Gershon Distenfeld Wins World Series of Poker Bracelet, Donates Whole Prize To Charity
Gershon Distenfeld won his 1st Globe Series of Poker bracelet Wednesday night at the 2021 WSOP, but the New Jersey native will not take property a penny of the $204,063 he won in the $1,500 no-limit hold’em shootout.
As an alternative, Distenfeld mentioned that he was donating the entire very first-location prize cash to charity. A number of charities will be the recipients of the six-figure score. In a move that was similar to what Poker Hall of Famer Barry Greenstein did during the heyday of the poker boom, Distenfeld told WSOP reside reporters he hopes that the act will inspire other people in the poker community to donate the funds they earn.
“I’d enjoy to supply a challenger to every single bracelet winner to give away 1% of their funds to the charity of their choice,” mentioned Distenfeld. “There’s no lack of requirements out there. If I could have a lasting impact on the poker community, it would be that.”
Distenfeld bested an 800-entry field and Jordan Schumacher heads-up to earn the title. In accordance with the shootout format, he essentially won 3 single table sit n’ goes to secure the six-figure payday. There were 80, ten-handed tables on Day 1 with each and every winner securing a spot in the income. The 10 players that won their eight-handed Day two table would then earn a seat at the final table.
Two-time WSOP bracelet winner and 10-time WSOP Circuit ring winner Ari Engel was at the final table, as was 3-time ring winner Sohale Khalili and veteran tournament grinder Orson Young.
Offered the format, everybody began out with practically identical chip counts at the final table. It didn’t take lengthy for Distenfeld to separate himself from the pack, even so. With blinds of 15,000-30,000 Distenfeld and Craig Trost were all in preflop for just shy of two,000,000.
As Trost referred to as Distenfeld’s 5-bet shove, he joked that he “hoped it wasn’t a cold deck.” But it was with Trost’s pocket kings up against Distenfeld’s pocket aces. The runout was clean for Distenfeld and Trost was out in 10th although providing Distenfeld a distinct advantage with the early knockout.
The final nine players spent almost two complete levels jockeying for position on the leaderboard as AP Garza became the short stack. In a button vs huge blind battle in between Garza and David Tran, Garza four-bet all in and Tran named.
Garza tabled A
2 and was in trouble against Tran’s A
K. The K
K
7J6 runout left Garza drawing dead on the turn and was eliminated in ninth. The knockout sent Tran into the chip lead with Distenfeld close behind him.
Two middling stacks got into a preflop confrontation during the next level as Thomas Boivin 3-bet shoved from the little blind and got known as by Schumacher in the hijack. It was a race with Schumacher’s A-Q up against Boivin’s eight-eight. The flop was safe for Boivin and so was the turn, but the Qd fell on the river to send Boivin property in eighth.
Distenfeld then disposed of the most accomplished player at the table as he got rid of Engel in seventh. The two had been in late position and got all the chips in the middle preflop with Engel’s ten-ten up against Distenfeld’s J-J.
Engel was drawing dead on the turn as the board came J9two4five, which moved Distenfeld back into the chip lead.
Khalili busted subsequent when he three-bet shoved from the modest blind for just shy of 17 big blinds with four-four and Jonathan Betancur eventually called with J9. Like Engel, Khalili was dead on the turn on a board of K99KQ board.
Whilst the table shrank from seven-handed to 5-handed, Tran’s chip stack shrank as properly. He failed to win any considerable pots over a couple of levels and then Young doubled through him. Young completed the job later in the level as they got all in preflop cutoff vs. button with Tran’s Afive up against Young’s KQ.
Young flopped best two pair and eliminated the when-chip leader in fifth. The final 4 players took a short break with Betancur and Distenfeld at the top of the counts, even though Young and Schumacher had been on the bottom.
Schumacher created his way back up the standings as he doubled by way of Young with A-A against K-K and won a sizable non-showdown pot against Schumacher.
Following the cold deck against Schumacher, Young was the clear brief stack. He was eliminated in fourth when he moved all in on the button for his final eight massive blinds with A8 and got known as by Schumacher in the huge blind with QJ.
Schumacher flopped top pair on a Qtensix flop to make the very best hand and eradicate Young in fourth.
Schumacher took a practically 2-to-1 chip lead into heads-up play by eliminating Betancur in third. Betancur was on the button, raised, and four-bet all in against Schumacher’s three-bet in the massive blind. The Belgian called with K-K and was in fantastic shape against Beancur’s five-five.
The board ran out clean for Schumacher and he began a roughly four-hour heads-up match against Distenfeld.
The eventual champion won a flip with A-ten against Schumacher’s two-two which also flipped the chip counts and moved Distenfeld into the lead. He in no way relinquished it and just continued to grind Schumacher’s stack down into the 5-big blind variety.
Schumacher stayed alive for really some time, but ultimately, he got three-outed to finish second. Schumacher was all in preflop with Q-ten against Distenfeld’s Q-4. The four came on the turn to vault Distenfeld into the lead. The river was clean, which made Schumacher settle for second-spot and the $126,133 that came with it.
“Johan was outstanding. Such a good player,” Distenfeld told reporters soon after his victory. “He just had an instinct. He known as my hand a couple of times. I thought he was a better player than me to be perfectly truthful.”
Final Table Results:
| Place | Player | Earnings | POY Points |
| 1 | Gershon Distenfeld | $204,063 | 912 |
| 2 | Johan Schumacher | $126,133 | 760 |
| 3 | Jonathan Betancur | $94,720 | 608 |
| four | Orson Young | $71,142 | 456 |
| 5 | David Tran | $54,217 | 380 |
| six | Sohale Khalili | $41,728 | 304 |
| 7 | Ari Engel | $32,439 | 228 |
| eight | Thomas Boivin | $25,473 | 152 |
| 9 | A.P. Garza | $20,208 | 76 |
| 10 | Craig Trost | $16,197 |
Photo Credit: WSOP/Danny Maxwell