Kevin Gerhart Tops $10K H.O.R.S.E. Championship to Win 3rd WSOP Bracelet

One of the most stacked final tables of the 2021 World Series of Poker had six WSOP bracelet winners among the final eight as Kevin Gerhart went wire-to-wire to win his third WSOP bracelet in Event #40: $10,000 H.O.R.S.E. Championship.

Gerhart topped a 149-player field to collect the $361,124 first-place prize after defeating Marco Johnson heads-up. When the final hand played out that saw Gerhart flop Johnson dead in Omaha Hi-Lo, his rail full of family, friends, and fellow poker players erupted in celebration as the now Las Vegas resident could call himself a three-time WSOP bracelet winner.

“It’s so awesome just having 30 people here all cheering me on at the same time,” Gerhart said about having a rail full of friends and family. “When the last hand was dealt, just the eruptions from everyone. I can’t describe it. Every bracelet has gotten better.”

Following an excruciating long play-down evening on the previous night, Gerhart entered the PokerGO streamed final table as the slight chip leader ahead of Eddie Blumenthal – the only player remaining without a WSOP bracelet. Brandon Shack-Harris was the first to fall when he was all-in on fifth in Razz and made a jack-low while Gerhart rivered a ten-low to further his chip lead. Gerhart continued to increase his lead before Bryce Yockey would be eliminated in fourth place after being all-in on third street in Razz against both Blumenthal and Gerhart. By seventh, Yockey had improved to an eight-low, but Blumenthal had a seven-low on sixth to put the tournament down to the final three.

Gerhart’s run of cards continued to fall his way before Blumenthal was the next to fall when he ran into Marco Johnson’s trips in Limit Hold’em. Gerhart held a near two-to-one advantage over Johnson and eventually pushed that out to a three-to-one advantage. Johnson wasn’t done yet as he was similarly positioned to win his third WSOP bracelet like Gerhart. Johnson fought all the way back to nearly even before Gerhart rode another wave of cards eventually leaving Johnson on just a handful of bets. The final hand would see Johnson all-in on Omaha Hi-Lo but flopped dead when Gerhart flopped nines-full to be crowned the Event #40 champion.

Several years ago, Gerhart was grinding the low-stakes mixed games around Las Vegas before he picked up his first WSOP bracelet at the 2019 WSOP in the $1,500 Razz. He followed that last year with a WSOP Online bracelet in a $500 Pot-Limit Omaha 6-Max event before winning his third today.

“It really is just a bunch of hard work over the years just grinding up the ranks,” Gerhart said about his climb up the stakes from playing low-stakes cash games in Las Vegas, to $10,000 buy-in mixed game tournaments. “Eat, sleep, breathe poker every day forever. I don’t want to do anything else. I just love the game, and all my family and friends. It’s such a great experience.”

With two WSOP bracelets to his name, Gerhart began playing the higher stakes mixed games at the Wynn before the game relocated across the road to Resorts World where there is a regular $80/$160 mixed game hosted by PokerGO’s Ali Nejad.

“So I’ve been playing the $80/$160 a lot, and I would like to thank Ali Nejad for helping me in that game and just getting to play that every day for the last eight months. Just honing my skills.

Gerhart is a realist when it comes to this H.O.R.S.E. Championship final table as he knew things definitely fell his way.

“I’m going to go back and watch this, but I definitely sun-ran at the final table,” Gerhart said about the final table. “But I’m really, really happy with how well I played throughout the entire tournament. I got short, I didn’t panic, and we just built it all back to being chip leader.”

With three WSOP bracelets to his name, and five cashes this series, Gerhart’s plans remained unchanged as the second half of the 2021 WSOP is now upon us.

“I’m just going to grind out the rest of the series like I had planned. Not going to play the $50k , and not going to play anything too big.”

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