WSOP 2022 Day 22: Zack Wins Second 2022 Bracelet

Written by Jennifer Newell

Last updated on June 22nd, 2022

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Today, one poker player will win life-changing money. This isn’t the case every day at the World Series of Poker. The bigger buy-in events often find well-known poker pros in the winner’s circle, collecting hundreds of thousands of dollars as if it’s pocket change. They take that money, put it in a safe, and take a wad of it to buy into another tournament. Such is the nature of the high-stakes poker world. For some players, though, a win of any amount at the WSOP is a windfall. For recreational players and even a lot of grinders, a six-figure payout is substantial. For the five players still competing in the Millionaire Maker, it appears that the $1.1M first-place prize will be life-changing money. This is the kind of win that inspires, that connects with the ordinary poker fan. This is the kind of thing that makes poker a continuous loop of interesting stories.

Event 37: $1,500 NLHE Millionaire Maker

The Millionaire Maker worked its way from 24 players to just five, an unusual short day at the WSOP. By the time the final ten players gathered at one table, Tyler Gaston led the pack by a significant amount, leaving Nick Marchington as the closest in chips but less than two-to-one in chips to Gaston. Gaston continued to thrive, busting Raul Martinez in tenth place and Nick Marchington in ninth. Stanley Weng busted Bastien July in eighth. Soon after, Gaston eliminated Alen Tenorio in seventh, but it was Yuliyan Kolev who kept climbing and ousted Stanley Weng. Play stopped with five players, who will compete for the $1M+ first-place prize on a PokerGO livestream today.  

Event 39: $3K PLO 6-Handed

The six-handed final table began at the start of Day 4 of this event. But it took about nine hours to play this one out. Leonid Yanovski had led in chip counts for several days, and he started the final day strong. Fabian Brandes was on the rise, though, and eventually did take the lead directly from Yanovski. Brandes then busted Grzegorz Derkowski in sixth place, though Sean Winter took care of Ferenc Deak in fifth. Winter then doubled through Brandes, and Yanovski busted Thomas Morrison to climb back to even with Brandes. Then, Brandes eliminated Winter and entered heads-up play in the chip lead. Yanovski climbed and did take over the lead, but Brandes subsequently doubled up and eliminated Yanovski soon after. “It was a rollercoaster of a day!” Brandes told PokerNews. “It is unreal to have the bracelet in my hand.”   https://twitter.com/WSOP/status/1539540506127921152?s=20&t=EyDIh-n3WlZcL0TGWGUM7A

Event 40: $10K Stud-8 Championship

Only three players remained for this championship-level event, with Daniel Zack on the short end of the three. David Funkhouser was at the top, with Ziya Rahim in the middle. Every time Zack chipped up, one of the others took from him. But it was Zack who finally crippled Rahim, and Funkhouser officially eliminated him. Heads-up started with Funkhouser holding twice as many chips as Zack, but the latter slowly but surely chipped up and into the lead. The two battled back and forth for nearly 12 hours – no kidding – before Zack took it down. Zack won his third career bracelet and second of this 2022 WSOP. “I’ve had a lot of marathon matches heads-up,” he told PokerNews. You just learn through experience to take it one hand at a time and do your best.”   https://twitter.com/WSOP/status/1539519328646680576?s=20&t=EyDIh-n3WlZcL0TGWGUM7A

Event 43: $500 NLHE Freezeout

A fast structure took Day 2 of this tournament from more than 200 players to just one. Much later in the day, after Robert Pettit busted in tenth place, the official final table began with David Perry moving to the top of the leaderboard, though Chris Moorman took over that spot soon after by eliminating Daniel Marcus. Moorman went on to eliminate Henry Reyes in eighth place and Elven Espinar in seventh, followed by Phong Than Nguyen in sixth. Perry then took a huge pot from Moorman. Josh Prager busted Sebastien Guidez, but then Daniel Eichhorn took out Prager. Moorman then did the same to Eichhorn. Moorman started heads-up with the lead, but Perry quickly took charge and won the tournament. Filled with emotion, Perry said that he felt “blessed, grateful.” He planned to fly to visit his 94-year-old mother in Ohio to give her the bracelet and then return to his Vegas home. For the first time, he will have the money to play the WSOP Main Event.   https://twitter.com/WSOP/status/1539513301318545408?s=20&t=EyDIh-n3WlZcL0TGWGUM7A

Event 44: $10K HORSE Championship

A record field started playing HORSE but only 22 survived through two days of play. Big names, including Eugene Katchalov, Shaun Deeb, and Brad Ruben, remain in contention.  

Event 45: $1,500 PLO 8-Handed

Nearly 1500 entries made this PLO event a big one, and play moved along quickly enough to get the top 216 of the players into the money. Only 97 players survived to play another day, though.  

Event 46: $5K NLHE 6-Handed

Registration remains open in this $5K buy-in Hold’em event, but the tally came to 850 thus far. Only 277 of them bagged chips at the end of the night.  

Today’s Poker Menu

Event 37 will play out its Millionaire Maker final table. Event 44 will find its HORSE Championship final table. Event 45 will play to a PLO final table. Event 46 will play down its NLHE field. Event 47 will kick off the Seniors NLHE Championship with the first of two flights. Event 48 will start the $1,500 8-Game Mix in the mid-afternoon.