2021 APAT WSOP Fantasy League

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Event 46: $800 No Limit Hold'em Deepstack

Winner	Chad Norton
Runners	2053
Paid	308
Final Table	9

Player	Position	Points
Maurice Hawkins	115	1
Harry Lodge	297	1

Selector	Points
John 2	1
Michael	1
Simon A	1

Another pro-free tournament. Heads-Up was between Chad Norton, a former car salesman and Steve Lemma, a Research Director at Edison Research, a media research company. Edison conducts audience and content analysis for broadcasting entities all over the globe and is the sole provider of exit polling data to the television networks comprising the National Election Pool, as well as hundreds of important primaries and caucuses and other election events both in America and abroad. It also taps into its 20,000-strong national network of trained exit poll interviewers to conduct place-based research for all manner of digital and traditional out of home advertisers.

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Event 47: $5,000 Freezeout No Limit Hold'em 8-Handed

Winner	Alexandre Reard
Runners	421
Paid	64
Final Table	8

Player	Position	Points
Dario Sammartino	10	1
Scott Seiver	17	1
Chad Eveslage	31	1
Daniel Negreanu	32	1
Shaun Deeb	33	1

Selector	Points
Gareth	3
Jon	3
Luca 1	3
Luca 2	3
Stephen 1	3
Barrie 1	2
Barrie 2	2
Chris	2
David	2
Del	2
Derek	2
Jo 1	2
Jo 2	2
Karen	2
Richard	2
Rob	2
Simon L	2
Stu	2
Tom	2
Aneurin	1
Carl 1	1
Carl 2	1
John 1	1
Michael	1
Nic	1
Simon A	1
Stephen 2	1

We had five players still live near the end, but couldn't get any of them to the final table. Dario was close to collecting some points for Luca. Eveslage, Negreanu and Deeb have been plugging away relentlessly for minor rewards, but Seiver has scarcely made any impact so far this year.

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Event 48: $1,500 Shootout No Limit Hold'em

Winner	Gershon Distenfeld
Runners	800
Paid	80
Final Table	10

Player	Position	Points
AP Louis Garza	9	2
Joseph Cheong	47	1

Selector	Points
Derek	2
Rob	1
John 1	1

For the second time, Gershon Distenfeld has donated all of his winnings to charity. Last year it was $125k for finishing 8th in the online Main Event. For winning this tournament, he won $204k and has donated that. He has also asked all winners to donate 1% of their winnings to charity. I'm sure plenty will be fine with this, but I'm always uncomfortable about public donations of poker winnings, and even more so when pressure is put on others to do likewise. Gershon M. Distenfeld isn't just rich. He is Senior Vice President at AllianceBernstein, an investment firm with $738bn under its management, and is a proper gold-plated super-mega squillionare, who could donate this amount regularly without noticing. It seems he is embarrassed to be seen taking a prize he doesn't need. Just give quietly and don't pressurise others Gershon.

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Event 49: $10,000 No Limit 2-7 Lowball Draw Championship

Winner	Farzad Bonyadi
Runners	122
Paid	19
Final Table	8

Player	Position	Points
Benny Glaser	3	15
Julien Martini	6	8
Daniel Negreanu	8	4
Anthony Zinno	10	1
Shaun Deeb	12	1
Mike Gorodinsky	14	1
Christopher Vitch	16	1

Selector	Points
Gareth	23
Jo 2	22
Stephen 1	21
Barrie 2	20
Del	20
Aneurin	19
Nic	19
Carl 1	17
Stephen 2	13
Jo 1	6
Barrie 1	5
Chris	5
David	5
Derek	5
Jon	5
Karen	5
Luca 2	5
Richard	5
Rob	5
Simon L	5
Stu	5
Tom	5
Carl 2	4
Luca 1	4
John 1	2
Michael	1
Simon A	1

Farzad Bonyadi got his fourth bracelet after a sixteen-year gap and revealed that he hadn't played poker for two years before this tournament. Negreanu finally reached a final table, while Justin Schwartz was at his fifth of this Series.

We had our annual visit from Shawn Sheikhan, who used to liven up tables a decade ago, but now seems to only play this event, the $10k NL 2-7. He didn't seem to play at all between 2014 and 2018, and I thought he had been banned by the WSOP, but then he finished fifth in 2018. And this time he was ninth, so he still has poker ability.

[MintTrav]

Event 50: $600 Mixed No Limit Hold'em/Pot Limit Omaha Deepstack

Winner	Darrin Wright
Runners	1569
Paid	236
Final Table	8

Player	Position	Points
Daniel Buzgon	42	1
Daniel Zack	57	1
Ryan Laplante	82	1
Brandon Shack-Harris	165	1
Jeff Sluzinski	225	1
Yueqi Zhu	230	1

Selector	Points
Carl 1	3
Chris	2
Jo 2	2
Aneurin	1
Barrie 1	1
Carl 2	1
Gareth	1
Jo 1	1
John 1	1
John 2	1
Jon	1
Simon L	1

$600 buy-in is all you need to know and you can fill in the rest - a few pro's played, most didn't, there were none near the end. Some guy beat some other guy heads-up.

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One thing you can say about Mike and Phil - they've never lost their dignity.

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Vanessa Kade has Covid. And she has been spreading it around, though probably no more than the rest of them. #WSOPCOVID

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Event 51: $3,000 No Limit Hold'em 6-Handed

Winner	Brian Rast
Runners	997
Paid	150
Final Table	6

Player	Position	Points
Matas Cimbolas	7	1
John Racener	16	1
Manig Loeser	33	1
Yueqi Zhu	41	1
Joseph Cheong	57	1
Ismael Bojang	70	1

Selector	Points
Carl 2	2
John 2	2
Barrie 1	1
Barrie 2	1
Jo 1	1
Jo 2	1
John 1	1
Luca 1	1
Rob	1
Simon A	1

Rast is the only one I recognise on this final table, a far cry from some of his previous star-studded final wins. The winner's photo was a quieter affair too - just Brian and his wife without the usual Rast/Esfandiari/Bouahra hoopla.

[MintTrav]

Event 52: $1,000 Seniors No Limit Hold'em Championship

Winner	Robert McMillan
Runners	5404
Paid	811
Final Table	9

Player	Position	Points
Eli Elezra	47	1
Allen Kessler	144	1

Selector	Points
Barrie 2	1
Carl 1	1
Simon L	1

This was Robert McMillan's tenth cash at the WOSP and four of them have come in the Seniors. Until 2019, he had never cracked the top 100 of a tournament, but then he finished 31st in the Closer, which was his springboard to this - 1st out of 5,400 players. That 2019 tournament near the end of the last proper Series was a weird portent of what was to come this year. So far, five of the players finishing in the top 33 that time have won bracelets this year (Carlos Chang 4th, Shaun Deeb 7th, Ryan Leng 18th, Robert McMillan 32nd, Brian Rast 33rd). If I go down to 55th, that scoops up Dylan Linde and Ari Engel as well for seven future braceletees. Spooky or what, especially at Halloween!

[MintTrav]

Event 53: $25,000 High Roller Pot Limit Omaha

Winner	Shaun Deeb
Runners	212
Paid	32
Final Table	8

Player	Position	Points
Shaun Deeb	1	25
David Benyamine	6	8
Joao Vieira	18	1
Chance Kornuth	26	1
Scott Seiver	27	1
Joseph Cheong	28	1
Benjamin Yu	29	1

Selector	Points
Derek	33
Rob	28
John 1	27
Barrie 1	26
Del	26
Gareth	26
Jo 1	26
Jo 2	26
Jon	26
Stephen 1	26
Barrie 2	25
Carl 1	25
Chris	25
David	25
Karen	25
Michael	25
Richard	25
Simon A	25
Simon L	25
Stu	25
Tom	25
Carl 2	2
Luca 1	1
Luca 2	1

It always seems that Shaun Deeb could win a tournament at any time, and here he has brought one in. So far as I'm aware, he has got to this stage of the Series without getting into a Twitter war with anyone, which is another achievement for him. Shaun is never one to underestimate his own ability, and he was true-to-form by informing us afterwards that he is targeting Hellmuth's record, and gives himself a couple of decades to do it. The way he turns up a size larger every year suggests that he also has a good chance of challenging Raymer's record in that timescale. Maybe he'll do both, so long as he retains his appetite for the game.

[MintTrav]

Shaun Deeb (left) - hungry for more success.

[MintTrav]

[MintTrav]

Event 54: $2,500 Nine Game Mix 6-Handed

Winner	Nicholas Julia
Runners	319
Paid	46
Final Table	6

Player	Position	Points
Robert Mizrachi	6	8
Mike Matusow	9	1
Marco Johnson	12	1
John Racener	15	1
Adam Owen	42	1

Selector	Points
Stephen 2	9
Del	8
Jon	8
Carl 2	2
Jo 1	2
Barrie 2	1
Chris	1
Jo 2	1
Karen	1
Luca 1	1
Michael	1
Nic	1
Simon L	1

Nick Julia, a web developer and IT VP from Arizona, held a massive lead going into the final day, with more than twice as many chips as the second-placed player. It was still a tough assignment with eight bracelet-holders among his sixteen opponents. Seven of them would fall before the final table, with two of them, Kenny Hsiung and Robert Mizrachi, going out on the same hand, but Mizrachi was assigned sixth place and a lot more points. Only three of the players eliminated from fifteenth to sixth place couldn't have put a bracelet on the table. One of them, tenth placed pro Matt Vengrin, has expressed his intention of winning 10 WSOP bracelets in his career and is currently just 10 short of completing his ambition.

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