Most tournaments at the 2022 World Series of Poker have specific end times. They play to a certain level or number of players/tables, and they wrap. Obviously, the playdowns to find winners are more unpredictable, but most tournaments end at a reasonable hour.
Sometimes, a tournament plays down to the final two competitors at a reasonable hour and then plays on...and on…and on…for more than seven hours. Event 15 was that tournament, and Omaha-8 was the game. The last hand finally played out just before the sun came up over the Las Vegas skyline.
Anything can happen at the World Series of Poker.
Event 15: $10K Omaha-8 Championship
Five players took their seats to play for this championship title on Friday. Yuval Bronshtein was the chip leader, followed by Dustin Dirksen and Daniel Zack. Short-stacked Jake Liebeskind quickly hit the rail in fifth place to kick off the action, though Ray Dehkharghani held on and chipped up for the first few hours of play. Eventually, though, he busted in fourth place.
Dirksen had the lead at that point, though Zack quickly took it from him. Bronshtein lost a lot of ground quickly and busted to Zack in third place, denied his third WSOP bracelet.
Dirksen took more than 6.1M chips into heads-up against the 5.6M of Zack. They played…for more than seven hours. When Zack finally won in the wee hours of the morning, a few friends remained awake to support him. He admitted that he was exhausted, but his second career bracelet meant a lot.
Day 3 played from 75 players down to the final table of nine. That was the plan, and the final nine will return on Saturday to play for the bracelet.
Event 16: Day 3 of 4
$3K buy-in
NLHE (1 RE)
Total entries:
1,240
(0 in 2021, 671 in 2019)
Players remaining:
9
Total prize pool:
$3,310,800
Players paid:
186
Minimum payout:
$4,823
Winner payout:
$558,616
Final table counts:
#1
David Miscikowski (USA) 9,800,000
#2
Stefan Lehner (Austria) 7,195,000
#3
Nathan Russler (USA) 7,000,000
#4
Nicholas Dolen (USA) 6,125,000
#5
Kevin Stevens (UA) 5,690,000
#6
Joey Weissman (USA) 4,980,000
#7
Alex Foxen (USA) 4,020,000
#8
Davide Suriano (Italy) 2,725,000
#9
Toby Boas (USA) 2,075,000
Event 17: $2,500 Mixed Triple Draw Lowball
From 17 players, this event found its final table at the expense of Frank Kassela, who exited in tenth, Andrew Brown out in ninth, and Alejandro Torres out in eighth. Philip Eisman was the first to go from the seven-handed table.
Jerry Wong sent Alex Epstein out in sixth place in short order. John Monnette took care of Matthew Schreiber as Jerry Wong ran away with the chip lead. But Monette and Dominick Sarle both doubled through Wong, and Sarle climbed as he eliminated Monnette. Sarle also busted Strelitz, though Wong took a significant lead into heads-up. Sarle got aggressive, though, taking several significant pots. Wong fought back from a short stack, but Sarle finally busted Wong in an Ace-5 Triple Draw hand.
This was Sarle’s first bracelet and the biggest payday of his poker career.
It was a two-day tournament. Day 1 started with 2,663 players, and Day 2 brought back only 203 of them. They didn’t find the final two tables until evening turned to night on Friday, and the elimination of Seth Fischer in tenth place set the official final nine.
Young Sik Eum was the chip leader, and Bryan Schultz was on the shortest stack. Eum started strong by busting Kevin Legerski in ninth. But Schulz chipped up a bit and then busted Michael Holz in eighth place and then Tony Dam in seventh and Robert Hofer in sixth. From worst to first, Schulz was in charge, though Eum did double through him. Eum then busted Nick Palma, but Schultz took care of Harry Rubin in fourth. Eum stepped in to bid adieu to Angela Jordison in third place.
Schultz took the lead into heads-up and didn’t let up, except when Eum doubled once. When Eum tried it again, Schultz and his A-Q busted Eum. Schultz walked away with his first bracelet.
Day 2 of this high-stakes game set the field with 264 entries and a $6.2M prize pool. This tops the same event from last year by quite a few entries. But by the end of the night, there were only 28 players still in action, all in the money.
Event 19: Day 2 of 4
$25K buy-in
PLO High Roller (2 RE)
Total entries:
264
(212 in 2021)
Players remaining:
28
Total prize pool:
$6,237,000
Players paid:
40
Minimum payout:
$40,460
Winner payout:
$1,467,739
Top chip counts:
#1
Scott Ball (USA) 3,990,000
#2
Jonathan Depa (USA) 3,625,000
#3
David Williams (USA) 2,970,000
#4
James Chen (USA) 2,585,000
#5
Emmanuel Sebag (USA) 2,315,000
Event 20: $1,500 Limit 2-7 Lowball Triple Draw
More than 100 players started this day, but only nine bagged chips by the end of it. Von Altizer leads the final table going into the final day, and she will be looking for her first bracelet.
Event 20: Day 2 of 3
$1,500 buy-in
Limit 2-7 Lowball Triple Draw
Total entries:
350
(285 in 2021, 467 in 2019)
Players remaining:
9
Total prize pool:
$467,250
Players paid:
53
Minimum payout:
$2,421
Winner payout:
$108,250
Top chip counts:
#1
Von Altizer (USA) 2,625,000
#2
Yufei Zhong (China) 2,290,000
#3
Benny Glaser (UK) 1,185,000
#4
Denis Nesterenko (Russia) 940,000
#5
James Maguire (USA) 700,000
#6
Kenny Hsiung (USA) 485,000
#7
Evan Sayer (USA) 275,000
#8
Hieu Luu (USA) 175,000
#9
Peter Lynn (USA) 75,000
Event 21: $1,500 NLHE Monster Stack
Big chip stacks brought nearly 3,000 players into the mix on the first of this event’s two starting flights. Players can only reenter today if they busted yesterday’s flight. With that in mind, the tournament will need quite a few more players to beat the 2019 registration number of 6,035. That just might happen, though, as many expect this day to eclipse the first flight.
Event 21: Day 1A of 5
$1,500 buy-in
NLHE Monster Stack (1 RE possible)
Total 1A entries:
2,947
(3520 in 2021, 6035 in 2019)
Players remaining:
898
Total prize pool:
TBD
Players paid:
TBD
Minimum payout:
TBD
Winner payout:
TBD
Top chip counts:
#1
Frank Lagodich (USA) 635,000
#2
Mustapha Kanit (Italy) 550,500
#3
Paul Siegel (USA) 491,500
#4
Scott Roderick (USA) 489,000
#5
Andrew Dean (USA) 485,000
Event 22: $10K Seven-Card Stud Championship
Another championship-level tournament, this one brought Stud players to the tables. There were only 85 entries, but that was more than last year and almost as many as in 2019. Registration remains open, so the final number will likely go higher. Only 41 players survived the night, though.
Event 22: Day 1 of 3
$10K buy-in
Seven-Card Stud Championship
Total entries:
85
(62 in 2021, 88 in 2019)
Players remaining:
41
Total prize pool:
TBD
Players paid:
TBD
Minimum payout:
TBD
Winner payout:
TBD
Top chip counts:
#1
Bertrand Grospellier (France) 262,000
#2
Phil Ivey (USA) 256,500
#3
Yueqi Zhu (China) 237,000
#4
Randy Ohel (USA) 228,000
#5
James Paluszek (USA) 220,500
Today’s Poker Menu
Event 16 will play the final day of $3K NLHE.
Event 19 has only 28 players remaining in high-stakes PLO.
Event 20 will find its Limit 2-7 Lowball Triple Draw winner.
Event 21 will welcome the second – and probably larger – of two flights of Monster Stack NLHE action.
Event 22 should find its Seven-Card Stud Championship final table.
Event 23 will welcome players to a $3K 6-Handed Limit Hold’em event.
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