WSOP 2021: Daniel Lazrus Takes Down Event #17: $1,500 Millionaire Maker For $1 Million

The first Million-dollar paycheck has been awarded at the 52nd Annual World Series of Poker (WSOP). Daniel Lazrus (cover image) won Event #17: $1,500 Millionaire Maker collecting his second WSOP bracelet this year along with a $1 Million up top cash prize.

Lazrus entered the final Day 5 with over 40% of chips in play and eventually defeated Darryl Ronconi (runner-up for $500,125) in the heads-up clash.

Lazrus had clinched his first bracelet in the WSOP Online 2021 at Event #28 $3,200 High Roller Championship ONLINE and had only $14K in recorded live cashes prior to the event! In his post-match interview, Lazarus said “This one feels much more special. It feels more legitimized than online did, just because it was a different atmosphere. This makes me happy with the decision I’m making of putting a lot of time into poker. The first was an achievement, this feels like THE achievement. I didn’t realize it yet but this is a much greater feeling, I can’t even begin to describe it.”

Event #17: $1,500 Millionaire Maker had clocked in 5,330 players over two starting days to help collect a $3.4 Million prize pool. The top 799 finishers got paid.

Notables who ran deep to cash but couldn’t make it to the final table included Todd Saffron (7^th for $124,570), Stephen Song (11^th for $66,480), Ryan Jones (14^th for $42,935), Luis Zedan (18^th for $34,850), Faraz Jaka (22^nd for $28,480), Austin Reilly (34^th for $23,435), and Craig Varnell (40^th for $19,415)

Final Day Chip Counts

1. Daniel Lazrus – 60,200,000
2. Ignacio Moron – 30,600,000
3. Michael Gathy – 21,900,000
4. Jeffrey Gencarelli – 13,500,000
5. Darryl Ronconi – 7,400,000

Final Day Recap

On the final Day 5, the five remaining players reconvened on the feature table with all action being live-streamed on PokerGo.

The first bustout of the day Ignacio Moron who started the FT with the second biggest stack but lost a chunk of his chips early on. Moron jammed holding and Daniel Lazrus woke up with pocket kings to make the call. No ace on the board and Moron exited in fifth place.

After another 40 mins of gameplay, Michael Gathy open shoved with and Darryl Ronconi called with . Ronconi hit a straight on the board and sent Gathy packing in fourth place.

Next up, Jeffrey Gencarelli opened holding and Lazrus called with . On the flop, Gencarelli bet and Lazrus called to see the turn . Gencarelli decided to jam and Lazrus called up. The river completed the board and Gencarelli’s dream run ended in third place.

Lazrus (104.3 Million) began the heads-up match with an over 3:1 chip lead against Ronconi (29.3 Million) and all it took was half-hour for Lazrus to secure the million-dollar paycheck.

On the final hand of the event, Darryl Ronconi opened with , Lazrus 3-bet with , Ronconi shoved and Lazrus called. The board ran and Lazrus’ ace-high got him the title!

Final Day Results (USD)

1. Daniel Lazrus – $1,000,000
2. Darryl Ronconi – $500,125
3. Jeffrey Gencarelli – $377,125
4. Michael Gathy – $288,715
5. Ignacio Moron – $222,430

Content & Images Courtesy: WSOP & PokerNews

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