Ryan Hansen Wins First WSOP Bracelet in Event #44: $3,000 6-Handed Limit Hold'em ($109,692)

On the third and final day of the 2021 World Series of Poker Event #44: $3,000 6-Handed Limit Hold'em, Ryan Hansen was crowned the champion as he defeated Kosei Ichinose in a back-and-forth heads-up battle for $109,692 that lasted over two hours. The event attracted 162 entries to create a $432,540 prize pool, with the majority of that money awarded to the remaining players today.

“I’m a little shell-shocked right now”, said Hansen. “I was kind of a Moneymaker-effect person. Came in after that like 2004-2005, and switched to limit hold'em. I think it’s a great game; I always liked that game the best. So I switched over to that and have been playing that ever since.”

Hansen’s rail described him as a “limit hold’em specialist”, and he normally plays cash games at Borgata.

“This is the dream. I never expected this to happen. Never expected this to happen. I was just having a shot, having some fun, and look what happened.”

Event #44 Final Table Payouts

Final Table Action

Ten players started the day and the remaining players quickly found themselves at an unofficial final table as three players were eliminated within fifteen minutes of starting. Those busts included John Cavanagh in tenth, Day 1 chip leader Ray Henson in ninth, and Justin Moeller in eighth.

At that point, seven players remained and those players waited an hour and a half for another elimination. John Hoang found himself with the short stack and doubled with queens as he attempted to pump up his rail, although he ultimately was the one to fall in seventh.

The six remaining players were sent off to dinner and returned for the PokerGO stream with Kevin Erickson leading the pack. When they returned, Short-stacked Steve Chanthabouasy was the first one to hit the rail and earned a sixth-place finish, and the remaining five players played for around two and a half hours before another player was eliminated.

Kenny Hsiung, who was the only bracelet winner at the final table, was the next casualty when he got his remaining chips in on the flop with top pair but fell to two pair, and soon after, Ken Deng was gone next in fourth. Erickson, who finished runner-up in Event #12: $1,500 Limit Hold'em, found himself with another deep run and was eliminated in third place when his cowboys were beaten by ace-king.

Heads-Up Action

When heads-up play began, Kosei Ichinose held twice the number of chips as Ryan Hansen, but that didn’t last long. Early in heads-up play, Hansen flopped quads to narrow the gap, and stacks were nearly even less than half an hour after the two began.

Hansen jumped into the lead and held more than two times as many chips as Ichinose, but once again, that lead didn’t last long. Ichinose found himself back in front and soon had a 3:1 chip lead.

Hansen was on the ropes but battled back and won a series of important hands, such as making trips and getting Ichinose to fold a number of decent-sized pots. It wasn’t long before Hansen once again took over the lead and this time, it was not one he would relinquish. Ichinose lost pots and continued to bleed chips before getting jack-ten in preflop against Hansen’s king-four. The board ran out blanks and Hansen was officially the winner and claimed his maiden bracelet.

This concludes the PokerNews coverage of this event but check out the WSOP Live Reporting Hub to follow all the exciting action here at the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino.