WSOP 2021 Week 7 Recap: Main Event Down to 96 Players, High Rollers Coming Up

The last week at the World Series of Poker was marked by the Main Event. The tournament that everyone was looking forward to kicked off on November 4 and featured six starting flights. When it was all said and done, 6,650 players turned up to play.

Of those 6,650, only 96 remain, heading into Day 7 tonight. Everyone coming back is guaranteed a payday of at least $59,000. The eventual winner will take home $8,000,000!

In other news, the coming week will see several high roller events take place. This includes the $250,000 Super High Roller, the most expensive poker tournament of the entire series.

Great Turnout for the Main Event

With the 2021 WSOP implementing certain restrictions and requirements for the players, there were some fears that the Main Event might not get as much traction as it normally does.

However, those fears were quickly dispersed once the registration period was over and numbers were in.

The total number of entries for the 2021 Main Event was 6,650, which is lower than the past three years. However, it represents an average for the period 2007 – 2016. Overall, the turnout definitely did not disappoint.

With big player numbers come big prizes. This year’s Main Event winner will take home $8,000,000, while everyone making it to the final table will get at least a million.

It's worth noting that there were no major issues during the event. Once again, organizers managed to handle the massive player field just fine, and now there are fewer than 100 hopefuls remaining in the tournament.

WSOP week 7 Moneymaker

Who Takes Home the Prestigious Title?

It may have started with thousands of players, but now, there are just 96 remaining in the Main Event. The bubble burst on Day 3, and all who made it past that point earned at least $15,000 for their efforts.

This year, an even number of 1,000 players made the money.

Over the course of the next few days, these players continued to battle their way towards the coveted final table, with unavoidable casualties along the way.

Chris Moneymaker was one of the big stories of the tournament. Chris decided to join the tournament at the last minute, despite stating he wouldn't play this year and made a very deep run at it.

Unfortunately, Moneymaker’s attempt to repeat his 2003 success came to a stop during Day 5. Still, it was a great sweat for the fans as Chris saw his stack bounce up and down. The 2003 champ clearly came to play, and he wasn't afraid to put his chips to work.

It just wasn’t meant to be this time around, though.

It wasn't meant to be..
We bust out of the @WSOP #MainEvent in 260th place.
We had an awesome run, it was lots of fun playing this special for me tournament once again. pic.twitter.com/gFY9pDAdsz

— Chris Moneymaker ⭕ (@CMONEYMAKER) November 13, 2021

Many other notables were in the mix, including the likes of Daniel Negreanu, Phil Hellmuth, and Qui Nguyen, the 2016 winner who also made a deep run and was only eliminated during Day 5 play.

Now, the tournament has entered its final stages, as only 96 players remain. They are led by Germany’s Koray Aldemir with 14.3 million chips. Although he has no WSOP bracelets to his name, Aldemir is no slouch. His live tournament winnings exceed $12.3 million.

It is still possible that we will see a female player finally win the Main Event, as there are two ladies still in the mix. Croatia's Dragana Lim has five million in chips, and Canada's Fatima Nanji sits at around ten big blinds to start the day.

Other notables still standing include the tournament specialist Nick Petrangelo, albeit he, too, is sitting on a short stack, and Chance Kornuth, with close to six million in chips.

And the best part of my day was my baby girl saying Daddy to me for the 1st time 😍 https://t.co/gSjKloX1EX

— Chance Kornuth (@ChancesCards) November 14, 2021

Big Money Events Ahead

In the next few days, poker fans will get to see some juicy action take place at the Rio, as there are several big buy-in events on the schedule.

Coming up first is the $250,000 Super High Roller on November 18. Then, there are two $50K high roller tournaments (one Hold'em and one PLO). Finally, on November 21, there will be a $100,000 High Roller.

While these tournaments probably won’t attract huge numbers, we’ll likely see all the big names in poker join the fray. Perhaps one of these will be interesting enough for Phil Ivey, who’s still a no-show for the World Series.

Final Week for the POY Race

The Player of the Year race is entering its final stretch. There is one week remaining of the World Series, and whatever happens in the next few days might be crucial for finding the winner.

As things stand right now, Josh Arieh is well ahead of the pack, 2ith 3,379 points. Scott Ball is currently in second with 2,907, followed by Jake Schwartz on 2,816.

Anthony Zinno, who held the top spot a few times, is now in fourth with 2,731.

Phil Hellmuth had ambitions for the Player of the Year title, but he's dropped to the 10^th spot, with 2,598 points. It’s unlikely Phil will play in many, if any, of the big buy-in tournaments, in which case he’ll struggle to get back in the contention.

Dreams dead….now onto trying to win @WSOP player of year

— Joshua Arieh (@JoshuaArieh) November 13, 2021

There is still some time left, and nothing is set in stone. It will be a very exciting final week, and things can definitely change. Right now, Arieh is looking good for the title, but the rest of the contenders certainly won’t go down without a fight.