The 2022 World Series of Poker wrapped the last of its 88-event live tournament schedule in Las Vegas last week. But the action wasn’t quite complete. There was a Tournament of Champions to round everything out, one final chance at a WSOP bracelet.
The TOC was a freeroll for all players who won a bracelet in the 88 events that took place at Bally’s and Paris this summer, as well as all those who won online poker bracelets in Nevada, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. In addition, everyone who won a WSOP Circuit ring throughout the 2021-2022 WSOP-C season (November 2021 through summer 2022), both online and live, earned a seat into the TOC.
There were close to 600 people qualified to play in the $1M freeroll, which began on July 18.
With that, the WSOP began its very last tournament of the summer. And the WSOP also celebrated its Player of the Year for the 2022 summer games.
Tournament of Champions
The first day of the TOC brought in 463 players, though only 149 of them made it through the day. Registration remained open until the start of Day 2, so the numbers weren’t final. But of the 149 players who bagged, Robert Cowen had the lead.
Day 2 started with some new faces. The final tally was 470 players in the tournament. That $1M prize pool was doled out to the final 60 players, though, and Joseph Hebert was the first one to pick up a payment of $3,500. Players like Dan Zack, Maxx Coleman, Daniel Strelitz, and Dan Smith were among those who cashed throughout the evening.
The night finally ended with 16 players remaining and Jonathan Woof in the lead with 2.19M chips. The only other players above 1M in chips were Carlos Loving, Robert Cowen, and Benjamin Kaupp.
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The third and final day started with some short-stacks busting out and Loving taking an early exit. Woof also lost ground and busted in tenth place, one off the official final table of nine.
Raul Garza led the final table, with Cowen and Kaupp holding steady near the top of the leaderboard and Ali Eslami making moves. Short-stacked Gianluca Speranza was the first to bust, and play slowed until Garza eliminated Eric Bensimhon in eighth place. Kaupp busted Yuliyan Kolev in seventh place, Garza busted Gregory Wish in sixth, and Cowen did the same to Eslami in fifth.
The final four traded chips for quite a long time until Ryan Messick took out Cowen in fourth place. Kaupp had the lead, but Messick and Garza were not far behind. A lot of movement ensued, but Kaupp continued almost steadily upward. Kaupp ousted Messick in third place and took 12.55M chips into heads-up. Garza held 1.55M and doubled right away. He tried it again but with a different result, and Garza had to accept second place.
Benjamin Kaupp of Pennsylvania won the WSOP gold bracelet and $250K.
As the 2022 World Series of Poker played down, there were two people in contention for the WSOP Player of the Year award for the summer series. The POY didn’t take the upcoming WSOP Europe into consideration in this race, so it ended when the summer tournaments ended.
In the end, Daniel Zack beat out Daniel Weinman to take the POY title. And for that feat, Zack won a trophy and a seat to the 2023 WSOP Main Event worth $10K.
The WSOP will also create a Player of the Year banner to hang at Paris and/or Bally’s during next year’s series.
Zack admitted on Twitter than he paid $750K for 107 total entries across the series. And when he was done, he had two gold bracelets for wins and another close call with a third-place finish. He racked up 16 cashes during the summer series, totaling $1,456,927 in payouts.
