On Saturday, July 24, the WSOP Summer Online Circuit continued alongside the bracelet events. The ninth tournament was the $320 buy-in Event #9: $100,000 GTD NLH Double Stack, which attracted 305 runners who rebought 165 times. The 470-entry field resulted in a $141,000 prize pool that was paid out to the top 80 finishers.
Among those to cash were Daniel "stayactive" Chan (10th - $1,903.50), Frank "Spaghettiii" Marasco (17th - $1,142.10), Ryan "hagzzz021" Hagerty (22nd - $888.30), Harrison "harrisond33" Dobin (30th - $789.60), Matt "berkey11_s4y" Berkey (38th - $705), and Kristen "krissyb24" Bicknell (52nd - $549.90).
In the end, it was Justin "LappyPoker" Lapka besting Jake "nattydaddy24" Hernandez in heads-up play to win a $24,111 top prize and his first gold ring. The win came a week after Lapka took down the 2021 WSOP Online Event #17: $400 NLH 8-Max for $75,371 and his first gold bracelet.
WSOP Summer Online Circuit Event #9 Final Table Results
Brian "Penny6" Mancilla raised to 4,000 under the gun and Chad "clayne" Layne responded by three-betting to 12,800 next to act. Vanessa "ContainsNuts" Kade was in the big blind for 1,600 and only had 117 behind, which she called off.
Mancilla responded by moving all in for 181,861 and Layne called off for 81,923 total.
Brian "Penny6" Mancilla:
Chad "clayne" Layne:
Vanessa "ContainsNuts" Kade:
Layne had the best of it but the flop gave Kade some hope as she held the only club. Unfortunately for her, neither the turn nor river helped her and she hit the rail while Layne doubled through Mancilla.
On July 12, WSOP.com launched in Pennsylvania, and now players from the Keystone State can look forward to competing in gold bracelet events.
From August 8-15, WSOP will offer eight daily bracelet events, each starting at 5:30 p.m. EST. Buy-ins range from $400 up to the $3,200 High Roller. The weeklong series will culminate in a $1,000 NLH PA Championship on Sunday, August 15. Additionally, there will be a pair of Progressive Knockout (PKO) events, marking the first time the WSOP will award a PKO bracelet.
WSOP.com PA will also offer daily satellites with buy-ins as low as $1 that provide an opportunity to win a seat into this Fall’s live WSOP Main Event in Las Vegas.
“We are thrilled to be opening up WSOP.com to the state of Pennsylvania,” said Ty Stewart, SVP of the World Series of Poker at Caesars Entertainment. “The real winners in this expansion are the players who join us at WSOP.com. Our team is laser-focused on providing the most value to poker players in the state and are confident in the potential of our online poker product. With our industry-best sign-up promotions and the special bracelet series catered specifically to players in Pennsylvania, we welcome all players, from the casuals to the professionals and everyone in between.”
Pennsylvania Bracelet Event Schedule
While WSOP.com is in the middle of their 33-bracelet series open to Nevada and New Jersey players, players from Pennsylvania will have the chance to battle for eight daily bracelet events from Sunday, August 8 through Sunday. August 15.
Players must be within state borders in order to participate and will need to register for a new account at WSOP.com/start. Once signed up, be sure to link your Caesars Rewards to your account as every hand played earns points toward rewards.
Remember, players can withdraw and deposit funds at the cage inside Harrah’s Philadelphia Casino and Racetrack.
Event
Tournament
Day
Date
Time
1
Event #1: $500 NLH Keystone Kickoff
Sunday
8/8/21
5:30 p.m. EST
2
Event #2: $500 NLH PKO
Monday
8/9/21
5:30 p.m. EST
3
Event #3: $3,200 NLH High Roller
Tuesday
8/10/21
5:30 p.m. EST
4
Event #4: $400 NLH 6-Max
Wednesday
8/11/21
5:30 p.m. EST
5
Event #5: $777 NLH Lucky 7’s
Thursday
8/12/21
5:30 p.m. EST
6
Event #6: $400 NLH PKO
Friday
8/13/21
5:30 p.m. EST
7
Event #7: $600 NLH MonsterStack
Saturday
8/14/21
5:30 p.m. EST
8
Event #8: $1,000 NLH PA Championship
Sunday
8/15/21
5:30 p.m. EST
Free Play and Freeroll Promotions
Pennsylvania players are invited to capture the benefits of the Welcome Offer, the most valuable poker deposit promotion on the table. Available now, players who deposit a minimum of $10 into their account will be rewarded with $50 in free play, a 100% match on all deposits up to $1,000, and 7 freeroll tickets into the Welcome Week Freerolls.
First-time depositors who make a deposit by Sunday, Aug. 15 will also receive a ticket to participate in an exclusive $50,000 Depositors Freeroll on Sunday, Aug. 22. The Freeroll will award three seats to the WSOP Main Event – two seats to the top tournament finishers, and one seat from a randomly selected drawing of all players that entered.
WSOP Pennsylvania
The Ultimate Poker Experience
To prioritize Pennsylvania players in the launch of WSOP.com in the state, a variety of special events and tournaments are being offered daily throughout the summer.
BLAST Poker – Starting Monday, July 12, BLAST poker debuts in Pennsylvania where players have a chance to win their share of up to $300,000 in a matter of minutes. Players can win up to 10,000x their buy-in amount in this a lightning fast three-handed game that starts when three players enter in this Sit and Go format.
WSOP Satellites – Only on WSOP.com can players win a full package to play in live WSOP events including the 2021 Main Event in Las Vegas, for as little as $1 and special Main Event Freerolls. Visit the promotions page for more information on MEGA satellite structures and schedules.
Sunday $75,000 Guarantee – Beginning Sunday, July 18, this flagship tournament will award a guaranteed payout of $75,000 with a $215 buy-in beginning at 4 p.m. every Sunday.
A player that looked poised for a breakout prior to the Covid-19 Pandemic was Kevin "GoneBananas" Garosshen, and even after casinos closed down for an extended period of time, Garosshen spent last year's WSOP Online Series continuing to produce solid results that cemented his status as a player on the rise.
Garosshen's big breakout occurred at one of the last live events before the heart of the pandemic, as he took down the $1,650 HPT St. Louis Main Event for $131,184 after topping a field of 392 entrants. Garosshen then set his sights on the 2020 WSOP Online Series, and went to work immediately, finishing in third-place in Event #3: $1,000 NLH Deepstack 8-Max for $73,424. Garosshen ended up with a total of nine cashes in the 2020 WSOP Online.
So far this year, Garosshen has had a smattering of success on the felt, including two deep runs in side events at the WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown, and a nineteenth-place finish in last month's WPT Tampa Championship. Garosshen will be looking to have another successful summer on the virtual felt, and add a WSOP Gold Bracelet to his HPT Title.
Registration closed on the 2021 WSOP Online Event #30: $600 NLH 6-Max Championship with 523 players who rebought 260 times. The 783-entry field resulted in a $422,820 prize pool that will be paid out to the top 126 finishers. A min-cash will be worth $845.64 while the eventual winner will walk away with the bracelet and $84,056.61 in prize money.
One player who has been doing quite well on playing online in recent years is bracelet winner Daniel "centrfieldr" Lupo, 37, of West Milford, New Jersey. You might recall in 2019, Lupo topped a 1,767-entry field to win the WSOP.com Online $500 NLH Turbo Deepstack for $145,274 and a gold bracelet. Last year, he added a ring to his résumé by taking down the WSOP.com Online Circuit Event #3: $320 NLH 6-Max for $32,595 and a month later won the WSOP.com $100,000 GTD Sunday for $50,715.
PokerNews caught up with Lupo, who went to NJIT for Architecture and baseball, to ask him about poker, which he squeezes in between working for an Architecture firm in Bridgewater specializing in single-family residential and smaller commercial projects and his family, which includes three kids ages 2-5 and his supportive wife Laura.
PokerNews: When and how did you learn to play poker?
Lupo: I started playing/learning in college during the Rounders and Moneymaker boom with a bunch of the baseball guys. Within a year I found myself hosting games at college, at home on breaks and basically anywhere I could find or make a game. I didn’t play much online early on, regrettably.
What sort of poker do you play these days?
Mostly online MTTs playing like three sessions per week on average with buy-ins typically from $50 to $1k with the occasional $2-$3k buy in for a big event. I average around 500-600 MTTs a month despite not playing full time, I tend to put in a lot of volume when I’m on. The games are mostly NLH and some PLO MTTs, but love when StarsNJ runs a series as they run a fun 8-Game MTT with a bunch of other mixed variants.
What’s it like to play poker while raising young children?
It’s been a constant evolution. I could probably write a book about all the highs and lows and life adjustments I’ve had or chose to make. It gives me a lot of inspiration to succeed while also adding some weight to my losses as it's like 'not only was I way from my kids for all of Sunday afternoon but I lost (insert obnoxious Sunday schedule cost here)'.
Daniel Lupo and his family. (Photo c/o Daniel Lupo)
What are some of your poker goals?
Try and win everything I play. Actually, my biggest current goal is trying to optimize my MTT game selection. Since quarantine began the schedules have been exploding site to site and while it's been great, with lots of new players and lots of live players playing online it has also drastically increased my average buy-ins and session costs as well as the field size which further increases variance.
I'm trying to optimize the balance of table quantity and expected value vs individual session costs and the variance that comes with it. Having an average buy-in of $250 adds up pretty quickly when it's spread across 60+ entries on a Sunday. My biggest ongoing and long-term goal is to win enough to help my family live comfortably.
Lupo is in action today looking to make a run at his second gold bracelet.
flop gave Kade some hope as she held the only club. Unfortunately for her, neither the 
turn nor 
river helped her and she hit the rail while Layne doubled through Mancilla.
and Sinishtaj checked. Imsirovic bet 3,150 and Sinishtaj check-raised all in. Imsirovic called for his last 13,051.
on the river was inconsequential and Imsirovic secured a much needed double-up. 
