Germany’s Koray Aldemir Lands Poker’s World Series and $8 million
After nine days of play, the World Series of Poker has finally delivered its 52nd Main Event Champion. Overcoming 6,649 rivals Koray Aldemir eventually stood tall as the last remaining player. The German’s prize was a whopping $8 million.
Standing tall: Koray Aldemir overcame 6,649 rivals to become the 2021 World Series of Poker Main Event champion. ©DavidSalituro
An initial seven hours of final table play saw six players eliminated. Chase Bianchi, one of four Americans at the final table, was the first to fall. The UK’s Jareth East followed.
Argentinian Alejandro Lococo collected $1.2 million for finishing seventh. American Hye Park went to the final table with the shortest chip stack but managed it well to take sixth.
Turkey’s Ozgur Secilmis claimed $1.8 million for his fifth-placed effort. Joshua Remitio earned $500,000 more when exiting in fourth.
The moment @jackabet triples up 4 handed at the WSOP Main Event FT. What a moment pic.twitter.com/f5WwiJC7li
— Euan McNicholas (@euan_m_) November 17, 2021
Jack Oliver triples his chip stack at a vital time.
The Final Showdown
With 125 final-table hands played, the remaining three players returned to action on Wednesday. At this point, with a 264.6 million stack, Koray Aldemir held two-thirds of the chips in play.
Sat before 77.3 million and 57.4 million chip stacks, things were closer between the UK’s 26-year-old Jack Oliver and the only remaining American, George Holmes.
The short stacks dueled for the early part of the final session. Ultimately 49-year-old Holmes received a slice of luck when all-in and behind Jack Oliver in hand 168. A fortunate turn-card took him into the heads-up stage.
At this point, Aldemir held a two-to-one chip advantage, but eight hands later Holmes took a narrow lead. The pair exchanged the chip lead until a decisive 223rd hand.
Here Aldemir had flopped two pairs (10s and 7s) but Holmes had hit a well-disguised pair of Kings (holding KQ) on the turn.
When the previously unknown American player moved all-in on the river his German rival took almost three minutes to make the correct and tournament-winning call. Holmes compensation for finishing second was $4.3 million.
Party, Sleep, Spend
In a post-event interview, the new champion said: “I tried to play calm even when I lost the chip lead which wasn’t easy. I tried to still focus and play my best poker and hope to turn it around, make some good calls, some good folds.”
Asked what he planned to do with his winnings: The German that lives in Vienna said: “I have not thought about that yet to be honest. Party tonight, then maybe sleep for the first time in a week.”
Regarding his final table opponents, the 31-year-old winner added: “George kept his composure and played so great, he would have deserved it [the title] too. Everyone was super cool at the final table, everyone was super nice, so I was kinda sad for everybody that they busted out. But at the same time, I wanted to win it.”
More Money to Be Made
Koray Aldemir already had 30 cashes at the World Series. Amongst those was a $2.1 million scoop for third place in 2016’s $111,111 entry ‘High Roller for One Drop’.
Wednesday’s victory takes his WSOP career winnings to $11 million. Surprisingly, this does not put him in the top-10 list of World Series money earners.
It is conceivable Aldemir could still make the list in 2021. While the Main Event may be over, there are still several events on the 2021 Series’ schedule. Two of these come with five-figure entry fees. Two more demand a six-figure entry. Aldemir could play and conceivably earn another big payday in any of them.
2006 World Series Main Event winner Jamie Gold – who did not take part in the competition this year – is the player that currently sits tenth in the WSOP winnings list. His earnings total $12.2 million.
Of the previous winners that did take part in the 2021 Main Event, 2016 winner Qui Nguyen, fared best. He finished 241st.
2003 winner Chris Moneymaker, who famously won his World Series Main Event entry at PokerStars online poker room, also lasted until day five. He finished 260th collecting $38,600 for his efforts.
One of the biggest winners of the last ten days has been Caesars Entertainment. The casino and entertainment group that owns the World Series retained 4.725% of the total Main Event pool for ‘entry fees’ and an additional 2.025% to cover ‘tournament dealers & staff’. It meant the casino and entertainment group took $4.48 million from this single event.
