Four bracelets awarded on one day has been a rarity so far in this 2022 World Series of Poker, but it happened on Day 16. Three players won their first pieces of WSOP Gold, and one player claimed his second. Let’s see how it all happened and see what’s on tap for today.
Event 26: $10K Limit Hold’em Championship
Two players returned for just one more day of LHE. Kyle Dilschneider had 3M chips to the 2.5M of Jonathan Cohen. The two played on, exchanging the lead several times over four hours. Finally, Cohen prevailed to win his first bracelet.
Ten players started the final day with virtually identical chip stacks. David Dowdy shot out to an early lead and busted Derek Sudell in the process. David Yonnotti busted Kevin Song, but the latter then hit the rail in eighth place.
Play went on for some time with Dowdy and Michael Simhai exchanging the chip lead, but Dowdy kept it when Anant Patel doubled through Simhai. But then Simhai eliminated Ravi Raghavan in fourth place. Patel managed to double and gain ground during three-handed play, but Simhai ultimately ousted him. Simhai took a large lead into heads-up and then won it shortly thereafter.
Simhai had nothing but good things to say about Dowdy. “He’s the nicest guy, one of the nicest guys I’ve ever played against in a poker room,” he told PokerNews.
Only five players remained for the livestreamed final table. Veselin Karakitukov had the chip lead, but Ben Lamb and Robert Cowen weren’t far behind. Dash Dudley had a reasonable stack. Jared Bleznick, however, had a short stack and was the first to bust, courtesy of Dudley. After hours of four-handed play, Cowen finally eliminated Karakitukov in fourth place. Dudley was short-stacked, and Cowen began to run away with it.
Dudley then doubled through Lamb, and Cowen eliminated Lamb a few hands later. Cowen took nearly 24M chips into heads-up play against the nearly 8M of Dudley. But Dudley climbed and doubled to make the stacks close to even. Cowen stepped up his game, though, and grabbed the win.
This was Cowen’s second career bracelet.
Nineteen players started the day, but the eliminations of Kane Kalas and Shawn Buchanan thinned the field. The ninth-place elimination of Drew Scott put the last eight players at one table with Maxx Coleman, Thomas Newton, and Yuri Dzivielevski leading the pack.
Roland Israelashvili ousted Jonathan McGowan in eighth place, and Newton took care of Max Kruse in seventh. Quite awhile later, Coleman sent Tomas Szwarcberg out in sixth, and the final five went to dinner. A bit after their return, Newton eliminated Kenneth Po in fifth place, Coleman busted Dzivielevski, and Newton took care of Israelashvili in third.
Coleman took the lead into hedas-up, though Newton brought things even. Newton then surged ahead and took the win. Coleman said it was all about the bracelet. “Just really wanted to win it,” he told PokerNews. “It feels great.”
Big names will take center stage today, with Brian Hastings in the lead, and players like Phil Hellmuth and Shaun Deeb playing their best.
Event 31: Day 2 of 3
$10K buy-in
Limit 2-7 Lowball Triple Draw Championship
Total entries:
118
(90 in 2021, 100 in 2019)
Players remaining:
10
Total prize pool:
$1,100,350
Players paid:
18
Minimum payout:
$16,561
Winner payout:
$292,146
Final table chip counts:
#1
Brian Hastings (USA) 1,365,000
#2
Eric Wasserson (USA) 1,350,000
#3
Marco Johnson (USA) 1,105,000
#4
Jordan Siegel (USA) 725,000
#5
Andrew Kelsall (USA) 540,000
#6
Daniel Zack (USA) 535,000
#7
Shaun Deeb (USA) 380,000
#8
Phil Hellmuth (USA) 380,000
#9
Yuval Bronshtein (Israel) 280,000
#10
Ali Eslami (USA) 170,000
Event 32: $1,500 HORSE
The first day of the low buy-in HORSE event brought hundreds of players into action. Play ended with just 264 still in, but many of those will need to leave before the payouts begin today.
Event 32: Day 1 of 3
$1,500 buy-in
HORSE
Total entries:
773
(594 in 2021, 751 in 2019)
Players remaining:
264
Total prize pool:
$1,031,955
Players paid:
116
Minimum payout:
$2,419
Winner payout:
$196,089
Top chip counts:
#1
Tamon Nakamura (Japan) 311,000
#2
Max Kruse (Germany) 224,000
#3
Nathaniel Parenti (USA) 206,500
#4
John Fahmy (USA) 230,350
#5
Natascha Stamm (Germany) 202,000
Event 33: $3K NLHE 6-Handed
It was a big NLHE event, short-handed with a speedy structure. The large field created a prize pool that closed in on $3.6M, and they played into that money on Day 1. The rush left only 55 players to compete for one more day.
Event 33: Day 1 of 2
$3K buy-in
NLHE 6-Handed (1 RE)
Total entries:
1,350
(997 in 2021)
Players remaining:
55
Total prize pool:
$3,599,160
Players paid:
203
Minimum payout:
$4,804
Winner payout:
$594,079
Top chip counts:
#1
Nino Ullmann (Germany) 2,565,000
#2
Rayan Chamas (Canada) 2,500,000
#3
Vanessa Kade (Canada) 2,290,000
#4
Matthew Wantman (USA) 2,170,000
#5
Abbas Heidari (USA) 2,145,000
Today’s Poker Menu
Event 30 will play its final table.
Event 31 will complete its final table.
Event 32 will get into the money and try to find a final table.
Event 33 will try to play for to a winner.
Event 34 will be a $1,500 NLHE Freezeout at 11am.
Event 35 is a Mixed Big Bet tournament at 1pm for $2,500, including NLHE, PLO, NL 5-Card Draw, Big O, PLO-8, and PL 2-7 Triple Draw.
Event 36 is the late 3pm start for the day, offering a $1,500 Stud-8 tournament.
