$446,983 WSOP victory for Denove

After eight and a half hours of play on Day 4 of Event #43: $1,000 Double Stack No-Limit Hold'em at the 2021 World Series of Poker, it was cash game player Anthony Denove who took down the first-place prize of $446,983 and his first WSOP bracelet.

The cash game player, who up until this week had $76k in live earnings, with his biggest recorded cash being $6,000 has more than tripled his lifetime earnings with his win here today. "It's been my dream to win a bracelet," Denove said overcome with emotion. "I've been playing cash for six years but I do really love tournaments."

Denove, who also recently became a father, was the start of the final table chip leader, full of big names like Michael Wang, Jeff Platt, and David Guay who had come in seventh place in this event in 2019.

"I knew a lot of those players would not be making any mistakes in a lot of spots," he said when asked about the lineup. "I try not to be too conscious of it, helps keep my expectations in check."

The action with the final 17 players was fast and furious and players were eliminated rather quickly. Bracelet winners Jonathan Dokler (15th-$23,877) and Sejin Park (13th-$29,602) came into the day with bigger stacks, but ultimately found themselves on the wrong side of some coinflips and were eliminated before the final table. Within a few hours, the final table of ten was set.
Final Table Action

The action went quickly at the final table, starting out with Denove raising in the cutoff and Matthew Raffoul putting his entire stack in the middle. Start of day chip leader Michael Wang in the big blind thought for a long time before deciding to do the same and put his whole stack in the middle and Denove called covering them both. Denove's pocket kings were well ahead of the ace-ten of Raffoul and pocket nines of Wang, and Denove flopping a set left his opponents drawing very thin. Neither of them improved and they were eliminated. Raffoul in tenth place for $36,949 and Wang in ninth place for $46,430.

The next player to fall was Joshua Harrison when his ace-eight could not hold against the king-queen held by Frank Lagodich. A king on the flop sealed Harrison's fate and he departed in eighth place for $58,735.

Start of the final table short stack was able to ladder up a few spots, but in the end, Kenneth Inouye got in his remaining chips with queen-ten suited against David Guay's ace-eight suited and Guay filled up on the turn to have Inouye drawing dead before the river even came. Inouye received $74,796 for his seventh-place finish.

Steven Stolzenfeld was next to leave when he got his remaining chips in with pocket eights against Timothy Little's ace-five suited. The board paired Little's ace and the river brought an eight to give Stolzenfeld three of a kind, but it was no good as the eight he got was a flush completing card for Little. Stolzenfeld departed in sixth place for $95,878.

Lagodich had lost almost all of his chips in a massive pot against Guay but had managed to double up three times, putting him in the top three for chips with five people left. But a big pot emerged with Guay when he had top pair versus middle set and all the chips went in the middle, leaving Lagodich to depart in fifth place for $123,710.

PokerGO commentator Jeff Platt spent most of the time on the short stack when players were five-handed, and he departed shortly after Lagodich when his ace-nine could not hold up against the king-jack of Guay. Platt congratulated the other players as he departed in fourth place for $160,662.

Things were pretty even between Guay and Denove for chips with Timothy Little being the shortest stack three-handed. Eventually, Little got his chips in with ace-three against Guay's ace-eight. The board came all high cards, looking as if it was going to be a chop, but an eight came on the river to pair up Guay and Little departed in third place for $210,004.

Heads-up play chip counts started very even, but within thirty minutes Denove was comfortably ahead. With Denove acquiring a 2:1 chip lead, Guay picked up pocket nines and Denove picked up pocket tens, and all of the chips got in before the flop. Guay could not find improvement on the board, and the seventh-place finisher of this event in 2019 ended his second final table run in the double stack in second place for $276,269.

Guay and Denove shook hands and Denove went to his rail, full of emotion as he went to go talk to his father on the rail about the tournament that he won to get his first WSOP bracelet.

Denove said he will come back to try to play the Main Event, but first, he is going to go home and spend some time with his wife and daughter.

Final Table Results
1 Anthony Denove United States $446,983
2 David Guay Canada $276,269
3 Timothy Little United States $210,004
4 Jeff Platt United States $160,662
5 Frank Lagodich United States $123,710
6 Steven Stolzenfeld United States $95,878
7 Kenneth Inouye United States $74,796
8 Joshua Harrison United States $58,735
9 Michael Wang United States $46,430
10 Matthew Raffoul Canada $36,949

(Article courtesy of World Series of Poker)