WSOP 2022 Day 42: Pei Li Wins as Main Event Progresses
The Main Event thinned its field to little more than 100 players on its fifth day of play. The main attraction at the 2022 World Series of Poker is at a serious point, one in which the money jumps become much more significant and the competition much tougher. Players are playing long days, consecutively, while trying to stay healthy, maintain focus, and play their best poker.
Two women remain in contention for the title.
Damian Salas looks to repeat his 2020 WSOP Main Event victory as one of the remaining players, and Koray Aldemir wants to repeat his win from last year.
Alejandro “PapaMC” Lococo wants to make back-to-back final tables and improve on his seventh-place finish from last year.
There are many big names, many players whose stories remain to be told. This is the point at which those stories emerge. The play becomes more intense.
Event 70: $10K NLHE Main Event
The fifth day of the Main Event started with nearly 400 players but worked its way through more than half of that number. John Juanda was one of the last to fall in the late evening. The previous day’s chipleader, Taylor von Kriegenbergh busted. Poker pros Christophe de Meulder and Brian Rast hit the rail, as did Ari Engel. Mathieu His was the last elimination of the night.
That left 128 players to bag their chips and return for another day of pursuing a poker dream.
| Event 70: Day 6 | $10K buy-in | NLHE World Championship Main Event |
| Total entries: | 8,663 | (8569 in 2019, 6650 in 2021) |
| Players remaining: | 124 | |
| Total prize pool: | $80,782,475 | |
| Players paid: | 1,300 | |
| Minimum payout: | $15,000 | |
| Winner payout: | $10,000,000 | |
| Top chip counts: | #1 | James Hobbs (USA) 12,505,000 |
| #2 | Efthymia Litsou (USA) 11,675,000 | |
| #3 | Aaron Mermelstein (USA) 10,680,000 | |
| #4 | Alejandro Lococo (Argentina) 10,020,000 | |
| #5 | Gerald Morrell (USA) 9,775,000 |
Event 71: $1K NLHE One More for One Drop
It was a long day for One Drop players, as they started with 319 of them on Monday and worked their way down to just 41. Numerous recognizable players will return to go for a final table seat and the bracelet win.
| Event 71: Day 3 of 4 | $1,111 buy-in | One More for One Drop NLHE (unlimited RE) |
| Total entries: | 5,702 | (6248 in 2019, 3797 in 2021) |
| Players remaining: | 41 | |
| Total prize pool: | $5,074,891 | |
| Players paid: | 856 | |
| Minimum payout: | $1,778 | |
| Winner payout: | $535,610 | |
| Top chip counts: | #1: | Barry Hutter (USA) 14,075,000 |
| #2: | Christina Gollins (USA) 14,000,000 | |
| #3: | Boris Akopov (USA) 12,600,000 | |
| #4: | Ryan Riess (USA) 10,425,000 | |
| #5: | Niklas Warlich (Germany) 10,075,000 |
Event 74: $1,500 PLO Bounty
The final day of action started with nine players, and the elimination of Diogo Veiga set the official table of eight. Konstantin Angelov was the first to go from there, courtesy of Raul Esquivel. Nolan King sent Ryan Scully home soon after in seventh place, as well as Eric Lescot in sixth. Equivel then doubled through King, but the latter maintained a strong lead.
King eliminated William Gross in fifth place and Eemil Tuominen in fourth, while Pei Li quietly squeezed into the chip lead. Li then busted Esquivel to take 23M chips into heads-up against the 12M of King. Quickly, King doubled and turned the tables, but Lei did the same and took his lead back. This went on for some time until Li finally pulled out the win.
| Event 74: Day 3 of 3 | $1,500 buy-in | PLO Bounty 8-Handed (2 RE) |
| Total entries: | 1,390 | (860 in 2021) |
| Total prize pool: | $1,855,650 | |
| Players paid: | 209 | |
| Minimum payout: | $1,504 | |
| Final table results: | 1st place: | Pei Li (Canada) $190,219 |
| 2nd place: | Nolan King (USA) $117,545 | |
| 3rd place: | Raul Esquivel (USA) $85,739 | |
| 4th place: | Eemil Tuominen (Finland) $63,231 | |
| 5th place: | William Gross (USA) $47,153 | |
| 6th place: | Eric Lescot (Belgium) $35,561 | |
| 7th place: | Ryan Scully (USA) $27,125 | |
| 8th place: | Konstantin Angelov (Bulgaria) $20,930 |
Pei "Jerry" Li collects the final bounty in Event #74, claiming his first gold bracelet and $190,219 cash prize.
📸 @_RKMusic_ https://t.co/Mdi6vVbDRY pic.twitter.com/cc2HcvAvVJ
— WSOP – World Series of Poker (@WSOP) July 12, 2022
Event 75: $777 Lucky 7s NLHE 7-Handed
The second of three starting flights delivered more than 1800 entries, nearly double that of the previous day. The first one had guaranteed the top 159 players at least $1,249, and the second flight guaranteed $1,246 for the top 273 finishers. As it stands, there are 119 players who survived those initial two flights, but there is one more to go before the field combines on Wednesday.
| Event 75: Day 1B of 5 | $777 buy-in | Lucky 7s NLHE 7-Handed (unlimited RE) |
| Total entries: | 2874 (so far) | (1122 in 2021) |
| Players remaining: | 119 | |
| Total prize pool: | TBD | |
| Players paid: | 432 | (159+273) |
| Minimum payout: | $1249/$1246 | |
| Winner payout: | TBD | ($777,777 GTD) |
| Top chip counts: | #1: | Selim Oulmekki (France) 2,565,000 |
| #2: | Calvin Anderson (USA) 2,280,000 | |
| #3: | Armando Figueroa (USA) 2,085,000 | |
| #4: | Matthew Land (USA) 2,010,000 | |
| #5: | Phong Than Nguyen (USA) 2,000,000 |
Event 76: $1,979 Poker Hall of Fame NLHE Bounty
It was supposed to be a two-day tournament, but that became difficult when the starting field was big and there were 139 players still competing as Day 2 began. They did thin the field a great deal, though. Late into the evening, the eliminations of Georgios Sotiropoulos and Shaun Deeb were key to nearing one final table. From that final table, Dov Markowich exited in ninth place for $20,814 and Bas De Laat in eighth for $26,841. That leaves seven to return for an unscheduled but necessary third day.
| Event 76: Day 2 of 3 | $1,979 buy-in | Poker Hall of Fame Bounty NLHE (unlimited RE) |
| Total entries: | 865 | (468 in 2021, was a freezeout) |
| Players remaining: | 7 | |
| Total prize pool: | $1,495,363 | |
| Players paid: | 130 | |
| Minimum payout: | $3,122 | |
| Winner payout: | $276,067 | |
| Final table counts: | #1: | Jinho Hong (S.Korea) 7,785,000 |
| #2: | Punnat Punsri (Thailand) 6,280,000 | |
| #3 | Daniel Weinman (USA) 2,975,000 | |
| #4 | Jakob Miegel (Germany) 2,825,000 | |
| #5 | Yuri Dzivielevski (Brazil) 2,700,000 | |
| #6 | George Rotariu (Romania) 1,905,000 | |
| #7 | Pavel Spirins (Latvia) 1,430,000 |
Event 77: $1,500 Mixed NLHE-PLO
Players who feel like they can’t decide between playing Hold’em and Omaha had a perfect situation with this event, a combination of the two games. Registration closed with more than 1200 entries and a prize pool that exceeded $1.6M. The night ended with 151 players still counting chips.
| Event 77: Day 1 of 3 | $1,500 buy-in | Mixed NLHE-PLO 7-Handed (2 RE) |
| Total entries: | 1,234 | (1250 in 2019, 579 in 2021) |
| Players remaining: | 151 | |
| Total prize pool: | $1,647,390 | |
| Players paid: | 186 | |
| Minimum payout: | $2,400 | |
| Winner payout: | $277,949 | |
| Top chip counts: | #1: | Connor Drinan (USA) 1,200,000 |
| #2: | Vincent Lam (Canada) 1,070,000 | |
| #3: | Zachary Grech (USA) 906,000 | |
| #4: | Carter Newhof (USA) 782,000 | |
| #5: | Leonard Sande (USA) 624,000 |
Event 76: $2,500 NLHE
Straight-up No Limit Hold’em was the only thing going in Event 78. And it was popular. The late-start tournament brought in more than 1300 entries by the end of registration, pushing the prize pool over $3M. There were still 257 players in action when play stopped last night, and the top two hundred and five will make the money today.
| Event 78: Day 1 of 3 | $2,500 buy-in | NLHE (1 RE) |
| Total entries: | 1,364 | (996 in 2019) |
| Players remaining: | 257 | |
| Total prize pool: | $3,034,900 | |
| Players paid: | 205 | |
| Minimum payout: | $4,009 | |
| Winner payout: | $499,636 | |
| Top chip counts: | #1: | Ben Jones (UK) 738,000 |
| #2: | Ari Oxman (USA) 685,000 | |
| #3: | Leandro Vlastaris (USA) 586,000 | |
| #4: | Weiming Aaron Lim (Singamore) 518,000 | |
| #5: | Bryn Kenney (USA) 484,000 |
Today’s Poker Menu
Event 70 moves the Main Event onward.
Event 71 plays to the One More for One Drop final table and through to a winner.
Event 75 starts the final of three flights of the $777 buy-in Lucky 7s Seven-Handed tournament.
Event 76 plays an unscheduled third day in the Poker Hall of Fame Bounty tournament.
Event 77 seeks a Mixed NLHE-PLO final table.
Event 78 hopes to set a $2,500 buy-in NLHE final table.
Event 79 starts the $10K buy-in Razz Championship.
https://twitter.com/HorseshoeVegas/status/1546341069129805824?s=20&t=9v3mV9jANrxaqbkqIyM-AQ
