WSOP 2022 Day 5: Smith Claims First WSOP Gold
The fields are huge.
Players are coming out in droves to play the 2022 World Series of Poker. While several tournaments have already exceeded their past years’ fields, the Housewarming Event of this year tells the story in just one tournament.
The Housewarming is the equivalent of tournaments like the Reunion of 2021 and the Big 50 of 2019. The $500 buy-in Housewarming was the official welcome to the 2022 WSOP and the new location for the series. Not only did it offer a low buy-in, it offered four starting flights with one reentry allowed per flight per player. And it came with a $5M guarantee on the prize pool and payouts for the final finishers in each flight.
Day 5 of the WSOP was only the third flight of the Housewarming, but it already showed what a success it is going to be. The tally for the first three flights came to 12,812 entries, sending the prize pool past $5.3M.
There is still one flight to go. And many expect the last one to bring another 5K or 6K entries. The final totals will smash those from last year’s Reunion.
Keep an eye on those and all tournament numbers. They’re telling a story of much-needed change and new energy in our poker world.
Finally made it to @WSOP and found my favorite poker player big papi @Joeingram1 and the WSOP legend @dwpoker pic.twitter.com/SNSNQxJM0b
— Steve Baze (@stephenbaze) June 4, 2022
Event 5: $500 NLHE Housewarming
As mentioned, this tournament grew wildly with the third flight, putting the total of players at a point that it will surpass last year’s equivalent tournament attendance by quite a large margin. And the prize pool already smashed the guarantee.
Nearly 250 players made it through the night, and quite a few others min-cashed already…and might be reentering the tournament as I write this.
| Event 5: Day 1C of 6 | $500 buy-in | NLHE Housewarming (1 RE) |
| Total 1A entries: | 3,373 | (506 paid minimum of $801) |
| Total 1B entries: | 3,913 | (587 paid minimum of $801) |
| Total 1C entries: | 5,526 | (829 paid minimum of $801) |
| Total players: | 12,812 (so far) | (12,973 in 2021 Reunion) |
| Players remaining: | 560 | (1A = 147, 1B = 164, 1C = 249) |
| Total prize pool: | TBD | ($5,381,040 so far) ($5M GTD) |
| Players paid: | TBD | |
| Minimum payout: | $801 | |
| Winner payout: | TBD | |
| Top 1C chip counts: | #1 | George Degon (USA) 4,665,000 |
| #2 | Jason Johnson (USA) 3,575,000 | |
| #3 | Jack Najjar (USA) 3,290,000 | |
| #4 | Jeffrey Rogers (USA) 3,035,000 | |
| #5 | Benjamin Mccoy (USA) 3,025,000 |
Event 6: $25K NLHE Heads-Up Championship
Round 4 kicked off the final day of this event, and neither of those matches went quickly. Dario Sammartino opened up a significant lead at one point, but Dan Smith came back to win it. And Kevin Rabichow kept things even with Christoph Vogelsang for a long time before the latter won the match.
The final match-up took a long, long time, primarily because Vogelsang tanked for almost every single decision. Everyone from Smith to the commentators on the livestream were clearly frustrated. Finally, Smith asked Vogelsang to speed it up a bit. And he did.
Word on the street is they had to run the broadcast back 10 minutes because Vogelsang's tank caught up to live action. @BuffaloHanks @TuckonSports
— Jerod Smith (@jsmith84poker) June 5, 2022
Smith finally took the win and gave Vogelsang credit for his style. “People love to give Christoph a hard time, but he’s a hell of a player,” he told PokerNews. “He’s tanking because he’s really considering every spot. I didn’t steal a pot easily; every pot was a fight.”
This was Smith’s first WSOP gold bracelet.
| Event 6: Day 3 of 3 | $25K buy-in | NLHE Heads-Up Championship |
| Total entries: | 64 | (57 in 2021) |
| Total prize pool: | $1,512,000 | |
| Players paid: | 8 | |
| Minimum payout: | $75,045 | |
| Final day payouts: | 1st place: | Dan Smith (USA) $509,717 |
| 2nd place: | Cristoph Vogelsang (Germany) $315,029 | |
| 3rd place: | Dario Sammartino (Italy) $193,537 | |
| 4th place: | Kevin Rabichow (USA) $193,537 |
About fucking time, eh?!?? pic.twitter.com/I2qDyfOJnq
— Dan Smith (@DanSmithHolla) June 5, 2022
Event 7: $1,500 Omaha-8
This tournament was slow going on its second day, and it took a long time to play down once the money bubble burst. And by the end of the night, they could only thin the field down to 26 players.
The goal today is to find the final table and play on through to a winner.
| Event 7: Day 2 of 3 | $1,500 buy-in | Omaha Hi-Lo 8-or-Better |
| Total entries: | 1,087 | (607 in 2021, 853 in 2019, 1036 record in 2014) |
| Players remaining: | 26 | |
| Total prize pool: | $1,451,154 | |
| Players paid: | 164 | |
| Minimum payout: | $2,400 | |
| Winner payout: | $252,718 | |
| Top chip counts: | #1 | Amnon Filippi (USA) 3,000,000 |
| #2 | Paul Zappulla (USA) 2,090,000 | |
| #3 | James Chan (USA) 1,820,000 | |
| #4 | Matt Glantz (USA) 1,675,000 | |
| #5 | Van Law (USA) 1,630,000 |
Event 8: $25K NLHE High Roller 8-Handed
A very large group of poker players showed up for the $25K High Roller on Saturday, with the number already nearly 100 entries higher than last year’s event. And registration is not yet over. It will close as Day 2 begins.
Interestingly, controversial player Sergi Reixach, who is banned from at least one online poker site (GGPoker) for the use of an illegal solver program, is the chip leader. But everything can and will probably change as the field plays down to the money today and aims for the final table seats.
| Event 8: Day 1 of 3 | $25K buy-in | NLHE High Roller (1 RE) |
| Total entries: | 229 (not final) | (139 in 2021) |
| Players remaining: | 93 | |
| Total prize pool: | $5,410,125 | (not final) |
| Players paid: | TBD | |
| Minimum payout: | TBD | |
| Winner payout: | TBD | |
| Top chip counts: | #1 | Sergi Reixach (Spain) 1,418,000 |
| #2 | David Miscikowski (USA) 1,062,000 | |
| #3 | Justin Young (USA) 1,018,000 | |
| #4 | Sam Grafton (UK) 884,000 | |
| #5 | Martin Stausholm (Denmark) 854,000 |
Event 9: $1,500 Stud
The second new event on Saturday was the trusty low buy-in stud tournament, and players lined up for that one, too. The total of 329 entries far surpassed the 260 last year and even the 285 entries in 2019.
Nearly 100 players made it through the first evening of play, but only half of them will make the money today. They will try to play to a final table.
| Event 9: Day 1 of 3 | $1,500 buy-in | Seven-Card Stud |
| Total entries: | 329 | (260 in 2021, 285 in 2019) |
| Players remaining: | 97 | |
| Total prize pool: | $439,215 | |
| Players paid: | 50 | |
| Minimum payout: | $2,415 | |
| Winner payout: | $103,282 | |
| Top chip counts: | #1 | Manuel Labandeira (Spain) 281,500 |
| #2 | Daniel Weinman (USA) 233,000 | |
| #3 | Kenny Hsiung (USA) 204,500 | |
| #4 | Jude Arena (USA) 203,500 | |
| #5 | James Paluszek (USA) 175,500 |
Today’s Poker Menu
Event 5 will bring registration for the Housewarming to a close and announce the final numbers.
Event 7 will play to the final table and attempt to play until there is an Omaha-8 winner.
Event 8 will close registration, release its final High Roller numbers, and play toward a final table.
Event 9 will play Seven-Card Stud into the money and onward to get as close to a final table as possible.
Event 10 will start at 3pm with $10K buy-in seats to the Dealer’s Choice 6-Handed Championship.
WSOP stats:
Attendance +7.2%
Ceiling height +80%
Dogs +21.4%CC @ZENofLEN
— Alex Livingston (@rumnchess) June 4, 2022
