WSOP Day 13 Recap: Tong Li Claims Maiden Crown in PLO High Roller, Adam Friedman Wins Fifth Bracelet

Two events came to dramatic conclusions on Sunday night, as Tong Li and Adam Friedman won gold to claim bracelets at Bally’s in Las Vegas. For Li, it was a first win in a World Series event and a career-high score of $1.4 million. For Friedman, however, it was a fifth WSOP bracelet in a purple patch of his career that has seen him claim gold in each of the last four years of WSOP play.

Li Grabs Gold, Arieh and Balll Fall Short

In a busy conclusion to Event #19, the $25,000-entry PLO High Roller, both Scott Ball (5^th for $342,590) and Josh Arieh (3^rd for $644,365) fell just short of glory as the final table played down from five to a winner. Despite six out of the eight final table players coming from American, heads-up was a truly continental affair as Austrian overnight chip leader Fabian Brandes took on Tong Li from China.

Eventually, the Shanghai player prevailed as his flopped trips turned into a full house on the river. On a day where virtually every player dropped to the bottom of the chipcounts, it was a thrilling finale that played out on the as-live stream on PokerGO.

You can watch every hand from the start to Li’s triumph, which earned him an incredible $1.4 million right here:

Adam Friedman Wins Fifth WSOP Bracelet, Ivey Third

Adam Friedman claimed his fourth bracelet in four years as he bagged his fifth WSOP title in style at Bally’s in Las Vegas. At a final table he came into with an overwhelming lead, Friedman actually took several setbacks in his stride to retake a big lead on multiple occasions. In mixed games, Friedman is currently the king of the World Series and it showed from the off.

Phil Ivey was the other star at this final table, coming into play very short in eight position. Despite this, the 11-time WSOP bracelet winner took home over $108,000 after a run all the way to third place which entertained a packed rail cheering him on throughout.

With Day 2 chip leader Yuval Bronshtein busting in fourth place ($78,348), there was also a deep run for Ben Diebold, whose personal quest to become the only player to win two 2022 WSOP bracelets this summer came so close and yet so far as Friedman lived up to his billing once again.

Monster Stack Sees Anderson On Top After Day 2

Calvin Anderson (4,040,000) topped the field on Day 2 of the $1,500-entry Event #21, also known as the ‘Monster Stack’. With 2,053 players beginning play on Day 2, just 271 survivors will stagger to their beds and conserve energy for what is going to be an intense next day’s play. Anderson’s chips are by no means miles clear, and John Simonian (4,020,000) is a three-bet behind the leader, with a more significant gap to Sebastian Toro (3,520,000) in third place.

Others such as Joao Simao (3,490,000), Aditya Agarwal (3,240,000), Ryan Leng (2,615,000), Anthony Spinella (1,670,000) and Justin Saliba (1,505,000) all thrived on their way to making Day 3 with realistic ambitions of giving themselves a lead to defend by the time the next day ends. Players such as game Patrick Leonard, Maria Ho, Barry Greenstein, Vanessa Kade, Qing Liu, and Michael Gathy all departed along with almost 90% of the Day 2 field.

Rocco Leads Final Nine in Limit Hold’em Event #23

Several big names made the final table in Event #23, as the penultimate day of drama saw Michael Rocco make his second final table of the summer and bank 1,675,000 chips, guaranteeing him a return of $11,980 but putting him in pole position for the $142,147 top prize and his first WSOP bracelet.

As you might expect in such a tough mixed game field, there were big names everywhere and the final table features plenty of them. Jeremy Ausmus was closest behind Rocco on 1,170,000 chips and he was joined in the final nine fellow bracelet winners Andrew Kelsall (1,145,000) and Shaun Deeb (715,000) as one of the toughest final table sets of players of this year’s World Series formed.

All in all, the penultimate day of the event saw 84 players of the 93 who started the day depart. Among them were superstars of poker such as 2021 WSOP Main Event winner Koray Aldemir and former WSOP bracelet winners Brian Hastings and Joao Vieira.

Altman Wins Maiden Bracelet in Online Event

Brian Altman won his first-ever WSOP bracelet as he conquered the third online bracelet event of the 2022 World Series of Poker. Dominating play from three-handed action, Altman took out Gianluca Speranza in third place for $50,218 and Eric Salazar heads up ($68,397) to win the top prize of $110,662 and his first gold bracelet.

For Altman, it was a long-awaited victory, but there was to be disappointment for a man with more bracelets than anyone in history. Phil Hellmuth may be missing from the live felt, still having COVID, but the Poker Brat, who last month defeated Scott Seiver for $800,000 in high Stakes Duel managed to play online from his hotel suite. Sadly for ‘Brat Fans’, Hellmuth, playing under the pseudonym ‘LumeStackin’, was unable to make the final table and give his supporters hope of that elusive 17^th WSOP bracelet.

Flip and Go Fun Sees Seiver in for Multiple Bullets

Scott Seiver was alleged to have entered the $1,000-entry FLIP & GO Event #24 a mammoth 43 times amid a field of fun in the event. With $1,000 the buy-in, Seiver, who has already won a bracelet this series took a desire to cash to ridiculous lengths according to his poker peers on Twitter, while it was Chris Chatman who bagged the biggest stack at the close of play.

The rules of the FLIP & GO WSOP event are very simple. In the first instance, every player at each eight-handed table is all-in blind, flipping for the win in that initial hand. Win it and you’re in the money and playing normal NLHE poker for the win. While many big names made the money places, such as Patrick Leonard, Koray Aldemir, Nick Marchington and David Peters, others of course missed out…. on multiple occasions.

When the dust settled, just 157 players survived the cut for Day 2, with a total field of 1,182 players yielding 157 qualifiers for the accrual poker. Of those, Chatman has a big lead heading to the next day with 2,320,000 chips, but behind him in the top 10, players such as Galen Hall (1,470,000) and Brek Schutten (1,300,000) aren’t too far behind with plenty of experience to count on.

Two More Events See Day 1 Welcome Thousands of Players

There were an incredible 4,062 entrants in the $800-entry Event #25, otherwise known as the NLHE Deepstack Event. Just 240 players made it through to Day 2, however, with Canadian player Maxine Duhamel (1,725,000) ahead at the time of going to press.

With players such as David Yoon (1,100,000) and Bryan Piccoli (800,000) both in the top 10 chipcounts, there will be plenty of competition on Day 2, with bracelet holders such as Anatolii Zyrin (1,000,000), Stephen Song (920,000) and Joon Kim (725,000) all inside the top 88 positions.

Finally, in Event #26, the $10,000-entry Limit Hold’em Championship, there were chips to bag for players such as chip leader Marco Johnson (354,000), Jesse Lonis (245,000) and Robert Campbell (224,000) in the top 10 alone as a top-quality field duked it out.

While Phil Ivey, Daniel Negreanu and Erik Seidel all busted, the biggest rail was gathered at the table of Neymar, as the former Barcelona player and current Paris St. Germain legend turned up to play. The Brazilian did not make it through the day, however, so might be looking to enter a tournament elsewhere if he’s sticking around at the World Series during the soccer off-season.

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