Kevin Gerhart Wins His Fourth World Series of Poker Bracelet

Five years ago, Kevin Gerhart had just over $90,000 in tournament cashes and no live titles to his name. On Wednesday, Nov. 3, Gerhart became just the 58th player in poker history to have won at least four titles at the World Series of Poker. Gerhart took down the WSOP $1,500 pot-limit Omaha eight-or-better event, defeating a field of 725 entries for his second bracelet of the 2021 series.

The $186,789 first-place prize increased Gerhart’s career earnings to just more than $1.2 million, with $969,447 of that money coming in WSOP events. His first bracelet was won in the 2019 $1,500 razz event. The following year he took down the WSOP Online $500 pot-limit Omaha six-max event for his second piece of hardware. His third win at the series came in this year’s $10,000 H.O.R.S.E. event for a career-best $361,124 payday.

In addition to the title and the money, Gerhart also earned 912 Card Player Player of the Year points for the win. This was his fourth POY-qualified score of the year. With 1,712 total points, he now sits in 80th place in the 2021 POY race, which is sponsored by Global Poker.

Gerhart came into the final day of this event in second chip position with 13 players remaining. By the time the field combined onto one table, he had overtaken the chip lead.

World Poker Tour champion Dylan Wilkerson was the first to fall. He got all-in with the nut low draw and trip fives facing the same low draw and a full house for Matthew Kaplan. The river improved neither player and Wilkerson was eliminated in eighth place $18,278.

WSOP Circuit ring winner Michael Trivett was the next to hit the rail. He got a large chunk of his stack in preflop with AQ103 and then called the remainder off after an A96 flop. He was up against the AK98 for Gerhart for top two pair. The turn and river kept Gerhart ahead and Trivett was awarded $23,891 as the seventh-place finisher.

Gerhart busted then busted Roman Hrabec in sixth place ($31,733), making kings and tens to scoop the pot and take a sizable lead into five-handed action. Gerhart doubled up a few short stacks before the next elimination took place, but remained atop the leaderboard.

Alexander Orlov’s run in this event came to an end when he ran into the nut flush and nut low of Dustin Dirksen. Orlov earned $42,823 as the fifth-place finisher. Dirksen was nearly knocked out in fourth place after getting all-in preflop with A-2 and pocket sixes against the A-7-5-2 of Gerhart, who flopped trip sevens. Dirksen rivered a two-outer, hitting a six to make a full house and double up.

Gerhart bounced back from that loss by eliminating Sterling Lopez in fourth place ($58,695). He then expanded his lead even further, knocking out start-of-day chip leader Matthew Kaplan with flush-over flush to take roughly a 2:1 lead into heads-up play with Dirksen.

Dirksen was able to battle his way into the lead for a time, but Gerhart regained the advantage by the time the final hand was dealt. With a board of 962JK, Gerhart bet enough to put his opponent at risk. Dirksen made the call with QJ75 and was beaten by the K10108 of Gerhart. Dirksen took home $115,440 as the runner-up, increasing his lifetime tournament earnings to more than $1.7 million.

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

Winner photo credit: WSOP / Danny Kim.

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