At the beginning of the 2005 WSOP, Doyle Brunson remained the co-king of the all-time bracelet count, tied along with Johnny Chan at nine. However, as the series drew toward its close in late June, that was no longer the case — Chan had overtaken him by winning No. 10 to stand atop the mountain alone.
Brunson was already phasing out his tournament play, having cashed precisely zero times that summer and just three times in the previous two combined, although one had resulted in a bracelet victory.
When it came time for Event #31: $5,000 No-Limit Hold'em 6-Handed, Brunson dusted off his tournament chops and made a run.
For the a more thorough look on Brunson's historic 10th bracelet win, click the link below.
Ryan "Adopt_aDogg0" Leng raised to 1,075 under the gun, Christopher "Mufasa5000" Safaya defended the big blind.
The came on the flop. Leng bet 1,995 and Safaya called.
The turn was the . Safaya check-called 6,870. The river came the . Safaya checked a third time and Leng jammed all in, Safaya called off his final 27,765.
Leng had the for the full boat to slay the of Safaya and force him to buy back in.
Wilbert "quads8888" Chun limped under the gun and Bob "bobeads" Mather raised to 1,615 from the cutoff. "Mastertaxgui" called from the small blind, Chun came along, and the flop came down .
All three players checked, the appeared on the turn, and "Mastertaxgui" moved all in for 1,935. Chun called but then folded when Mather raised to 7,750.
Bob "bobeads" Mather:
"Mastertaxgui":
Mather had the nuts and was pushed the pot after the was run out on the river. "Mastertaxgui" was felted on the hand but opted to re-enter.
On Monday, July 26, the WSOP Summer Online Circuit continued alongside the bracelet events. The 11th tournament was the $500 buy-in Event #11: $50,000 GTD PLO Big 500 6-Max, which attracted 144 runners who rebought 125 times. The 269-entry field resulted in a $125,623 prize pool that was paid out to the top 30 finishers.
Among those to cash were YK "LuckySpewy1" Kwon (13th - $1,658.22), Jeff "NedrudRelyt" Madsen (16th - $1,331.60), Ian "apokerjoker2" Steinman (17th - $1,331.60), Anthony "heheh" Zinno (21st - $1,055.23), Ryan "Protential" Laplante (25th - $1,055.23), and Jesse "Patient0" Yaginuma (30th - $1,055.23).
In the end, it was John "Macallan25" Riordan besting Joseph "biueberry" Cheong in heads-up play to win a $26,204.95 top prize and his third gold ring.
WSOP Summer Online Circuit Event #11 Final Table Results
One player who has been doing quite well on playing online in recent years is bracelet winner Daniel "centrfieldr" Lupo, 37, of West Milford, New Jersey. You might recall in 2019, Lupo topped a 1,767-entry field to win the WSOP.com Online $500 NLH Turbo Deepstack for $145,274 and a gold bracelet. Last year, he added a ring to his résumé by taking down the WSOP.com Online Circuit Event #3: $320 NLH 6-Max for $32,595 and a month later won the WSOP.com $100,000 GTD Sunday for $50,715.
PokerNews caught up with Lupo, who went to NJIT for Architecture and baseball, to ask him about poker, which he squeezes in between working for an Architecture firm in Bridgewater specializing in single-family residential and smaller commercial projects and his family, which includes three kids ages 2-5 and his supportive wife Laura.
PokerNews: When and how did you learn to play poker?
Lupo: I started playing/learning in college during the Rounders and Moneymaker boom with a bunch of the baseball guys. Within a year I found myself hosting games at college, at home on breaks and basically anywhere I could find or make a game. I didn’t play much online early on, regrettably.
What sort of poker do you play these days?
Mostly online MTTs playing like three sessions per week on average with buy-ins typically from $50 to $1k with the occasional $2-$3k buy in for a big event. I average around 500-600 MTTs a month despite not playing full time, I tend to put in a lot of volume when I’m on. The games are mostly NLH and some PLO MTTs, but love when StarsNJ runs a series as they run a fun 8-Game MTT with a bunch of other mixed variants.
What’s it like to play poker while raising young children?
It’s been a constant evolution. I could probably write a book about all the highs and lows and life adjustments I’ve had or chose to make. It gives me a lot of inspiration to succeed while also adding some weight to my losses as it's like 'not only was I way from my kids for all of Sunday afternoon but I lost (insert obnoxious Sunday schedule cost here)'.
What are some of your poker goals?
Try and win everything I play. Actually, my biggest current goal is trying to optimize my MTT game selection. Since quarantine began the schedules have been exploding site to site and while it's been great, with lots of new players and lots of live players playing online it has also drastically increased my average buy-ins and session costs as well as the field size which further increases variance.
I'm trying to optimize the balance of table quantity and expected value vs individual session costs and the variance that comes with it. Having an average buy-in of $250 adds up pretty quickly when it's spread across 60+ entries on a Sunday. My biggest ongoing and long-term goal is to win enough to help my family live comfortably.
Lupo is in action today looking to make a run at his second gold bracelet.