Michael Addamo Wins 2021 WSOP $50,000 High Roller Event

Michael Addamo is a popular Australian regular who is known for his success in high roller tournaments. This streak continued during the 2021 World Series of Poker held at the Rio casino. In his latest win, Michael Addamo has managed to defeat a field of 81 players and win the $50,000 No-Limit Hold’em 8-max event. For his triumph, he was awarded an impressive prize of $1,132,968. This event made some great payouts as Justin Bonomo went home with $700,228 for his second-place finish. This victory has brought Bonomo inches close to reclaiming his spot on poker’s all-time money rankings.

This is a third WSOP bracelet for Michael Addamo. Even though he received a hefty payout, it was not the largest payday of his career. Just a month ago, Addamo won the 2021 Super High Roller Bowl for $3.4 million. It is fair to say that 2021 is an extremely successful year for Michael Addamo as he managed to win four titles and earn around $7.4 million across live and online events. His total career earnings are now calculated to e around $15.5 million, thanks to his Friday’s victory. He is indeed making a name for himself among the poker high rollers. Addamo has won two of his three WSOP bracelets in high roller events. He has also managed to win the $25,000 high roller event at the 2018 WSOP Europe and the $2,620 “Marathon” No-Limit Hold’em for $653,581 in a Vegas-based series. There is no doubt that with increased popularity, this poker regular also needs to deal with more pressure. Here is what Michael Addamo had to say after the victory about dealing with pressure:

“It does put some pressure [on you], because if you internalize and believe that, you can become complacent, and sometimes that might make you study less. I just try and keep humble and try not to let it go to my head and just keep working and studying hard.”

This poker victory has also allowed Addamo to move up in global rankings. He was awarded 700 points in the PokerGO Tour points race. Michael Addamo is now second with 2,464 total points and over $7.2 million in qualified earnings. He has also managed to move into 34th place in the 2021 POY race as he was awarded 816 Card Player POY points. 

Final Table Recap

The final day of the 2021 WSOP $50,000 High Roller event was streamed live on PokerGO. Michael Addamo entered the final day with a confident chip lead. He had a stack of 11.4 million while there were 23.4 million chips in total in play. There were five players in total at the final table including Justin Bonomo, Gal Yifrach, Erik Seidel, Chris Hunichen, and Michael Addamo, of course. Let’s take a closer look at how the events unfolded. 

Chris Hunichen had the shortest stack by far at the final table. He only had less than four big blinds. Therefore, it was only a matter of time until he was knocked out from the tournament. Even though Hunichen has managed a few double-ups, he was eventually eliminated by Michael Addamo. Chris Hunichen went all-in at the turn with suited Q 9 on a J 7 6 8 board. Michael Addamo called with J 10, which turned out to be a better hand. Chris Hunichen was awarded $266,301 for his fifth-place finish. 

Michael Addamo continued his hot streak by eliminating nine-time WSOP bracelet winner Erik Seidel. Seidel limped from the small blind with 120,00 and Addamo raised to 480,000. As a response, Seidel went all-in for 4,800,000 and Addamo called. Seidel had pocket eights and Addamo had A K. Michael Addamo was able to get an early advantage when the flop showed K J 3. With 2 on the turn and Q on the river, Addamo’s pair of kings remained the strongest combination. Erik Seidel was eliminated from the tournament. He was awarded $358,665 for his fourth-place finish. 

With the final three players remaining, Gal Yifrach was the shortest stack with only 10 big blinds. Michael Addamo was still in a lead with 146 big blinds and Justin Bonomo had about 50 big blinds. However, Michael Addamo has started to lose his momentum. Consequently, Yifrach doubled up through Addamo with his A 10 against Q 10 of Michael. Justin Bonomo has also managed to pull off a huge bluff to almost get into the chip lead. First, Addamo raised to 480,000 from the small blind (with a big blind of 120,000) and Bonomo called. Both players have decided to check a flop with a J 10 3 on the board. When Q came out on the turn, Addamo bet 1,100,000 and Justin Bonomo called. Once the J came out on the river, Bonomo went all-in for 3,400,000 with K 10. Addamo folded his 9 2 as a result. Shortly after, Yifrach was able to double up through Addamo once again with his K J against Michael’s K 8. This has actually put Bonomo in a lead.

However, Michael Addamo was able to recover by eliminating Yifrach from the final table. Yifrach went all-in from the small blind to 3,800,000 to beat the raise from Michael Addamo in the big blind. Addamo decided to call with his pocket eights. Yifrach had A 7. The board turned out to be 6 4 3 K A and even though Yifrach had a pair of aces, Addamo was able to get a flush with four spades on the board and one spade in his hand. Yifrach was awarded $495,305 for his third-place finish. 

Now it was time for heads-up between Addamo and Bonomo. There was no clear leader for a while as the battle went back-and-forth at first. However, it all changed when Addamo went all-in with his suited K J against Bonomo’s 10 9. The flop showed Q J 10 putting Addamo in the lead. But, Bonomo had the best hand at the moment with a pair of tens. Ace came out on the river and solidified Michael Adamo’s victory. Here are the full final table results: