Series Review · World Series of Parker 2021
Lance Cain Takes the Bookends, and the Trophy
He won the first event and the last one, and nothing in between — which turned out to be exactly enough.
Three years after the first World Series of Parker, the second one drew the smallest and steadiest field the format has had: eight players, and five of them entered all five events. That made it a genuine season rather than a series of separate nights, and it produced a standings table where second and third place finished 0.24 points apart.
Five events
| Game | Date | Winner | Field | First prize | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2-1 | Omaha Hi/Lo | February 26 | Lance Cain | 8 | $162 |
| 2-2 | Razz | April 23 | Eric Denny | 7 | $108 |
| 2-3 | Big O — Omaha 5 Hi/Lo | June 18 | Eric Denny | 8 | $135 |
| 2-4 | 7 Card Stud | August 21 | Andrew Shier & Charlie Drotar | 5 | $100 |
| 2-5 | H.O.R.S.E. | October 22 | Lance Cain | 7 | $135 |
Lance Cain opened the series in February by winning the Omaha Hi/Lo event out of eight players, taking $162 with five knockouts — the largest first prize anybody collected all year. He closed it in October at H.O.R.S.E. for $135. In the three events between he finished fourth, third and fifth — never out of contention, never quite there.
The August event ended without a last hand: Andrew Shier and Charlie Drotar agreed to split it five-handed, and both are recorded as winners of the 7 Card Stud tournament. It is the only WSOP event to date that has been chopped.
The man who won the most and finished second
Eric Denny won two events, the Razz night in April and the Big O night in June, and was runner-up to Lance Cain in the February opener. He led the series in prize money with $351 and in knockouts with 15, both by a distance.
He finished second. It is the second consecutive series in which the man leading the money and the knockout counts did not take the trophy — and this time it was Denny on the other side of it, having won the first series on exactly that kind of margin.
The final standings
| World Series of Parker — 2021 final | Events | Points | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lance Cain | 5 | 156.67 |
| 2 | Eric Denny | 5 | 135.80 |
| 3 | Andrew Shier | 5 | 135.56 |
| 4 | Charlie Drotar | 5 | 97.99 |
| 5 | Rick Mazza | 5 | 73.57 |
| 6 | Jeff Ferguson | 4 | 66.67 |
| 7 | Angela Cain | 3 | 66.67 |
| 8 | Lee Ugarte | 3 | 40.95 |
Lance Cain won it by 20.87. Behind him, Denny and Andrew Shier finished within a quarter of a point of each other after five tournaments apiece — Shier having won a share of the August event and been runner-up in two others without ever leading the table.
Angela Cain was second in the June Big O event, her best finish in the series, and matched Jeff Ferguson's total on three appearances to his four.
Two champions, two years
Lance Cain becomes the second WSOP Champion, and the first man to win the trophy on World Series results alone: the 2017-2018 title was decided on a combined table that folded in the Canterberry season and the Annual. This one was settled inside the series.
Eight players, thirty-five entries, and every one of the five events was a different game.