Prior to his WSOP Main Event Final Table appearance, Ozgur Secilmis’ early live poker career saw him mostly compete in Cyprus, which is where he enjoyed his career-best score of $41,645. This was his reward for a third-place finish in a $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em tournament in May 2018. Secilmis cashed in the WSOP MILLION$ online event at the WSOP Online 2020 at GGPoker, but cashed for the first time in Vegas at the 2021 World Series of Poker.
Five in the money finishes, including a deep run in the $1,000 Mini Main Event (74th; $5,303) precluded his epic run in the $10,000 Main Event.
2021 WSOP Main Event Final Table Profile: Ozgur Secilmis
World Series of Poker
Secilmis bought into the 2021 WSOP Main Event on Day 1d alongside 1,932 other hopefuls. The Turkish grinder turned his starting stack into 260,000 chips, which was the third largest stack of the flight.
He has added to his stack on each Main Event day since; those 260,000 Day 1 chips had swelled to 4,050,000 by the conclusion of Day 5. Secilmis more than quadrupled his stack to 14,700,000 on Day 6, to place him ninth from 36 survivors, before increasing his ammunition to 24,500,000 on Day 7, which placed him sixth at the nine-handed final table.
He will be remembered by anyone following the PokerNews updates and whoever tuned into the PokerGO stream.
Day 3 saw the money bubble fast approaching, and a cruel yet quite epic hand take place during the 3,000/6,000/6,000a level. Vito Distefano opened to 11,500 with A♦J♦ and he found four callers: Omer Gabay with K♥Q♥, William Benson with A♠10♠. Scelimis with 6♦6♠, and Chang Liu holding 4♥4♣.
The flop fell 6♥4♦4♠, gifting Secilmis a full house but Liu quad fours. Everyone checked on the flop, leading to the 6♣ landing on the turn, improving Secilmis to quad sixes. Again, everyone checked to the 5♠ river where Secilmis bet 55,000 and Liu raised to 225,000. Secilmis set Liu all-in for his 390,000 stack, and Liu snap-called, only to see the bad news that his WSOP Main Event was over.
Secilmis amazing run would eventually come to an end after being ousted by Koray Aldemir.
Secilmis went all in with K♥5♥ for 17,500,000 from under the gun. Koray Aldemir, holding pocket nines, asked for a count before reshoving all in from the small blind to put Secilmis at risk.
Secilmis picked up a boatload of outs on the J♥A♥A♦ flop, adding the jacks and hearts to his kings as ways to win. The A♠ on the turn took some of those outs away, and those that were still live didn't pop up on the river as the 8♣ was dealt instead.
The Turkish player finished 5th place, netting him a payday of $1,800,000.
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