Anthony Spinella moved all in for his remaining 22,500,000 from under the gun. Francis Anderson made the call on the button and the rest of the table folded.
Anthony Spinella:
Francis Anderson:
The board ran out giving Anderson a set of eights and eliminated Spinella in 5th place.
Joao Simao opened to 6,000,000 from the button and Mateusz Moolhuizen three-bet to 16,000,000 from the small blind.
Following nearly five minutes and after Anderson called the clock, Simao shoved for 55,000,000 total. Moolhuizen snap-called and the Brazilian knew what he was up against.
Joao Simao:
Mateusz Moolhuizen:
The flop came , meaning only running straight cards could save Simao. The sealed his fate and the completed the board.
The bustout means that there will be a first-time WSOP bracelet winner.
Mateusz Moolhuizen opened from the button for 6,000,000 with and Francis Anderson three-bet to 20,000,000 from the big blind. Moolhuizen opted to just call.
The flop came and Anderson continued for 12,000,000. Moolhuizen called.
The turn came the and with a little less than pot, Anderson moved all-in and Moolhuizen folded.
Anderson emphatically turned the face up as he took the chip lead.
Mike Jukich opened to 8,000,000 with and Mateusz Moolhuizen called from the big blind with .
The gave Moolhuizen two pair while Jukich flopped top pair, setting up the action. Jukich continued for 6,000,000 and Moolhuizen raised to 19,000,000. Jukich called.
With the pot at 58,000,000, the turn gave Moolhuizen the full house, and he continued for 20,000,000 more. Jukich would go in the tank and eventually shove. Moolhuizen snap-called and needed to fade two outs for his first bracelet.
The river brought the to stun the entire crowd and give Jukich a commanding chip lead.
Mike Jukich defeated a massive field of 6,051 players to win his first bracelet in Event #21: $1,500 Monster Stack No-Limit Hold'em at the 2022 World Series of Poker at Bally's and Paris Las Vegas.
After 14 hours of play on Day 4, he triumphed at a final table featuring former bracelet winners Anthony Spinella and Joao Simao, before defeating Mateusz Moolhuizen heads-up to take home $966,577.
Event #21: $1,500 Monster Stack Final Table Results
Place
Name
Country
Prize (USD)
1
Mike Jukich
United States
$966,577
2
Mateusz Moolhuizen
Netherlands
$597,362
3
Francis Anderson
United States
$449,912
4
Joao Simao
Brazil
$341,095
5
Anthony Spinella
United States
$260,315
6
David Zarrin
United States
$199,995
7
Yoshiya Agata
Japan
$154,688
8
Jessica Teusl
Austria
$120,455
9
Ricardo Caridade
Portugal
$94,439
Winner's Reaction
Before today, Jukich’s biggest result was winning a WSOP ring event in Baltimore for $165,438 in 2018. After the win, the Virginia native was asked by PokerNews how he felt about winning his first-ever bracelet.
“Insane, first off I want to say hi to my fiancé Ashley Myers who's back home, and my son Ryker. I wish they could be here. It just didn’t work out with how the scheduling was, I was short to start the day. I had like 14 bigs. I started off with a double and just kinda ran it from there. It's just been a wild roller coaster.”
The last couple of hands were as wild as they could get.
“I mean, it was a big set-up on the turn deuce. I thought for a while about just calling but decided to just stick it in. It happened so quick, I heard his rail saying it's over, it’s over, and I was like, it’s not really over yet. The king hit from outer space, I don’t even know how to describe that."
Jukich mentioned his family back home. What does it mean to win this for them?
“My fiancé, like I said, we’re not married yet, but I promise we will be soon. She’s been my rock she’s been supportive through lots of ups and downs and lots of stupid decision-making with money, now hopefully I can just hang on to it and give her and my son a good life”.
Day 2 Recap
The final table play started with Ricardo Caridade’s ace-queen falling to Spinella’s ace-king to send him out in ninth place. Jessica Teusl was next to go, losing with ace-six to Jukich’s pocket sixes and exiting in eighth place.
Jukich scored another knockout when he busted Yoshiya Agata in seventh. The back and forth battle went on for a while until David Zarrin got it in against Simao but fell short and was eliminated in sixth.
Spinella, the chip leader for much of the final day, exited in fifth after he was all in with jack-ten against Francis Anderson's pocket-eights and could not win the flip.
Simao hit the rail in fourth when his pocket tens could not improve against the rockets of Moolhuizen. Soon after, Moolhuizen eliminated Anderson in third after getting it all-in and flipping with jacks against Anderson’s ace-king.
A cruel hand went Jukich's way, a hand that altered the course of the tournament. Jukich moved all-in on the turn holding two pair only to discover Moolhuizen had turned full-house with his six-deuce. However, Jukich spiked a two-outer king on the river to completely turn the tables on Moolhuizen. Dutch star Moolhuizen was eliminated on the very next hand.
Congratulations to Mike Jukich, winner of Event #21: $1,500 Monster Stack No-Limit Hold'em.
That concludes events from today's WSOP. We will be back tomorrow with all the updates from Bally's and Paris for the latest events. Stay here at PokerNews for all the action.