WSOP 2022 Day 33: Mini Main Leads to Main Event

Written by Jennifer Newell

Last updated on July 3rd, 2022

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Three highly-anticipated tournaments started or will start this weekend. It may be a holiday in America, but poker players keep competing.

The Mini Main Event is a huge draw, as players get a taste of that big tournament without the $10K buy-in. But then there is that $10K buy-in Main Event, the one that every almost every poker player dreams of winning. And new this year is the Million Dollar Bounty tournament, the multi-flight tournament with a $1K buy-in that offers a unique bounty system that will award up to $1M in a single bounty. It’s the first time for the WSOP to run it, though other casinos and tours have done it with immense success.

The World Series of Poker is bringing the excitement this weekend, even more so than in the past five weeks. It’s time for the biggest tournament of the year.

Event 61: $1K NLHE Ladies Championship

The final table of eight garnered a lot of attention, enough so that PokerGO did decide to livestream it with commentators and at no cost to viewers around the world. Lynh Nguyen and Christina Gollins had the largest stacks of the eight, and Natalie Hof and Jessica Teusl were the shortest stacks.

Hof made her move without much delay, and Julie Le knocked her out in eighth place. Teusl was aggressive and scored a double-up with her all-in move. She doubled through Meikat Siu, as did Sandy Tran. Felisa Westermann doubled through Le, but Le turned around and busted Tran in seventh place. Gollins doubled through Le, but Teusl had been grinding and then eliminated Nguyen in sixth place and Siu in fifth.

Gollins doubled through Westermann, who then busted at the hands of Teusl. Gollins doubled through Teusl, but Gollins did fall in third place.

Teusl took 16.65M chips into heads-up against the 4.8M of Le, but Le played strong and eventually took over the lead at one point. Teusl then doubled through Le. On the very next hand, Le moved with Q-3 but ran into the A-3 of Teusl.

Filled with emotion, Teusl told PokerNews, “I’m feeling so happy. … We are going to celebrate now!” She noted that her summer has been filled with success, as she scored her biggest career cash in the Monster Stack this year, and her boyfriend won a bracelet in Event 16.

 

Jessica Teusl outlasts 1,074 entrants in the $1,000 Ladies Championship event to earn $166,975 and her first gold bracelet.https://t.co/p8VJ1D1R5w

📸: Seth Haussler pic.twitter.com/t2nWOpFITT

— WSOP – World Series of Poker (@WSOP) July 3, 2022

Event 65: $3K NLHE Freezeout

The third day of this event started with 26 players. Players who busted early included Julien Martini and Diego Ventura, followed a bit later by Blake Bohn and Chad Brewer.

David Jackson led the table of ten, followed by Justin Saliba and Phil Hellmuth. Keiji Ito busted in tenth place to then set the official final table of nine. Saliba then busted Wigg, and Jeffrey Lo took out Richard Scardina. Hellmuth doubled through Jackson, but most of the play over those hours moved rather slowly.

After the dinner break, Jackson eliminated Onur Unsal in seventh and Renan Bruschi in sixth. Some of the shorter stacks doubled, and Lo ousted Timothy Sullivan in fifth place. Four-handed play showed Jackson with nearly 70% of the chips in play. Short-stacked Hellmuth doubled through him twice, but Jackson took out Saliba in fourth place and Lo in third. Jackson had 44.21M chips going into heads-up against Hellmuth and his 10.25M.

Hellmuth almost evened the stacks but Jackson stayed aggressive. He put up K-J suited against the A-7 of Hellmuth, and Jackson made the straight on the river. Jackson denied Hellmuth his 17^th bracelet and won his own second career gold.

“I’m just in awe,” he said after the win. “I’m just happy. I was just in my zone, honestly. I felt like I was going to win.”

 

David Jackson defeats Phil Hellmuth heads-up in the $3,000 NLH Freezeout to earn $598,173 and his second gold bracelet.https://t.co/S2Nef2eGp4

📸: @hayleyocho pic.twitter.com/k6p86X3zSx

— WSOP – World Series of Poker (@WSOP) July 3, 2022

Event 66: $1K NLHE Mini Main Event

Nearly 500 people remained in the Mini Main on its second day, but that number played down quickly to just a few tables. The tenth-place elimination of Jesse Lonis set the official final table.

Play continued that night with Cosmin Joldis holding a massive lead over the others. Kei Nitta took out Sergio Ochoa to get things started, but Joldis took out Keith Littlewood in eighth and Adam Velez in seventh, as well as Theodore Lee in sixth. That left five players to bag their chips.

 

Event 67: $10K Super Turbo Bounty NLHE Freezeout

The second day of this fast-structured event brought only six players back. Longtime pro Nacho Barbero had the chip lead, and everyone else was a distance away. The shortest stack, Fabiano Kovalski, doubled. Barbero busted Lichtenberger in sixth place, and Kovalski busted Maria Ho in fifth. Barbero stepped back in to take out Rob Hollink in fourth and Ilya Nikiforov in third.

Barbero took 17.04M chips into heads-up play, and Kovalski had just 8.1M. It didn’t take long for Kovalski to push, but Barbero had it and took his first WSOP bracelet.

“It feels amazing,” Barbero told PokerNews. “I’m so happy. Literally, my dream in poker was to win one. … I’ve been coming since 2007, I think, or 2005. So many close ones and never could close it out.”

 

Argentina's @nacho_barbero captured his first WSOP gold bracelet and $587,520 by topping 419 players in Event #67: $10,000 No-Limit Hold'em Super Turbo Bounty.

📸 @RomeForReal https://t.co/UQAd9hdGNq pic.twitter.com/z7mqXEO8a4

— WSOP – World Series of Poker (@WSOP) July 2, 2022

Event 68: $1K NLHE Million Dollar Bounty

This is a new event for the World Series. The Million Dollar Bounty No Limit Hold’em is a bounty tournament with a twist. The $1K buy-in is good for any of the four starting flights, and players can reenter up to one time per flight. Of the buy-ins, $300 from each goes to the bounty pool, though bounties don’t become available until Day 2. And the top bounty will be $1M, with everyone drawing randomly. Payouts start on each flight.

Nearly 3600 entries came in on Day 1A, but only 182 players survived the day.

 

Event 69: $10K PLO 8-Handed Championship

There were 641 players in this event, but registration remained open until the start of Day 2. The number already surpassed that of the same event in 2019 and went far beyond that of 2021. Only about 264 players survived the day, but more players may enter at the start of Day 2.

 

Today’s Poker Menu

Event 66 plays the Mini Main Event final table.

Event 68 offers the second of four flights of the Million Dollar Bounty tournament.

Event 69 brings players in for the $10K PLO Championship.

Event 70 kicks off the one-and-only WSOP NLHE Main Event.