WSOP Online No-Limit Hold'em Championship goes to O'Connell

On Saturday night, the penultimate tournament of the 2021 World Series of Poker Online took place. Event #32: $1,000 NLH Championship attracted 537 players who rebought 284 times, which resulted in a $738,900 prize pool.

After nearly 11 hours of play, New Jersey's Drew "dudeguydrew" O'Connell prevailed over the 821-entry field to win the tournament for $146,893 and his first gold bracelet.

It was the second piece of WSOP gold O'Connell has captured in 2021 after winning his first circuit ring back in March in the WSOP.com Silver Legacy Circuit Event #4: $50,000 GTD NLH Deep Turbo. A week later, he also finished second in Event #12: $150,000 GTD NLH High Roller 6-Max for $39,044.

It was a bit of redemption for O'Connell, who just two days earlier finished sixth at the final table of the 2021 WSOP Online Event #30: $600 NLH 6-Max Championship for $13,615.

Prior to the score, O'Connell had $129,873 in WSOP-related cashes.

Among those to finish in the top 126 spots and make the money were Shawn "clairvoyant" Kjetland (11th - $7,906), Mike "Mouth123" Matusow (17th - $5,025), Manig "Ohio77" Loeser (23rd - $4,138), Landon "ActionDealer" Tice (28th - $3,399), Ryan "joeyisamush" Depaulo (43rd - $2,882), Ryan "WHOSYOURDODD" Dodd (58th - $2,143), and Jeff "mavsusc" Platt (82nd - $1,626).

Minutes into the final table, Millard "meekmill" Hale got his stack all in preflop with ace-king and was primed to double through Kyle "Kpcp22" Phillips, who held ace-queen. Unfortunately for Hale, a queen appeared on the flop and he became the first final table casualty.

Despite scoring the first knockout, Phillips was the next to go after running pocket nines smack dab into the jacks of Jason "jayriv" Rivkin. From there, Michael "annie_r_u_ok" Trivett lost most of his stack with king-queen against aces, and then he got his crumbs all in preflop with queen-deuce alongside Dan "omg_its_dan" Gallegos, who was at risk with pocket tens, and Rivkin, who had Big Slick suited. A king on the turn gave the pot to Rivkin, who scored a double knockout.

MSPT champ Kfir "Nahumus" Nahum bowed out in fifth place after getting it in with trip queens on the turn only to see Alex "OrcinusOrca" Foxen, who was at his third final table of the summer, roll over queens full of kings. Not long after, Foxen followed him out the door after flopping top pair of nines against O'Connell, who had him crushed with two pairs nines and sevens.

Three-handed play lasted a good bit before Felix "madenspauwke" Vandeput lost with ace-deuce to the ace-ten of Rivkin, who entered heads-up play down just a bit in chips against O'Connell. Rivkin, who qualified for the tournament via a $37 satellite, took over the chip lead, but O'Connell doubled through, and not long it was over.

In the final hand, Rivkin got his short stack all in preflop with ace-three only to see O'Connell have him crushed with ace-queen. Rivkin had to settle for second place and $90,811 in prize money, a healthy return on investment from the satty.

Final Table Results
1 Drew "dudeguydrew" O'Connell $146,893
2 Jason "jayriv" Rivkin $90,811
3 Felix "madenspauwke" Vandeput $63,545
4 Alex "OrcinusOrca" Foxen $45,147
5 Kfir "Nahumus" Nahum $32,512
6 Dan "omg_its_dan" Gallegos $23,793
7 Michael "annie_r_u_ok" Trivett $17,660
8 Kyle "Kpcp22" Phillips $13,300
9 Millard "meekmill" Hale $10,197

(Article courtesy of World Series of Poker)