Scott Ball Celebrates First WSOP Bracelet in Event #25: $5,000 6-Handed No-Limit Hold'em

The 2021 World Series of Poker crowned a new gold bracelet winner at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino on Friday in Event #25: $5,000 6-Handed No-Limit Hold'em, a tournament that attracted 604 players and offered up a $2,666,025 prize pool.

The PokerGO live-streamed final table contained two former bracelet winners John Racener and Galen Hall. In the end, it was Scott Ball collecting the WSOP bracelet, claiming victory for $562,667.

This was the first bracelet for Ball and it was a very emotional moment for him.

“I can’t explain it man, I had a tough year last year, a lot of stuff and like a lot of desire to prove myself that I can play this game and play it well,” said Ball, teary-eyed in the post-win interview. “And these big six-max tournaments are the hardest tournaments in the series, minus like the 50K and the 100K and stuff. I play a lot of six-max online and I study a lot really hard, like really hard. So to come in here and show, and not suck and do well, kinda means the world to me.”

Ball, 35, had a rowdy rail on his side and said he was thankful for all the support his friends had given.

“I mean the people who support me are incredible,” said Ball. “You know I found out who my real friends are this past year and it feels good to know that, see a good group of them here, have support. When I came I didn’t think I’d have any rail or expect to have any rail, so the fact I have you know 15, 20 people behind me when I do this is pretty special.”

2021 WSOP $5,000 6-Handed No-Limit Hold’em Final Table Results

Others to cash on the final table were Eric Tsai (4th for $161,756), Bin Weng (5th for $113,775), and Jonathan Jaffe (3rd for $234,781).

At the start of the day, many eyes were on Hall and Racener, looking for their second bracelets. But it was Ball, who emerged victorious after eight hours of play.

“Jon and Galen are incredible players, they are really freaking good,” he said. “It was really hard, the whole tournament was hard. Every single day I was playing with absolute beasts.”

Final Table Action

John Racener was the first one to go when he four-bet jammed ace-queen into the pocket kings of Galen Hall. Next to go was Bin Weng. Weng was looking good five-handed with the chip lead, but he found himself at the bottom of the leaderboard after Scott Ball nailed a pair of aces on the river in a four-bet pot. Weng got it all in with king-queen against the ace-ten suited of Hall, but Hall binked a flush for the knockout.

Eric Tsai came in as the chip leader, but he was the next to go when he ran into a cooler. Tsai shoved with pocket queens and Scott Ball called with pocket kings. Tsai could not improve and he exited in fourth.

Three-handed was a drawn-out affair, Ball won a flip with pocket tens against the ace-queen of Hall. But Hall battled back to draw close. Hall put Ball on the short stack when he called a huge river bet with just a pair of fives and Ball was forced to muck his ace-high. Ball wasn’t done either however when his all-in jam with ace-eight spiked against Jaffe’s ace-queen. Finally, after three hours, Jonathan Jaffe busted when his ace-ten ran into the pocket eights of Hall. That allowed Hall to enter heads-up play with a 2-1 lead.

Play would drag on, however, as both players exchanged the chip lead several times. Ball finally took control when he bluff jammed the river with king-high to force a key fold from Hall and take a 5-1 chip lead. Ball finally finished the job when he got it all in holding the nut-flush draw, against Hall’s second nut flush draw. The flush did come home on the turn, sealing the deal. Ball said he is not satisfied yet though.

“I kinda want to just go home and go to bed and be here at 10 a.m. for the Monster Stack,” said the newly-crowned champion. “I want to do it again, like I want to show everyone it’s not a fluke and I really can play this game. So I might have a little fun, but not too much. I’m going to take the rest of the series very seriously there’s still a lot more work to do.”

Congratulations to Scott, winner of the 2021 WSOP Event #25: $5,000 6-Handed No-Limit Hold'em! He joins a prestigious club of WSOP bracelet winners.