Michael Mercaldo Wins 2021 $777 Lucky 7’s Event

The WSOP is one of the high level poker tournaments that are graced by top talent from around the world. This event is a flexing ground for many poker players to come out onto a world stage and measure up against others that are just as good. Every year, thousands of players come together to watch the best poker talent putting their strategies to the test. 

The champions walk away with a gold bracelet while the rest of the players walk away with immense exposure. The latest win of the WSOP was achieved by Michael ‘stiltwalk’ Mercaldo, who now owns a gold bracelet. His opponents had been in the tournament before, with some even winning bracelets at some point. 

Although he was taking part in the WSOP tournament as a first timer, Mercaldo beat a total of 888 who had registered to take part in the tournament. If you believe in coincidence, there is one right here; a buy-in worth $777 for the 7’s event led to a win of $123,574. This was the payout for the first place in the annual tournament. 

The amount of money won was a really large amount for Mercaldo which he had never seen before. Actually, this win boosted his reputation not only as a poker player but also a sportsman who could rely on his prowess to earn a living. Another big win to be witnessed in New Jersey was achieved by The Hoboken when a $550 buy-in turned out to be a win of $46,455 in 2009. 

Out of the 888 finalists who took part in the final round of the WSOP, 126 walked away with a cash award. As is the norm in this kind of tournaments, the best performers happened to be the same old names of renowned poker players. 

Some of the notable finishers were Daniel ‘DNegs’ Negreanu, a player who had won the WSOP bracelet six times. Other past champions include Daniel ‘centrfieldr’ Lupo, Jamie ‘DanBilzerian’ Kerstetter, Ema ‘Momma_says’ Zajmovic, Jim ‘BOCARATONE’ Collopy and Dylan ‘PokerNpizza’ Hortin. 

When the final table began, the current bracelet winner, who also topped the WPT Borgata Winter Open at second position, topped the line-up. The other players came after him and even Mercaldo at the time was at position 3. The first player to be thrown out of the championship was Krista ‘Pollux’ Gifford, making it a position 8 finish. In addition to this ranking, this finish earned Gifford a cash prize of $11,189. 

The next big fall came when Jake ‘nattydaddy24’ Hernandez managed to ouster Paul ‘presicion’ Zappulla, which earned him a position seven. For his holding up albeit for a few minutes, his prize was slightly higher than the last at $14,856; the field had at this point been narrowed down to 6 candidates. 

No one imagined that Hernandez would be the next player to be shown the door considering that he had facilitated the fall of two candidates before this round. His downfall came when he went all in with preflop pocket jacks not knowing that Anderson was holding pocket kings. With the king high flop, it was next to impossible for Hernandez to bounce back and his game came to an end here, placing him at position 6 and $20,016 richer. 

For everyone who was left behind at the point of the top five, the aspiration was that they would carry the championship. Ryan Laplante offered his best game play in the hope that he would earn a WSOP gold bracelet for the second time. His first bracelet was won at a 2016 WSOP pot-limit Omaha event which had cost him $565. 

In this current tournament, Laplante presented his opponent with a QDiamond SuitJDiamond Suit. The opponent Justin ‘MadTitan’ Turner flashed pocket nines causing Laplante to lose his ground and pocket $27,350 for position number five. 

When it was Angel ‘ChromeKing’ Lopez’s turn to stand up against Turner, the nose dive of pocket sixes could not hold up against Turner’s Q-8. Lopez did not have a way to reclaim the lead or make the river run against its course and settled for position 4 and a cash award of $37,980. 

Even though Turner had been responsible for falling position 5 and 4, he was unable to prevent his slip to rock bottom when the table had only three candidates standing. His end came when he brought forth a KClub SuitJDiamond Suit but Mercaldo had in his hand a ASpade SuitAHeart Suit. The serving by Mercaldo stood firm and knocked out Turner from the table. This third position came with a cash reward of $53,458. 

The ultimate contest would now be between Anderson as he played against Mercaldo. The round began with hopes of a Mercaldo win but it would take a while before the final bow was seen. The hard spot of the contest was felt by Mercaldo when it appeared that Anderson would be taking the lead. It was quite an exchange as each player’s turn to move came with quite the punch. In the end, Anderson lost and was awarded $76,395 for his effort. 

 

Final Thoughts

Being a newcomer at any event does not mean that you cannot trample over other players whose prowess has been tried and tested. This is the position from where Mercaldo came from and right now earns a spot on the WSOP calendar that will never be erased. Not much has been said about tis player apart from the fact that his buy-in and name of event had an outstanding 7 theme. There is nothing like magic when it comes to winning a game of poker but coincidences such as these definitely draw attention to luck when the odds have been aligned by external forces. Well, everyone holds their own beliefs so long as it makes sense to them. 

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