WSOP 2022 Day 44: Main Event Unofficial Final Table Set

Written by Jennifer Newell

Last updated on July 14th, 2022

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Skill is important in poker. Luck also plays an important role. Poker is a combination of factors, plus players battling each other’s mental state and endurance at the tables. The World Series of Poker Main Event puts this on display like no other tournament, especially when the field thins down to just a few tables, when the pay-jumps are potentially life-changing, when the world championship title and most-definitely-life-changing money are on the line.

Sometimes, the play is so grueling as to have even professional players question the long hours.

This Day 7 of the Main Event was one of those times. Play started in the early afternoon on Wednesday and played on…and on. More than 12 hours later, there were still 15 players remaining at the two tables. The 15^th place finisher hit the payout cage at around 3:30am Vegas time. And play continued.

It was nearly 7am when the 11^th place finisher made the sad walk away from the table. Ten players remained, and the goal has always been to play down to the official final table of nine. But the mere thought of a few more hours – even one more hour, at that point – was too much.

They paused the action with ten players, possibly for the first time in recent WSOP history.

Poker is unpredictable.

Event 70: $10K NLHE Main Event

They started with 35 players on the tournament’s seventh full day. The following eliminations started the day:

-Marco Johnson (by Aaron Mermelstein) in 35^th place ($262,300)

-Jonathan Rosa (by Espen Jorstad) in 34^th place ($262,300)

-Imran Bhojani (by Kamal Bittar) in 33^rd place ($262,300)

-Cameron Blazevich (by Brian Kim) in 32^nd place ($262,300)

-Joseph Altman (by Kamal Bittar) in 31^st place ($262,300)

-Adam Demersseman (by Matthew Su) in 30^th place ($262,300)

-Matthew Shepsky (by Kenny Tran) in 29^th place ($262,300)

-Mack Khan (by Aaron Mermelstein) in 28^th place ($262,300)

The staff then did a redraw for the final three tables. Karim Rebei was at the top of the leaderboard at that point, followed closely by Aaron Mermelstein.

-Damian Salas (by Aaron Mermelstein) in 27^th place ($262,300)

-Kamal Bittar (by Aaron Mermelstein) in 26^th place ($323,100)

-Andy Taylor (by Tom Kunze) in 25^th place ($323,100)

The 24 remaining players went on a dinner break. When they returned…

-Mayank Madan (by Asher Conniff) in 24^th place ($323,100)

-Brian Kim (by Jeffrey Farnes) in 23^rd place ($323,100)

-Evan Krentzman (by Tsur Levy) in 22^nd place ($323,100)

-Andres Jeckeln (by Matija Dobric) in 21^st place ($323,100)

-Aaron Mermelstein (by Adrian Attenborough) in 20^th place ($323,100)

-Tsur Levy (by Matthew Su) in 19^th place ($323,100)

The 18 remaining players paused the action for a two-table redraw. Matija Dobric was the chip leader with 78,125,000 chips, followed in the distance by Matthew Su holding 45.3M. A bit later, eliminations resumed.

-Efthymia Litsou (by Espen Jorstad) in 18^th place ($323,100)

-Kenny Tran (by Tom Kunze) in 17^th place ($410,000)

-Karim Rebei (by Matija Dobric) in 16^th place ($410,000)

-Jimmy Setna (by Matija Dobric) in 15^th place ($410,000)

-Tony Kunze (by Espen Jorstad) in 14^th place ($410,000

-David Diaz (by Matthew Su) in 13^th place ($525,000)

-Vadim Rozin (by Aaron Duczak) in 12^th place ($525,000)

-Robert Welch (by Espen Jorstad) in 11^th place ($675,000)

Just before 7am Vegas time, after about 17 hours of action, the WSOP staff called it. Exhaustion set in for everyone.

They stopped play with 10 players remaining – an unofficial final table.

Those 10 players will return to Bally’s at 2pm on Friday afternoon to play down further.

 

Event 71: $1K NLHE One More for One Drop

Only three players needed to return to play for this win. Mike Allis had a massive chip lead with 142.7M chips, with Ryan Riess holding 46.7M and Basel Chaura stacking 38.6M. Riess eliminated Chaura rather quickly and took 91M into heads-up play.

Riess chipped up into the lead, and the two then exchanged that spot and many chips over the hours that followed. Finally, though, Allis did defeat the former WSOP Main Event champion to claim his first bracelet. Despite being nervous at the final table, Allis said he felt like he ran good and was grateful for the win.

 

Mike Allis outlasts 5,702 entrants in the $1,111 One More for One Drop to earn $535,610 and his first gold bracelet.

📸: Hayley Hochstetlerhttps://t.co/9nmSlQSEYP pic.twitter.com/WNHtLoW1w8

— WSOP – World Series of Poker (@WSOP) July 14, 2022

Event 75: $777 Lucky 7s NLHE 7-Handed

The day started with 285 players but very quickly played down to just 36 by the dinner break. Later in the evening, players like Joseph Elpayaa and Robert Kuehl busted, Binchiat Tay ultimately exited in tenth place, courtesy of Christopher Farmer, and the official final table was set. They quit with nine players and will return on Thursday to play for the win.

 

Event 77: $1,500 Mixed NLHE-PLO

There were 11 players at the start of the final day of this tournament. Aden Salazar was the largest stack by far, and Sandeep Pulusani, William Leffingwell, and Jordan Kaplan were the shortest stacks. Kaplan was the first to go, and then play went on for a long time with a lot of double-ups before Salazar busted Robert Topham.

The redraw to one table had Salazar dominating with about half of the chips in play. Salazar eventually eliminated Daniel Chuprun, and Richard Kellett took out Leffingwell in eighth place. Sandeep Pulusani then busted Vegard Andreassen. Vincent Lam shoved Noah Bronstein out of the mix in sixth place, and Pulusani helped send Richard Kellett out in fifth.

The final four returned from a dinner break with Salazar still dominating and busted Lam in fourth place to boot. But the others started doubling through and taking pots from Salazar. And when Pulusani doubled through Salazar a bit later, Pulusani became the new chipleader. Esther Taylor then sent Salazar out completely. Taylor was the underdog going into heads-up and fairly quickly busted in second place. Pulusani collected his second career bracelet.

 

Sandeep Pulusani takes down Event#77: $1,500 Mixed No-Limit Hold'em; Pot-Limit Omaha to collect his second bracelet and $277,949!https://t.co/HXoKBaZh6e

📸: Rachel Kay Miller pic.twitter.com/w3LvUsqDel

— WSOP – World Series of Poker (@WSOP) July 14, 2022

Event 78: $2,500 NLHE

The third day of this event started with 22 players. Andjelko Andrejevic was the first to depart the field, followed in short order by several other players. At the point they condensed to two tables, players like Kenny Haellart and David Miscikowski busted. The 11^th place bustout of Thomas MacDonald put the final ten at one table.

Sebastien Aube was the chipleader and busted Brien Lee in tenth place to make the final table an official one. Brian Keith Etheridge then eliminated Jonathan Zarin, Matt Berkey took out Ran Koller, but it was Aube who sent Berkey to the rail in seventh place. Axel Hallay eliminated Santiago Plante in sixth, and Aube sent Leandro Vlastaris  to follow in fifth and Hallay in fourth.

Loire ousted Etheridge in third to take 20M chips to heads-up play. Aube started with 27M and climbed higher quickly. It didn’t take long for Aube to claim the win and his first bracelet. “I’m extremely psyched,” he told PokerNews. “I was in it for the bracelet mostly, and I’m very glad that I got it. It’s a very good accomplishment for my second live cash in a tournament, a pretty good one to do it in.”

 

Efthymia Litsou finishes in 18th for $323,100 as Kenny Tran collects $410,000 for his 17th place finish in the Main Event. https://t.co/eTUJQgDZZd

— WSOP – World Series of Poker (@WSOP) July 14, 2022

Event 79: $10K Razz Championship

The second day of this championship-level event brough the field down into the money to pay the top 21 players. Yong Wang was the first to collect. Others who followed included Andrew Yeh, Gary Benson, Adam Friedman, and Jason Mercier. Play stopped not long after Daniel Weinman bowed out in 14^th place. Of the 13 remaining players, Brandon Shack-Harris and Brian Hastings have the largest stacks.

 

Event 80: $600 Mixed NLHE-PLO Deepstack

Action started with hundreds and thousands of players entering this deepstack tournament with a fast structure. When registration ended, the total of 2,107 entries overstepped last year’s attendance by a large margin. Only 76 players bagged chips for the night.

 

Event 81: $5K NLHE Freezeout

No reentries made it easy to close registration and count the number of players. They totaled 756, though only 153 of them made it to the end of the night.

 

Today’s Poker Menu

Event 70 takes a break and everyone involved in it sleeps.

Event 75 plays the Lucky 7s final table.

Event 79 plays to and through the Razz Championship final table.

Event 80 tries to finish the $600 Mixed NLHE-PLO Deepstack event.

Event 81 continues the $5K NLHE Freezeout toward a final table.

Event 82 begins an $800 NLHE 8-Handed Deepstack at noon.

Event 83 starts the $50K NLHE High Roller at 1pm.

Event 84 kicks off a $3K HORSE event at 3pm.