The 2021 World Series of Poker (WSOP) crowned a new gold bracelet winner at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino on Monday in Event #32: $3,000 H.O.R.S.E., a tournament that drew 282 entries and offered up a $752,940 prize pool.
After a long day of play, it was 32-year-old poker pro Jim Collopy, AKA “Mr. Big Queso”, coming out on top to claim a $172,823 top prize and the second gold bracelet of his career. Collopy previously won the 2013 WSOP Asia-Pacific (APAC) Event #2: A$1,650 Pot-Limit Omaha for A$69,662 ($72,903).
It was also a bit of mixed-game redemption for Collopy, who back in 2014 finished runner-up in Event #27: $1,500 H.O.R.S.E. for $142,533.
“Great, way better than getting second place,” Collopy said after the win. When asked if it was a bit of redemption from his previous H.O.R.S.E. runner-up finish he smiled and replied, “Yeah, I’d say so, for sure.”
“It always feels cool to win on a big stage, so I’d say that’s what makes it most different,” Collopy said comparing his second bracelet to the first. As for the competition, Collopy let slip a little bit of his strategy: “I definitely wanted a few players out of the way, and that definitely was incorporated into my strategy.”
Collopy recently finished graduate school at the University of California San Diego this summer with a Masters of Advanced Studies in International Political Economy.
“I wanted to see if I still had it, and that was rewarding to me, to see if I still had it,” Collopy said of pursuing his education. The poker pro is currently based in Denver, Colorado but splits his time between there and Las Vegas.
2021 WSOP Event #32 Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jim Collopy | United States | $172,823 |
| 2 | Ahmed Mohamed | United States | $107,428 |
| 3 | Paramjit Gill | United States | $74,346 |
| 4 | Eli Elezra | United States | $53,986 |
| 5 | Maria Ho | United States | $39,423 |
| 6 | Michael Trivett | United States | $29,436 |
| 7 | Qinghai Pan | United States | $22,462 |
| 8 | Daniel Negreanu | Canada | $17,526 |
Day 3 Action
At the start of Day 3, 20 hopefuls returned to action but within five hours they were whittled down to the final seven. Among those to cash were Everett Carlton (19th - $7,208), Poker Hall of Famer Barbara Enright (16th - $8,200), Brandon Shack-Harris (14th - $8,200), David Williams (9th - $13,989), and GGPoker Ambassador Daniel Negreanu (8th - $17,526).
At the PokerGO live-streamed final table, the short-stacked Qinghai Pan was the first to go when his simple pair of fives was outdrawn by Collopy, who made a pair of sevens in a hand of Stud Hi-Lo.
Collopy then dispatched WSOP Circuit Planet Hollywood champ Michael Trivett in sixth place in Omaha Hi-Lo when the former made aces and sixes and bested the deuces and fives of the latter.
Maria Ho was the next to go after dwindling to the short stack and getting it in early in a hand of razz. She was drawing to a live six on seventh street against the made eight of Paramjit Gill, but unfortunately for her, she paired up to fall in fifth place.
Four-time bracelet winner Eli Elezra, who began the day as chip leader, went cold down the stretch and got the last of his chips in holding two pair on the turn in a hand of limit hold’em. Collopy was drawing to a spade flush and hit it when the dreaded ace of spades peeled off on the river to send Elezra out the door in fourth place.
Not long after, Gill got his chips in on an all-spade flop with both a pair of fours and straight flush draw. He was drawing slim though as Collopy had flopped the flush with the straight flush blocked. The turn left Gill drawing dead and Collopy entered heads-up play with a 4:1 chip lead over Ahmed Mohamed.
Collopy proceeded to win two big Omaha hi-lo hands to leave Mohamed with crumbs before finishing him off in a hand of razz.
“I probably enjoyed the Omaha mixes the most in any game, bar none. I think I just enjoy it more. I think it’s the dynamic. I do prefer Big O or pot-limit Omaha hi-lo,” said Collopy, who will continue to compete at the 2021 WSOP.
“I expect to be playing events until the end of the Main Event,” he concluded.
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