James Gilbert Wins $1,000 NLHE North American Open

Your typical poker player does not get many chances to win a World Series of Poker bracelet. They can enter hundreds of bracelet-awarding events, but it is rare to navigate to a final table. James Gilbert must have thought his opportunity had passed when he finished third in a $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em Bounty event in 2017. That turned out not to be the case because Gilbert is now a WSOP champion.

Gilbert was one of 756 entrants in the $1,000 NLH North American Poker Open, part of the 2021 WSOP Online. He managed to accumulate every chip in play after 11-hours of intense online poker grinding. His reward? A coveted gold WSOP bracelet and $137,570 in prize money.

Top poker talent littered the final table, where Gilbert sat down fourth in chips. All but one of the finalists secured a five-figure sum, ninth-place finisher Daniel “st0neydanza” Dagostino securing a $9,550 payout. Dagostino’s ace-king lost a flip against the jacks of Brett “furofakind” Shaffer.

Eighth-place was decided shortly after Dagostino’s demise, Shaffer again beating ace-king. Tony “Panoramic” Dunst opened to 170,000, “DLAZ14” three-bet all-in for 260,506, Shaffer called from the small blind, and Dunst called. Shaffer led for 231,381 on the 4c-Js-3h flop, and Dunst folded. DLAZ14 turned over As-Kh, Shaffer Qd-Jc, and the former busted after the Tc turn and 4s river.

Gilbert Claims His First Scalp

Gilbert added to his stack by sending William “swaggyb” Corvino home in seventh. The chips went in preflop, Gilbert holding As-Jh and the short-stacked Corvino 8c-8h. Those snowmen melted when the board fell Td-7d-Jc-Js-5s.

The champion elect soared above 10 million chips after he eliminated “tennispro79” in sixth. Gilbert pushed all-in with Ts-Th from the cutoff, and tennispro79 called off his 927,040 chips from the small blind with As-Js. Gilbert avoided a ton of outs as the five community cards ran 6s-8h-7s-4d-9h.

Dunst was the next player to fall victim to Gilbert, who now looked unstoppable. Dunst raised to 375,000 from the button during the 80,000/160,000/16,000a level. Gilbert responded with a three-bet jam with the Ac-5s, which Dunst called. Dunst showed 9d-9s and was ahead of the weak-ace of his opponent. That was until a five appeared on the flop and an ace on the river. Game over for Dunst.

Fourth-place and $42,281 went to Felix “madenspauwke” Vandeput. Who busted him? That man Gilbert. An open-shove from the small blind by Gilbert with Jd-6d saw Vandeput call with Ad-Qc. A final board reading Jh-3d-7c-Th-7h reduced the player count by one.

The very next hand saw Shaffer bust at the hands of Gilbert. Shaffer called off his last 2.5 big blinds with Jh-3c and found himself against Ac-9s. Neither player improved on the 5h-5c-7h-4s-7c board, which sent the tournament heads-up.

Gilbert held almost three times as many chips as Landon “ActionDealer” Tice going into heads-up. Tice fought back, but it was ultimately too little too late. The final hand saw Tice limp-call all-in with Kd-8d against Gilbert’s Kc-Ts. The 2h-Ac-9s-4c-6h board saw Gilbert crowned champion.

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