Ben Yu Wins Fourth Bracelet in Event #56: $10,000 6-Handed NLH Championship ($721,453)
Table Of Contents
On the third and final day of play, a new World Series of Poker champion was crowned in Event #56: $10,000 6-Handed NLH Championship as Ben Yu defeated Nikita Kuznetsov in heads-up play for $721,453.
The event attracted 329 entries to create a prize pool of $3,067,925, with the majority of that money awarded to the remaining players today. There were 50 players who cashed in total, with only 19 players returning for Day 3's bracelet hunt. When play concluded, only Yu was able to bring home the WSOP bracelet.
This is Yu's second bracelet in No-Limit Hold'em, with his other two coming in Limit Hold'em and 2-7 Lowball Triple Draw.
Other players who joined the four-time bracelet winners' club in 2021 include Adam Friedman, Anthony Zinno, Farzad Bonyadi and John Monnette.
Event 56: $10,000 6-Handed No-Limit Hold'em Championship Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ben Yu | United States | $721,453 |
| 2 | Nikita Kuznetsov | Russia | $445,892 |
| 3 | Ariel Mantel | Argentina | $293,578 |
| 4 | Mike Sowers | United States | $198,205 |
| 5 | Steve Yea | South Korea | $137,303 |
| 6 | Asi Moshe | Israel | $97,660 |
Winner's Reaction
After bracelet wins in 2015, 2017 and 2018, Yu finally got his hands on bracelet number four.
"Every time you win one of these it's pretty special"
"Every time you win one of these it's pretty special," Yu said after his victory "This one, in particular, was a fairly tough event… and a fairly large field too. I don’t think I’m able to process this yet."
Along with his four bracelets, Yu has finished on the podium in bracelet events on six occasions — including three runner-up spots.
“I do think we put too much emphasis on winning. The difference between second and first place is just one coin flip essentially. I think we overvalue winning as opposed to other good finishes like second or fifth. The tricky part is there’s nothing better than when you win.
“There are no regrets and all the mistakes you made are washed away. You still made those mistakes and feel bad about them but it kind of doesn’t matter, you got lucky and they just got erased. That’s kind of how I feel about winning these things.”
On his eventual heads-up opponent Kuznetsov, Yu had some words of praise: “He was really tough actually. I’ve played with people who play in these events a lot, but I don’t think I’ve played with him before. We actually played yesterday on the bubble where he had the chip lead.
“We were just bantering back and forth actually… and we actually had a lot of fun bantering yesterday and today. He is very tough to play against for sure, he’s very aggressive… very tough to guess what he’s doing in some spots.”
Action of the Day
With nineteen players returning for the final day, it took over an hour for the first elimination to occur. Eventually, Eli Ross hit the rail and the eliminations quickly followed. Pavel Plesuv, Sam Grafton, and JJ Liu were a few of the eliminations before the last two tables were set.
When eight players remained, Matt Berkey and Boris Kolev both busted almost simultaneously and the remaining six players converged on one final table.
With the final table set, all six players had somewhat similar stacks and plenty of chips to play with. At this point, Yu was the shortest stack but still held nearly 50 big blinds. Asi Moshe was the first to go after his opponent rivered a flush despite him getting his chips in the middle with the best hand.
Steve Yea was gone not too long after when his kings couldn’t hold, with four players remaining at the dinner break. When play resumed it was Mike Sowers who hit the rail next after he got his short stack in against Yu, only to come out second best.
The three remaining players had fairly similar stacks and battled for over an hour while Yu started to become a clear frontrunner. Eventually, Ariel Mantel headed to the payout desk after he called off his stack with jacks against the king-seven of Yu, and a king came on the flop to the delight of both Yu and Kuznetsov.
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Heads-Up Play
Heads-up play began with Yu having a large lead over Kuznetsov, and Kuznetsov quickly got his chips in against Yu when both players held pocket pairs. Yu’s jacks were a clear favorite over Kuznetsov’s deuces, and although the Russian and his rail tried to spark some magic for a possible comeback, the board ran out blanks. Yu fist-pumped several times and even jumped up and down a bit while celebrating and giggling at the same time, as he was officially the winner of the tournament, and the owner of his fourth WSOP bracelet.
"I’m going to finish the World Series and I’ll still probably play a lot of the major events that are here but I definitely want to take a little step back and just do other life stuff"
As for what the future holds for Yu, “I’ve been feeling a little bit burned out by poker. I didn’t really play much poker during the pandemic, I only played the online event that the World Series had, and I really enjoyed that break. I realized it’s been like ten years and I had never taken a real break, maybe I’d take a month off.”
“When you win obviously everything feels great and you’re happy and everyone who has a piece and your friends are all really happy for you and it’s really easy to celebrate. I’m going to finish the World Series and I’ll still probably play a lot of the major events that are here but I definitely want to take a little step back and just do other life stuff. Not feel like I have to play events over going to see my friends or going to weddings and stuff like that.”
“I realized that I love music more than anything. I’ve been going to dance class. I love going to music festivals. During covid, I learned to play electronic keyboard and I just want to do more of that and I’ll probably play a little less poker after the World Series ends.”
For now though, he’ll still be showing up to the WSOP and be looking for maybe even yet another bracelet, saying “I am going to be playing every tournament pretty much for the rest of this series. I’m just going to keep playing, firing the rest of these four weeks. It definitely makes it feel like a breeze, like it just feels like I’m freerolling.”
This concludes 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.
Check out our 2021 WSOP Hub here!
In this Series
- 1 Caesars Palace Dealer Jimmy Barnett Crowned Casino Employees Champion
- 2 Jesse Klein Tilts Hellmuth on Way to 2021 WSOP $25K H.O.R.S.E. Win for $552,182
- 3 Jeremy Ausmus Wins First Gold Bracelet of the 2021 World Series of Poker
- 4 Long Ma Tops Near 13,000-Player Field to Win The Reunion and First WSOP Bracelet
- 5 Connor Drinan Wins Second Bracelet in Event #5: $1,500 Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better
- 6 Tyler Cornell Gets Signature Victory in 2021 WSOP Event #6: $25,000 High Roller ($833,289)
- 7 Jaswinder "Jesse" Lally Wins 2021 WSOP Event #7: $1,500 Dealers Choice 6-Handed ($97,915)
- 8 Aces in the Final Hand as Zhi Wu Wins Event #8: $600 Deepstack ($281,604)
- 9 Ari Engel Wins Second WSOP Bracelet in $10,000 Omaha Hi-Lo 8 Championship; Hellmuth Fifth
- 10 Michael Perrone Wins 2021 WSOP Event #10: $1,000 Super Turbo Bounty No-Limit Hold’em ($152,173)
- 11 Jason Koon Wins Maiden WSOP Bracelet in Event #11: $25K Heads-Up Championship ($243,981)
- 12 Yuval Bronshtein Wins Second WSOP Bracelet in Event #12: $1,500 Limit Hold'em
- 13 Harvey Mathews Wins Event #13: $3,000 Freezeout No-Limit Hold'em ($371,914)
- 14 Lebron Captures Gold; Wins 2021 WSOP Event #14: $1,500 7-Card Stud
- 15 Bradley Jansen Wins First WSOP Gold Bracelet in Event #15: $1,500 6-Handed No-Limit Hold'em ($313,403)
- 16 John Monnette Wins Fourth WSOP Bracelet in Event #16: $10,000 Limit Hold'em Championship ($245,680)
- 17 Daniel Lazrus Wins 2021 WSOP Millionaire Maker for 2nd Bracelet ($1,000,000)
- 18 Vladimir Peck Wins 2021 WSOP Event #18: $2,500 Mixed Triple Draw Lowball ($134,390)
- 19 Phil Hellmuth Denied 16th Bracelet as Anthony Zinno Wins His 3rd in the $10K Stud Championship
- 20 DJ Alexander Captures 1st WSOP Bracelet in Event #20: GGPoker Flip & Go ($180,665)
- 21 Dylan Linde Wins His First WSOP Bracelet in Event #21: $1,500 Mixed Omaha Hi-Lo ($170,269)
- 22 Lara Eisenberg wins 2021 World Series of Poker Ladies NLHE Championship
- 23 Ryan Leng Wins Event #23: $1,500 Eight Game Mix 6-Handed for $137,969
- 24 Michael Prendergast Wins Maiden Bracelet in Event #24: $600 Pot-Limit Omaha Deepstack ($127,428)
- 25 Scott Ball Celebrates First WSOP Bracelet in Event #25: $5,000 6-Handed No-Limit Hold'em
- 26 Czech Pro Dalibor Dula Becomes First European Bracelet Winner at the 2021 WSOP
- 27 Anthony Zinno Wins Fourth Gold Bracelet in Event #27 $1,500 H.O.R.S.E.
- 28 Dylan Weisman Wins WSOP Event #28: $1,000 Pot-Limit Omaha for First Bracelet ($166,461)
- 29 Chance Kornuth Wins Third WSOP Bracelet in Event #29: $10,000 Short Deck ($194,670)
- 30 Michael Noori Captures First WSOP Bracelet and $610,437 in the Monster Stack
- 31 Phil Hellmuth Wins Record 16th World Series of Poker (WSOP) Gold Bracelet
- 32 Jim Collopy Wins 2021 WSOP Event #32: $3,000 H.O.R.S.E. for Second Gold Bracelet ($172,823)
- 33 Ran Koller Wins WSOP Event #33: $800 Eight-Handed No Limit Hold'em Deep Stack ($269,478)
- 34 David "Bakes" Baker Wins Third WSOP Title in Event #34: $1,500 Limit 2-7 Lowball Triple Draw
- 35 Anthony Koutsos Wins First WSOP Bracelet In Event #35: $500 Freezeout No-Limit Hold’em ($167,272)
- 36 Adam Friedman Defeats Phil Hellmuth to Win WSOP $10k Dealer's Choice for Third Straight Year
- 37 Karolis Sereika Wins First WSOP Bracelet in Event #37: $1,500 Super Turbo ($195,310)
- 38 Michael Addamo Wins Third WSOP Gold Bracelet in Event #38: $50K High Roller ($1,132,968)
- 39 Josh Arieh Wins Third Bracelet in Event #39: $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha ($204,766)
- 40 Kevin Gerhart Wins Third Career Bracelet in Event #40: $10,000 H.O.R.S.E. Championship
- 41 "Hobby Player" Carlos Chang Wins First Bracelet in $2,500 NLHE Freezeout
- 42 Bradley Ruben Dazzles in the $1,500 Razz; Wins Third WSOP Bracelet
- 43 Dreams to Win a WSOP Bracelet Come True for Anthony Denove in the $1K Double Stack
- 44 Ryan Hansen Wins First WSOP Bracelet in Event #44: $3,000 6-Handed Limit Hold'em ($109,692)
- 45 Tommy Le Wins WSOP $10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Championship For Second Time
- 46 Chad Norton Wins A Bracelet in His First-Ever WSOP Event!
- 47 France's Alexandre Reard Wins 2021 WSOP Event #47: $5,000 Freezeout NLH ($428,694)
- 48 Poker Philanthropist Gershon Distenfeld Wins WSOP Bracelet, Pledges All Winnings to Charity ($204K)
- 49 Farzad Bonyadi Wins Fourth Bracelet in $10K 2-7 NL Single Draw, Ends Sixteen-Year Drought
- 50 Premonition Becomes Reality as Darrin Wright Wins First WSOP Bracelet
- 51 Brian Rast Wins Fifth Bracelet; Sets Sights on Poker Hall of Fame
- 52 Robert McMillan Wins 2021 WSOP Event #52: $1,000 Seniors Championship ($561,060)
- 53 Shaun Deeb Wins 5th Bracelet in WSOP Event #53: $25,000 PLO ($1,251,860)
- 54 Nicholas Julia Wins Event #54: $2,500 Nine-Game Mix 6-Handed ($168,608)
- 55 Anatolii Zyrin Defeats Massive Field in Colossus to Claim Second WSOP Bracelet ($314,705)
- 56 Ben Yu Wins Fourth Bracelet in Event #56: $10,000 6-Handed NLH Championship ($721,453)
- 57 Brian Yoon Wins Fourth Bracelet in Event #57: $10,000 2-7 Lowball Triple Draw Championship ($839,350)
- 58 Jean-Luc Adam Wins First Bracelet and $255,623 in Event #58: $1,000 Super Seniors No-Limit Hold'em
- 59 Team Ruter Crowned Event #59: $1,000 Tag Team Champions ($113,366)
- 60 Dan "Jungleman" Cates Takes Down $50,000 Poker Players Championship for First WSOP Bracelet
- 61 Cole Ferraro Comes From Behind to Win WSOP Event #61: $600 Deepstack Championship ($252,491)
- 62 Kevin Gerhart Earns Fourth WSOP Bracelet in Event #62: $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better ($186,789)
- 63 Eric Zhang Wins 2021 WSOP Event #63: $500 Salute to Warriors ($102,465)
- 64 From Online Crusher to WSOP Gold: Eelis Parssinen Wins Event #64: $5,000 Mixed No-Limit Hold'em/Pot-Limit Omaha
- 65 "It Feels Amazing": Georgios Sotiropoulos Wins Mini Main Event for 3rd WSOP Bracelet
- 66 Josh Arieh Wins Fourth Bracelet in Event #66: $10,000 Pot-Limit Hi-Lo 8 or Better Championship
- 67 Koray Aldemir Wins 2021 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event for $8,000,000
- 68 Scott Ball Wins Second WSOP Bracelet in Event #68 $1,111 Little One for One Drop
- 69 Jermaine Reid Reschedules Flight Before Winning WSOP Event #69: $1,500 Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo 8 or Better ($113,459)
- 70 David Moses Wins Maiden Bracelet in 2021 WSOP Event #70: $888 Crazy Eights ($888,888)
- 71 Mourad Amokrane Dominates the Final Table On His Way to Winning Event #71: $1,500 Bounty Pot-Limit Omaha
- 72 Motoyoshi Okamura Wins Event #72: $1,500 Mixed No-Limit Hold’em/Pot-Limit Omaha for $209,716
- 73 Brian Hastings Becomes 29th Player in WSOP History to Claim Five Gold Bracelets
- 74 Denis Strebkov Wins His Second WSOP Gold Bracelet in Event #74: $2,500 Big Bet Mix
- 75 Chad Himmelspach Comes Back From a Single Blind to Win WSOP Event #75: $1,500 Freezeout No-Limit Hold'em ($270,877)
- 76 Romain Lewis Captures 1st Bracelet in 2021 WSOP Event #76: $10K Super Turbo Bounty
- 77 Paulo Joanello Makes Dream Come True After Winning First WSOP Bracelet in Event #77 $1,500 Fifty Stack ($321,917)
- 78 Benny Glaser Wins Event #78: $10,000 Razz Championship for 4th Gold Bracelet ($274,693)
- 79 Ole Schemion Breaks WSOP Duck; Wins Event #79: $1,979 Hall Of Fame Bounty No-Limit Hold’em For $172,499
- 80 Robert Cowen Wins 2021 WSOP Event #80: $3,000 6-Handed PLO ($280,916)
- 81 Jason Wheeler Wins First Bracelet in 2021 WSOP Event #81: $800 NLH Deepstack ($202,274)
- 82 Adrian Mateos Wins $250K Super High Roller for Fourth WSOP Gold Bracelet ($3,265,262)
- 83 Leo Margets Wins First Bracelet and $376,850 in Event #83: $1,500 The Closer
- 84 Ausmus Denies Hellmuth and Negreanu; Wins Third WSOP Bracelet in $50K PLO High Roller ($1,188,918)
- 85 Mikita Badziakouski Claims First Gold Bracelet in Event #85: $50,000 High Roller ($1,462,043)
- 86 Michael McCauley Wins Event #86: $1,000 Super Turbo No-Limit Hold'em ($161,384)
- 87 Michael Addamo Wins $100,000 High Roller for His Fourth WSOP Bracelet
- 88 Boris Kolev Wins Maiden Bracelet and $511,184 in Event #88: $5,000 8-Handed No-Limit Hold'em
