Michael McCauley’s hourly rate playing poker on Sunday at the 2021 World Series of Poker was just shy of $11,000/hour.
In what was his first career cash in a WSOP event, the Kentucky native won a bracelet in the $1,000 no-limit hold’em super turbo event. Over the course of the single-day event lasting 15 hours, McCauley bested the 1,025-entry field to win $161,384.
Prior to his victory Sunday, McCauley only cashed in two other tournaments ever. A daily deepstack event earlier in the WSOP and a $365 no-limit hold’em re-entry event at the WSOP Circuit Southern Indiana stop in September 2016.
He told WSOP live reporters after the tournament it was the first time coming out to Las Vegas for the WSOP and that he was planning on playing $2-$5 no-limit hold’em cash games before he decided to jump in the event instead.
“This is my first WSOP, so it’s pretty amazing to come out here and win a bracelet,” said McCauley. “I was nervous but after I won a couple of pots, I settled down and trusted my reads. I tried not to pay attention to the field, trusted my game, and I believe that I can play with the best of them.”
Heading into the 10-handed unofficial final table, McCauley was third in chips behind Andrew Wilson and Rajvir Dua. Wilson extended his chip lead early on by eliminating Arieh in 10th and Dara O’Kearney in ninth.
Marc Lomeo lost a race with his 55 against Luigi Curcio’s AK to bust in eighth before McCauley began to take over.
McCauley eliminated Curcio in seventh and Filippo Ragone in sixth on the same hand. Ragone moved all in from early position, McCauley shoved with a covering stack, and Curcio called with a smaller stack than both players.
Curcio tabled 1010, Ragone turned over QJ, and McCauley showed AK. The board ran out 83245, which gave McCauley a straight to eliminate both players and shoot up the chip counts.
Wilson eliminated Dua in fifth when his K8 bested Dua’s AQ before McCauley scored the remaining three knockouts.
He officially took over the chip lead when his A-Q held against Yuval Bronshtein’s K-8. An A95 flop sealed the deal for McCauley and eliminated the two-time bracelet winner in fourth and he busted Neel Joshi in third a couple hands later.
Joshi moved all in from the small blind with K2 and got called by McCauley’s 66. Joshi couldn’t improve, which left McCauley heads-up with Wilson holding a slight lead with 29 big blinds to Wilson’s 22 big blinds.
The following level, when stack sizes were even shallower. McCauley raised and Wilson moved all in for about 15 blinds with 76. McCauley called with KJ and the Q10428 runout sent the pot and the bracelet to McCauley.
Final Table Results:
Place | Player | Earnings | POY Points |
1 | Michael McCauley | $161,381 | 960 |
2 | Andrew Wilson | $99,742 | 800 |
3 | Neel Joshi | $72,031 | 640 |
4 | Yuval Bronshtein | $52,679 | 480 |
5 | Rajvir Dua | $39,022 | 400 |
6 | Filippo Ragone | $29,282 | 320 |
7 | Luigi Curcio | $22,263 | 240 |
8 | Marc Lomeo | $17,153 | 160 |
9 | Dara O’Kearney | $13,395 | 80 |
Photo Credit: WSOP/Melissa Haereiti