The 2021 WSOP Event #38: $50,000 High Roller went to Michael Addamo yesterday after a hard-fought three-day battle.
The $50k event attracted 81 participants, which meant $3,877,875 in the prize pool. $1,132,968 of that pool was set aside for first place.
The field was — as you might imagine with a game priced so high — elite. The final table included Justin Bonomo, Gal Yifrach, Erik Seidel, and Sam Soverel. Other players who made it into the 13 paid spots included Dan Smith, Anthony Zinno, and the controversial Scott Ball. Even those who didn't make the money were mostly A-listers (including among many others Jason Koon and Stephen Chidwick).
Addamo himself is no soft target and has been having quite a year. Back in January, Poker.org's Geoff Fisk asked "Is Michael Addamo the best player in the world?" And that was before he went on an insane tear.
This year alone he won two WPTDeepstacks in one week, a Super High Roller Bowl event in another, and two events plus the purple jacket at the Poker Masters in another. Now he's got a bracelet to chuck onto his dragon hoard of gold.
When asked — after his bracelet win — if being considered the best in the world had an impact on his play, he said: "It puts some pressure on me. If you sort of internalize and believe that [you're the best], you can become complacent."
Despite his successes, he tries to keep his feet on the ground.
"Obviously there's some skill involved, but winning this much is really attributed to luck in the end," he says, modestly. "So it's very fortunate. I play a strategy where I put a lot of big bets in. That's no secret. Sometimes you're going to be out in the first level and sometimes you're gonna build up a big stack."
Addamo certainly couldn't afford to be complacent during heads-up play. His opponent, Justin Bonomo, had almost as many chips and is a shark in his own right. The lead went back and forth a few times before settling permanently in Addamo's favor, 24.3 million chips to zero.
The final hand began with all chips going in preflop and ended with the river doling out a straight-over-straight victory to Addamo.
Bonomo won $700,228 for his second-place finish.
2021 WSOP Event #38: $50,000 High Roller complete results
| Position | Player Name | Payout |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | Michael Addamo | $1,132,968 |
| 2nd | Justin Bonomo | $700,228 |
| 3rd | Gal Yifrach | $495,305 |
| 4th | Erik Seidel | $358,665 |
| 5th | Chris Hunichen | $266,031 |
| 6th | Bin Weng | $202,236 |
| 7th | Sam Soverel | $157,666 |
| 8th | Mustapha Kanit | $126,141 |
| 9th | Leonard Maue | $103,635 |
| 10th | Dan Smith | $87,500 |
| 11th | Scott Ball | $87,500 |
| 12th | Anthony Zinno | $80,000 |
| 13th | Johann Guilbert | $80,000 |
Featured image source: PokerGO (Photographer credit: Antonio Abrego)
