Koray Aldemir Has A Monster Lead With Three Remaining In The 2021 World Series of Poker Main Event

There are now just three players remaining in the 2021 World Series of Poker main event, with the championship bracelet and top prize of $8,000,000 just one day from being claimed. German high-stakes tournament star Koray Aldemir has a commanding lead heading into the final day of play, with his 264,600,000 representing nearly twice the amount of chips that his two opponents have combined. The 31-year-old resident of Vienna, Austria has roughly two-thirds of the total chips in play, and is guaranteed to add a few million to his already impressive career earnings total of $12.3 million.

26-year-old British poker player Jack Oliver ended the day second in chips with 77,300,000, while 49-year-old payments industry executive George Holmes bagged up 57,400,000 at the conclusion of the first of two days of final table action.

The final three players have all locked up at least $3,000,000 for lasting this long in this event which drew 6,650 entries to build a prize pool of $62,011,250.

Final table action got underway at 4:00 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 16. It didn’t take long for chips to start flying. The first elimination of the day took place just five hands after actor and comedian Vince Vaughn, the newly announced 2022 WSOP master of ceremonies, announced the start of play with the customary, “Shuffle up and deal!”

Jack Oliver raised to 1,600,000 from the cutoff with AK. George Holmes called in the small blind holding KJ. Chase Bianchi three-bet jammed for 9,700,000 from the big blind with KQ. Oliver moved all-in with his ace-king and Holmes got out of the way. The board improved neither player and Bianchi was sent to the rail with $1,000,000 as the ninth-place finisher.

The 34-year-old bracelet winner based out of Boston, MA resident is now a retired professional poker player, with his focus shifting to software development in recent years. With the pressure of playing for a living off his back, Bianchi managed his best run ever in the biggest poker tournament in the world.

“So, retire from poker and final table the main? it’s pretty sweet,” Bianchi told Card Player moments after he was eliminated. “I’d long given up on final tabling the main or winning the main. So it’s definitely a cherry on top.”

“There wasn’t any real ICM pressure, pay jumps are pretty small,” offered Bianchi about his final hand. "So there was really no reason to play safe. I just shot it in with king-queen ran into ace-king.

The very next hand saw another knockout take place. Jareth East moved all-in for 6.3 million when it folded to him in middle position with AJ. Holmes shoved from the button with QQ and everybody else folded. There was an ace in the window, but a queen also rolled off on the flop. The final board of AQ746 sent the pot to Holmes and eliminated East in eighth place. The 31-year-old UK poker player earned $1,100,000 for his final-table showing in this event.

“That was my main goal, just to make it to the final table. It was a big payjump, and obviously just making the final table of the main event is just amazing and unreal and a dream come true, like for real,” said East, who said he lost three major pots with pocket aces during day 7 action to become one of the shortest stacks in the field with around 18 remaining. “So, once I reached the final table, I don’t really care what happened, to be honest.”

The largest pot of the tournament so far saw the two chip leaders clash. Argentinian rapper Alejandro Lococo raised to 2,000,000 from early position with 1010 and chip leader Aldemir three-bet to 5.6 million from the cutoff with 99. Lococo made the call and the flop came down JJ9 to give Aldemir nines full of jacks. Lococo checked and Aldemir bet 3.9 million. Lococo called and the 8 hit the turn.

Lococo checked again and Aldemir sized up to 11.4 million. Lococo called and the 3 completed the board. Lococo checked a third time and Aldemir bet enough to put his opponent all-in. Lococo went into the tank before eventually making the call, only to see that his tens had been outflopped. The 29-year-old finished seventh for $1,225,000 while Aldemir’s stack soared over 200 million.

Hye Park’s run in this event came to an end when his pocket sevens lost a preflop race to the A-Q of a still-surging Aldemir. A queen on the turn gave Aldemir the lead, and the river was of no help to Park. The 38-year-old poker pro, who served as a Marine from 2001-2005, collected $1.4 million for his sixth-place finish while his friends cheered on from the rail.

It means the world to me. I mean, life is about relationships and the journey you take. [Their support] is probably more important to me than the poker part of it," said Park, who now has more than $1.9 million in career tournament earnings to his name.

Ozgur Secilmis was critically short not long before Park’s elimination but managed to get a shove through and then doubled up to exit the danger zone.

The 36-year-old Turkish player, who won a massive hand with quads over quads near the money bubble of this event, was still the next player to get all-in. He open-shoved for around 14.5 big blinds with K5 and it folded around to Aldemir, who called with 99. The board came down AAJA8 to give Aldemir a winning full house. Secilmis earned $1.8 million as the fifth-palce finisher.

The final four played on for a bit, with an agreement reached to play another half hour or until just three remained. A three-way all-in nearly narrowed the field down to heads-up play. All of the chips went in preflop with the hands looking as follows:

Aldemir: QQ
Remitio: AJ
Oliver: J9

The board came down 109837 to give Oliver a rivered flush for the triple up. Joshua Remitio made a straight to win the side pot from Aldemir, but was still left as the clear short stack after the hand.

Remitio shoved from the button the next hand with J7 and Oliver called with A2 from the big blind. The A10742 runout gave Oliver aces up to secure the pot. Remitio, a 27-year-old cash game specialist from Arizona, earned $2.3 million as the fourth-place finisher.

With that, the final three bagged up their chips. They are set to return at 2:00 PM local time and play until a champion is decided. Blinds will be 800,000-1,600,000 with a big blind ante of 1,600,000 for the remainder of level 39.

Here is another look at the chip counts of the remaining three players:

Here are the payouts for the final table:

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