2021 APAT WSOP Fantasy League

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Morticia Addams Tiffany Michelle

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Event 10: $1,000 Super Turbo Bounty No Limit Hold'em

Winner	Michael Perrone
Runners	1640
Paid	246
Final Table	9

Player	Position	Points
Shaun Deeb	59	1
Daniel Buzgon	160	1
Vanessa Kade	227	1

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

A freezeout! That's what a lot of people want nowadays. Whether they want it to be a super-turbo bounty with twenty-minute blinds that completes in one day is another question. Some pro's entered but the later stages consisted of little-known players.

Johnny Moss reached the final table and finished 6th for his first WSOP cash since 1992. Not bad for a 114-year-old.

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With 10 tournaments done, these are the players who have cashed for us so far.
Good to see our own Sam Razavi on the scoreboard.

Player	Points	Wins	Final Tables	Cashes
Robert Mizrachi	21	0	2	2
Phil Hellmuth Jr	19	0	2	3
Benny Glaser	18	0	1	1
Benjamin Yu	7	0	1	2
Adam Hendrix	5	0	1	2
Daniel Buzgon	2	0	0	2
Ryan Hughes	2	0	0	2
Ryan Laplante	2	0	0	2
Shannon Shorr	2	0	0	2
Shaun Deeb	2	0	0	2
Cary Katz	1	0	0	1
Christopher Vitch	1	0	0	1
Daniel Negreanu	1	0	0	1
Daniel Zack	1	0	0	1
David "Bakes" Baker	1	0	0	1
Jason Koon	1	0	0	1
Joseph Cheong	1	0	0	1
Maurice Hawkins	1	0	0	1
Max Pescatori	1	0	0	1
Paul Volpe	1	0	0	1
Sam Razavi	1	0	0	1
Sean Perry	1	0	0	1
Vanessa Kade	1	0	0	1

And these are the ones who haven't scored yet. There was a lot of doubt about which players would turn up for the Series, and some of the selections may be no-shows. But don't worry, your zeros may not be staying away - you might just be bad at picking.

Players Who Have Failed to Cash After 10 Events

Adam Owen	Daniel Dvoress	John Monnette	Mikita Badziakouski
Alex Foxen	Dario Sammartino	John Racener	Niall Farrell
Ali Imsirovic	David "ODB" Baker	Johnny Chan	Nick Petrangelo
Allen Kessler	David Peters	Jon Turner	Nick Schulman
Anthony Zinno	Erik Seidel	Justin Bonomo	Phil Ivey
Bertrand Grospellier	Faraz Jaka	Landon Tice	Phillip Hui
Brandon Shack-Harris	Harry Lodge	Loren Klein	Rep Porter
Brian Hastings	Igor Kurganov	Lou Garza	Sam Soverel
Bryce Yockey	Ismael Bojang	M J Gonzales	Scott Clements
Bryn Kenney	Jake Schindler	Manig Loeser	Scott Seiver
Calvin Anderson	Jason Mercier	Marco Johnson	Sean Winter
Chance Kornuth	Jeff Gross	Matas Cimbolas	Shawn Buchanan
Chris Ferguson	Jeff Sluzinski	Men Nguyen	Stephen Chidwick
Chris Klodnicki	Jeffrey Trudeau Jr	Michael Addamo	Steve O'Dwyer
Chris Moorman	Joao Vieira	Michael Mizrachi	Yueqi Zhu
Christoph Vogelsang	Joe Cada	Michael Zhang	Yuri Martins
Christopher Brewer	Joe McKeehen	Mike Gorodinsky
Dan Smith	John Hennigan	Mike Leah
Daniel Alaei	John Juanda	Mike Matusow

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Jo has the lead after 10 Tournaments. Can anyone catch her or is it all over?

Selector    Points            Selector        Jo 2    49            Stu    23    Stephen 1    48            John 2    22    Jon    46            Karen    22    Aneurin    41            Luca 2    22    Barrie 2    40            Michael    22    Rob    31            Tom    22    Gareth    30            David    21    Del    29            Nic    20    Jo 1    29            Stephen 2    20    Derek    27            John 1    11    Simon L    26            Barrie 1    10    Chris    25            Simon A    3    Carl 1    24            Luca 1    2    Richard    23            Carl 2    1

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These are the substitutions that were made, giving selectors a chance to remove players who hadn't shown up. The teams will now include the new players, but not any points they scored in Events 1-10.
A Selector's points will show the full points scored in the Series for every player, but the points for Events 1-10 will be deducted on a line called Substitutions. Just one player who is being substituted had scored points, so those will be added to Luca 2's score under Substitutions. Twelve teams didn't make any changes.

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The teams including substitutes, with scores after 10 Events:

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Event 11: $25,000 Heads Up No Limit Hold'em Championship

Winner	Jason Koon
Runners	57
Paid	8
Final Table	8

Player	Position	Points
Jason Koon	1	25
Daniel Zack	4	12
Mikita Badziakouski	5	10

Selector	Points
David	25
Simon A	25
Stu	25
Carl 1	12
Gareth	12
Jo 2	12
John 1	12
Barrie 1	10

Jason Koon finally wins a bracelet, though runner-up Gabor Szabo was unlucky a couple of times, but them's the breaks in heads-up. Third-placed Henri Puustinen (better known as online pro 'buttonclicker') benefitted from the delays, as he just passed his 21st birthday and became eligible to play two months ago, and became one of the youngest ever to cash the WSOP. I'm not sure whether he would have been the youngest Vegas bracelet-winner if he'd gone all the way, but it doesn't matter now.

Inspired substituting by Simon enabled him to pick up 25 points from Koon's victory.

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The air-con was on quite strong during the heads-up tournament:

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Event 12: $1,500 Limit Hold'em

Winner	Yuval Bronshtein
Runners	422
Paid	64
Final Table	9

Player	Position	Points
Marco Johnson	19	1
Anthony Zinno	38	1

Selector	Points
Jo 1	2
Gareth	1
Jo 2	1
John 1	1
Stephen 1	1
Stephen 2	1

I tried hard to find something interesting that happened in this tournament, but being delayed by computer failure appears to have been the highlight.

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Event 13: $3,000 Freezeout No Limit Hold'em

Winner	Harvey Mathews
Runners	720
Paid	108
Final Table	9

Player	Position	Points
Niall Farrell	12	1
Bertrand Grospellier	32	1
Benjamin Yu	82	1

Selector	Points
Barrie 1	1
Carl 2	1
Chris	1
Del	1
Gareth	1
Jo 1	1
Jo 2	1
John 1	1
Rob	1
Simon A	1
Stephen 1	1

Four-time bracelet-winner Michael Gathy started the final table in the lead, but may have made a mistake by giving an interview just before it started, in which he set out his plan to pressurise the other players, who he reckoned wouldn't want to take risks when there were such large pay jumps. It may have cost him, as he ended up losing half his stack when a massive pot-sized River bluff was called by the eventual winner with A5 on a 45JKT board.

Gathy gives way his plan, for which he paid the price: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpoq8_-ERY8

Our own Firaldo just missed reaching another final table, while it seems that Simon's substituting skills aren't always as on-point as his draft of Jason Koon just in time for his victory in #11, as the discarded Elky came good in #13. Bertrand is no longer one of our players, but I've left him in just to irritate Simon.



David Jackson is a bit too honest.

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Event 14: $1,500 Seven Card Stud

Winner	Rafael Lebron
Runners	261
Paid	39
Final Table	9

Player	Position	Points
Shaun Deeb	5	10
Anthony Zinno	11	1
Brandon Shack-Harris	28	1
Yueqi Zhu	37	1

Selector	Points
Jo 1	12
Jo 2	12
Barrie 1	11
Carl 1	11
Gareth	11
John 1	11
Stephen 1	11
Barrie 2	10
Chris	10
David	10
Del	10
Derek	10
Jon	10
Karen	10
Michael	10
Richard	10
Rob	10
Simon A	10
Simon L	10
Stu	10
Tom	10
Carl 2	1
John 2	1
Stephen 2	1

When Rafael Lebron and his friend Ian Johns learned poker together, his idol was David Williams, runner-up to Greg Raymer in the 2004 Main Event and bracelet-winner in 2006, so it was his dream heads-up to be pitted against Williams. It was less of a dream for Williams, who started short and never improved. Now Johns has three bracelets, Lebron has two and Williams is still stuck on one.

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Event 15: $1,500 No Limit Hold'em 6-Handed

Winner	Jonathan Baylor
Runners	1450
Paid	224
Final Table	7

Player	Position	Points
Daniel Buzgon	51	1
Joao Vieira	89	1
Sean Perry	96	1
Benjamin Yu	99	1
Vanessa Kade	155	1

Selector	Points
Rob	2
Simon L	2
Aneurin	1
Barrie 1	1
Carl 2	1
Chris	1
Del	1
Gareth	1
Jo 1	1
Jo 2	1
John 1	1
Jon	1
Stephen 1	1

When it came to three players left, there were two players making their first ever WSOP cash (one on his first ever Hendon Mob cash) and Jonathan Baylor on his third cash of this Series. Baylor won.

While it may have been amateur night at the top, there were several well-known players who dropped shortly before the final table, including Jason Stockfish, Hye Park, Melanie Weisner and Blair Hinkle. Stockfish is a case - he reached three final tables between 2016 and 2017 and was runner-up in them all. He made another final in 2019 and guess what - he was 2nd yet again. One more final that year and he finally broke his runner-up curse......by coming fifth. He could be a multiple winner spoken about in hushed tones. Instead, he doesn't have a single bracelet.


Jason Stockfish - if you play him heads-up, I'll take a share

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Event 16: $10,000 Limit Hold'em Championship

Winner	John Monnette
Runners	92
Paid	14
Final Table	10

Player	Position	Points
John Monnette	1	25
John Racener	6	8
Chad Eveslage	14	1

Selector	Points
Stephen 1	26
Jo 1	25
Barrie 2	8
Carl 2	8
Jo 2	8
Luca 1	8
Gareth	1

It's no surprise for John Monnette to snag another bracelet (numero four) or for John Racener to be in the shake-up. What was a surprise was to see Nate Silver mixing it at this level. Nate is a statistician who founded the FiveThirtyEight website, mainly known for political forecasting. I have watched him on many podcasts and never knew that he's a poker player, and has a few meaty cashes to his name. He was in exalted company here - seven of the final eleven were already bracelet-winners, and only one of the remainder had never graced a WSOP final table before. Eric Kurtzman and Terrance Chan, who finished third and fourth, were amongst the non-winners, but both have been both 2nd and 3rd previously. Jason Somerville, who was 5th, has filled every position from 1-5, while Racener not only has final tables to burn (this was his 18th), but was runner-up in the 2010 Main Event. But Silver came through all of them to heads-up, despite being short early on the FT. Silver and Monnette battled fairly evenly for three hours until Monnette managed to pull away.

Nate Silver in his natural environment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5eeiGIUpvaI

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Event 17: $1,500 Millionaire Maker No Limit Hold'em

Winner	Daniel Lazrus
Runners	5326
Paid	799
Final Table	9

Player	Position	Points
Faraz Jaka	22	1
Vanessa Kade	75	1
Allen Kessler	290	1
Brian Hastings	318	1
Daniel Buzgon	394	1
Niall Farrell	561	1
Joseph Cheong	730	1

Selector	Points
Chris	2
Simon L	2
Aneurin	1
Carl 1	1
Carl 2	1
Del	1
John 1	1
Jon	1
Karen	1
Rob	1
Simon A	1

$1m for 1st and $500k for 2nd. Not bad. With over 5,000 entries, who gets to the final table is going be somewhat random - so how does Michael Gathy do it? 4th place in this just two days after finishing 3rd out of 720 in #13. That's worth $289k on top of $164k. Vanessa Kade picked up her 3rd cash of the Series.


Practicing for millionairedom!

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Event 18: $2,500 Mixed Triple Draw Lowball

Winner	Vladimir Peck
Runners	253
Paid	38
Final Table	7

Player	Position	Points
Joao Vieira	3	15
Mike Gorodinsky	12	1
David Benyamine	20	1
Benny Glaser	31	1
Benjamin Yu	33	1
Randy Ohel	34	1

Selector	Points
Rob	16
Gareth	3
Carl 1	2
Del	2
Jo 2	2
Stephen 1	2
Aneurin	1
Barrie 1	1
Barrie 2	1
Carl 2	1
Derek	1
Jo 1	1
John 1	1
Luca 2	1
Nic	1

Now that Vieira has arrived, he is making inroads into the points deficit for Rob.

This event needed an extra day as the heads-up had made little advance after two hours and it was 3am. It took another two hours on the unscheduled Day 4 to finish it.


Peck had to make a major comeback to win his bracelet: