, we will be giving away 5 X FA POKER @PokerStars tickets. To enter, give us your Final Table predictions.

Sign up to play now: footy.ac/FAPokerStars