Event #4: The Reunion No-Limit Hold'em

The poker community was waiting with bated breath for the opening week of the 2021 World Series of Poker, and Event #4: $500 The Reunion No-Limit Hold'em did not disappoint.

It drew a massive field of 12,973 to create a prizepool of $5,448,660. And after three days of play, including an epic 17-hour Day 2, it all ended after a lightning quick final day that lasted barely over an hour and saw Long Ma crowned champion.

He took home his first WSOP Bracelet and a whopping grand prize of $513,604, an incredible 1,000% return from his buy-in amount.

The Reunion - Final Table Payouts

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Winner's Reaction

Ma, who currently calls Dallas, TX home at 35 years old, has been playing poker for about twelve years.

"When I first started, I lost a lot of money on gambling. But then I won a tournament with 400 people and I started doing a bit better. But recently not too good." He then mentioned that he had not cashed for two months before this huge breakthrough, which certainly breaks Ma out of his funk.

"I only play tournaments," added Ma. "It is really hard to be a professional with only tournaments."

Ma's two largest poker scores previous to this gargantuan win came in Daily Deepstack events during the 2018 WSOP in which he won over $60,000 in the span of three days.

When asked whether this win would mean seeing more of him in more tournaments for the rest of the WSOP he replied "Possibly. I still need to work!" referencing his main job as an operation and program manager for an electronic company.

Path to Bracelet

But the electronic company manager would take the poker world by storm, entering the final day with a massive chip lead. He would remain in control throughout, taking a hammer to his opponents and never giving any inclination that he was going to squander his chip lead.

Afterwards, he discussed his mindset during the final day. "With a big stack I needed to know from the first few hands whether they would be aggressive with me or slow down and from that I pretty much knew the table and could control my stack and play."

One of the more prominent hands came after three-betting eventual runner-up Giuliano Lentini on the river after Lentini had raised him. Lentini folded, and Ma showed the bluff. From that point on, Ma took an even firmer control of the table and cruised to the bracelet.

"Almost 13,000 players. Lots of good players, some lucky players and maybe me the luckiest one" he said with a smile.

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Final Day Action

The final day would start with only five players remaining. Michael Eddy starterd as a super short stack and busted within the first few hands of the day to finish in fifth place.

Alex Vazquez came in fourth after his stack went south quickly and never recovered, vanquished by Ma. Max Tavepholjalern positioned himself decently in the counts during the day but crashed out in third place, also a victim of Ma.

The second-place finisher was the aforementioned Lentini, who started the day well and upped his chip count by over 50% in the first part of the day. However, the key three-bet river hand against Ma would be his undoing, and he would never recover.

Entering heads-up play Ma had a 5:1 chip advantage and it would take exactly one hand of heads up for proceedings to end when Lentini jammed queen-jack from the small blind and could not chase down the ace-high of Ma.

Long Ma raised on the button to 20,000,000. The action folded to Max Tavepholjalern in the big blind who put in a three-bet to 76,000,000.

Ma put Tavepholjalern all-in and he didn't take very long to call.

Max Tavepholjalern:   
Long Ma:   

The board ran out      . Ma's pocket fours held and he got his third knockout of the day.

Long Ma	520,000,000	125,000,000
Giuliano Lentini	121,000,000	-24,000,000
Max Tavepholjalern	0	-135,000,000

The action folded to Alex Vazquez in the small blind and he limped. Long Ma checked and they went heads-up to the flop.

The flop came    . Vazquez led out for a bet of 5,000,000 and Ma made the call.

The turn was the   and Vazquez moved all-in for 51,000,000. Ma tanked for several minutes and made the call.

Alex Vasquez:   
Long Ma:   

The river card was the  . Vasquez could not improve and Ma got another knockout with a pair of jacks.

Long Ma	330,000,000	45,000,000
Alex Vazquez	0	-90,000,000

In the second hand of the level, Long Ma opened the action to 12,000,000. Michael Eddy moved all-in for 25,100,000. It folded back to Ma and he made the call.

Michael Eddy:   
Long Ma:  

The board ran out      . Ma turned a pair of aces locking up the first knockout of the final five players. Eddy was sent to the payout line and Ma increased his already substantial chip lead.

Long Ma	285,000,000	24,900,000
Micheal Eddy	0	0

The final five players begin their quest for the bracelet now as the dealer has just started to deal the first hand of the evening.

It is time for the final day of Event #4: $500 The Reunion No-Limit Hold'em as five players return to the action in the feature Amazon room table to play down to a coveted WSOP Bracelet.

Today is a massive opportunity for all five players as they have all sewn up at least $142,847, already the largest cash for most of the remaining players. Each will be looking to score their first massive result of their poker career.

Leading the returning players today is Long Ma of Chino Hills, CA who collected his massive chip lead in the last few levels of yesterday to amass his stack of 260,100,000 which is good for 87 big blinds.

The Reunion - Final Table Seating & Chip Counts

The Reunion - Final Table Payouts

In second place in the chip counts with 133,900,000 is Giuliano Lentini of New York. Lentini started the final table last night as the short stack but won three big hands to become a force in the counts. He is the only player of the remaining five to have a cash larger than fifth place. However, should be ladder up to a fourth place finish he will secure the largest cash of his poker career.

Alex Vazquez enters the final table in third place with 114,600,000. The Puerto Rican native, held a massive chip lead for much of the final table last night before plateauing to a comfortable third place position. Vazquez has three five-figure poker scores; the largest of which being for $30,230, so this result blows any other result out of the water thus far in his career by some distance.

Right on Vazquez's heels in fourth place is Max Tavepholjalern of Honolulu, Hawaii. He boasts only seven recorded cashes in his poker career thus far, two of which at the 2019 WSOP for a total of just shy of $3,000.

Michael Eddy of Hollywood, Florida enters the final five as the significant short stack with only 26,000,000 in chips, which is worth nine big blinds. Eddy's largest cash so far in his career was for just short of $10,000, so once again a player who is living their dream via this deep run in a huge WSOP tournament.

Action will begin at 4 p.m. local time and will be live streamed. Levels will remain at 40 minutes. There will be a 15-minute break every three levels and action will not stop until a winner is crowned. PokerNews will have all the updates as they happen.