Mike Jukich Wins First Bracelet in Event #21: $1,500 Monster Stack No-Limit Hold'em ($966,577)
Mike Jukich defeated a massive field of 6,051 players to win his first bracelet in Event #21: $1,500 Monster Stack No-Limit Hold'em at the 2022 World Series of Poker at Bally's and Paris Las Vegas.
After 14 hours of play on Day 4, he triumphed at a final table featuring former bracelet winners Anthony Spinella and Joao Simao, before defeating Mateusz Moolhuizen heads-up to take home $966,577.
Event #21: $1,500 Monster Stack Final Table Results
| Place | Name | Country | Prize (USD) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mike Jukich | United States | $966,577 |
| 2 | Mateusz Moolhuizen | Netherlands | $597,362 |
| 3 | Francis Anderson | United States | $449,912 |
| 4 | Joao Simao | Brazil | $341,095 |
| 5 | Anthony Spinella | United States | $260,315 |
| 6 | David Zarrin | United States | $199,995 |
| 7 | Yoshiya Agata | Japan | $154,688 |
| 8 | Jessica Teusl | Austria | $120,455 |
| 9 | Ricardo Caridade | Portugal | $94,439 |
Winner's Reaction
Before today, Jukich’s biggest result was winning a WSOP ring event in Baltimore for $165,438 in 2018. After the win, the Virginia native was asked by PokerNews how he felt about winning his first-ever bracelet.
“Insane, first off I want to say hi to my fiancé Ashley Myers who's back home, and my son Ryker. I wish they could be here. It just didn’t work out with how the scheduling was, I was short to start the day. I had like 14 bigs. I started off with a double and just kinda ran it from there. It's just been a wild roller coaster.”
The last couple of hands were as wild as they could get.
“I mean, it was a big set-up on the turn deuce. I thought for a while about just calling but decided to just stick it in. It happened so quick, I heard his rail saying it's over, it’s over, and I was like, it’s not really over yet. The king hit from outer space, I don’t even know how to describe that."
Jukich mentioned his family back home. What does it mean to win this for them?
“My fiancé, like I said, we’re not married yet, but I promise we will be soon. She’s been my rock she’s been supportive through lots of ups and downs and lots of stupid decision-making with money, now hopefully I can just hang on to it and give her and my son a good life”.
Day 2 Recap
The final table play started with Ricardo Caridade’s ace-queen falling to Spinella’s ace-king to send him out in ninth place. Jessica Teusl was next to go, losing with ace-six to Jukich’s pocket sixes and exiting in eighth place.
Jukich scored another knockout when he busted Yoshiya Agata in seventh. The back and forth battle went on for a while until David Zarrin got it in against Simao but fell short and was eliminated in sixth.
Spinella, the chip leader for much of the final day, exited in fifth after he was all in with jack-ten against Francis Anderson's pocket-eights and could not win the flip.
Simao hit the rail in fourth when his pocket tens could not improve against the rockets of Moolhuizen. Soon after, Moolhuizen eliminated Anderson in third after getting it all-in and flipping with jacks against Anderson’s ace-king.
A cruel hand went Jukich's way, a hand that altered the course of the tournament. Jukich moved all-in on the turn holding two pair only to discover Moolhuizen had turned full-house with his six-deuce. However, Jukich spiked a two-outer king on the river to completely turn the tables on Moolhuizen. Dutch star Moolhuizen was eliminated on the very next hand.
Congratulations to Mike Jukich, winner of Event #21: $1,500 Monster Stack No-Limit Hold'em.
That concludes events from today's WSOP. We will be back tomorrow with all the updates from Bally's and Paris for the latest events. Stay here at PokerNews for all the action.