Carlos Chang Wins 2021 World Series of Poker $2,500 No-Limit Hold'em Freezeout Event

Carlos Chang overcame a field of 896 players to win the 2021 World Series of Poker $2,500 buy-in no-limit holdem freezeout event, earning his first gold bracelet and the top prize of $364,589. Chang became just the third player from his home country of Taiwan to win a WSOP bracelet event, following in the footsteps of James Chen and Pete Chen, who won his first bracelet just a few weeks ago in the online $400 buy-in event.

In addition to the title and the money, Chang also took home a massive haul of 1,368 Card Player Player of the Year points for the win. This was his first POY-qualified score of the year, but it alone was enough to catapult him into 103rd place in the overall standings, which are sponsored by Global Poker.

The final day of this event began with eight players remaining and Chang in the lead. Quang Ngo was the first to hit the rail, losing a preflop race to recent WSOP Online $10,000 heads-up no-limit hold’em championship winner Arthur Conan to fall in eighth place ($37,820). Gerald Cunniff followed soon after, with his A-2 offsuit failing to improve against the pocket fives of high-stakes tournament regular Sergi Reixach. Cunniff took home $49,179 as the seventh-place finisher.

Sung Joo Hyun was one of the hottest players on the live tournament circuit in the early months of 2021. The Korean poker pro and 2020 WSOPO bracelet winner kicked off the year by winning the WPT DeepStacks Venetian main event for $208,335. Roughly six weeks later he emerged victorious in the Wynn Spring Classic $3,500 championship event for another $323,409. he had made another three final tables outside of those two scores before putting together a deep run in this tournament. Hyun was ultimately knocked out in sixth place, with his pocket sixes losing a preflop race against the A-8 of Conan. An ace on the river sent Hyun home with $64,864.

Conan ended up being the next to be eliminated. He ran pocket sevens into the pocket nines of Adrien Delmas. Neither player improved and Conan took home $86,757 for a fifth-place finish. Like Hyun, Conan is having a career-best year on the live scene. He took down the Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown $50,000 buy-in high roller event for $733,320 in April. He now has more than $2.2 million in career earnings to his name.

Chang found a key double up with pocket queens early in four-handed action. He continued his surge up the leaderboard when he flopped a nine-high straight against the flush draw and lower straight draw of Reixach. Change held from there to send the Spanish poker pro to the rail with $117,650 and narrow the field to three.

Delmas lost the majority of his stack with pocket kings losing to the flopped flush of Chang, which improved to a straight flush after the money got in. Delmas was left with less than a big blind and was eliminated shortly after, earning $161,731 as the third-place finisher.

With that Chang took around 11.8 million into heads-up play with Brady Osterman, who had more than 19.5 million. Chang found a quick double up with pocket eights beating A-K offsuit. Chang took the lead not long after that double, but the two players would battle for more than three hours before a winner was decided. Chang took a decisive lead when he made a flush against the two pair of Osterman. In the final hand of the event, Chang shoved from the button with 107 and Osterman called off his last nine or so big blinds with AJ. The board ran out 88669 and Chang rivered a ten-high straight to lock up the pot and the title. Osterman earned $225,333 as the runner-up.

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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