Renan Bruschi Sings His Way to His First WSOP Bracelet in the BIG 500 ($150,327)

Renan Bruschi added yet another notch to his belt by winning his first career WSOP gold bracelet on Friday, Aug. 20 in the 2021 GGPoker WSOP Online after defeating Leonid "Mikleler" Bilokur heads-up in the two-day Event #14: $500 The BIG 500 to win the $150,327 top prize. The event itself was a huge success with 2,639 entries generating a massive $1,253,525 prize pool

While this was Bruschi's first bracelet, he is no stranger to the winner's circle, with almost $7,000,000 in online wins.

Bruschi came to the final table second in chips, but nearly 10 million behind the leader and fellow Brazilian Rafael "riskgambler" Furlanetto. Bruschi quickly grabbed the lead when he eliminated David "MPEW299" Wang in eighth place, and while he wasn't in a constant lead through the final table, he was consistently the top stack.

Bruschi was visibly enjoying himself at the final table. He took advantage of GGPoker's SnapCam feature several times through the final table, singing and eating. That casual attitude translated to his play at the table, as he was in control for much of the end-game.

Related: GGPoker Introduces SnapCam; Send Video Reactions to Your Opponents!

Event #14: The BIG 500 Final Table Results

The BIG 500 Final Day Action

The second and final day began with just 35 hopefuls with their eyes on the bracelet. Phachara "Phachara W" Wongwichit was second in chips to start the day, but couldn't turn that into better than 22nd place. Friend of GGPoker Jessica Teusl was on the other end of the spectrum, coming into the day short-stacked, and ending her run early in 34th place.

Other notable players to advance to the final day but came short of the final table included Chun Lei "judd trump" Zhou, Ivan "uPayMyOnix" Limeira, Tomi "BAAABUUSKIIII" Brouk, Rafael "TheBigKid" Moraes, and Rayan "InhalemyQuQ" Chamas.

The final table began about two hours into Day 2 after Ken "[email protected]" Okada unsuccessfully jammed king-nine suited into Furlanetto's ace-jack to finish in 10th place.

Furlanetto, who was the Day 1 chip leader, advanced to the final table with the biggest stack as well with nearly double the chips held by his closest competitor in Bruschi.

Bruschi managed to snag the lead with seven players remaining after the eliminations of Wang and Andrejs "Testosterone" Zukovs. The Brazilian was taking ample advantage of the GGPoker SnapCam at this point by entertaining both the other players and those watching on the PokerNews Twitch stream of the final table and maintained the lead during most of the final table.

Nick Maimone was the only player at the final table to previously win a bracelet after shipping Event #69: $1,500 Marathon for $302,472 at GGPoker last year and came one flip away from being near the top of the pack. But instead of doubling up, he was eliminated in sixth place just after Eugenio "Ausetep_255" Pernia hit the rail when his ace-queen suited didn't improve against the jacks held by Nikola Minkov.

Minkov then hit the rail when his big slick didn't get there against Bruschi's cowboys and the action was down to three players after Arthur Conan was unable to get his ace-jack to hold against Furlanetto's ace-four.

Bilokur Comes Back from Dust to Take the Lead

Leonid "Mikleler" Bilokur was down to just over two big blinds at one point at the final table before getting a crucial quadruple up. He followed this up with two double-ups to get into the mix before taking the lead for a short time before handing it back to Bruschi during three-handed play in what looked like a Cinderella story in the making. Bilokur advanced even further to heads-up play after Day 1 chip leader Furlanetto ran his deuces into Bruschi's snowmen.

Bruschi began heads-up play with a nearly 2:1 chip lead and cracked Bilokur's rockets en route to victory as follows.

August 21 WSOP Online Action

PokerNews live reporting coverage continues on Saturday, August 21 with Event #15: $10,000 Heads Up NLHE Championship. The two-day event is sure to attract some of the biggest names in the poker world, and you can follow the action from start to finish right here at PokerNews.

In the meantime, don't miss out on your chance to win a WSOP Main Event seat on ClubGG. Stage 1s are running in the client every hour, with players just three stages away from securing a $10,000 seat. Check it out!

2021 GGPoker WSOP Online Bracelet Events Schedule and Results