Josh Arieh came into the 2021 World Series of Poker as a two-time bracelet winner, with more than $5.4 million in prior cashes in bracelet events. The 2004 main event third-place finisher’s last win at the series came in 2005, with two runner-up finishes and another third-place showing in the 16 years since that title run. After those close calls, the 47-year-old from Atlanta, Georgia was able to break through once again and emerge victorious in this year’s $1,500 pot-limit Omaha event, defeating a field of 821 entries to earn $204,766. “I think I’m really good just like everybody else, but I haven’t won a bracelet in 15 years. I’ve come close,” Arieh told PokerGO after securing the victory. “I think I have three or four seconds in the last six years and I fucking dog it. I choke. I started feeling that pressure again right at the beginning but I was lucky enough to hold some cards and fight through the mental weakness I guess. It’s always good. Winning money and winn
Three players from Lithuania have won World Series of Poker gold bracelets. Vincas Tamasauskas, Gediminas Uselis, and Vladas Burneikis all secured their WSOP hardware in online events. That meant that when Karolis Sereika outlasted a 1,441-player field in the fast-paced 2021 WSOP $1,500 super turbo bounty no-limit hold’em freezout, he became the first player from his home country to take down a bracelet in a live event. “This is the first live Lithuanian WSOP bracelet, so that means a lot to me and all Lithuanian players, I’m very happy and very excited, he told PokerNews live reporters after securing the win. Just so many emotions, I really wanted it with all my heart.” In addition to the hardware and the $195,310 first-place prize, Sereika also secured 960 Card Player Player of the Year points as the champion of this event. This was his first POY-qualified score of the year, but it alone was enough to see him climb within striking distance of the top 200 in the 2021 POY rac
Ran Koller made his first career tournament victory a memorable one as it came with a World Series of Poker bracelet. The native of Israel took down the massive 2,778-entry field in the $800 no-limit hold’em deepstack event. He defeated fellow Israeli Ran Ilani heads-up to earn $269,478, by far the largest score of his career. Ilani took home $$166,552 for his runner-up finish. “It’s amazing,” Koller told WSOP live reporters after his victory. “I do not even have words for it. It was surreal.” Along with the six-figure score, Koller earned 600 points in the Card Player Player of the Year race, which puts him in the top 500 for the title. Despite the deepstack title, it only took about four hours for Koller to finish off the other seven players at the final table. When the final nine players combined at the unofficial final table, Koller was near the bottom of the counts with 18 big blinds, while everyone was chasing Ilani, who started nine-handed play with 48 blinds of his
Just after the clock struck midnight and it was officially Saturday morning at the Rio All-Suites Hotel & Casino, Anthony Zinno became the 53rd player in poker history to own at least four World Series of Poker bracelets and the 55th to win at least two bracelets in one series. The poker pro from Rhode Island bested a field of 594 entries to win the $1,500 HORSE. He took home $160,636 for his efforts, which bumps his career tournament earnings to more than $10.6 million. Zinno also added 840 points to his chances at winning the Card Player Player of the Year Race, where he now sits in 65th place. His HORSE victory comes just four days after he took down the $10,000 seven card stud championship for $182,872. With four WSOP victories and three more World Poker Tour titles, Zinno has already put together one of the most successful careers in tournament poker history. His three WPT titles came in no-limit hold’em, his first two WSOP bracelets came in pot-limit Omaha and this year
A WSOP.com tournament regular took down the third online bracelet of this fall’s World Series of Poker as Pete Chen won the $400 no-limit hold’em ultra deepstack. The native of Taiwan netted $82,559 after defeating a 1,023-entry field to earn his first WSOP bracelet. While Chen plays most of his tournament volume online, he is an accomplished live pro with $3.1 million in live tournament earnings. Outside of a runner-up finish in the $5,000 no-limit hold’em at the 2017 WSOP, most of Chen’s live tournament scores came in Asia. He bested a final table that featured online legend Amit Makhija. Despite more than $3 million in live earnings, Makhija was also searching for his first WSOP bracelet, but busted in eighth place for $8,305. Chen came into the final table in the middle of the pack and stayed alive while a few players hit the rail. Stephen Wieczorek was the short stack and eliminated by Melody Mckee. McKee raised from early position and Wieczorek moved all in from middle po