The 2021 WSOP Main Event might have crowned its champion, but the World Series of Poker as a whole just keeps on trucking. Yesterday saw the 2021 WSOP Event #75: $1,500 Freezeout No-Limit Holdem wrap up as the ME reached its own climax.
The three-day Freezeout event saw 1,191 players shell out a buy-in. That put $1,589,985 in the prize pool, after rendering unto Caesars its 10%.
Chad Himmelspach was the last of the 1,191 players standing. Himmelspach had about $93k in previous tournament winnings according to the Hendon Mob. He quadrupled that with his $270,877 win in this event.
The $93k was hard-won by Himmelspach, who has been playing poker since 2003 when Moneymaker won the Main Event. That's not to say this win was easy by comparison. Heads up play alone took over three hours and saw the chip lead swing between Himmelspach and his opponent Stefan Reiser multiple times.
"It was really back and forth," Himmelspach said to the press after his win. "But, you know, [I] came through and had to stick it out."
Having been down to just a few big blinds at one point, Himmelspach proudly explained how he'd kept his head and plowed on.
"It's just a mindset. You're never really out of it," he said. "You always have a chance, you know. A chip and a chair."
Three hours heads up
After playing for three days against a little over a thousand players, Himmelbach spent roughly 1/10th of his time in the event heads-up with Reiser.
After hammering it out with his opponent, Himmelback finally had Reiser on the ropes with 3.8 million in front of him and blinds at 250,000/500,000 with a 500,000 big blind ante.
Reiser put his remaining chips in preflop with just the 9♦️3❤️. Himmelsbach (with 29 million behind) called the bet with 8♣8♦️ in the hole.
Reiser's fate was in the dealer's hands, which proceeded to deal out 4♠T♣T❤️. Reiser really needed a nine to win or a running pair of paint cards to split. Instead, he got the T♠ and the A♦️.
The WSOP tweeted about Himmelspach's win writing on Twitter: "In the shadow of the Main Event, Chad Himmelspach took down the $1,500 NLH Freezeout to earn $270,877 and his first WSOP bracelet."
Reiser won $167,418 for his second-place finish.
2021 WSOP Event #75: $1,500 Freezeout No-Limit Holdem complete final table results
| Position | Player Name | Payout |
| 1st | Chad Himmelspach | $270,877 |
| 2nd | Stefan Reiser | $167,418 |
| 3rd | Renmei Liu | $121,580 |
| 4th | Kaue De Souza | $89,344 |
| 5th | Ori Hasson | $66,447 |
| 6th | Tarun Gulati | $50,021 |
| 7th | Nicholas Hubers | $38,121 |
| 8th | Seth Evans | $29,416 |
| 9th | Louison Vincent | $22,986 |
Featured image source: Haley Hintze
