The 2021 World Series of Poker is still creeping along, using the days after the conclusion of the $10,000 Championship Event to wrap up some unfinished business (or, perhaps, to milk a little more out of the cow). The High Roller tournaments have been the featured events over the weekend, with two of them actually reaching a conclusion. In those tourneys, Jeremy Ausmus emerged victorious against two Poker Hall of Famers, while Adrian Mateos rode a monster stack all the way to the title in a Super High Roller event.
Adrian Mateos Collects Fourth WSOP Bracelet
To say it was a foregone conclusion that Adrian Mateos was going to win the $250,000 Super High Roller No Limit Hold’em tournament at the 2021 WSOP was an understatement. Mateos walked into “The Mothership” in the Rio All-Suites Hotel and Casino on Saturday with more than half of the chips in play in the event. Mateos’ 25.5 million chips dwarfed all four of his opponents – Keith Tilston (8.9 million), Ben Heath (6.5 million), Seth Davies (4.55 million), and John Kincaid (3.925 million – but there was that slim chance that an earthquake might open up and suck Mateos under before the tournament resumed. That did not happen, however, so they went about the formalities of playing it out.
Mateos at least stayed out of the way while the other players tussled to earn the right to face him. First to go was Tilston, surprisingly, who shipped his stack to Kincaid after his A-3 was crushed by Kincaid’s A-10 on a Q-A-J-9-8 board. Davies exited soon after Tilston’s departure at the hands of Heath. In the battle, Davies’ A-7 found absolutely no help against Heath’s pocket Jacks on a ten-high runout.
Down to three players, there was a momentary change at the top of the leaderboard. Heath earned a double through Mateos after the Spaniard got a little adventurous with A-J against Heath’s pocket treys. On the very next hand, however, Mateos would retake the lead by eliminating Kincaid in third place, picking up a set of Aces on the flop and rivering a full house against Kincaid’s thoroughly crushed pocket nines.
Mateos went to heads-up against Heath with a nine million chip lead and would not even breath hard in getting to the finish. Within 15 minutes of the start of heads-up action, the chips found their way to the center on a 7-6-5-Q-2 board. Mateos turned up a Q-10 for a top pair of Queens and Heath flashed a 5-3 for an inferior pair and his coronation as champion of the Super High Roller was complete.
1. Adrian Mateos, $3,265,262
2. Ben Heath, $2,018,148
3. John Kincaid, $1,370,575
4. Seth Davies, $930,791
5. Keith Tilston, $632,124
Jeremy Ausmus Defeats Hellmuth, Negreanu on Way to PLO High Roller Title
34 players came back from the 85 entries that started the tournament, but it was only important the final 13 players. That is because it was those men who took home some of the $4 million-plus prize pool for their efforts. That goal was reached when Alexander Petersen was able to take out Dan Cates on the money bubble, ensuring everyone left in the tournament of a minimum $83,951 payday.
From there, the eliminations all took home some money. Gavin Cochrane and Henrik Hecklen took down the minimum for their thirteenth and twelfth place finishes, respectively, while Shaun Deeb and Scott Seiver took home $91,821 for finishing in eleventh and tenth places. With those eliminations, the final table was set with a star-studded final table that included 2021 double bracelet winner Josh Arieh, Jeremy Ausmus, Ben Lamb, Daniel Negreanu and Phil Hellmuth, all looking up at chip leader Laszlo Bujtas.
At one point, Ausmus was the short stack on the table. He would persevere, however, and watch the talent fall around him until it was just he, Negreanu and Hellmuth left on the felt. All three men would hold the chip lead at some point in their three-hour battle, but it would eventually come down to just Ausmus (14.5 million) and Hellmuth (11 million) to decide the title.
In a rarity, the heads-up match lasted all of one hand. After Ausmus ponied up 1.8 million and Hellmuth made the call. A juicy 7-9-6 flop saw Hellmuth check his option and, after Ausmus fired two million chips, Hellmuth responded with an all-in pot raise. Ausmus calmly made the call, and the cards went to their backs:
Hellmuth: K-9-7-6 (flopped two pair)
Ausmus: A-8-5-2 (flopped nine high straight)
Needing to see another nine, seven or six hit on the turn or river, Hellmuth instead saw a ten on the turn and a Queen on the river, denying him his 17th bracelet victory and giving Jeremy Ausmus the championship of the PLO High Roller and his third WSOP bracelet.
1. Jeremy Ausmus, $1,188,918
2. Phil Hellmuth, $734,807
3. Daniel Negreanu, $519,764
4. Alexander Petersen, $376,376
5. Laszlo Bujtas, $279,168
6. Jared Bleznick, $212,223
7. Josh Arieh, $165,452
8. Ben Lamb, $132,370
9. Veselin Karakitukov, $108,753