Anthony Koutsos Wins 2021 World Series of Poker $500 Freezeout Event

Anthony Koutsos outlasted a sizable field of 2,930 players to take down the 2021 World Series of Poker $500 buy-in no-limit hold’em freezeout event. The real estate agent from San Francisco, CA earned $167,272 and his first WSOP gold bracelet for the win.

This was only the ninth recorded lifetime tournament cash for Koutsos, and his very first at the series. It was also his first six-figure payday in a poker event. He had just over $12,000 in prior scores under his belt.

The first day of this two-day event saw the field of thousands narrowed to just 132 contenders, with Koutsos among the bottom third of the field on the leaderboard. By the time the final table was set, he had worked his way up to one of the largest stacks.

Fausto Valdez (9th – $16,324) and John Moss (8th – $20,753) were eliminated in quick succession before an hour-long dinner break commenced. The first hour after the break saw three more eliminations, with Ronald Ibbetson (7th – $26,595), Jacob Rich (6th – $34,353) and Sundiata DeVore (5th – $44,725) hitting the rail. Two of those bustouts came at the hands of Dongsheng Zhang, while chip leader Charbel Kanterjian secured the other knockout.

Koutsos clashed with Jonah Lopas in the next big hand to arise. Lopas shoved with K3 and was looked up by the AJ of Koutsos. An ace on the flop increased Koutsos’ advantage, and he held from there to narrow the field to just three. Lopas took home $58,685 as the fourth-place finisher.

Koutsos overtook the lead, winning a big pot with quad nines to climb atop the chip counts while leaving Zhang on fumes. Zhang got all-in moments later with Q9 and was at risk against the AQ of Koutsos. Neither player improved on an eight-high runout and Zhang was eliminated in third place ($77,600).

With that Koutsos took roughly a 2:1 chip lead into heads-up play with Kanterjian. There were several lead changes as play continued, but Koutsos eventually took the lead again in time for the final hand. Kanterjian moved all-in from the button with 86 and Koutsos called holding QQ. The 6334K runout secured the pot and the title for Koutsos, while Kanterjian took home $103,403 as the runner-up finisher.

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

Winner photo credit: WSOP / Melissa Haereiti.

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