Event #80: $800 Independence Day Celebration - No-Limit Hold'em

After over 13 hours of play on Day 2, the novel Event #80: $800 Independence Day Celebration at the 2024 World Series of Poker has come to a close, with Francis Anderson standing at the mountaintop.

After navigating through a field of 4,263 players, Anderson defeated Brent Lee after a brief but intense heads-up battle to bring home the gold bracelet, along with a hefty sum of $501,040.

Event #80: $800 Independence Day Celebration Final Table Results

Winner's Reaction

Although Anderson is no stranger to the tournament grind, according to The Hendon Mob, this breaks his previous career-best score of $449,912 that he received in 2022 for his third-place finish in the WSOP Monster Stack.

"Oh, it's pretty insane…" Anderson said in his post-win interview, "Like I've won a lot of money in poker, but this is by far my biggest outright victory, like not even close my last one was only like $50,000…"

Anderson is originally from Poughkeepsie, NY but has been living in Las Vegas for the past six years as a professional poker player. And as a pro, yes money means a lot, but winning is what means the most to a lot of these players, and you could tell it was an emotional moment for Anderson.

"Yeah my opponent [Lee], he was a solid player, but then right away he won a big pot against me and I was down to like 8 big blinds… but I just kept telling myself don't give up, all you have to do is double up one time and I got this…"

And sure enough, this inner dialogue allowed him to overcome more than a 3:1 chip deficit and turned the tide in his favor, eventually closing out the win.

Day 2 Action

Of the 356 players who returned to action today, the majority of them fell to the wayside early in the day, as less than 100 remained by the first break. Some big names that made Day 2 but failed to make a deep run included John Riordan (97th-$4,780), Kenny Hallaert (126th-$4,150), Wing Po Liu (147th-$4,150), and Ben Yu (268th-$2,840).

Mark Seif managed to make a decent run with a 41st-place finish for $13,350 and Ari Engel also did well with a payout of $16,300 for 35th.

There was a brief lull in the action after the players reached the final three tables, but it was during this time that Anderson had a big moment when he busted Maksim Petrov by flopping a set with pocket tens against the pocket queens of Petrov to send him out in 23rd place. He then used this momentum to guide his way to the final table, where he was second in chips only to Bamshad Azizi.

Final Table

Once the players returned from their dinner break, it was Jaskaran Brar who was first to fall to Anderson in ninth place when his ace-five couldn't hold up to pocket tens.

It was Azizi's turn to score a knockout when his pocket aces felted a short-stacked Regina Vega Sevilha in eighth, much to the disappointment of her zealous Brazillian rail. Then the action was back to Anderson who knocked out fellow pro Martin Zamani when Anderson out-pipped him with pocket tens (once again) to Zamani's pocket nines and he exited in seventh.

Azizi then scored another crazy knockout when he got it in with pocket sixes against the pocket kings of Tom Cohen, but a six smacked down on the river to eliminate Cohen in brutal fashion. After that, Azizi then doubled up two players back-to-back and eventually hit the rail when he ran nines into Lee's jacks and failed to improve.

Lee then went on a tear as he knocked out Donnie Barnard in fourth with pocket queens followed quickly by Taylor Williams in third with pocket fives. These three eliminations really set up Lee for his heads-up match with Anderson as he held a 2:1 chip lead. He then proceeded to win a huge pot off of Anderson to further widen the gap, but that's when Anderson turned on the gas and started to work his magic.

He first scored a double with ace-jack suited against the pocket fives of Lee, and then when Lee moved all in on the river with top pair of queens, Anderson flicked in the call with pocket kings to score another huge double to put him far in the lead.

Anderson then finished the job when he called Lee's all in with pocket fours and was up against queen-deuce suited. No improvements were made to Lee's hand on the board and he exited as the runner-up, while Anderson ran and embraced his rail as an official bracelet winner.

Well, that's all we have for tonight as Event #80: $800 Independence Day Celebration has come to a close, but there is always plenty of content from the 2024 WSOP here on PokerNews, so continue to stay tuned!

Francis Anderson raised to 10,000,000 on the button and Brent Lee defended in the big blind.

The flop came     and Lee check-raised to 20,000,000 over Anderson's bet of 9,000,000. Anderson made the call.

The turn landed the   and Lee bet 25,000,000. Anderson called.

On the   river, Lee moved all in, putting Anderson at risk for his last 56,500,000. Anderson flicked in the call and tabled   , besting the    of Lee.

Francis Anderson	223,000,000	123,600,000
Brent Lee	48,500,000	-137,500,000

Brent Lee limped in the small blind and Francis Anderson raised to 1,300,000 in the big blind. Lee made the call.

The flop came     and Anderson check-called a bet of 9,000,000 from Lee.

The turn landed the   and Anderson check-called again, this time for 20,000,000.

The river brought the   and Anderson checked once more. Lee moved all in, putting Anderson to the test for his remaining 54,500,000. After some thought, Anderson tossed his cards into the muck.

Brent Lee	217,000,000	26,000,000
Francis Anderson	54,500,000	-13,700,000

Taylor Williams moved all in from the small blind for 33,500,000. Brent Lee was in the big blind and made the call and was in great shape to score another knockout.

Taylor Williams:   
Brent Lee:   

"Just one of those pointy cards." said Williams before the dealer put out       and Williams was sent to the payout desk, bringing an end to his tournament run.

Brent Lee	191,000,000	37,500,000
Taylor Williams	0	-44,000,000

Bamshad Azizi open-jammed his 31,000,000 chip stack from under the gun. Action folded around to Brent Lee in the small blind who made the call, covering Azizi.

Bamshad Azizi:   
Brent Lee:   

Azizi was looking for a nine but could not find one as the board ran out       and he was sent to the payout desk.

Brent Lee	105,000,000	58,000,000
Bamshad Azizi	0	-38,000,000

Bamshad Azizi moved all in from the hijack for 39,000,000. Tom Cohen called all in from the cutoff for 35,100,000 and the button and blinds mucked.

Tom Cohen:   
Bamshad Azizi:   

The board ran out       and Azizi found his two-outer on the river to send Cohen to the rail and drag in a massive pot.

Bamshad Azizi	79,400,000	41,400,000
Tom Cohen	0	-42,900,000

Short-stacked Taylor Williams moved all in preflop and was called by Bamshad Azizi to put him at risk.

Taylor Williams:   
Bamshad Azizi:   

"Agh... I need a five or diamond!" Azizi yelled at his rail when he realized he was in bad shape.

The flop of     gave him exactly what he wanted for a good sweat as he could now hit any diamond along with a five to score the knockout. Fortunately for Williams, who was holding his breath, the runout came    to award hi the double, which he celebrated with a emphatic fist pump.

Bamshad Azizi	38,000,000	-23,000,000
Taylor Williams	27,000,000	7,800,000

Bamshad Azizi raised to 6,000,000 in the hijack and Brent Lee three-bet to 12,000,000 from the big blind. Azizi made the call.

The flop came     and Lee moved all in, putting himself at risk. Azizi asked the dealer for a count, which was 18,200,000.

After a moment of thought, Azizi gave up his hand and the pot was pushed to Lee.

Bamshad Azizi	88,000,000	7,000,000
Brent Lee	42,200,000	6,100,000