Byung Yoo Wins 2021 World Series of Poker Online $400 Buy-In Monster Stack Event

The 24th World Series of Poker gold bracelet of the 2021 WSOP Online series was awarded in the early morning hours of Sunday, July 25. New Jersey resident Byung ‘bhy101’ Yoo emerged victorious from a field of 1,176 total entries in the $400 buy-in no-limit hold’em ‘Monster Stack’ event, coming back from a 7:1 chip disadvantage at the start of heads-up play to secure his first bracelet and the top prize of $77,475 as the champion.

This was Yoo’s second-largest tournament score, behind the $220,324 he earned as the runner-up finisher in a $560 buy-in preliminary event at the 2015 Borgata Winter Poker Open series that drew a gigantic field of 4,179 entries. His victory in this online tournament increased his career earnings to more than $400,000.

Big names among the 180 players to make the money in this event included three-time bracelet winner Ben ‘WhyIsGamora’ Yu (170th – $592), three-time bracelet winner Nick ‘cashusklay’ Schulman (123rd – $635), Jeff ‘mavsusc’ Platt (67th – $974), two-time bracelet winner and three-time World Poker Tour main event champion Anthony ‘heheh’ Zinno (38th – $1,566), bracelet winner Daniel ‘centrfieldr’ Lupo (36th – $1,863), bracelet winner Ryan ‘joeyisamush’ Depaulo (33rd – $1,863), Katie ‘katelin’ Lindsay (31st – $1,863), 2018 WSOP main event third-place finisher Michael ‘helionic’ Dyer (20th – $2,286), and a pair of recent 2021 WSOPO bracelet winners in Carlos ‘CarlosWelch’ Welch (13th – $3,514) and Michael ‘njnj17’ Leib (12th – $4,445).

The final table began with Corey ‘Corgasm’ Paggeot well out in front of the rest of the pack, while recent U.S. Poker Open big bet mix event winner John ‘Macallan25’ Riordan sat in second. Riordan closed the gap somewhat by busting Joseph ‘letsplay77’ Bruno (9th – $5,715), but still had less than half as many chips and Paggeot.

Yoo came into the final table in seventh chip position but managed to climb the leaderboard early by knocking out Frank ‘Denzer’ Williams III in eighth place. Yoo shoved with AJ and was up against the AQ of Williams III. Yoo flopped a straight and turned a flush to leave Williams III drawing dead. He took home $7,451 for his deep run in this event.

Oliver ‘yongshi88’ Tse (7th – $9,864) was the next to fall when his 10-9 suited failed to outrun the A-K of ‘aerpmh’. Just a few minutes later, Riordan ran pocket tens into the pocket jacks of Paggeot preflop. The larger pair held up and Riordan was eliminated in sixth place ($7,856). This was his 11th cash since the start of June, with three final-table showings so far at the WSOPO.

Paggeot continued to run away with the lead, busting David ‘Bewater’ Goodman (5th – $17,866) to take roughly half of the chips in play into four-handed action. Yoo took command of the second-place spot on the leaderboard when his pocket threes beat out the K8 of ‘aerpmh’ in a battle of the blinds. Yoo’s pair remained the best hand by the river, and ‘aerpmh’ was sent to the virtual rail with $24,555.

Bader ‘Ib2nyce4u’ Haq got the last of his stack in with pocket nines, only to run into the pocket kings of Paggeot. Neither player found any help from the board, and Haq was knocked out in third place ($33,996).

With that Paggeot took roughly a 7:1 chip lead into heads-up play with Yoo. Yoo managed to battle his way back into the match, with a couple lead changes made along the way before the final hand arose. Yoo sat with roughly a 3:1 chip advantage of his own his he picked up KK on the button. He moved all-in and Paggeot called with A2 for his last 11.5 big blinds. The board ran out Q986J and Yoo’s kings were enough to secure the victory. Paggeot earned $47,840 as the runner-up, the largest recorded score of his career.

Here is a look at the payouts awarded at the final table:

Yoo photo credit: Borgata Poker blog.

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