Home » News » WSOP 2017: John Monnette, Joseph Di Rosa Rojas, Tyler Groth, James Obst, Chris Moorman & Brian Brubaker Win Bracelets; Aditya Sushant & Aditya Agarwal Score in Event 27

WSOP 2017: John Monnette, Joseph Di Rosa Rojas, Tyler Groth, James Obst, Chris Moorman & Brian Brubaker Win Bracelets; Aditya Sushant & Aditya Agarwal Score in Event 27

PG News June 17, 2017
6 Minutes Read

Dreams do come true at the World Series of Poker (WSOP) with amateurs and pros alike taking home the coveted bracelets and recently the series crowned a number of winners in John Monnette, Joseph Di Rosa Rojas, Tyler Groth, James Obst, Chris Moorman and Brian Brubaker who all managed to clinch the gold.

Indian contingent or Team India as we patriotically label them has been in thick of action with a few familiar faces joining the fiasco these past few days.

India’s first bracelet winner Aditya Sushant made another deep run in the $3,000 NLHE 6-handed event. He started off strong and looked like was going all the way again but eventually finished 28^th for $14,364.

Team PokerStars pro Aditya Agarwal was also going strong in the $3,000 NLHE 6-handed event but eventually hit the rails at 61^st place for $6,191.

A number of Indian contestants joined the action on Day 1B of Event #19: THE GIANT – $365 No-Limit Hold’em event with Aditya Agarwal emerging as one of the top stacks with 260,000.

Event #22: $10,000 No-Limit 2-7 Lowball Draw Championship

The last day of the $10,000 No-Limit 2-7 Lowball Draw Championship event saw eight survivors coming back to play down to a winner with John Monnette leading them all at the start of the day. Monnette put up a spectacular performance and went on to take down the event for $256,610 along with his third bracelet.

Final Table Recap

Paul Volpe was the first elimination of the day followed by Canadian Mike Leah in seventh place.

Mike Gorodinsky was the next to fall; courtesy Monnette with James Chen following him out in fifth place.

Xavier Kyablue got eliminated by Darren Elias in the fourth place and it was Elias who went out next after losing a few hands against eventual champion Monnette.

Monnette started the heads-up battle with a monster chip lead didn’t take too long to end it all for his opponent Per Hildebrand.

Final Table Results

1. John Monnette – $256,610

2. Per Hildebrand – $158,596

3. Darren Elias – $110,944

4. Xavier Kyablue – $79,016

5. James Chen – $57,316

6. Mike Gorodinsky – $42,357

7. Mike Leah – $31,903

8. Paul Volpe – $24,498

Event #23: $2,620 “Marathon” No-Limit Hold’Em

In another first bracelet for a country, this time Venezuala’s hunt for the gold ended with its nativeJoseph Di Rosa Rojas taking down the $2,620 “Marathon” No-Limit Hold’Em event for $690,469. The event attracted a total of 1,759 runners taking the prizepool to $4,147,722 with the top 264 places getting paid.

Rojas dominated the final table throughout coming into the day as the chip leader and never relinquished the lead. He went into heads-up play with a massive eight-to-one chip lead against his opponent Alexander Lynskey and finished it off soon.

This unique style of tournament featured 100-minute levels putting players to the test of the ultimate grind. Some notables who made it in the money but couldn’t reach the final table include Patrick Mahoney (13th place – $33,350), Upeshka De Silva (30th place – $17,491), Kristen Bicknell (44th place – $14,446), Adrian Mateos (52nd place – $12,077), and Jason Mercier (143rd place – $4,909).

Final Table Recap

The official 9-handed final table came together after Josh Weiss got eliminated in 10th place by Julian Stuer.

Short stacked Maurice Hawkins was the first to hit the rail on the final table followed by Pratik Ghatge in eighth place.

After taking out the eighth-place finisher, Jernigan still found himself as a short stack and couldn’t last for much taking the seventh spot followed by Faraz Jaka.

It was an action-packed hour after the dinner break with five all-ins within ten hands with no eliminations and it was the very next all-in that ended the tournament journey of Julian Stuer.

Four-handed play didn’t last very long either as Tim Reilly was shown the door in fourth place and soon to follow him was 53-year-old former bracelet winner Jeffrey Tomlinson who put up an outstanding fight on the final table.

This set up the heads-up match between Lynskey and Rojas, with the Venezuelan holding a massive chip lead. The last hand of the event saw Rojas limping and Lynskey announced all-in holding . Rojas snap called tabling , The board ran the and Rojas took down the pot with higher two pairs, eliminating Lynskey in second place.

Final Table Results

1. Joseph Di Rosa Rojas – $690,469

2. Alexander Lynskey – $426,663

3. Jeffrey Tomlinson – $307,728

4. Tim Reilly – $224,316

5. Julian Stuer – $165,277

6. Faraz Jaka – $123,105

7. Andrew Jernigan – $92,705

8. Pratik Ghatge – $70,590

9. Maurice Hawkins – $54,356

Event #25: $1,000 Pot-Limit Omaha

The $1,000 Pot-Limit Omaha event attracted a total of 1,058 runners taking the prizepool to $952,200 and outlasting them all was Iowa’s Tyler Groth who won his first bracelet and walked away with $179,126 in prize money.

The 32-year-old started the final day being third in chips with 11 players remaining and had a great start as he hit a full house twice getting paid both times and soon took the chip lead.

The remaining players merged to a single table when Darren Taylor knocked out Jesse Chinni in 11^th place. Former November Niner and 888 Ambassador Bruno Politano bubbled the official 9-handed final table.

Final Table Recap

By the time the final table started, Groth had lost vast majority of his chips and became one of the shorter stacks but he bounced back and eliminated Casey Carroll in ninth place.

Mark Zullo got eliminated in eighth place followed by Adam Brown who walked away in sixth place.

Soon thereafter, the start of the day chip leader Igor Sharaskin ended up all-in in a hand on the turn with a huge draw only to find himself drawing dead against Groth’s full house.

Groth was completely in control of the table and by this point had more than half the chips in play. The next elimination was Darren Taylor who took the fourth spot, courtesy Allan Le.

Incidentally Le was the very next to go setting up the heads-up battle between Jonathan Zarin and Groth with the latter leading with a massive 5-1 chip advantage.

Zarin managed to score a double up and soon took down another major pot to reduce the gap but Groth came back stronger and ended it all. Zarin met with an unlucky river card, when he triple barreled for all of his chips with a full house. Groth, however, held aces and an ace on the river brought him a bigger full house that helped him secure victory!

Final Table Results

1. Tyler Groth – $179,126

2. Jonathan Zarin – $110,655

3. Allan Le – $78,372

4. Darren Taylor – $56,224

5. Igor Sharaskin – $40,862

6. Adam Brown – $30,090

7. Daniel Spencer – $22,456

8. Mark Zullo – $16,986

9. Casey Carroll – $13,026

Event 26: $10,000 Razz Championship

The $10,000 Razz Championship attracted a total of 97 hopefuls and outlasting them all was notable online pro James Obst who secured his first bracelet along with $265,138 in prize money.

The 26-year-old Obst finished runners-up in the $10,000 HORSE event last summer and runner-up again less than two weeks ago in the $2,500 Mixed Triple Draw Lowball event but he finally managed to clinch the gold this time.

Obst was sixth out of 38 survivors on Day 1 and navigated his way into the money on Day 2 bagging the second biggest stack. He started off in the chip lead on the unofficial final table on Day 3 and managed to finish off in style to claim him first career bracelet.

The final table of the event boasted of notable pros and previous bracelet winners including David “ODB” Baker, Brandon Shack-Harris, Nick Schulman and Anthony Zinno.

Final Table Recap

The first elimination of the day was the short stacked Nick Schulman followed by Jack Duong who settled in eighth place.

Jyri Merivirta hit the rails shortly thereafter and was soon joined by Brandon Shack-Harris in sixth place.

The next elimination came after two levels with another crowd favorite Anthony Zinno taking the fifth place followed by Andrey Zhigalov.

David Baker was looking to seal the bracelet but couldn’t extend his tournament journey settling in third place setting up the heads-up battle between Obst and Eric Kurtzman.

Obst started of heads-up battle with a 3:1 chip disadvantage but wasn’t phased out by the chip deficit and was focused on making a comeback. Kurtzman’s sizable chip lead was gone within a level and shortly thereafter it was all over with Obst taking it all and is now sitting second in the WSOP Player of the Year race behind Pablo Mariz.

Final Table Results

1. James Obst – $265,138

2. Eric Kurtzman – $163,867

3. David “ODB” Baker – $112,645

4. Andrey Zhigalov – $79,616

5. Anthony Zinno – $57,903

6. Brandon Shack-Harris – $43,370

7. Jyri Merivirta – $33,485

8. Jack Duong – $26,674

9. Nick Schulman – $21,946

Event #27: $3,000 No-Limit Hold’em

One of the most iconic online pros has finally clinched his first bracelet as UK based pro Chris Moorman took down the $3,000 No-Limit Hold’em event for $498,682 taking his tournament earnings to over $5 million. Moorman previously had made four WSOP final table finishes including two runner-up finishes in 2011 and the only title that eluded him has finally been earned by the champion who boasts over $14 million in online winnings.

India’s first bracelet winner Aditya Sushant had a roller coaster journey in the event. He was down to 28,000 at a point but came back stronger to chip up to 75,000. There was no looking back for the pro as he grabbed a few more pots to take his stack to around 125,000. Sushant made some sick river calls and ran his stack up to 270,000.

When the play was down to 56 players, Sushant built his stack to 340,000! Just a few levels later, Sushant eliminated an opponent taking his stack over the half million mark and what seemed like a heater of a lifetime saw the Chennai-pro sitting with 734,000 in chips with just the last two level of play remaining. However, Sushant lost a big pot in a flip and soon hit the rails at 28^th place for $14,364.

Team PokerStars pro Aditya Agarwal was another Indian player who made a deep run in the event but finished 61^st for $6,191.

Moorman came into the final day fourth in chips behind countryman Max Silver. The day began with 21 survivors returning and some big names who fell before the final table were Pratyush Buddiga (11th – $29,974), James Chen (14th – $23,029), Samantha Cohen (17th – $23,029) and Nacho Barbero (19th – $18,019).

Final Table Recap

Silver led for the majority of this event but was the first to fall on the final table followed by John Gorsuch who took the fifth spot.

Moorman then went on to eliminate arguably his biggest threat in two-time bracelet winner Steve Sung followed by Michael Gagliano in third place setting up the heads-up match against Brazilian Bernardo Dias.

The heads-up battle lasted for more than a hundred hands before Moorman finished the latter. Moorman finally sealed the deal when Dias open-shoved king-ten against his ace-king.

Final Table Results

1. Chris Moorman – $498,682

2. Bernardo Dias – $308,166

3. Michael Gagliano – $210,139

4. Steve Sung – $145,634

5. John Gorsuch – $102,605

6. Max Silver – $73,510

Event #28: $1,500 Limit 2-7 Lowball Triple Draw

The $1,500 Limit 2-7 Lowball Triple Draw event saw a field of 326 runners and outlasting them all was Los Angeles-based mixed-game pro Brian Brubaker who won his first bracelet along with $109,967 for first place prize purse.

Interestingly Brubaker had checked out of his hotel on Day 2 of the event in hopes of crashing at any place if he advances to the next day. As fate would have it, he struggled to find a place with the ongoing music festival Electric Daisy Carnival and the ongoing WSOP series but finally managed to crash for a few hours before the final table.

Final Table Recap

Short stacks Rick Fuller and Dean Kerl were the early ones to hit the rail followed by one of the biggest stars at the series – German soccer star Max Kruse, who is a regular at WSOP every year.

Kruse had the loudest and arguably most heavily drinking rail, but the Germans filtered out with him after he exited in fourth. Jason Riesenberg followed in third, and the heads-up battle began between the two Americans Brendan Taylor and Brian Brubaker.

The heads-up battle saw the chip lead exchanging several times but it was Brubaker who managed to take it all at the end along with his first gold.