WSOP.com Event #29: No Limit Hold'em 8-Max Turbo Deepstack Championship

At the beginning of the 2005 WSOP, Doyle Brunson remained the co-king of the all-time bracelet count, tied along with Johnny Chan at nine. However, as the series drew toward its close in late June, that was no longer the case — Chan had overtaken him by winning No. 10 to stand atop the mountain alone.

Brunson was already phasing out his tournament play, having cashed precisely zero times that summer and just three times in the previous two combined, although one had resulted in a bracelet victory.

When it came time for Event #31: $5,000 No-Limit Hold'em 6-Handed, Brunson dusted off his tournament chops and made a run.

For the a more thorough look on Brunson's historic 10th bracelet win, click the link below.

Click here to read the full story on Brunson's legendary win!

250/500/60

Wilbert "quads8888" Chun limped under the gun and Bob "bobeads" Mather raised to 1,615 from the cutoff. "Mastertaxgui" called from the small blind, Chun came along, and the flop came down    .

All three players checked, the   appeared on the turn, and "Mastertaxgui" moved all in for 1,935. Chun called but then folded when Mather raised to 7,750.

Bob "bobeads" Mather:   
"Mastertaxgui":   

Mather had the nuts and was pushed the pot after the   was run out on the river. "Mastertaxgui" was felted on the hand but opted to re-enter.

Bob "bobeads" Mather

33,215

33,215

One player who has been doing quite well on playing online in recent years is bracelet winner Daniel "centrfieldr" Lupo, 37, of West Milford, New Jersey. You might recall in 2019, Lupo topped a 1,767-entry field to win the WSOP.com Online $500 NLH Turbo Deepstack for $145,274 and a gold bracelet. Last year, he added a ring to his résumé by taking down the WSOP.com Online Circuit Event #3: $320 NLH 6-Max for $32,595 and a month later won the WSOP.com $100,000 GTD Sunday for $50,715.

PokerNews caught up with Lupo, who went to NJIT for Architecture and baseball, to ask him about poker, which he squeezes in between working for an Architecture firm in Bridgewater specializing in single-family residential and smaller commercial projects and his family, which includes three kids ages 2-5 and his supportive wife Laura.

PokerNews: When and how did you learn to play poker?

Lupo: I started playing/learning in college during the Rounders and Moneymaker boom with a bunch of the baseball guys. Within a year I found myself hosting games at college, at home on breaks and basically anywhere I could find or make a game. I didn't play much online early on, regrettably.

What sort of poker do you play these days?

Mostly online MTTs playing like three sessions per week on average with buy-ins typically from $50 to $1k with the occasional $2-$3k buy in for a big event. I average around 500-600 MTTs a month despite not playing full time, I tend to put in a lot of volume when I'm on. The games are mostly NLH and some PLO MTTs, but love when StarsNJ runs a series as they run a fun 8-Game MTT with a bunch of other mixed variants.

What's it like to play poker while raising young children?

It's been a constant evolution. I could probably write a book about all the highs and lows and life adjustments I've had or chose to make. It gives me a lot of inspiration to succeed while also adding some weight to my losses as it's like 'not only was I way from my kids for all of Sunday afternoon but I lost (insert obnoxious Sunday schedule cost here)'.

What are some of your poker goals?

Try and win everything I play. Actually, my biggest current goal is trying to optimize my MTT game selection. Since quarantine began the schedules have been exploding site to site and while it's been great, with lots of new players and lots of live players playing online it has also drastically increased my average buy-ins and session costs as well as the field size which further increases variance.

I'm trying to optimize the balance of table quantity and expected value vs individual session costs and the variance that comes with it. Having an average buy-in of $250 adds up pretty quickly when it's spread across 60+ entries on a Sunday. My biggest ongoing and long-term goal is to win enough to help my family live comfortably.

Lupo is in action today looking to make a run at his second gold bracelet.

On Sunday, July 25, the WSOP Summer Online Circuit continued alongside the bracelet events. The tenth tournament was the $525 buy-in Event #10: $200,000 GTD Main Event, which attracted 413 runners who rebought 230 times. The 633-entry field resulted in a $321,500 prize pool that was paid out to the top 100 finishers.

Among those to cash were Ryan "hagzzz021" Hagerty (11th - $4,050.90), Joseph "kolebear" Hebert (13th - $3,118.55), Ryan "protential" Laplante (15th - $3,118.55), Daniel "juice" Buzgon (23rd - $1,961.15), David "dwpoker" Williams (29th - $1,736.10), and Krista "Pollux" Gifford (34th - $1,543.20).

In the end, it was Bryan "Pellepelle" Piccioli besting Josh "YoelRomero" King in heads-up play to win a $51,247.10 top prize and his second gold ring. The win came two weeks after Piccioli captured his second career gold bracelet, which came when he topped a 959-entry field to win the 2021 WSOP Online Event #12: $500 No-Limit Hold'em Turbo Deepstack for $83,332.30.

WSOP Summer Online Circuit Main Event Final Table Results

On Saturday, July 24, the WSOP Summer Online Circuit continued alongside the bracelet events. The ninth tournament was the $320 buy-in Event #9: $100,000 GTD NLH Double Stack, which attracted 305 runners who rebought 165 times. The 470-entry field resulted in a $141,000 prize pool that was paid out to the top 80 finishers.

Among those to cash were Daniel "stayactive" Chan (10th - $1,903.50), Frank "Spaghettiii" Marasco (17th - $1,142.10), Ryan "hagzzz021" Hagerty (22nd - $888.30), Harrison "harrisond33" Dobin (30th - $789.60), Matt "berkey11_s4y" Berkey (38th - $705), and Kristen "krissyb24" Bicknell (52nd - $549.90).

In the end, it was Justin "LappyPoker" Lapka besting Jake "nattydaddy24" Hernandez in heads-up play to win a $24,111 top prize and his first gold ring. The win came a week after Lapka took down the 2021 WSOP Online Event #17: $400 NLH 8-Max for $75,371 and his first gold bracelet.

WSOP Summer Online Circuit Event #9 Final Table Results

On July 12, WSOP.com launched in Pennsylvania, and now players from the Keystone State can look forward to competing in gold bracelet events.

From August 8-15, WSOP will offer eight daily bracelet events, each starting at 5:30 p.m. EST. Buy-ins range from $400 up to the $3,200 High Roller. The weeklong series will culminate in a $1,000 NLH PA Championship on Sunday, August 15. Additionally, there will be a pair of Progressive Knockout (PKO) events, marking the first time the WSOP will award a PKO bracelet.

WSOP.com PA will also offer daily satellites with buy-ins as low as $1 that provide an opportunity to win a seat into this Fall's live WSOP Main Event in Las Vegas.

"We are thrilled to be opening up WSOP.com to the state of Pennsylvania," said Ty Stewart, SVP of the World Series of Poker at Caesars Entertainment. "The real winners in this expansion are the players who join us at WSOP.com. Our team is laser-focused on providing the most value to poker players in the state and are confident in the potential of our online poker product. With our industry-best sign-up promotions and the special bracelet series catered specifically to players in Pennsylvania, we welcome all players, from the casuals to the professionals and everyone in between."

Pennsylvania Bracelet Event Schedule

While WSOP.com is in the middle of their 33-bracelet series open to Nevada and New Jersey players, players from Pennsylvania will have the chance to battle for eight daily bracelet events from Sunday, August 8 through Sunday. August 15.

Players must be within state borders in order to participate and will need to register for a new account at WSOP.com/start. Once signed up, be sure to link your Caesars Rewards to your account as every hand played earns points toward rewards.

Remember, players can withdraw and deposit funds at the cage inside Harrah's Philadelphia Casino and Racetrack.

Free Play and Freeroll Promotions

Pennsylvania players are invited to capture the benefits of the Welcome Offer, the most valuable poker deposit promotion on the table. Available now, players who deposit a minimum of $10 into their account will be rewarded with $50 in free play, a 100% match on all deposits up to $1,000, and 7 freeroll tickets into the Welcome Week Freerolls.

First-time depositors who make a deposit by Sunday, Aug. 15 will also receive a ticket to participate in an exclusive $50,000 Depositors Freeroll on Sunday, Aug. 22. The Freeroll will award three seats to the WSOP Main Event – two seats to the top tournament finishers, and one seat from a randomly selected drawing of all players that entered.

The Ultimate Poker Experience

To prioritize Pennsylvania players in the launch of WSOP.com in the state, a variety of special events and tournaments are being offered daily throughout the summer.

• BLAST Poker – Starting Monday, July 12, BLAST poker debuts in Pennsylvania where players have a chance to win their share of up to $300,000 in a matter of minutes. Players can win up to 10,000x their buy-in amount in this a lightning fast three-handed game that starts when three players enter in this Sit and Go format.
• WSOP Satellites – Only on WSOP.com can players win a full package to play in live WSOP events including the 2021 Main Event in Las Vegas, for as little as $1 and special Main Event Freerolls. Visit the promotions page for more information on MEGA satellite structures and schedules.
• Sunday $75,000 Guarantee – Beginning Sunday, July 18, this flagship tournament will award a guaranteed payout of $75,000 with a $215 buy-in beginning at 4 p.m. every Sunday.

PokerNews has activated the MyStack App for this event, allowing you to directly adjust your chip counts in our live reporting blog using your iPhone or Android phone. But it's more than just chip counts! You can include notes about big hands, your photo, and even your Table and Seat assignments so your friends can find you.

Download the app for iPhone or Android now to get started. Then, create a new PokerNews account or update your current one to start updating your status immediately.

Click here to download the My Stack app for iPhone, or click here to download the My Stack app for Android.

The 2021 Online World Series of Poker is getting back to some turbo action today as Event #29: $800 No-Limit Hold'em 8-Max Turbo Deepstack Championship gets underway today at 3 p.m.

Players will start with a deep stack of 40,000 in chips and with it being a turbo, blinds will increase every 8 minutes. This is the final turbo of the series.

Players who bust out can re-enter two times with each re-entry lasting only 30 seconds, so players will need to make sure they have enough funds in their WSOP.com account before the tournament starts if they plan on re-entering.

Late registration and the re-entry option will be open for the first 3 hours and 55 minutes of play.

This is the 29th of 66 bracelet events being held on WSOP.com (33 events) and GG Poker (holding the remaining 33 events).

All events will begin at 3 p.m. PST. Satellites are running on-site for as little as $1.

2021 WSOP.com Online Series Schedule