Robert McMillan Wins 2021 WSOP Event #52: $1,000 Seniors Championship ($561,060)

After four days of exciting action, Arizona’s Robert McMillan captured his first gold bracelet and the top prize of $561,060 in the 2021 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Event #52: $1,000 Seniors Championship. The win marks McMillan’s largest career payday and his fourth cash in this event, defeating a field of 5,404 entries that generated a prize pool of $4,809,560.

McMillan told PokerNews that he felt something big happening as he progressed through the first three days: “I felt it yesterday especially, I dreamt this was going to happen.”

Event #52: $1,000 Seniors Championship Roller Final Table Results

The final three players all hailed from Arizona, with McMillan taking a critical hand that left Daniel Stebbins short.

“He was on a draw, I hid it, I slow-played it” McMillan explained. “I had an eight, I turned an eight, now I got trip eights, and I want him to get his chips in. The only spade he couldn’t hit was the three of spades and I hit it.”

Stebbins was eliminated shortly after for a third-place finish, leaving McMillan heads up with a big chip advantage against Robert Davis.

After Davis evened the stacks a little, the players battled in a dramatic final hand. Davis put McMillan to the test on the turn for almost all of the chips in play.

“I was so nervous," McMillan said about the hand. "The worst card hit, the king. I don’t blame him for what he did. He was committed. Thought I had the best hand. Still can’t believe I called.”

McMillan made the call with middle pair and held to win the tournament. “I’m so proud of making that last call, that’s what’s gonna stay with me because it’s for the whole thing.”

Final Day Action

The final day began with 16 players remaining, and it did not take long to reach the final table redraw after six eliminations in the first 50 minutes of play. Once the final ten players combined to one table, Chris Wa bowed out on the bubble of the official WSOP final table.

Despite starting the day among the top five chip counts, Daniel Lujano ($58,425) hit the rail in ninth and Todd Hansen ($73,873) was eliminated in eighth. Louis Cheffy ($94,030) placed sixth before Dennis Jensen ($120,484) was knocked out on one of the biggest pots of the day.

Christopher Cummings ($155,401) began Day 4 with the chip lead but could only manage a fifth-place finish, while Jonathan Ingalls ($201,753) navigated a pair of pay jumps on his short stack to take fourth.

Other notable names that found the money prior to the final day were Greg Raymer, Kathy Liebert, John Cernuto, Allen Kessler, Barry Greenstein and Eli Elezra.