WSOP 2021: Michael McCauley Wins Event #86: $1K Super Turbo NLHE; India’s Neel Joshi Finishes 3rd ($72,031)

American pro Michael McCauley won the WSOP 2021 Event #86: $1,000 Super Turbo No-Limit Hold’em on Sunday to win his maiden WSOP bracelet and a $161,384 payday! He came out on top of a 1,025-player field and outlasted British pro Andy Wilson (runner-up for $99,742) in heads-up play.

Interestingly, McCauley had never cashed in a WSOP event and also this was the only tournament he played. “This is my first WSOP so it’s pretty amazing to come out here and win a bracelet. I was nervous but after I won a couple of pots I settled down and trusted my reads. I tried not to pay attention to the field, trusted my game and I believe I can play with the best of them,” he said.

Even though there have been several deep finishes by Indian players, Team India is yet to get its first gold bracelet at the ongoing series. Indian players seem to be a little unlucky as Indians came close to winning the gold several times but they missed it in the end. So was the story of India’s emerging poker star Neel Joshi in this event. He looked like he would get India its first gold WSOP bracelet at the ongoing series but it was not meant to be. Joshi’s dream for his first-ever gold ended in third place for $72,031 (INR 53.58 Lac), which is the third-best score by an Indian at the ongoing series.

India’s poker superstar Aditya Agarwal, who placed runner-up for $ 286,705 in $10K Super Turbo Bounty, is the top scorer from Team India at the 2021 WSOP and he is followed by former bracelet winner Abhinav Iyer who had banked $113,800 for his 60th place finish in the WSOP Main Event.

This is Josh’s fifth score at this year’s series and took his WSOP winnings this year to $84,711. Joshi was not the only Indian to score in this event. There were two more Indians, namely Ankit Ahuja (31st for $4,074) and Yudhishter Jaswal (63rd for $2,739), who also made ITM finishes in the event.  

Joshi held the fourth-largest stack at the unofficial final table and was chip-leading with five players remaining. However, he lost the chip lead and eventually exited in third place. On his final hand, he moved all-in holding Ks 2c and got called by McCauley’s 6h 6s. The board ran out 10h 9h 4d 3h 5h, giving McCauley a flush to eliminate Joshi in third place to move into heads-up with Andrew Wilson.

Wilson got eliminated in the second place when he shoved all-in for 7.7 million after McCauley raised to 1.2 million. Wilson’s 7d 6d  didn’t improve against McCauley’s Kd Jh on a Qc 10s 4c 2s 8d board.

The event generated $912,250 in the prize pool that was shared by the top 155 players. Some notables among them were Josh Arieh (10th for $10,604), Vinny Pahuja (18th for $5,721), Ben Yu (26th for $4,793), Justin Liberto (55th for $2,739), Anthony Spinella (58th for $2,739), Nikhil Gera (65th for $2,474), Ryan Leng (83rd for $2,118) and Anthony Zinno (87th for $2,118) to name a few.

Final Table Payouts (USD)

  1. Michael McCauley – $161,384
  2. Andrew Wilson – $99,742
  3. Neel Joshi – $72,031
  4. Yuval Bronshtein – $52,679
  5. Rajvir Dua – $39,022
  6. Filippo Ragone – $29,282
  7. Luigi Curcio – $22,263
  8. Marc Lomeo – $17,153
  9. Dara O’Kearney – $13,395
Tags: