WSOP Review Day 4: Tyler Cornell Leads Chase for High Roller Title, Connor Drinan Wins Second WSOP Bracelet

The 2021 World Series of Poker saw more on Day 4 of this year’s festival as Event #6, the $25,000 No Limit Hold’em High Roller, saw 54 players reduced to just five. Elsewhere, Connor Drinan captured his second WSOP bracelet with a well-fought win in the midnight hour at the Rio Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas.

Cornell Leads Fantastic Five

As the final table was reached on the second day of the three-day $25,000-entry Event #6 of the WSOP, Tyler Cornell ended the action as the man with the most chips with a massive stack of 7.4 million.

It was Jake Daniels who led the remaining 54 players at the start of the day, but despite looking dominant in the early stages, Daniels would fall away late to crash out in 14th place for $63,976, some way behind the top prize of $833,289 which will be awarded tomorrow along with the famous WSOP gold bracelet.

The money bubble hadn’t burst when play began, with just 21 players being paid. Those to depart before that happened included stars of the world of poker, such as Erik Seidel, Shaun Deeb, Shannon Shorr, Jake Schindler and Ben Yu, with the eventual bubble boy being Chance Kornuth.

Plenty of big names reached the money without making the final table, however, including luminaries like Sam Grafton (21st for $41,493), Galen Hall (16th for $45,382), Darren Elias (12th for $51,866) and Jason Koon (9th for $79,834). Once the final eight players were around the official final table, just three bust-outs took place before time was called on the action.

First, Adam Hendrix won the first six-figure score of the event, cashing for $100,773 in eighth place. Next to go was keen slot machine player Paul Newey, whose numbers didn’t come up to see him bust in seventh place for $128,654.

When Mohammad Arani exited in sixth place for $166,102, the final five were set, with Cornell holding a big lead over the field. It looks likely there will be a new WSOP bracelet winner, with only short stack Adrian Mateos having claimed gold before.

Drinan Wins Second WSOP Bracelet

Connor Drinan captured his second WSOP bracelet as he overcame a talented final table to win the $1,500-entry Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better event.

Drinan’s first WSOP bracelet came 13 months ago as he took down the $10,000-entry WSOP Online event for a massive $1.4m prize. His second, just over a year later, has come in the small hours at the Rio as he made the most of his experience and took apart the business end of the tournament to seal victory again.

With 15 players returning to seats on the final day, it took no time at all for the 10-handed final table to be reached. With Robert Mizrachi and Connor Drinan the only two players to have won WSOP bracelets before, it seemed inevitable that a clash between the pair would decide if Drinan were to win his second bracelet or Mizrachi would grab his fourth at his fellow American’s expense.

That was exactly how it turned out as Drinan and Mizrachi both held the chip lead across a final table that saw a lot of quick action. Mizrachi won what initially seemed a pivotal pot at Drinan’s expense to go into the lead, but when he drifted down to the shortest stack three-handed, Drinan pounced.

Having eliminated Mizrachi, Drinan looked in control for much of his heads-up battle with Travis Pearson, despite losing the lead. Pearson started with just four million chips, with Drinan sitting behind almost treble that total. Two big pots saw Pearson take the lead, but a rivered full house helped Drinan back in the lead and he never relinquished it again, closing it out to grab his second WSOP bracelet and a top prize of $163,252.

The fourth event of the 2021 WSOP is the Reunion, which costs $500 to enter and smashed its $5 million guarantee on its final Day 1 flight to leave 619 players remaining from 12,295 entries.

With Mike Takayama bagging the biggest stack on Day 1c, a massive 4.5 million chips, there were great days at the felt for some big names, with Anthony Cass Takayama’s closest challenger with 2.9 million, Joe Cheong taking 2.03m through to the next day and Javier Zarco bagging up 2.01m.

While 881 players finished in the money on Day 1c, plenty of them took home an $801 min-cash and went no further. Some notable names from the poker world to make money but fail to find a bag for Day 2 included poker author Maria Konnikova, well-known high roller Shannon Shorr and poker legend Barry Shulman.

It was a busy day at the felt for players in the $1,500-entry Dealer’s Choice Event #7, with Nathan Gamble topping 88 survivors of the 307 entries across Day 1. There were strong showings from plenty of big names, however, with Daniel Negreanu (115,000), Matt Glantz (115,000) and Phi Hellmuth (88,500) all topping the average.

Elsewhere, four-time bracelet winner Eli Elezra bagged 90,000 chips, with Benny Glaser (65,000), Norman Chad (57,500) and Ted Forrest (42,500) all finding a Day 2 seat too.

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