2021 WSOP Day 49: Hellmuth Hunting for Bracelet #17 as Dzivielevski Leads Final 14 in $10K Razz Championship

The focus of the 2021 World Series of Poker (WSOP) continued on the WSOP $10,000 Main Event on Day 49 with Koray Aldemir becoming the latest world champion at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino.

While Aldemir snagged the most prestigious piece of WSOP hardware, two other players won bracelets on Wednesday evening including Chad Himmelspach coming back from a single big blind to win Event #75: $1,500 Freezeout No-Limit Hold'em for $270,877 and Paulo Joanello making his dream come true by winning Event #77 $1,500 Fifty Stack for $321,917.

The $10,000 Razz Championship highlighted the three events still in progress with Yuri Dzivielevski leading the final 14 players heading into Day 3 with Phil Hellmuth also still alive in the hunt for his 17th bracelet. Read on to learn more.

Yuri Dzivielevski Soars to the Top, Phil Hellmuth Still Alive in Razz Championship

After seven 90-minute levels of play, just 13 of the 63 players that started the day have advanced to Day 3 of Event #78: $10,000 Razz Championship.

Yuri Dzivielevski snagged the Day 2 chip lead and he was the only player to bag over 1 million chips (1,126,000). Dzivielevski began his run to the chip lead with a series of big pots on the bubble and kept on cruising through the rest of the night.

Not far behind the Brazilian though are Yehuda Buchalter (874,000), John Monnette (861,000), and Erik Sagstrom (845,000).

The dream of a 17th bracelet is still alive in 2021 for Phil Hellmuth as advanced to Day 3. Despite some great reads, a late swoon in the night leaves him with plenty of work Thursday to build up his 133,000 chips.

End of Day 2 Chip Counts

The final 13 players are all in the money, along with Brian Rast (17th place), Long Tran (16th place), David Benyamine (15th place), and John Racener (14th place), who all received the min-cash of $16,299.

The 109 total entries created a total prize pool of $1,016,425, and Thursday the final 13 will be vying for the top prize of $274,693 and a WSOP gold bracelet.

Those not fortunate enough to have made the money included Day 1 chip leader Jeff Lisandro, 2019 champion Scott Seiver, and 2021 WSOP Player of the Year contenders Shaun Deeb, and Jake Schwartz.

The bubble burst after the dinner break when David Singer fell in a pot to Brad Ruben, who battled from a short stack much of the day before finishing the day with 316,000 chips.

Getting to that bubble was a somewhat lengthy affair, with hand-for-hand play adding over a half-hour to the night’s play. As a result, a 3 pm local time restart on Thursday in the gold section of the Amazon room was announced for Day 3.

Play will begin at Level 18 with limits of 20,000 and 40,000, and PokerNews will have you covered for all the action Thursday as another World Series of Poker Champion is crowned at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino.

Jerry Wong Bags Big In Event #79: $1,979 Poker Hall Of Fame Bounty No-Limit Hold’em

After 17 levels of play, Event #79: $1,979 Poker Hall Of Fame Bounty No-Limit Hold’em gathered 469 entrants to build a prize pool of $801,931 and a first place of $172,499 with only 63 making it through Day 2.

One of the big stacks finishing out the day was Marc Rivera, who bagged up 721,000. Rivera had a chip lead from the early parts of the day and only extended his lead during the bubble where he played several aggressive hands that added over 350,000 to his overall chip count. Rivera is number one on the Philippines all-time money list but has yet to collect a bracelet. Rivera will be searching for his first piece of WSOP jewelry on Thursday.

Day 1 Top 10 Chip Counts

Another player who bagged a big stack at the end of the day was Jerry Wong, who ended the day with 700,000. Coming right off of a 10th place finish in Event #72: $1,500 Mixed No-Limit Hold’em/Pot-Limit Omaha and a runner-up finish in Event #74 $2,500 Big Bet Mix as well as eight other cashes during this series, Wong will be setting up for another deep run to collect his first WSOP bracelet.

Many players came out to play, with the added bonus of collecting bounties of Hall of Famers being ever so alluring. Some of those who bagged included; Sonia Shashikhina (425,000), Maria Lampropulos (383,000), Ole Schemion (333,000), Dylan Wilkerson (240,000), Kevin Rabichow (132,000), and bracelet winner Joao Vieira (75,000).

There were eleven hall of famer bounties that were in play that included the likes of Doyle Brunson, Daniel Negreanu, Eli Elezra, Barry Greenstein, Scotty Nguyen, Barbara Enright, Linda Johnson, Tom McEvoy, Jack McClelland, Phil Hellmuth, and Lyle Berman as well as one additional bounty for actor Vince Vaughn who took his seat in the tournament as well. All of them were eliminated and unable to bag Day 2.

Other players who found themselves unable to find a bag included Martin Jacobson, Damian Salas, Ryan Leng, Shaun Deeb, Jake Schwartz and Harry Lodge to name a few.

The players will return Thursday at 12 p.m. at The Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino, with blinds at 5,000/10,000 and a 10,000 big blind ante. Play will continue until there are five players remaining.

Ruslan Nazarenko Bags Heaps After Day 1 of Event #80: $3,000 6-Handed Pot-Limit Omaha

After 10 one-hour levels of play, the first day of Event #80: $3,000 6-Handed Pot-Limit Omaha is officially complete. The Amazon Room inside the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino was nothing short of electric all day as alongside this event, the final day of the Main Event played to its conclusion.

Though today was only Day 1, the tournament contributed significantly to the action and excitement in the room as it filled up the Orange section of the Amazon room as a field of 496 entries for a $1,324,320 prize pool played down to just 122 players.

When the dust settled, it was Ruslan Nazarenko that bagged the chip lead with a massive stack of 616,500. He was far and away the chip leader, though he enjoys the company of a leaderboard full of notables. Chino Rheem (500,000), Maxx Coleman (496,000), Michael Moncek (445,000), and James Mordue (420,000) all bagged north of 400,000 at the end of the day and will look to build on that figure tomorrow.

Day 1 Top 10 Chip Counts

An interesting hand occurred the last hand of the night when Steven Forman flopped a set of ladies with the nut flush draw and dropped three players to finishing the night with a stack of 460,000. Other notables to advance to Day 2 include Uri Reichenstein (357,000), Michael Hudson (334,500), Anatolii Zyrin (280,500), and Ali Imsirovic (268,500).

Some players who were not as fortunate to make it to the end of the day included Craig Varnell, Chance Kornuth, Shaun Deeb, David Williams, and defending champ Alan Sternberg.

Day 2 continues Thursday at 2 p.m. local time with blinds of 1,000/2,500. Ten more one-hour levels are on the docket with a 15-minute break occurring after every two levels, and there will be a one-hour dinner break after the sixth hour of play.

There will be 124 players returning for Day 2 but almost half will have to drop before they will make any money as only the top 75 places will be paid out at least $4,819, while the winner of the event will take home $280,916 along with the coveted WSOP bracelet.

Event #80: $3K PLO Payouts