Gilbert wins $137,570 at WSOP Online

On Sunday, the 2021 World Series of Poker Online continued with Event #18: $1,000 NLH North American Open, a tournament that drew 524 players who rebought 232 times. The 756-entry field resulted in a $692,000 prize pool, and after nearly 11 hours of play, it was James "Danfriel" Gilbert emerging victorious to capture a $137,570 top prize and his first gold bracelet.

Gilbert, who defeated wunderkind Landon "ActionDealer" Tice in heads-up play, was a WSOP Circuit ring winner with nearly $2.1 million in live tournament earnings according to The Hendon Mob. That includes a career-best $434,598 for finishing second in the 2015 WPT Borgata Poker Open and $326,565 for finishing runner-up in the 2018 WPT Seminole Rock N Roll Poker Open.

Gilbert previously came close to winning a bracelet back at the 2017 WSOP when he finished third in Event #50: $1,500 NLH, good for $139,180. A little over a week later, he took ninth in the 2017 WSOP Event #68: $3,000 NLH for an additional $48,745.

Among those to finish in the top 126 and make the money were Kristen "krissyb24" Bicknell (12th - $7,404), Raman "Acrogum" Afanasenka (13th - $5,882), Chance "bingsui" Kornuth (14th - $5,882), Jonathan "Art.Vendelay" Dokler (20th - $3,875), Mike "mkspresident" Shin (27th - $3,875), Ian "apokerjoker2" Steinman (43rd - $2,699), Ryan "bitc0in" Riess (57th - $2,007), and Event #17 champ Justin "LappyPoker" Lapka (79th - $1,661), who was one day removed from winning his first WSOP gold bracelet.

Final Table Action

Daniel "st0neydanza" Dagostino was the first final table casualty after losing a flip with ace-king against the pocket jacks of Brett "furofakind" Shaffer. Not long after, the Big Slick of "DLAZ14" also went down in flames to Shaffer, who flopped top pair with queen-jack.

At that point, Gilbert got bust eliminating William "swaggyb" Corvino in seventh place winning a race with ace-jack against pocket eights, and then he dispatched "tennispro75" winning another flip, this time with tens holding against ace-jack.

Gilbert kept his momentum rolling when he rivered an ace holding ace-five against the pocket nines of two-time bracelet winner and WPT commentator Tony "Panoramic" Dunst. With four players remaining, Gilbert had a massive lead, Tice sat second in chips, and then there were two extreme short stacks – Felix "madenspauwke" Vandeput and Shaffer.

Gilbert proceeded to eliminate them in back-to-back hands to take a more than 4:1 chip lead into heads-up play. Tice fought tooth and nail, but Gilbert's lead proved too insurmountable. Eventually, Tice got it in with king-eight and failed to get there against the king-ten of Gilbert.

Final Table Results
1 James "Danfriel" Gilbert $137,570
2 Landon "ActionDealer" Tice $85,047
3 Brett "furofakind" Shaffer $59,512
4 Felix "madenspauwke" Vandeput $42,281
5 Tony "Panoramic" Dunst $30,448
6 "tennispro75" $22,282
7 William "swaggyb" Corvino $16,539
8 "DLAZ14" $12,456
9 Daniel "st0neydanza" Dagostino $9,550

(Article courtesy of World Series of Poker)