WSOP Day 19 Review: Jim Collopy and Ran Koller Both Claim WSOP Bracelets

An exciting day of action on Day 19 of the 2021 World Series of Poker saw two more players crowned champions as players in the Monster Stack and three other events moved closer to finding out who will be the latest players to claim gold. There was a final table appearance from Daniel Negreanu, a bracelet ceremony for Phil Hellmuth and more as the Rio Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas played host to more WSOP drama at the felt.

Collopy Closes Out H.O.R.S.E. Event as Negreanu is Thrown

Just 20 players returned to the felt on the final day of Event #32, the $3,000-entry H.O.R.S.E. event. As it turned out, there was a second WSOP bracelet victory for Jim Collopy waiting at the end of the day, but three other very famous faces made the final table of eight.

With Eli Elezra, Maria Ho and Daniel Negreanu all making the final, you can watch the action from the Thunderdome right here as Collopy proved king.

In Event #33, two Israeli players battled it out for supremacy at a cosmopolitan final tablewhere just two American players took part in the eight-handed finale. Ran Koller beat Ran Ilani to the title as he prevailed after going into the heads-up battle behind.

Elsewhere in the event, Oleg Titov from Russia finished fourth for $94,028, but it was Koller who bested Ilani to grab the gold as each player at the final table went into the action without winning a previous bracelet. Koller won over a quarter of a million dollars for his success.

On the third day of action in the $1,500-entry Monster Stack event, Jaesh Balachandran bagged the chip lead with 17.6 million chips ahead of three-time bracelet winner Ryan Leng, who’ll be looking to become the second player to win two WSOP bracelets at this live Las Vegas WSOP after Ari Engel.

Others to thrive included Anthony Ortega (15,775,000) and Michael Noori (7,850,000) as just 24 players survived from the 148 who began the day’s play, with stars such as Upeshka De Silva, Jason Somerville and Chris Brewer all making their exit during Day 3.

In Event #34, the $1,500-entry Limit 2-7 Lowball Triple Draw event, David ‘Bkaes’ Baker is the player with the most experience but not the most chips going into the six-handed final table tomorrow.

Baker will be looking up the leaderboard to Peter Lynn, whose 1,680,000 chips represent the most at the final, with Lithuanian player Kristijonas Andrulis the only non-American combatant second in chips with 1,665,000, a mere big blind behind the chips leader.

Event #35, the $500 Turbo Freezeout event saw a massive field of 2,930 entries whittle down to just 132 survivors, as 440 players made the money on Day 1 of this super-fast tournament.
Denys Chufarin of Ukraine was the chip leader with 1.5 million, but he was closely followed in the chipcounts by nine American players, all of whom managed to top a million chips.

With players such as four-time WSOP winner Shaun Deeb (865,000), Daniel Rezaei (580,000) and Aaron Massey (450,000) all still in contention, the second and likely final day of the event is sure to be dramatic, with players such as Romain Lewis, Scott Ball, Eric Baldwin, Kathy Liebert and Greg Raymer all making the money without surviving the day.

Just 25 players made it out of Day 1 in the Dealer’s Choice Event #36, with Nacho Barbero the chip leader with 425,500. Joao Vieira (250,000), Mike Gorodinsky (221,500) and David Benyamine (217,000) are all in the Seat Draw for Day 2 with above-average stacks, with 86 players starting the day and less than a third of them prevailing.

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