WSOP Day 33 Recap: Phil Hellmuth Near-Misses, Bracelets for Nacho Barbero and Jessica Teusl

Three bracelets were won on a spectacular day of action in the World Series of Poker as Phil Hellmuth fell just short of his 17^th WSOP bracelet in defeat to David Jackson. Jessica Teusl and Nacho Barbero did win gold as they conquered their NLHE events and there were three more bracelet tournaments taking place at Bally’s and Paris on a day that will never be forgotten.

Phil Hellmuth Denied 17^th Bracelet by David Jackson

An insanely fun final table played out in Event #65, the $3,000-entry NLHE Freezeout event, as David Jackson captured his second WSOP bracelet by denying the Poker Brat his 17^th. Phil Hellmuth had the chip lead heads-up only to lose a massive hand to Jackson’s pocket aces as the rockets’ came out three times in the opening 20 hands.

On a phenomenal final day of action, Hellmuth’s early double-up put him right back in the event and after the nine-handed final table was reached, although he wasn’t dominating matters, there seemed an air of inevitability about the Poker Brat going deep. Reaching his 70^th WSOP final table – a clear record along with his 16 bracelet wins – Hellmuth watched as opponents continued to fall away.

With the action streamed for free and in spectacular fashion on PokerGO’s YouTube channel, Hellmuth roared towards the closing stages with a series of incredible personal displays of his own unique brand of charm. The Poker Brat took on a “Roast Beef sandwich” in the words of Remko Rinkema in a manner never seen before on screen, but it was one of a series of oddities that enthralled over 30,000 fans watching live.

Making three-handed play, Hellmuth was short, but he battled back and when Jeffrey Lo fell out in third place, Hellmuth was heads-up for the gold. Starting at 4:1 deficit, Hellmuth won three of the first four hands including with pocket aces to go into a marginal lead. Jackson, however, was undaunted, and fought back to retake that lead with aces of his own before closing it out with king-jack rivering a straight against Hellmuth’s ace-seven.

Teusl Claims Ladies Event Comeback Win

Austrian player Jessica Teusl created her own comeback story as she bounced off the canvas from having just eight big blinds with eight players remaining. With Cherish Andrews busting in the last hand of the previous day’s play, the nine-handed final table started the final day with just eight players.

First to bust was Natalie Hof Ramos, who lot in eight after coming into the final with less than ten big blinds. The opposite was true of Teusl, however, who went from zero to hero, ploughing through the field to make heads-up with a big lead, as she eliminated many of her fellow ladies at the final table felt.

Getting the better of Julie Le in the finl duel, Teusl claimed her first bracelet in style, bagging the $166,975 top prize too.

Nacho Barbero Lands Maiden Gold

Argentinian player Nacho Barbero won the first bracelet of his poker career as he took down the super-fast Turbo Bounty event, conquering Fabiano Kovalski heads-up to take the title. Only six players made the final day, and the two shortest stacks busted pretty quickly, with Andrew Lichtenberger (6^th for $97,002) and Maria Ho (5^th for $131,655) failing to spin up sub-10 big blind stacks.

Thereafter, it was the Barbero show as the Argentinian played his way to heads-up then got the better of his fellow South American in the shape of Brazilian player Kovalski. Winning his first bracelet, Barbero also claimed a massive top prize of $587,520 for outlasting a field full of stars in the $10,000-entry event.

Mini Main Event Reaches Final Five

Just five players remain in the $1,000-entry Mini Main Event, with Romanian player Cosmin Joldis holding a huge chip lead. With the top prize of $593,985 now on every player’s mind, Joldis (180 million) has more than three times any other player’s chips, so it is his bracelet to lose with Kartik Ved (58.5 million) his nearest challenger.

With Japanese player Kei Nitta (49.2 million) as well as Americans Young Sik Eum (33.5 million) and Phillip Lee (28.4 million) still involved, a truly continental final table will produce a winner tomorrow.

Bounty and PLO Fun in Two Other Events

Two more events ended Day 1s on Day 33 of the 2022 WSOP, with Event #68, the Million Dollar Bounty event seeing 3,598 player whittled to just 182 survivors. Of those, French player Vincent Meli (2,725,000) is a massive chip leader from Russian player Artem Sloitsev (1,935,000) with others such as 2021 bracelet winner Leo Margets (1,275,000), Jason Brin (1,810,000), Steven McCartney (1,615,000), Raminder Singh (1,435,000), Nathan Gamble (1,020,000) and Chris Moorman (700,000) all still in contention.

The first day of Event #69, the $10,000 buy-in PLO 8-Max Championship, saw 641 entries break a previous record in the event as Scott Seiver bagged the chip lead as he chases down his second bracelet of the series and fifth overall. Seiver (452,000) leads from players such as Patrick Leonard (342,000), Allan Le (330,000), Ken Aldridge (312,000) previous event winner Dash Dudley (65,000), Bruno Fitoussi (60,000), Matt Glantz, (39,000), and 2022 bracelet winner Phil Hui (26,500) while some multiple bracelet winners to lose their stacks on Day 1 included Phil Ivey, Daniel Negreanu, Shaun Deeb, and Mike Matusow.

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