A Fourth Bracelet and $245,680 for John Monnette in Event #16: $10,000 Limit Hold'em Championship
After almost 11 hours, the final table of 2021 World Series of Poker Event #16: $10,000 Limit Hold'em Championship has come to an end with John Monnette winning his fourth WSOP bracelet for $245,680 by defeating Nate Silver heads-up.
This is Monnette's first Hold'em bracelet after winning the $2,500 8-Game in 2011, the $5,000 Seven Card Stud in 2012, and the $10,000 No-Limit 2-7 Lowball Draw Championship.
"The first is always the most special, but this is awesome," Monnette said when asked to compare this win to his others. "I had a couple of bad years where I did nothing so to finally get back and do something is great. It was a tough field, a championship event, so this definitely means a lot."
Monnette came into the final table as one of the shorter stacks but managed to win the big pots at the key times to vault his way up the leaderboard. "I was patient is a good way to describe it. The final table kind of played out lucky for me where some of the best limit players were eliminated early, but I survived."
While Silver and the third-place finisher Eric Kurtzman may not have as much experience as some of the others, Monnette gave credit where it was due.
"They played great!" Monnette said about the long battle three-handed and heads-up with Silver. "I've been a big follower of his since the elections and it was cool to play him. It's great to see people coming from outside of poker and having success. We battled and it was fun."
Event #16: $10,000 Limit Hold'em Championship Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | John Monnette | United States | $245,680 |
| 2 | Nate Silver | United States | $151,842 |
| 3 | Eric Kurtzman | United States | $108,747 |
| 4 | Terrence Chan | Canada | $79,210 |
| 5 | Jason Somerville | United States | $58,697 |
| 6 | John Racener | United States | $44,263 |
| 7 | Scott Tuttle | United States | $33,979 |
| 8 | Christopher Chung | United States | $26,561 |
| 9 | Kevin Song | United States | $21,149 |
| 10 | Ray Dehkharghani | United States | $18,506 |
Final Table Action
There were 10 players that returned on Day 3 after an extended second day of the tournament. The goal was to get down to just seven players before the PokerGO stream would begin. It took over an hour for the first elimination to occur and it would be Ray Dehkharghani to bow out. Kevin Song followed him to the rail after flopping two pair against Christopher Chung's set. Unfortunately for Chung, he didn't last much longer when he ran into John Racener's set.
That left just seven players remaining and the live stream could commence. Scott Tuttle had a great start to the final table, winning the first three hands he played. However, the blinds and a couple of tough hands caught up with Tuttle who found himself with just a few big bets. Tuttle flopped a pair of sixes but it was no match for the pocket queens of Kurtzman.
John Racener, who came into the day as the chip leader, was next on the chopping block. Racener was a victim of the Terrence Chan run-good early on and dropped several pots through the opening levels to Chan. Also down to just a few big bets, Racener got his chips in good on the flop with pocket jacks against Kurtzman's pair of eights. A king on the river would give Kurtzman a better two pair than Racener who ended up in sixth place.
Five-handed play continued for a while with Jason Somerville on the short stack throughout. Somerville managed to continuously stay alive with multiple double-ups but eventually, he hit a brick wall. Somerville was all in preflop in a coin-flip situation and managed to flop a straight with a royal flush draw. Unfortunately for him, Silver spiked a set on the turn and filled up on the river to eliminate Somerville in fifth place.
Just a couple of hands later, Chan who held the early chip lead also found himself all in and at risk. Chan flopped a pair of jacks but Monnette quickly turned a pair of aces to take the lead. Chan was unable to catch up on the river which set the stage for the final three players to battle it out with what seemed like an infinite number of chips.
It took over two hours to get to heads-up with each player holding the chip lead at one point or another. There were a few large pots that played out that would eventually decide Kurtzman's fate in third place. He was unable to come out on top in the key hands and fell down to just five big bets. After flopping top pair with top kicker, Kurtzman found his spot to get the last of his chips in the middle. Silver head two overcards with a straight draw and managed to spike one of his outs on the river to eliminate Kurtzman in third place.
Silver took a slight lead into heads-up play and would hold the lead for much of the battle. However, over nearly three hours of back and forth with Monnette, the players went on their last break of the night almost dead even. Once they returned, Monnette was able to win a couple of the largest pots of the night to take a substantial lead. Silver was down to six big bets heading to the final hand where both players found a favorable flop. After a few raises, Silver was all in on the turn but drawing to just outs when Monnette made two pair. Silver was unable to come from behind and his hopes of winning a gold bracelet were shattered.
That wraps up another event here at the 2021 World Series of Poker inside the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino. The PokerNews team will be back on Sunday with more action from the tournament floor.
