Welcome back to the final day of Event #53: $25,000 Pot-Limit Omaha High Roller as five players return to battle it out for the 2021 World Series of Poker bracelet and the first-place prize of $1,251,860. During the registration period, this tournament attracted a whopping 212 entries to get to a total prize pool of $5,008,500.
Ka Kwan Lau is leading at this five-handed final table with a commanding chip lead with 10,750,000 in chips. He is followed by John Beauprez (8,725,000) and Maxx Coleman with 5,730,000 in the top three. They are joined on the final table by Shaun Deeb (3,640,000) and Veselin Karakitukov (2,745,000).
Beauprez already owns a bracelet while Deeb has four of them in his collection for now. Lau, Coleman, and Karakitukov are all looking to claim their first one today.
Final Table Seat Draw and Chip Counts
Seat
Player
Country
Chip Counts
Big Blinds
1
Veselin Karakitukov
Bulgaria
2,745,000
23
2
Maxx Coleman
United States
5,730,000
48
3
Shaun Deeb
United States
3,640,000
30
4
John Beauprez
United States
8,725,000
73
5
Ka Kwan Lau
Hong Kong
10,750,000
90
The remaining five players will return to the feature table at 4 p.m. local time to battle it out for the lion-share of the prize pool. When play resumes, they will finish the remainder of Level 27 which features a small blind of 60,000, a big blind of 120,000, and a big blind ante of 120,000.
The PokerNews reporting team will be providing live updates so make sure to follow along while PokerGO will stream the action on a one-hour delay with hole cards coverage until one man has all the chips in play.
On the very first hand of the day, Veselin Karakitukov opened to 310,000 and Maxx Coleman three-bet to 1,100,000. Shaun Deeb then went all-in for 3.640,000, and Coleman called after Karakitukov folded.
Deeb:
Coleman:
Both players held pocket aces, and the flop gave Coleman a flush draw. The turn brought more outs to both players, and the river gave Deeb a straight to double up through Coleman.
Ka Kwan Lau raised to 320,000 and Veselin Karakitukov called on the button. Shaun Deeb then three-bet to 1,340,000, and Karakitukov called for half of his remaining stack after Lau folded.
Deeb continued on the flop, betting enough to put Karakitukov all in and was called.
Veselin Karakitukov:
Shaun Deeb:
Deeb's aces were ahead of Karakitukov's flush draw, and the turn and river were no help. Deeb knocks out Karakitukov in fifth place while climbing to second in chips.
Maxx Coleman raised to 480,000 from the small blind, Shaun Deeb three-bet in the big blind for Coleman to call for the remaining 395,000 he had behind.
Maxx Coleman:
Shaun Deeb:
The flop came for Deeb to stay ahead with the pocket pair.
The turn was the to not help Coleman as he was left with only the jacks or sevens to stay alive but the river completed the board with the instead. Coleman left the feature table as he finished in fourth place.
Ka Kwan Lau raise 525,000 on the button and John Beauprez defended his big blind to the flop. Beauprez check-called Lau's bet of 600,000, and both players checked the turn.
Beauprez and Lau both checked again on the river, and Beauprez revealed for a full house to extend his chip lead.
Shaun Deeb completed the small blind and John Beauprez opted to check.
The flop came , they checked to the on the turn. Deeb bet 500,000 for Beauprez to call.
The river completed the board with the and Deeb continued with a bet of 300,000. Beauprez tanked and then shoved for 2,680,000. Beauprez was holding for a wheel, but Deeb called with the for the higher straight. That meant Beauprez would bust in third place.
Shaun Deeb limped on the button and Ka Kwan Lau raised to 900,000. Deeb called to see the flop, and Lau led out for 700,000.
Deeb called to the turn, and fired 2,000,000 after Lau checked. Lau called to the river, and checked to Deeb who fired again for 6,200,000. Lau took a moment before making the call.
Ka Kwan Lau:
Shaun Deeb:
Lau tabled three eights with an ace, but Deeb revealed his full house to eliminate Lau and win his fifth World Series of Poker bracelet!
Shaun Deeb defeated Ka Kwan Lau heads up to win the 2021 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Event #53: $25,000 Pot-Limit Omaha High Roller, earning his fifth career WSOP gold bracelet and a $1,251,860 top prize. Deeb prevailed in this prestigious tournament for a second time, defeating a field of 212 entries that produced a prize pool of $5,008,500.
Deeb adds this title to his win back in 2018 and becomes the newest member of the WSOP five-bracelet club. It marked his second final table of the 2021 WSOP and his 12th overall cash, vaulting him up to fourth in the Player of the Year standings.
“Now I’m gonna start multi-tabling, I really took it easy,” Deeb said. “For the rest of the year, you’re gonna see me firing pretty hard so it’s gonna be a battle.”
With a fifth title in hand, Deeb was candid about his WSOP goals moving forward.
“I’m gonna pass Phil (Hellmuth) eventually. It’s gonna take me a while but I’m gonna pass Phil. It’s gonna take me a decade or two but I’ll be there.”
Former WSOP $25,000 PLO Winners
YEAR
PLAYER
COUNTRY
FIRST PRIZE
ENTRIES
PRIZE POOL
2021
Shaun Deeb
United States
$1,251,860
212
$5,008,500
2019
Stephen Chidwick
United Kingdom
$1,618,417
278
$6,602,500
2018
Shaun Deeb
United States
$1,402,683
230
$5,462,500
2017
James Calderaro
United States
$1,289,074
204
$4,868,750
2016
Jens Kyllonen
Finland
$1,127,035
184
$4,370,000
2015
Anthony Zinno
United States
$1,122,196
175
$4,156,250
Final Table Play
Deeb acknowledged that he was not the most experienced PLO player at the final table.
“Usually I have my one set plan, but I really kept trying to switch it up on these guys and figure out what way worked best versus them, and just running them over and making the nuts a bunch is the way to go.”
Deeb went on to eliminate every opponent of the final five, thanks to a double-up on the very first hand of the day.
“I have a cold four-bet for my whole stack,” Deeb explained, “it was like a crazy, crazy runoff to get me to like seven and a half, eight million right off the start which puts me in second place and from there I never really lost my momentum.”
Veselin Karakitukov began the final day as the short stack and was the first to be eliminated after running into Deeb’s aces. The fifth-place finish marked the Bulgarian’s first cash of the 2021 WSOP and the largest cash of his career. Next to go was Maxx Coleman, who was also taken out by Deeb in fourth place. Coleman now has six cashes and a second final table of the 2021 WSOP, adding to a great year after a win in the Poker Masters $10,000 8-Game Mix and three final tables at the 2021 U.S. Poker Open.
Ka Kwan Lau brought the chip lead into the final day after finishing eighth in this event back in 2019. The Spaniard, who was born in Hong Kong, carried some significant tournament experience into his heads-up battle with Deeb. Despite doubling up early on, Lau was never able to mount a serious charge at Deeb’s chip lead and settled for a runner-up finish.
Event #53: $25,000 PLO High Roller Final Table Results
Place
Player
Country
Prize
1
Shaun Deeb
United States
$1,251,860
2
Ka Kwan Lau
Hong Kong
$773,708
3
John Beauprez
United States
$537,295
4
Maxx Coleman
United States
$381,394
5
Veselin Karakitukov
Bulgaria
$276,870
6
David Benyamine
France
$205,655
7
Ben Lamb
United States
$156,387
8
Charles Sinn
United States
$121,816
The rest of the official final table participants were eliminated on Day 3. Charles Sinn finished eighth, Lamb came in seventh and David Benyamine was knocked out in sixth.
Prior to the final table, a number of WSOP bracelet winners found the money including Ben Yu, Joseph Cheong, Scott Seiver, Chance Kornuth, Bryce Yockey, Joao Vieira, Simon Lofberg, Jeremy Ausmus and Tommy Le.
This concludes PokerNews' coverage of this event, but be sure to check out the live reporting hub where you can continue to follow our coverage of the 2021 World Series of Poker.