Mitchell Halverson Wins 2021 WSOP Online $600 Six-Max No-Limit Hold’em Championship

Mitchell ‘franzia’ Halverson is the latest player to emerge victorious during the 2021 World Series of Poker Online. The Oregon resident outlasted a field of 783 total entries in the WSOP Online $600 buy-in no-limit hold’em six-max championship event, earning his first gold bracelet and the top prize of $84,057.

This was Halverson’s largest recorded tournament score, topping the $25,091 he took home for a 131st-place finish in the Wynn Millions event that wrapped up earlier this month.

Plenty of big names made the money in this event, including bracelet winner and 2004 WSOP main event runner-up David ‘dwpoker’ Williams (60th – $1,226), recent online bracelet winner Carlos ‘carloswelch’ Welch (44th – $1,649), MSPT Venetian champion Landon ‘ActionDealer’ Tice (38th – $1,649), four-time bracelet winner Mike ‘Mouth123’ Matusow (22nd – $2,368), two-time bracelet winner Bryan ‘Pellepelle’ Piccioli (18th – $2,875), three-time bracelet winner Kristen ‘krissyb24’ Bicknell (15th – $3,594), World Poker Tour champion and 2012 WSOP main event runner-up finisher Jesse ‘MrJesseJames’ Sylvia (11th – $4,524), WPT champ and two-time bracelet winner Tony ‘Panoramic’ Dunst (9th – $5,835), and bracelet winner Ryan ‘protential’ Laplante (8th – $7,611).

The final table began with Joshua ‘Kenjiboi7’ Faris in the lead and Halverson in second chip position. Drew ‘dudeguydrew’ O’Connell was the clear short stack, and was eliminated just moments after the final table began when his QJ failed to outrun the K3 of Faris. O’Connell earned $13,615 for his sixth-place showing.

2021 WSOPO bracelet winner James ‘Danfriel’ Gilbert got his last five big blinds from the small blind with 105 when it folded to him. Faris picked up A9 in the big blind and made the call. Faris flopped a pair of aces and held from there to eliminate Gilbert in fifth place ($18,604). Two-time bracelet winner Nipun ‘javatini’ Java was the next to fall. He ran A2 into the pocket tens of Halverson, who turned top set to leave Java drawing dead. Java earned $25,834 as the fourth-place finisher.

Anthony ‘Nowb3Athat’ Spinella won the first-ever online WSOP bracelet event back in 2015. He came close to securing his second piece of hardware in this event, but his flopped top and bottom pair turned out to be up against the top two pair of Faris. Spinella was unable to improve on the turn or river and finished third for $36,363.

With that Faris took roughly a 3:2 chip lead into heads-up play with Halverson. The two swapped positions thanks to a preflop coinflip, with Halverson’s AJ beating out the pocket fives of Faris.

By the time the final hand arose, Halverson had roughly a 3:1 lead of his own. Halverson limped in for 120,000 total with 98 and Faris raised to 442,500 from the big blind with AQ. The flop came down A108 and both players checked.

The 9 saw Faris fire a bet of 675,000. Halverson moved all-in with his turned two pair and Faris called for 2,916,236 total. The river was the 4, locking up the pot and the title for Halverson. Faris took home $51,965 as the runner-up finisher.

Here is a look at the payouts awarded at the final table:

Halverson photo credit: PokerGO / Antonio Abrego.