Oregon's Brad Zusman has added his name to the list of first-time World Series of Poker bracelet winners by taking down one of the final events in the 2021 WSOP Online series, Event #31, the $500 NLH Summer Saver. The win also gave Zusman a career-best $79,683 payday.
Zusman topped a 917-entry field and collected the largest share of its $412,650 prize pool by winning on Friday. It's a career best poker showing for the Oregon recreational player. Prior to this win, his recorded tourney cashes amounted to just over $59,000.
The aptly-named Summer Saver event itself was one of the final chances for most U.S. players to win WSOP Online bracelet gold. Only two more events remain — today's $1,000 NLH Championship and Sunday's series-ending $500 NLH Grand Finale.
Zusman rebounds at final table for win
Zusman arrived at the nine-player final table in the middle of the pack behind early leader Josh ‘YoelRomero’ King. He remained in idle early on, however, as all-in collisions between other players consolidated the remaining stacks. Zusman had drifted to fifth out of five before he doubled through the only prior bracelet winner in the final, Jason "TheBigGift" Gooch.
The hit left Gooch short on chips and he exited in fifth soon after when his K-J couldn't overtake Mark "victb" Ioli's ace-king. Jeff "bortzork" Miller and early leader King were bounced in fourth and third, respectively, which left Zusman and Ioli dueling for the win.
Ioli began heads-up action with a narrow lead, but Zusman snared a few small pots to move ahead. An all-in collision decided the matter. After a raise and a reraise, Ioli moved all in and Zusman called. Ioli had the best of with pocket queens to Zusman's ace-jack. However, an As-5d-3h flop moved Zusman way ahead.
Ioli needed another queen to win or a deuce-four runout for the chop. Instead, the turn was another three, and a river deuce gave Zusman the bracelet. Ioli earned $49,270 for his own deep run.
Zusman owns Portland-area restaurant, marijuana dispensary
Zusman is a recreational player who has made numerous poker-playing trips to Las Vegas over the years. His recorded results date back to at least 2009, including a WSOP main event near-min-cash in 2019. His main occupations, however, are the ownership of a restaurant and a cannabis dispensary, both in the greater Portland area.
Zusman also became the latest recreational player to triumph over an experienced online field. In addition to Gooch's fifth-place effort, other prior bracelet winners who ran deep in the Summer Saver included Sang Lee, David Odb, Jeff Madsen, Joe Cheong, Jim Collopy, Steve Kelly, Hani Awad, and Tom Cannuli.
The deep list of Summer Savers included other notable pros as well. Among those who earned a payday here were Joe Barthodi, Kathy Liebert, Roland Israelashvili (the all-time cashes leader in WSOP events of all types), Tim Reilly, and Ali Imsirovic.
Final Results
- Brad ‘1badcajun’ Zusman - $79,683
- Mark ‘victb’ Ioli - $49,270
- Josh ‘YoelRomero’ King - $34,704
- Jeff ‘bortzork’ Miller - $24,759
- Jason ‘TheBigGift’ Gooch - $17,909
- Orson ‘borgatcha’ Young - $13,122
- ‘KerriP’ - $9,780
- Jeremy ‘g00sebumps’ Menard - $7,386
- David ‘dave419’ Nodes - $5,653
Featured image source: MarijuanaVenture.com
