In the early hours of Sunday morning, John Monette won his fourth WSOP bracelet as he took down the 2021 World Series of Poker Event #16: $10,000 Limit Hold’em Championship at the Rio. The 39-year-old high-stakes cash game regular defeated FiveThirtyEight founder Nate Silver heads-up to secure his fourth bracelet and the top prize of $245,680. This is Monnette’s first Hold’em bracelet, adding to his victories in previous events in 2-7 Lowball Draw, Seven Card Stud, and 8-Game Mix.
“The first is always the most special, but this is awesome,” Monnette said when asked where this win at the series ranks in comparison to his three previous victories at the series. “I had a couple of bad years where I did nothing so to finally get back and do something is great. It was a tough field, a championship event, so this definitely means a lot.”
Monnette had entered the event’s final table as a shorter stack but he did exceptionally well, taking down some key pots along the way. “I was patient is a good way to describe it. The final table kind of played out lucky for me where some of the best limit players were eliminated early, but I survived.”
The final day of the event started with 10 players remaining and bracelet winner John Racener in the lead. Bracelet winner Ray Dehkharhani (10th for $18,506) bubbled the final table, hitting the rail shortly after losing a chunk of his stack with the second pair against the turned straight of Racener.
Kevin Song got all-in on a board of Ad Jc 8s 4h with As Js against pocket eights of Christopher Chung. The flopped set held up and Song was eliminated in ninth place. Despite scoring the elimination, Chung was the next player to fall from the final table. Following Chung was Scott Tuttle who got the last of his chip in, holding 9s 6d on a Jh 7h 6h 4d board. He was at risk against the pocket queens of Eric Kurtzman. The Ks was of no help to Tuttle and he was eliminated in seventh place.
The 2010 WSOP main event runner-up finisher John Racener lost a big chunk of his chips as the field narrowed down. Racener finally got the last of his stack in with pocket jacks on a Qh Qc 8d. He was against Kh 8h of Kurtzman, and stayed ahead till the turn 5d. The river Ks gave Kurtzman kings and queens to take down the pot. Racener was eliminated in sixth place. Following him in fifth place was popular poker streamer Jason Somerville whose As Ks failed to beat pocket sevens of Silver. The latter found a seven on the river to make set and win the pot, busting Somerville in fifth place.
A little later, Terrence Chan got the last of his stack in on a jack-high flop with Kh Jh. He was up against the Ah Kd of Monnette. Chan had outflopped Monnette, but an ace on the turn changed the balance. The Qc on the river was of no help to Chan and he was eliminated in fourth place.
After the elimination of Kurtzman in third place, it came down to the heads-up for the title between Monnette and Nate Silver, with the latter holding 3.1 million chips to Monnette’s 2.5 million chips. However, Monnette played well. He was able to take the lead and grow his advantage further by the time the final hand arrived. On the final hand, Silver raised on the button with Qc 10s and Monnette called with Kc 8h. The board ran out 10c 8c 7c Ks 6d, giving the coveted pot and title to Monnette.
Final Table Payouts (USD)
- John Monnette – $245,680
- Nate Silver – $151,842
- Eric Kurtzman – $108,747
- Terrence Chan – $79,210
- Jason Somerville – $58,697
- John Racener – $44,263
- Scott Tuttle – $33,979
- Christopher Chung – $26,561
- Kevin Song – $21,149
- Ray Dehkharghani – $18,506