The 2021 WSOP Event #84: $50,000 HIGH ROLLER Pot-Limit Omaha ended with a stacked final table and Jeremy Ausmus on top.
With the Main Event over, there were plenty of players from Europe who wanted to make the best of their first foreign holiday in 18 months. The event garnered 83 entries, making for a total post-rake prize pool of $4,069,375.
Jeremy Ausmus was the lucky winner of the $1,188,918 set aside for first place.
The tourney was a pot-limit Omaha event. Those play a lot faster and with far greater volatility than a Texas hold'em event with the same structure.
Despite the volatility, the cream rose in this event. By the time there were two tables going, the field had boiled down to contain many of the biggest and meanest sharks. Shaun Deeb, Scott Seiver, Ben Lamb, and POY leader Josh Arieh were all still in play. By the time Ausmus was playing three-handed, his two playmates were Phil Hellmuth and Daniel Negreanu.
"I’ve played with them a lot, a fair amount over the years," Ausmus explained in his post-game interview. "I play a fair amount of PLO, so I felt like I liked my spot, you know. Not saying they’re not great players or anything. And they have a lot of tournament experience and they’ve been here a million times."
Playing with the stars
Despite keeping his cool at the table play, Ausmus did admit to enjoying the thrill of playing with legends.
“It was fun playing with those guys — the old-school, iconic guys," he explained. "I used to watch them on TV. Fifteen years ago... seventeen years ago, before I moved to Vegas. Things like that. So it’s cool."
Ausmus is no neophyte himself. He had two WSOP bracelets and just under $9 million in tourney wins before racking up this event.
The WSOP Twitter account congratulated Ausmus for his win.
"Jeremy Ausmus takes down the $50,000 PLO High Roller," @WSOP wrote. "To earn $1,188,918 and his third WSOP bracelet."
With Daniel Negreanu and Phil Hellmuth both in the player of the year race, frustrations were high when neither could close the deal.
Three-way frustration
Negreanu posted a vlog about his time at the table with Phil.
The video was captioned on Twitter with: "Day 50 VLOG is Live and it's a big one as we find our way to another Final Table battling it out with @phil_hellmuth for a bracelet and $1.2 Million!"
To which Hellmuth replied: "Neither one of us happy w/out winning that @WSOP Bracelet!"
Negreanu hasn't won a WSOP event in Vegas since 2008 when he took down the $2,000 Limit Hold'em event. He is dying for another bite at the apple.
Phil wrote up his own, more solipsistic, assessment of the table too.
"I want to feel depressed after 2nd place in @WSOP PotLimOmaha," the 16-time bracelet winner wrote. "1st was bracelet 17, 1st was for the lead in “WSOP Player of Year,” WSOP ends Tues. But, I played great & set a new record: 7 final tables 8th 6th 5th 4th 1st 2nd 2nd: in 7 different games!! And I have 4 more tourns!!"
Phil's frustrations are driven more by his recent successes. Although he won a bracelet this year, his focus has been on the string of near misses. He set a record for the most final tables at one WSOP, each time coming within a few positions of the gold.
In the end, this final table didn't turn out to be about Negreanu or Hellmuth, but Ausmus.
Hellmuth won $734,807 and a lifetime of regret for second place.
2021 WSOP Event #84: $50,000 HIGH ROLLER Pot-Limit Omaha complete final payouts and results
Featured image source: PokerGO
