2021 WSOP Day 54: Michael Addamo Leads Final Five in $100K High Roller

The 2021 World Series of Poker (WSOP) is winding down with Day 54 on Nov. 23 at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino featuring the final two bracelet events on the penultimate day of the festival.

Michael Addamo is in the driver's seat to win his fourth WSOP bracelet and his second this series as he will advance to the final five players of the $100,000 High Roller with a massive chip lead.

Meanwhile, Ben Yu will be hunting for his fifth WSOP bracelet after he bagged up the Day 1 chip lead in the $5,000 8-Handed NLHE with just 30 players remaining.

In other big news, Josh Arieh won the honor of 2021 WSOP Player of the Year with a strong performance including winning two gold bracelets.

Michael Addamo Leads Final Five into Finale of Event #87: $100,000 High Roller No-Limit Hold'em

Australia’s Michael Addamo holds a commanding lead over the final five players after Day 2 of Event #87: $100,000 High Roller No-Limit Hold’em. The Day 3 finale will kick off on Tuesday at 4 p.m. PT. and stream at PokerGO.

Addamo leads the pack with 19,620,000, and is in the poll position for the first place prize of $1,958,569. He has more than 14 million beyond his nearest competitor, Henrik Hecklen, who bagged up 5,445,000. Not far behind Hecklen is Sam Soverel with 5,165,000, Kevin Rabichow with 4,250,000, and Sean Perry with 3,920,000. Perry survived to see Day 3 after tripling up with a set of jacks near the end of Day 2.

$100,000 High Roller Final Table Chip Counts

The Aussie champion dominated all day, running his stack up to near 20 million after starting with just 885,000. Addamo took out Bill Klein with ace-queen, Mikita Badziakouski with ace-nine, and he ended Day 2 when Sorel Mizzi called his shove with ace-seven and lost to a pair of queens.

Phil Hellmuth was among the many high-stakes poker stars that were not able to survive to see a final table. The 16-time champion’s pursuit of number 17 came to an end when he was on the wrong end of a three-way knockout with Brian Rast and Soverel. Daniel Negreanu also fell short of his chance to continue his red-hot run in the preliminary high roller events when his short stack ran into Dan Smith’s pocket sevens.

Other players not making it to Day 3 include David Peters, David Coleman, Jason Koon, Jonathan Little, Cary Katz, and Mark Herm, who was eliminated on the bubble.

Day 3 will return on Tuesday, November 23 at 4 p.m. PT for a finale that will be streamed on PokerGO. Blinds will continue in Level 20 with 2:18 left on the clock and blinds at 100,000/200,000/200,000.

Ben Yu Bags Day 1 Chip Lead in Hunt for Fifth Bracelet In Event #88: $5,000 8-Handed No-Limit Hold’em

The final event of the 2021 World of Series of Poker didn't disappoint with Day 1 of Event #88: $5,000 8-Handed No-Limit Hold’em attracting 531 entries to generate a $2,449,000 prize pool. Only 80 players made the money for at least a min-cash of $8,061 with 30 of those players returning for Day 2 to battle it out for a top place prize of $511,184 and the coveted WSOP gold bracelet.

Ben Yu is in the driver's seat for his fifth WSOP bracelet after bagging the chip lead with 2,515,000 in chips with Uri Reichenstein (2,070,000), George Wolff (1,7770,000), Shaun Deeb (1,680,000) and Matyas Kende (1,635,000) rounding out the top five players heading into Tuesday's final day.

$5,000 8-Handed NLHE Day 1 Top 10 Chip Counts

A few notables cashed but could not find a bag including the likes of Brock Wilson, Dominik Nitsche, Phil Hellmuth, Andrew Kelsall, and Martin Jacobson.

Among those hitting the rail before the money in the final event of the 2021 WSOP included POY leader Josh Arieh, 2021 Main Event Champion Koray Aldemir, Chance Kornuth, Benny Glaser, and Rainer Kempe.

Players will return on Tuesday, November 23 at 2 p.m. local time to battle it out for the WSOP gold bracelet. The tournament will resume at Level 23 with blinds of 20,000/40,000 with a big blind ante of 40,000.