The 2021 World Series of Poker started its trek through it second weekend by awarding a couple of bracelets in non-No Limit Texas Hold’em events. In both instances, the gentlemen who won the bracelets each picked up their second award. The two tournaments also showed that the non-No Limit games were still strong as ever.
Yuval Bronshtein Defeats Kevin Erickson to Earn Bracelet #2
16 players came back on Friday to settle the score in Event #12, the $1500 Limit Hold’em event. It only took a couple of hours to get down to the official final table once Zachary Gruneberg was able to top Mike Lancaster in tenth place and a spot short of the official final table. Yuval Bronshtein used a massive hand against versus Tony Nasr when he was able to get paid off for flopping a set of deuces against Nasr’s pocket nines to hold the lead, but there were challenges facing him from Gruneberg and Anh Van Nguyen.
Nasr got healthy in nearly doubling up through Nguyen, which helped to contribute to Nguyen’s departure in ninth place at the hands of Kevin Erickson. Bronshtein tried to keep up the pressure, but Erickson continued to knock off players until he built up a sizeable lead. In fact, when Erickson and Bronshtein reached heads up action, it looked as if Erickson (7.8 million) would be making quick work of Bronshtein (2.75 million) in the Limit format.
At one point, Erickson was able to seize a more than 6:1 lead over Bronshtein, but he could not put Bronshtein away. A flush doubled up Bronshtein nearly an hour into the action and, moments later, another double pulled him to almost even. Bronshtein continued to grind away at Erickson’s stack until it was Bronshtein who held a large lead.
On the final hand, both men found attractive hands to go to battle. Once the chips went to the center, Bronshtein’s A-K held the edge over Erickson’s K-Q, but the flop and turn decided to play with the duo. A 10-2-10-J flop and turn left Erickson looking for a nine or an Ace (a Queen would give Bronshtein a Broadway straight) to take the hand. It came up one pip short with an eight, earning Bronshtein a second WSOP bracelet.
1. Yuval Bronshtein, $124,374
2. Kevin Erickson, $76,868
3. Tom McCormick, $53,588
4. John Bunch, $38,011
5. Ian Glycenfer, $27,488
6. Zachary Gruneberg, $20,262
7. Guy Cicconi, $15,230
8. Tony Nasr, $11,677
9. Anh Van Nguyen, $9137
Rafael Lebron Earns Second Bracelet in Five Years in Seven Card Stud
It was a tightly bunched six player final table that came back on Friday to decide the champion of Event #14, the $1500 Seven Card Stud match. It was a star laden final table, with Shaun Deeb looking to earn his fifth WSOP bracelet and former WSOP Championship Event runner up David Williams also looking to add to his bracelet count. They were both looking up at Rafael Lebron, however, who had the chip lead as the penultimate day of the tournament began.
Deeb and Lebron clashed from the start, with Deeb drawing first blood to take over the chip lead in the event momentarily. Deeb’s action game would work against him, however, as he passed those hard-earned chips around the table, first to Christina Hill and then to Williams. Lebron was the one who picked up the wreckage, knocking Deeb out in fifth place and reasserting himself into the lead.
After Lebron took down Hill in fourth place, his gated tens finding a pair of eights through the runout to have two pair over Hill’s missed flush and straight draws, he was in the driver’s seat I the tournament. Lebron kept the pressure on the table, eventually knocking off David Moskowitz in third place to go to heads up action against Williams with a sizeable (5.19 million/1.3 million) chip lead. With his short stack, Williams never had a chance. Within ten minutes of the start of the battle, Lebron had slashed Williams down to only 350K in chips and he was unable to recover. On the final hand of the tournament, Lebron started with gated Kings and Williams looked to make a straight to stay alive. On Seventh Street, Lebron paired an up Jack to make two pair, Jacks up, while Williams squeezed and could only produce a pair of sevens to end the event.
1. Rafael Lebron, $82,262
2. David Williams, $50,842
3. David Moskowitz, $35,521
4. Christina Hill, $25,344
5. Shaun Deeb, $18,475
6. Nicholas Seiken, $13,766
7. Maurizio Melara, $10,490
8. Hal Rotholz, $8179
9. Steve Albini, $6528
