WSOP 2021: Chad Norton Wins Maiden Gold Bracelet in Event #46: $800 NLHE Deepstack ($214,830); Arsh Grover & Abhinav Iyer Finish ITM

The two-day long Event #46: $800 No-Limit Hold’em Deepstack of the 52nd World Series of Poker (WSOP) saw Chad Norton (cover image) striking gold in the first-ever bracelet event he ever played. The former car salesman trumped a field of 2,053 entries to grab the lion’s share of the $1,445,312 prize pool worth $214,830, along with his first-ever gold bracelet.

Talking about his win in the post-tournament interview, Norton said, “This is surreal. It was a quick tournament with a lot of ups and downs like always, but it was a lot of fun, and I’m just really grateful to come out with the win.”

Norton entered the final table with the fourth-largest stack and eliminated Joshua Herman, William Blais, Kevin Wang, Narimaan Ahmadi, and Steve Lemma en-route to win the title.

Sharing details of his journey throughout the event, Norton revealed, “In one of the final hands of Day 1, I lost pocket kings against ace-queen for 1.2 Million. It would have been nice coming into today with a nice chip stack, but instead, I came in with 380K and fought my way back somehow.”

Norton, who is an online poker player, has not played a lot of live tournaments. In fact, this was the first live WSOP event he has ever played. What a fabulous way to start off one’s WSOP journey!

“To be honest, I’ve only played in one WPT event, and this was my first ever live WSOP tournament,” said Norton. “I play mostly online, but I came in on such a downswing, so to be able to come in and win my first ever WSOP tournament feels amazing.”

With the top 308 places assured payouts, some of the notables who finished in the money included Day 1 chip leader Alejandro Andión (36th for $5,463), two-time WSOP bracelet winners Eric Baldwin (62nd for $3,305) and James Moore (70th for $2,853), and all-time leading WSOPC ring winner Maurice Hawkins (115th for $1,956).

Representing Team India in the event were Young Guns Arsh Grover and Abhinav Iyer. While both pros made it in the money, the former bracelet winner, Iyer, couldn’t make it past Day 1 and was eliminated in 164th place for $1,762 (~₹1.32 Lakhs). The Delhi-lad Arsh Grover advanced to Day 2 with a stack of 595,000 and ended up taking 103rd place for $1,956 (~₹1.46 Lakhs).

Several Indian-origin players also made the payouts list, including Nilesh Choudhary (80th for $2,489), Kalyan Chivukula (113th for $1,956), Rajendra Ajmani (171st for $1,762), Nipun Ajmani (254th for $1,404), and Sandeep Pulusani (307th for $1,284).

Day 2 started with 120 players, and the pace of eliminations was fast. Marc Masino bubbled the FT in 10th place for $15,417.

Final Table Chip Counts

1. Kevin Wang – 22,000,000

2. Ivan Uzunov – 14,600,000

3. William Blais – 11,200,000

4. Chad Norton – 9,700,000

5. Steve Lemma – 6,000,000

6. Andres Jeckeln – 5,900,000

7. Narimaan Ahmadi – 5,500,000

8. Jordyn Miller – 4,800,000

9. Joshua Herman – 2,000,000

Final Table Recap

The first player to hit the rail was the shortest stack on the FT, Joshua Herman. He ran into Chad Norton’s and failed to connect.

About 17 minutes later, William Blais was sent packing in a classic cooler when his cowboys were decimated by Norton’s pocket rockets. Blais bowed out in eighth place.

Less than an hour after the players had returned from the dinner break, it was Jordyn Miller’s turn to leave the final table. His were pitted against Andres Jeckeln’s , which rivered trip eights, knocking Miller out in seventh place.

It took less than five minutes for the subsequent elimination to take place. Kevin Wang’s were up against Norton’s , which bettered to a pair of Jacks on the turn, eliminating Wang in sixth place.

Down to five-handed play, Ivan Uzunov exited after his were bested by Jeckeln’s .

Narimaan Ahmadi was the next player to fall after his couldn’t spike a king against Norton’s . The board blanked, dismissing Ahmadi in fourth place.

Towards the end of Level 36, Andres Jeckeln bid adieu to the final table when his lost the flip against Steve Lemma’s .

Jeckeln’s third-place elimination set up the heads-up between Chad Norton (64,000,000) and Steve Lemma (18,200,000). Given Norton’s massive chip advantage, it only took him a little over 10 minutes to walk away with the title.

On the final hand, Norton raised from the button, and Lemma moved all-in from the big blind. Norton called.

Steve Lemma:

Chad Norton:

The community cards revealed and Norton flopped top pair, relegating Lemma to a runner-up finish.

Final Table Results (USD)

1. Chad Norton – $214,830

2. Steve Lemma – $132,802

3. Andres Jeckeln – $98,269

4. Narimaan Ahmadi – $73,271

5. Ivan Uzunov – $55,279

6. Kevin Wang – $42,031

7. Jordyn Miller – $32,254

8. William Blais – $24,982

9. Joshua Herman – $19,533

Content & Images Courtesy: WSOP, PokerNews & PokerGoNews

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