Long Ma Defeats 12,975 Entries To Win World Series of Poker Reunion Event

The first lower buy-in, large field no-limit hold’em tournament of the 2021 World Series of Poker turned out to be a huge success, despite some long registration lines during the three starting flights. The $500 buy-in no-limit hold’em event known as the ‘The Reunion’ attracted a massive field of 12,973 to easily surpass the $5 million guarantee, creating a final prize pool of $5,499,500. In the end it was Long Ma who emerged victorious with the lion’s share of that money, earning $513,604 and his first WSOP gold bracelet as the champion. The 35-year-old knocked out each and every opponent on the final day on the way to securing what was by far the largest tournament payday of his career.

In addition to the title and the money, Ma also earned 720 Card Player Player of the Year points for the win. This was his first POY-qualified score of the year, moving him inside the top 300 in the 2021 POY race sponsored by Global Poker.

The final day of this event began with just five players remaining after a marathon 17-hour day 2 that started with 683 players left in contention. Plenty of big names made deep runs inside the money in this event, including a trio of bracelet winners in John Borsuch (33rd – $14,861), Ryan Laplante (19th – $18,117), and Adrian Buckley (9th – $53,625).

Ma held the chip lead when cards got back in the air on the final day, with nearly twice as many chips as the next-largest stack. Michael Eddy was the clear short stack with fewer than ten big blinds, and it didn’t take long for him to get his chips into the middle. Just a few minutes into the day he three-bet all-in over the top of Ma’s open with KJ. Ma called with A8 and made a pair of aces on the turn to secure the pot. Eddy earned $142,847 as the fifth-place finisher.

Alex Vazquez was the next to fall. He limped in from the small blind with AQ and Ma checked with QJ. The flop came down K52 and Vazquez bet 5 million. Ma called and the turn brought the J. Vazquez moved all-in for 51,000,000 with his flush draw, straight draw, and overcard. Ma thought it over before making the call with second pair. The 8 changed nothing and Vazquez was knocked out in fourth place ($185,281).

Ma extended his lead even further by earning his third knockout of the day. Max Tavepholjalern got his last 15 or so big blinds in preflop by three-betting over the button open of Ma with K8. Ma called holding 44 and held on a JJ533 runout to take more than a 4:1 chip lead into heads-up play against Giuliano Lentini. Tavepholjalern earned $241,766 for his deep run.

Heads-up play lasted just a single hand. Lentini open-shoved from the small blind with QJ and Ma called with A7. The board came down K4355 to lock up the pot and the title for Ma. Lentini was awarded $317,352 as the runner-up finisher.

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

Winner photo provided by PokerGO / Antonio Abrego.

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