Tyler Cornell Wins 2021 World Series of Poker $25,000 No-Limit Hold'em Event For $833,289

Tyler Cornell first made his debut on the live tournament circuit over 13 years. The 33-year-old San Diego-based poker pro has accumulated more than 200 cashes in that time, but remained without a live tournament title heading into the 2021 World Series of Poker. He finally broke that streak by emerging victorious in the WSOP $25,000 buy-in nolimit hold’em eight-max event, defeating a field of 135 entries to secure his first gold bracelet and the top prize of $833,289.

“It feels amazing,” Cornell told PokerGO after coming out on top. “I’ve been trying to do this for a long time and I finally got a win. It feels amazing.”

This was by far the largest score of Cornell’s tournament career, besting the $328,305 he earned as the eighth-place finisher in the 2020 WSOP Online $5,000 buy-in main event. He now has more than $2.2 million in career cashes to his name.

In addition to the hardware and the money, Cornell also secured plenty of rankings points as the champion of this high-stakes event. He earned 924 Card Player Player of the Year points, enough to move him into 173rd place in the overall standings despite having no previous POY-qualified scores. He was also awarded 500 PokerGO Tour points, good for 42nd on that leaderboard.

This high roller event ran over the course of three days. The final day began with just five players remaining and Cornell in the lead. Mustapha Kanit was the first to fall. The Italian poker pro bet 340,000 with a board of QJ6 as the preflop three-bettor. World Poker Tour champion Jonathan Jaffe moved all-in over the top and Kanit called with AK. Jaffe had flopped top pair with Q10. The 9 turn and 4 river were of no help to Kanit and he was eliminated in fifth place (216,842).

Despite earning that knockout, Jaffe was ultimately the next to hit the rail. He was left short after a multi-street bluff attempt was picked off. He got the last of his stack in with K5 and received a call from Michael Liang, who held AK. Neither player improved and Jaffe was sent home with $286,202. This was his third POY-qualified final table of the year. The 462 points he earned were enough to see him climb into 85th place in the standings.

Three-time WSOP bracelet winner Adrian Mateos called off his last seven or so big blinds with A9 out of the big blind. Cornell, who had started to run away with the lead during three-handed action, had shoved with pocket nines from the button. The pocket pair held up and Mateos fell just short of his fourth bracelet, earning $381,870 for his strong showing in this event. The 27-year-old Spanish poker pro now has nearly $22.6 million in career tournament earnings.

With that Cornell took a massive chip lead into heads-up play with Michael Liang, the 2021 L.A. Poker Classic main event winner and recent WPT Venetian runner-up finisher. Cornell held more than a 9:1 chip advantage to start. Liang mounted a comeback initially, but Cornell was able to rebuild his lead in time for the final hand of the event. Liang shoved for around 10 big blinds from the button with K2 and Cornell called with A2 from the big blind. The board ran out A63102, giving Cornell a winning pair of aces to lock up the pot and the title. Liang earned $515,014 and 770 POY points as the runner-up. His three big scores this year were enough to move him into 20th place on the POY leaderboard for the time being.

Here is a look at the payouts and rankings points awarded at the final table:

Photo credit: PokerGO / Antonio Abrego.

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