WSOP 2022: Mike Jukich Wins Career-First Bracelet in Event #21: Monster Stack No-Limit Hold’em; India’s Aditya Agarwal (18th) & Ankit Ahuja (33rd) Post Deep Runs

The four-day-long Event #21: $1,500 Monster Stack No-Limit Hold’em at the 53rd annual World Series Of Poker (WSOP) ended with Mike Jukich (cover image) capturing his first-ever gold bracelet and a ginormous $966,577 payday. The Virginia native championed a 6,051-playing field and routed Netherlands’ Mateusz Moolhuizen’s massive heads-up chip lead to win the title! Before today, Jukich’s most significant result was winning a WSOP ring event in Baltimore in 2018 for $165,438.

Taking about his bracelet win, Jukich said, “Insane, first off, I want to say hi to my fiancé Ashley Myers who’s back home, and my son Ryker. I wish they could be here. It just didn’t work out with how the scheduling was; I was short to start the day. I had like 14 bigs. I started off with a double and just kinda ran it from there. It’s just been a wild roller coaster.”

Acknowledging that the final few hands of the tournament were quite wild, he said, “I mean it was a big set-up on the turn deuce. I thought for a while about just calling but decided to just stick it in. It happened so quickly, I heard his rail saying it’s over it’s over, and I was like, it’s not really over yet. The king hit from outer space; I don’t even know how to describe that.”

Sharing what this win means to him and his family, Jukich added, “My fiancé, like I said, we’re not married yet but I promise we will be soon. She’s been my rock she’s been supportive through lots of ups and downs and lots of stupid decision-making with money, now hopefully I can just hang on to it and give her and my son a good life.”

Team India’s Run in Event #21

Nine Indians cashed in the event, with the country’s poker pioneer Aditya Agarwal posting the deepest run of them all. The Goa resident and Ankit Ahuja were the only two Indians to make Day 4.

Ahuja entered the final day ranked 16th in chips among 39 survivors with 9,125,000 but made an unceremoniously early exit in 33rd place for $31,033 (~₹24.21 Lakhs).

Aditya Agarwal had started out with the shorter stack of 4,300,000 and did relatively well to make it to the final two tables before falling out in 18th place. Agarwal’s elimination hand saw him moving all-in for his last 6.3 Million, and Francis Anderson called from the big blind.

Aditya Agarwal

Francis Anderson

The board showed , and Anderson flopped a pair of aces won him the pot, eliminating Agarwal in the process. The Indian pro banked $38,231 (~₹29.82 Lakhs), which happens to be his 50th WSOP cash, taking his overall WSOP winnings to $933,272.

Nishant Sharma (142nd for $7,584,₹5.91 Lakhs) hit the rail on Day 3.

Thirteen Indians were among the 2,053 players returning on Day 2. Among them, six finished in the money, namely Tarun Goyal (329th for $5,054 ~₹3.94 Lakhs), bracelet winners Aditya Sushant (474th for $3,610 ~₹2.81 Lakhs) & Abhinav Iyer (870th for $2,400 ~₹1.87 Lakhs), Himmat Singh (537th for $3,278 ~₹2.55 Lakhs), Muskan Sethi (676th for $2,625 ~₹2.04 Lakhs), and Dilip Ravindran (927th for $2,400 ~₹1.87 Lakhs).

The event paid out 976 places, and the notables who crossed the money line included Justin Saliba (24th for $38,231), Calvin Anderson (34th for $31,033), and Steven Wolansky (101st for $7,584).

The elimination of Romain Lotti (10th for $74,551) set up the nine-handed final table. The remaining nine players were moved to the feature table, and the final table action was streamed on PokerGO on a one-hour delay.

You can watch the first hour of the live stream replay below.

Final Table Chip Counts

1. Mike Jukich – 96,900,000
2. Anthony Spinella – 79,700,000
3. Mateusz Moolhuizen – 35,000,000
4. Francis Anderson – 29,200,000
5. David Zarrin – 25,600,000
6. Joao Simoa – 18,500,000
7. Ricordo Caridade – 15,600,000
8. Yoshiya Agata – 14.100,000
9. Jessica Teusl – 10,400,000

Final Table Recap

Ricardo Caridade was the first player to leave the final table when his ran into Anthony Spinella’s . Spinella rivered a boat on the runout , eliminating Caridade in ninth place.

About 40 minutes later, the only female player on the final table, Jessica Teusl, was knocked out in eighth place. Her were overpowered by Mike Jukich’s .

The Day 2 chip leader Yoshiya Agata was Jukich’s next victim. The Japanese player’s were no match for Jukich’s that turned a full house on the runout .

Six-handed play continued for about four hours before the subsequent elimination took place. The hand in question had David Zarrin pitting his against Joao Simao’s . The community cards opened , and Simao’s rivered pair of Queens eliminated Zarrin in sixth place.

Finishing in fifth place was Anthony Spinella. His were bested by Francis Anderson’s which hit trip eights on the board , ending Spinella’s dream run towards a second bracelet victory.

Forty-five minutes later, Joao Simao‘s went up against Mateusz Moolhuizen’s . Moolhuizen flopped a set on the runout , sealing Simao’s fate in fourth place.

Francis Anderson was the next to go after he lost a decisive flip with to Moolhuizen’s . With the board offering him no help, Anderson walked out in third place.

The heads-up between Mateusz Moolhuizen (227,000,000) and Mike Jukich (98,000,000) began with the Dutch player sporting a commanding chip lead. A little over 30 minutes into the heads-up battle, Jukich won a huge pot to take the chip lead away from Moolhuizen.

The hand in question saw Jukich open to 8 Million with , and Moolhuizen called from the big blind with . The flop fell , giving Moolhuizen a two-pair, while Jukich flopped the top pair. Jukick fired a bet of 6 Million, and Moolhuizen raised it to 19 Million. Jukich called making it a 58 Million pot. The turn gave Moolhuizen a full house, and he continued with a bet of 20 Million. Jukich tanked for a while before moving all in. Moolhuizen snap-called. The river brought , stunning the crowd who thought it was all over for Jukich. Not only did Jukich survive, but winning the pot gave an overwhelming chip lead of 276 Million, while Moolhuizen was crippled to 49 Million.

On the very next hand, Moolhuizen called from the button with , and Jukich jammed with . Moolhuizen snap-called, putting his tournament life on the line. The dealer opened the and Jukich’s Ace-high eliminated Moolhuizen in second place.

Final Table Results (USD)

1. Mike Jukich – $966,577
2. Mateusz Moolhuizen – $597,362
3. Francis Anderson – $449,912
4. Joao Simao – $341,095
5. Anthony Spinella – $260,315
6. David Zarrin – $199,995
7. Yoshiya Agata – $154,688
8. Jessica Teusl – $120,455
9. Ricardo Caridade – $94,439

Content & Images Courtesy: PokerGO, PokerNews & WSOP

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