2021 APAT WSOP Fantasy League

[MintTrav]

Following yesterday's news that the US is reopening its borders to fully vaccinated travellers from 33 countries on 8 November, the WSOP has added two more Day 1s to the Main Event.

[MintTrav]

Event 19: $10,000 Seven Card Stud Championship

Winner	Anthony Zinno
Runners	62
Paid	10
Final Table	7

Player	Position	Points
Anthony Zinno	1	25
Phil Hellmuth Jr	4	12
Stephen Chidwick	6	8
Daniel Zack	10	1

Selector	Points
Stephen 1	45
Stephen 2	45
Jo 2	38
Jo 1	37
Gareth	34
John 1	26
Aneurin	20
David	20
Jon	20
Luca 2	20
Richard	20
Tom	20
Barrie 2	12
Chris	12
Del	12
Derek	12
John 2	12
Karen	12
Michael	12
Nic	12
Rob	12
Simon L	12
Stu	12
Barrie 1	8
Carl 2	8
Simon A	8
Carl 1	1

It's the one we've been waiting for.

Tonnes of points here as some of the favourites score highly. Every team except one scored some points, but I won't embarrass them by naming them, so no need to worry Luca.

Zinno won his third bracelet against James Chen, both of them having won seven-figure bracelets before, Zinno winning $1.1m in a $25k PLO and Chen winning €2.8m for a €250k WSOPE NLHE. But that's not what this tournament will be remembered for.

Phil Hellmuth came to the final table as chip leader, but it all went wrong, as the hands kept going the wrong way. Phil let rip, as he has many times before, though I think it's the first time he's done it on a WSOP final. Zinno was the main target, and wasn't bothered at all, but plenty of others were horrified, while some pointed out the penalties that have been imposed on other players for lesser offences, while Hellmuth gets a free pass. Should Hellmuth take a rap for this? Does it add to the entertainment? Do players actually enjoy it? Is the WSOP at fault for condoning it? Do people even care? Is he mad? Are you still reading this?.....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S71qd0_G2HE&t=632s

[MintTrav]

Instagram has its finger on the pulse.

[MintTrav]

Silver might have the answer:

[MintTrav]

Event 20: $1,000 Flip & Go No Limit Hold'em

Winner	Dejuante Alexander
Runners	1240
Paid	155
Final Table	8

Player	Position	Points
David Peters	4	12
Calvin Anderson	47	1
Mike Gorodinsky	69	1
Daniel Zack	91	1
Shaun Deeb	107	1
Daniel Negreanu	120	1
Harry Lodge	121	1
Paul Volpe	137	1
Jeff Gross	138	1

Selector	Points
Richard	14
Stu	14
Tom	14
Gareth	4
Chris	3
Jo 2	3
Luca 2	3
Simon A	3
Stephen 1	3
Barrie 1	2
Barrie 2	2
Carl 1	2
David	2
Del	2
Derek	2
Jo 1	2
John 1	2
Jon	2
Karen	2
Luca 1	2
Michael	2
Rob	2
Simon L	2
Aneurin	1
Carl 2	1
Nic	1
Stephen 2	1

Hard to believe, but they have come up with a tournament even more stupid than the tag team.

The first stage is consists of one hand, with everyone all-in. The table-winner is in the cash and advances to the second stage, which is normal NLHE.

Maybe they thought that, as the first round is a pure gamble, it would give amateurs an equal cashing opportunity with the professionals. In fact, it had the opposite effect. Amateurs wandered off if they lost once or twice, but the pro's who are padding their cashing resumes just kept rebuying until they got through. At $1k per shot, it was an inexpensive way to guarantee a cash, so Negreanu entered nine times and David Williams had nineteen shots before both notched up another cash.

And that's all I've got to say about this nonsense.

[MintTrav]

PLAYER SCORES AFTER 20 EVENTS

Player	Points	Wins	Final Tables	Cashes
Phil Hellmuth Jr	31	0	3	4
Anthony Zinno	27	1	1	3
Jason Koon	26	1	1	2
John Monnette	25	1	1	1
Connor Drinan	25	1	1	1
Robert Mizrachi	21	0	2	2
Benny Glaser	19	0	1	2
Joao Vieira	16	0	1	2
David Benyamine	16	0	1	2
Daniel Zack	15	0	1	4
Chad Eveslage	14	0	1	3
Shaun Deeb	13	0	1	4
David Peters	12	0	1	1
Benjamin Yu	10	0	1	5
Mikita Badziakouski	10	0	1	1
John Racener	8	0	1	1
Stephen Chidwick	8	0	1	1
Adam Hendrix	5	0	1	2
Daniel Buzgon	4	0	0	4
Vanessa Kade	3	0	0	3
Matt Glantz	2	0	1	1
Ryan Hughes	2	0	0	2
Ryan Laplante	2	0	0	2
Shannon Shorr	2	0	0	2
Daniel Negreanu	2	0	0	2
Joseph Cheong	2	0	0	2
Paul Volpe	2	0	0	2
Sean Perry	2	0	0	2
Faraz Jaka	2	0	0	2
Mike Gorodinsky	2	0	0	2
Niall Farrell	2	0	0	2
Randy Ohel	2	0	0	2
Cary Katz	1	0	0	1
Christopher Vitch	1	0	0	1
David "Bakes" Baker	1	0	0	1
Maurice Hawkins	1	0	0	1
Max Pescatori	1	0	0	1
Sam Razavi	1	0	0	1
Allen Kessler	1	0	0	1
Bertrand Grospellier	1	0	0	1
Brandon Shack-Harris	1	0	0	1
Brian Hastings	1	0	0	1
Calvin Anderson	1	0	0	1
Harry Lodge	1	0	0	1
Jeff Gross	1	0	0	1
Marco Johnson	1	0	0	1
Yueqi Zhu	1	0	0	1
Eli Elezra	1	0	0	1

Players Who Have Failed to Cash After 20 Events

Adam Owen	Dario Sammartino	Jon Turner	Nick Petrangelo
Alex Foxen	David "ODB" Baker	Justin Bonomo	Nick Schulman
Ali Imsirovic	Erik Seidel	Landon Tice	Phil Ivey
Bryce Yockey	Igor Kurganov	Loren Klein	Phillip Hui
Bryn Kenney	Ismael Bojang	Lou Garza	Rep Porter
Chance Kornuth	Jake Schindler	M J Gonzales	Sam Soverel
Chris Ferguson	Jason Mercier	Manig Loeser	Scott Clements
Chris Klodnicki	Jeff Sluzinski	Matas Cimbolas	Scott Seiver
Chris Moorman	Jeffrey Trudeau Jr	Men Nguyen	Sean Winter
Christoph Vogelsang	Joe Cada	Michael Addamo	Shawn Buchanan
Christopher Brewer	Joe McKeehen	Michael Mizrachi	Steve O'Dwyer
Dan Smith	John Hennigan	Michael Zhang	Yuri Martins Dzivielevski
Daniel Alaei	John Juanda	Mike Leah	Robert Campbell
Daniel Dvoress	Johnny Chan	Mike Matusow	Julien Martini

Despite not having a win, Phil is unquestionably the star of the show so far, results-wise and otherwise, with three final tables, four cashes and one attempted burning down of the Rio. Rob Mizrachi is our only other player with more than one final table. Shaun Deeb and Dans Buzgon and Zack have also cashed four times, while Zinno, Chad Eveslage and Vanessa Kade have had three, but Ben Yu leads the way by quietly racking up five cashes so far, ie he has cashed in 25% of the tournaments held.

[MintTrav]

SCORES AFTER 20 EVENTS

Selector	Points
Stephen 1	138
Jo 2	127
Jo 1	110
Gareth	98
Stu	84
Jon	80
David	78
Rob	75
Barrie 2	74
Richard	68
Stephen 2	68
John 1	67
Tom	66
Aneurin	65
Del	58
Chris	54
Derek	54
Simon L	54
Carl 1	53
Simon A	51
Karen	47
Michael	46
Barrie 1	44
Luca 2	44
John 2	35
Nic	34
Carl 2	23
Luca 1	12

Stephen has the lead, with Jo vying with herself for the podium positions. How sad to see the once-great Luca trailing along at the bottom.

[MintTrav]

Event 21: $1,500 Mixed Pot Limit Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better

Winner	Dylan Linde
Runners	641
Paid	96
Final Table	8

Player	Position	Points
Daniel Negreanu	18	1
Ryan Laplante	27	1
AP Louis Garza	29	1
Max Pescatori	46	1
Robert Mizrachi	49	1
John Monnette	51	1
John Racener	73	1
Julien Martini	77	1

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

Dylan Linde finally got his bracelet after 85 cashes. Negreanu made a deep run, but ran out of steam. Not many points for anyone here.


Do you want to play mixed games like Dylan Linde, who won the Mixed Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better bracelet? Now you can!

[MintTrav]

Event 22: $10,000/$1,000 Ladies No Limit Hold'em Championship

Winner	Lara Eisenberg
Runners	644
Paid	97
Final Table	10

Player	Position	Points
-	-	-

Selector	Points
-	-

This is the first event where none of us got any points. There were pro players in this, but I don't really recognise many names near the end. JJ Liu was 5th, while Sofia Lovgren and Ebony Kenney also cashed. Third-placed Mikiyo Aoki was runner-up in this same event in 2014.

[MintTrav]

Kitty Kuo broke the Girl Code with this Tweet and got some blowback for not supporting women etc.

On the one hand, yeah support women. On the other, when men are told not to play this event because there are women playing who are intimidated to play against men and this is their chance to play, this is a much weaker-than-normal field.

[MintTrav]

Ebony Kenney went straight from the Women's event to The Orleans to beat a field of 1,135 players. There is talent among the women players.

[MintTrav]

Event 23: $1,500 Eight Game Mix 6-Handed

Winner	Ryan Leng
Runners	484
Paid	73
Final Table	6

Player	Position	Points
Connor Drinan	2	18
Daniel Zack	4	12
Ryan Hughes	6	8
Michael Mizrachi	11	1
Yuri Martins Dzivielevski	20	1
Sean Perry	24	1
Matt Glantz	42	1
Ismael Bojang	65	1
Eli Elezra	66	1
Cary Katz	68	1

Selector	Points
Michael	18
Carl 1	12
Gareth	12
Jo 2	12
John 1	12
John 2	8
Barrie 2	2
Nic	2
Aneurin	1
Carl 2	1
Del	1
Jon	1
Luca 1	1
Luca 2	1
Richard	1
Simon L	1
Stu	1

Drinan has earned a lot of points for Michael already and came within touching distance of his second bracelet of the year. It's a shame he didn't get it, as it means that his most memorable moment will remain the time he wrongly accused an amateur who beat him in the Heads-Up event of cheating. I had Hughes and Zack, but on different teams.

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Drinan doing the shoulder touch. A lot of players do this, but I can't tell you why. I've been trying for years to find out what this is about.


Two faces of double bracelet-holder Brett Shaffer, who finished third in the 8-Game. Set the alarm ten minutes earlier when you're scheduled for the final table Brett.


A well-balanced final table. Zack, Drinan, Shaffer and Hughes on one side; Leng and Schuyler Thornton on the other.

[MintTrav]

Event 24: $600 Pot Limit Omaha Deepstack

Winner	Michael Prendergast
Runners	1572
Paid	235
Final Table	9

Player	Position	Points
Adam Owen	47	1

Selector	Points
Carl 2	1
Jo 1	1
Simon L	1
Stephen 2	1

Over 1,500 entrants, and we only got one into the money. It's not all our fault - a few other pro players took a shot, but didn't last in this one, so there were hardly any well-known players in the shake-up. John Bunch, who was 8th, has had some big results previously and five cashes so far, including 4th in #12, but otherwise the final table was a resume-free zone.

[MintTrav]

Event 25: $5,000 No Limit Hold'em 6-Handed

Winner	Scott Ball
Runners	578
Paid	90
Final Table	6

Player	Position	Points
John Racener	6	8
Nick Petrangelo	13	1
Vanessa Kade	19	1
Benjamin Yu	20	1
Daniel Negreanu	22	1
Yuri Martins Dzivielevski	30	1
Ryan Laplante	34	1
Chance Kornuth	36	1
Chris Moorman	62	1
Cary Katz	68	1
Jeff Gross	84	1
Erik Seidel	88	1

Selector	Points
Carl 2	11
Jo 2	10
Barrie 2	9
Luca 1	9
Chris	4
Jon	3
Simon L	3
Stu	3
Barrie 1	2
David	2
Del	2
Gareth	2
Jo 1	2
Karen	2
Nic	2
Richard	2
Rob	2
Stephen 1	2
Aneurin	1
Carl 1	1
Derek	1
John 1	1
Luca 2	1
Michael	1
Stephen 2	1
Tom	1

Another final table for Racener, while perennial cashers Kade, Yu, Negreanu & Laplante also weighed in. We haven't seen anything from Seidel til now, but now he's on the scoreboard. He's just the type that could win a bracelet from nowhere. No-one has Moorman in their team since he was substituted out, but I decided to leave him on the list to annoy you when he makes a final. That's bracelet-winner and 81-time WSOP casher Moorman. Please yourselves.

Galen Hall reached heads-up, having arrived straight from the Silver Dollar Saloon in Dodge City. It was quite a change of image from his last final table.