2021 WSOP Day 23: Gerhart, Johnson, and Shack-Harris Seeking Third Bracelets with Five Remaining in $10K H.O.R.S.E.

Day 23 of the 2021 World Series of Poker (WSOP) featured another full day of poker action at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in sunny Las Vegas with Oct. 22 featuring six bracelet events.

Josh Arieh snagged his third bracelet after winning Event #39: $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha for $204,766 to end a more than 15-year drought on finding WSOP gold.

Five events are still in play including Event #40: $10,000 H.O.R.S.E. Championship, which is down to its final five players. Two-time WSOP bracelet winner Kevin Gerhart bagged the chip lead with Marco Johnson and Brandon Shack-Harris also still in contention for their third taste of WSOP gold.

Read on to learn about what took place on Day 23 of the 2021 WSOP.

Gerhart Leads the Final Five; Johnson and Shack-Harris Also Eye Repeat Bracelet Win

After over eight hours of play in a back-and-forth Day 3, Kevin Gerhart leads the final table into Day 4 of Event #40: $10,000 H.O.R.S.E. Championship at the 2021 World Series of Poker. The remaining players survived a penultimate day that started with 16 players and played down to the final five that will return Saturday to play to a winner on PokerGO. The popular H.O.R.S.E. Championship attracted 149 entrants to a field that generated a prize pool of $1,389,425, of which $361,124 will go to the winner along with the WSOP gold bracelet.

Behind Gerhart are Eddie Blumenthal, two-time bracelet winner Marco Johnson, and bracelet winner Bryce Yockey with Brandon Shack-Harris returning on the short stack for a chance to spin it up to win his third bracelet.

Event #40: $10,000 H.O.R.S.E. Championship Final Five Seat Draw

Day 3 Action

Eric Rodawig, Michael Trivett, Max Pescatori, Kevin Song, Jerry Wong, Randy Ohel, and Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier all hit the rail in the first two levels of the day, and the remaining players were quickly down to an unofficial final table of nine.

Gerhart built his lead throughout the day at a volatile final table that took more than three hours before finally Benny Glaser was eliminated in ninth place by Gerhart’s two-pair. It was another three hours of lead changes and doubles before the table saw its next elimination, David Benyamine, fall in in eighth place. Just a few hands later, Jake Schwartz and Chris Vitch were ousted to set the final five for Saturday's finale. When the dust settled, Gerhart held a small chip lead over Eddie Blumenthal, who made a late charge after struggling to find traction all day.

Final Table Results and Remaining Payouts

The button will be on Shack-Harris and there is one more hand to be played in Limit Hold'em when the action resumes at 4 p.m. local time. There are 23 minutes left in level 23, which features limit blinds of 30,000/60,000 and limits of 60,000/120,000. The final table will be broadcast with hole cards exposed at 5 p.m. at PokerGO.

Carlos Chang Leads the Final Eight in Event #41: $2,500 Freezeout No-Limit Hold'em

Event #41: $2,500 Freezeout No-Limit Hold'em drew a total of 896 entries to create a $1,993,600 prize pool and after two days of play, just eight players remain. Leading the way of the final table is Carlos Chang with 8,140,000, and Brady Osterman, who vaulted to the top of the counts in the last level, is right on his heels with 7,690,000.

Arthur Conan rounds out the top three Day 2 chips stacks with 4,800,000 and Sung Joo Hyun, the last WSOP bracelet owner of the field, will return with a stack of 1,815,000 .

They will be facing tough opposition, as experienced pro’s Sergi Reixach (1,190,000), Quang Ngo (4,300,000) and Adrien Delmas (1,400,000) also bagged tonight and are in a solid spot to claim the coveted title.

Final Eight of Event #42: $2,500 Freezout No-Limit Hold'em

Day 2 Action

Dominykas Mikolaitis, who bagged the overall chip lead on Day 1, held strong near the top of the counts all day but felted in 13th place ($18,768) when his nut flush on the turn didn’t hold against Christopher Basile who rivered a full house. Israel’s pro Uri Reichenstein followed him in the payout desk not long after, ending in 10th Place for $23,358.

During ten hours of action-packed play, plenty of big name pros hit the rail along the way and WSOP bracelet winners such as Sam Grafton (127th for $4,009), Asi Moshe (123rd for $4,009), Mark Seif (96th for $4,385), Rafi Elharar (80th for $5,306) and Justin Liberto (72th for $5,716) were eliminated early on.

The recent champion of Event #20 $1,000 No Limit Hold'em Flip & Go Presented by GGPoker, Dejuante Alexander, fell in 17th Place for $12,678 before the last break of the night after he lost his last chips against Chang in an all-in preflop pot for a flip situation.

Romain Lewis, who went through many ups and downs during the day, didn’t manage to find a bag at the end of the day and got eliminated in 23rd Place ($10,664).

Charles Sinn Holds Commanding Lead at Final Table of $1,500 Razz; Yuri Dzivielevski, David "ODB" Baker Still in the Hunt

It took until the last hand of a grueling 10-hour day, but the final table of Event #42: $1,500 Razz has been set.

Charles Sinn will take 2,345,000 and a comfortable chip lead into his first WSOP final table. Sinn leads second-place Brett Feldman (1,230,000) by more than one million chips.

Sinn and Feldman have never won a WSOP bracelet, but the final table is full of players who have accomplished that goal. Matt Grapenthien (1,215,000), Yuri Dzivielevski (1,015,000), Bradley Ruben (855,000), and David "ODB" Baker will all look to add another bracelet to their collection tomorrow. Baker built a sizeable chip lead over the rest of the field during the day, being the first to break the million-chip barrier, but fell back toward the bottom of the leaderboard at 180,000.

Final Table Seat Draw

Day 2 began with 98 players out of a starting field of 311 with their sights on making the money. Daniel Negreanu, Ari Engel, and Matt Waxman were all eliminated before the money bubble burst. The unfortunate bubble-boy was Reza Golestani, who fell in 48th place.

Once the bubble burst, David "Bakes" Baker (46th), Day 1 chip leader Ariel Shefer (44th), Anthony Zinno (41st), reigning WSOP Player of the Year Robert Campbell (39th), and Ryan Riess (27th) all found their way to the payout desk. Actor James Woods made it to 20th place before he was knocked out in a double-elimination along with Tom McCormick by Feldman.

Play will resume at 2 p.m. PST on Saturday inside the Mothership in the Amazon Room. A new champion will be crowned by the end of the day, and PokerNews will be on hand to provide all the live updates.

Farahi & Greenblatt Lead the Way After Day 1a of Event #43: $1,000 Double Stack No-Limit Hold'em

Day 1a of Event #43: $1,000 Double Stack No-Limit Hold'em has come to an end. All of the entries started with a total of 40,000 chips and this event attracted 1,937 entries on Day 1a with 506 players progressing to Day 2.

The day ended with a trio of Alexanders on top of the Day 1a leaderboard.

Alexander Farahi bagged the chip leading stack of 742,500 followed by Alexander Greenblatt (617,500) and Alexander Tafesh (601,000).

Meanwhile, Eduardo Silva (596,000), Yuhei Sanada (508,000), and Landen Lucas (457,000) also are among the players to end the day near the top of the chip counts.

Event #43 Day 1a Top 10 Chip Counts

As expected, a number of notables took their seats today, with many deciding to take full advantage of late registration. Some, such as Adrian Mateos, Greg Raymer, and Maurice Hawkins failed to find a bag by the end of play.

But others notables that bagged, including Kazuki Ikeuchi (310,000), Jerry Wong (260,000), Jeremy Wien (225,000), Maria Ho (103,000), and Barry Greenstein (68,000) and will all be returning on Day 2.

Day 2 is set to resume play on Sunday, Oct. 24 at 10 a.m. local time, with blinds at 1,500/3,000 and a big blind ante of 3,000. There are 10 levels scheduled to be played, with a 15-minute break after every two levels and a 60-minute dinner break after Level 19 of play at approximately 7 p.m.

Ray Henson Bags Chip Lead on Day 1 of Event #44: $3,000 6-Handed Limit Hold'em

A full 10 levels were completed on Day 1 of Event #44: $3,000 6-Handed Limit Hold'em that saw a total of 162 players take to the felt. By the time all was said and done, only 78 players bagged up chips with Ray Henson leading the charge. Henson ended the day with a total of 243,000 chips, the only player with a stack over 200,000.

Henson has racked up five total cashes thus far through the 2021 World Series of Poker, including a final table appearance in the $1,500 Dealer's Choice event where he finished in third place. Henson is still seeking his first-ever WSOP gold bracelet and he has put himself in a good position to get the job done.

Some other big stacks to end Day 1 include Kevin Klassen (183,500), Anna Wroblewski (146,000), Anthony Zinno (138,000), and Jesse Lonis (122,500). Zinno has already doubled his number of WSOP bracelets this year with a total of four now and is currently in second place in the Player of the Year race.

Day 1 Top 10 Chip Counts

Some other notables to keep an eye on heading to Day 2 are Dan Zack (121,000), Mike Matusow (96,500), Robert Campbell (76,000), Julien Martini (68,000), and defending champion Tu Dao (52,500).

By the end of late registration, there were plenty of familiar faces that took their shot with a 40,000 chip starting stack but not all were lucky enough to make it through. Some of those to hit the rail throughout the day include Daniel Negreanu, Phil Hellmuth, Maria Ho, Jeremy Ausmus, Shaun Deeb, and Ryan Leng.

The action will resume at 2 p.m. on Saturday inside the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino. The blinds will begin at 1,500/2,500 with another 10 levels on the schedule. The money bubble should be expected to burst mid-way through the day with the payouts and prize pool being confirmed by the start of play.