We’re getting to that point. There’s so much action going on, and so many big tournaments with results that merit reporting, that we’ve got to rethink our format for how we present to you the big wins each week that really matter. Please don’t hesitate to leave your feedback in the comments down below, or email the CardsChat News tipline at tips@cardschat.com. In the meantime, these are a handful of winners who did something special this week, Monday to Sunday, July 5-11, 2021:
Chad Eveslage
WPT Venetian
DeepStack Championship Poker Series
$910,370
Eveslage, an Indiana native, is having a year to remember. After having won a $25,000 high roller event at the WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown in Florida in May for $767,576, he took down a $5,000 WPT Main Tour event across the country in Las Vegas on July 7, adding nearly $1 million to his bankroll, which brings him to $3.3 million lifetime. Eveslage beat out 1,199 entries and won a historic final table — the first WPT event ever with three women among the final six. He now has nearly $1.8 million in 2021 cashes. If he continues winning at this pace, he’ll be in contention for GPI Player of the Year in a few months.
Ali Imsirovic
$10K and $15K No-Limit Hold’em
PokerGO Cup
Aria
$423,000
Imsirovic won not one, but two PokerGO Cup series events this past week in Las Vegas, and now has eight high-roller titles in 2021. The 26-year-old first took down Thursday’s $10,000 event, crushing a 61-player field for $183,000. Then on Saturday, he shipped the 15,000 tournament with 50 entries for $240,000. The wins added up to a handsome $423K, raising his lifetime live tournament cashes above $11.8 million. Imsirovic is now a favorite to win numerous honors this year, including GPI Player of the Year, PokerGO Tour championship, and of course the PokerGO Cup high-roller series crown.
Simon Mattsson
‘FiestaPagana’
Super Millions
GGPoker
$302,053
Sweden’s Mattsson might not be a familiar name to casual poker fans, but he’s now a Super Millions champion. In fact, at the start of GGPoker’s live stream, commentator Randy Lew wasn’t even sure who he was. Perhaps it’s because his avatar featured the flag of Norway. Perhaps it’s because he’s better known by his other online names, C Darwin2 and Hellmuththegr8. Whatever the reason, the man with over $17.5 million in online earnings didn’t feature too heavily in the pre-final table talk. That all changed during Tuesday night’s $10,300 final table. Mattsson put on a clinic against the likes of Isaac Haxton and Benjamin Rolle to top the 139-player field. In the end, A♠ 9♦ got it done against Rolle, earning Mattsson his first Super Millions title.
Uri Reichenstein
Mystery Bounty
Summer Classic
The Wynn
$217,948
Reichenstein, an Israeli pro, picked up the largest win of his career in Las Vegas on Tuesday, taking down the Wynn Summer Classic’s $1,600 “Mystery Bounty” event. This no-limit tourney featured an unusual format, in that envelopes for each player who survived to the second day were placed into a drum, and then whoever knocked out a player on Day 2, or on Tuesday’s Day 3 finale, could draw an envelope, each of which contained a bounty amount ranging from $500 to $100,000. Reichenstein knocked out 13 players on the event’s final two days, collecting $42,000 in bounties, though the $100,000 top bounty went to Jay Kavoor. Reichenstein, who is best known for two, huge runner-up scores in European Poker Tour events, moved his career earnings over $2.8 million with this latest cash.
Tyler Denson
‘ShipTheShip’
NLH Deepstack
WSOP Online Bracelet Series
$175,700
It took 12 hours of play for “ShipTheShip” to ship the $2,000 gold bracelet event on WSOP.com on July 6. Denson beat out 416 players to win his first World Series of Poker bracelet. The Florida native has $113K in live tournament cashes, highlighted by his 245th-place finish for $37,019 in the 2013 WSOP Main Event. The recent WSOP champion outlasted a tough final table that included high-roller great Ben “WhyIsGamora” Yu, who took third place for $73,958. He now has four cashes in the 2021 WSOP Online Bracelet Series, the other three for small scores totaling just under $6,500.
Pedro Fernandes
Main Event
World Cup of Cards
Partypoker
$154,070
Fernandes took full advantage of this year’s World Cup of Cards Main Event taking place online by winning the title on Thursday night. The $1,100 tournament usually takes place at Canada’s Playground Poker Club but, due to ongoing COVID-19 restrictions, Partypoker stepped into the breach. That opened up the Main Event to 1,000 online players from around the globe. Fernandes toppled early favorite Christian Rudolph to clinch his first major title. Rudolph won the WPT Online Series Main Event in June, but couldn’t maintain his early chip lead at the final table. That allowed Fernandes to cut a deal with Mikhail Mikheev. The Russian got into the event via a $109 satellite, so was happy to lock up $127,961 before Fernandes went on to scoop an extra $10,000 and the title.
Preston McEwen
Main Event
Freedom Bash
Little Kings & Queens
$44,320
It’s not often that BWOW’s weekly spin through poker winners makes a stop in Georgia. But McEwen, a well-known pro in the region made his visit to the charitable gaming Little Kings & Queens Main Event a profitable one, taking down the event’s first-place prize on Tuesday. By charitable gaming standards, this event was huge, drawing 363 entries to this $630 tourney, building a prize pool of $196,020. Little Kings & Queens in Buford, Georgia, works to benefit multiple childrens’ funds. McEwen Tweeted, “Got down to 3bb on FT bubble but we got it done.”
Lex Veldhuis
‘L.Veldhuis’
Sunday High Roller Club
PokerStars
$33,265
Veldhuis has not only stood the test of time, but has evolved from a cash game grinder to a tournament beast. The Dutchman proved that once again on Sunday night in PokerStars’ weekly high roller. Unfortunately for his regular flock of Twitch railbirds, Veldhuis didn’t record a video of his winning run in the $1,050 MTT. However, he did provide a recap on Twitch as he went deep in another tournament. Back to the winning run, Veldhuis outlasted some tough pros, including Sam Grafton and Parker Talbot. That saw him top a 165-player field for his first online win since June 23.
Daniel Smyth, Haley Hintze, and Jon Sofen all contributed to this report. Know a big winner we missed? tips@cardschat.com
