Michael Noori Captures First Bracelet and $610,437 in the Monster Stack
On the fourth and final day of the 2021 World Series of Poker Event #30: $1,500 Monster Stack, Michael Noori was crowned the champion as he defeated Ryan Leng heads-up for $610,437. The two opening flights attracted 3,520 entries to create a prize pool of $4,699,200 with the lion-share of all that money awarded to the remaining players today.
"I feel pretty good, I'm still kind of in shock. The heads-up match went really quick, I'm still processing it and going through it. I had two huge coolers that went my way so I was fortunate enough to win the bracelet today," Noori reflected after the tournament.
"I got lucky in the first hand and then I got a couple of shoves and re-jams through. I just kinda battled with 8-12 big blinds for a while, even four-handed. Ryan had all the chips, I stayed focused, never gave up, and kept battling."
Noori was down to 1.5 big blinds at one point today when he three-bet jammed with pocket nines and Daniel Fortier had looked him up with ace-queen. The queen on the river left Noori in bad shape but he tripled up shortly after to stick around to eventually get to his best-ever result after reaching several WSOP final tables in the past.
Looking back at his previous results, Noori seems to fare better in the mixed games variety.
"I think I am better in mixed games, but apparently it's No-Limit Hold'em. I had some deep runs in the Monster Stack before. I finished in the top 1% in 2017 or 2018. I've been there before but didn't have the crucial flips go my way and on this final table, everything went my way. It's very fortunate and nice to be here."
Event #30: $1,500 Monster Stack No-Limit Hold'em Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Michael Noori | United States | $610,437 |
| 2 | Ryan Leng | United States | $377,220 |
| 3 | Rafael Reis | Brazil | $288,101 |
| 4 | Christopher Andler | Sweden | $221,289 |
| 5 | Charlie Dawson | United States | $170,943 |
| 6 | Mordechai Hazan | Israel | $132,812 |
| 7 | Daniel Fortier | United States | $103,784 |
| 8 | Johan Schumacher | Belgium | $81,573 |
| 9 | Anthony Ortega | United States | $64,490 |
| 10 | Jaesh Balachandran | Singapore | $51,286 |
Start of the Final Day
Ivan Deyra and Raul Martinez were the first two players of the day to bust within the first 15 minutes of the day and that set the pace for the next four hours it took to get the tournament down to the final table. Lee Markholt and PokerNews' own live reporter Dannah Kamp fell before Santiago Plante bubbled the final table.
Leng had a slight chip lead at the start of the final table, followed closely by Mordechai Hazan. If Leng could stay in that position and win the tournament, he'd also jump towards the top of the WSOP Player of the Year leaderboard.
Aces Galore on the Final Table
The final day of this tournament had no shortage of players finding pocket aces in their hands. Christopher Andler first doubled with them through Hazan before Fortier scored his double up with the same pair through Jaesh Balachandran.
Hazan then picked up the aces to eliminate Balachandran in tenth place. Leng and Fortier also picked up aces to split a pot before Anthony Ortega ran his pocket kings into the aces of Andler to bust in ninth place.
Johan Schumacher was eliminated by Rafael Reis to get the tournament to seven-handed at which point the PokerGO stream kicked off.
From Seven Players to One Winner
Fortier fell to the hands of Hazan before Noori doubled up through him to vault to second in chips when his pocket sevens found another seven to connect with on the flop. Even though Reis came into the stream with the chip lead, Leng claimed a chunk of his stack when he flopped straight over straight against him. Hazan would leave the feature table in sixth place after that thanks to Leng.
Charlie Dawson was next to go with Leng adding those chips to his stack when the premium hands kept coming his way. After another break, Andler busted in fourth place when he got his last chips in against the pocket tens of Noori. Shortly after, the Brazilian rail left together with Reis in third place when Noori turned a pair of sevens for the come behind knockout.
Leng held a commanding chip lead of 2:1 but Noori doubled up when he turned a straight against the top two pair Leng had flopped. Forty minutes later, Noori claimed the rest of Leng's stack when all the chips went in on the turn for Leng with the flush draw and double gutshot to a straight. Noori held the overpair and the ladies helped him to the win. Leng also scored his best cash here at the WSOP with this result.
"I'm exhausted, we'll probably go out tonight and have some fun." Noori said at the end while looking over to his rail which included Toby Lewis, Ankush Mandavia, Matt Affleck, and Matt Savage with the first two there from the start. "They're two good friends of mine, I really appreciate them rooting me on and helping me out. That was nice. Everyone that was there for the support and cheering me on for my first bracelet was amazing. To win my first bracelet in the Monster Stack was even better."
This is it for the PokerNews coverage of this event but check out the WSOP Live Reporting Hub to follow all the exciting action here at the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino.
