WSOP Day 44 Recap: Main Event Reaches Final Table of Ten, Three Bracelets Won on Day of Drama

An amazing day of action across eight WSOP events saw a final table of 10 reached in the Main Event, with three other bracelets won in other events around Bally's and Paris in Las Vegas. 

WSOP Main Event Day 7 Sees Final Ten Reached After Epic Night

A pulsating day of action in the 2022 WSOP Main Event saw 35 players reduced to just ten finalists as one of the longest days play in the history of the World Series of Poker thrilled fans on PokerGO to the last card. At the end of the drama, the final ten players were left shattered but ecstatic in Las Vegas as two chip leaders (Espen Jorstad and Matthew Su) both piled up 83.2 million to leave no clear leader going into the final two days' play.  

Early eliminations featured players such as Marco Johnson in 35^th place, as the short stack couldn’t get going. He was followed from the felt by Adam Demersseman (30^th) before the 2020 Hybrid Main Event winner Damian Salas busted in 27^th place for $262,300.

The formerly strong Bria Kim saw his hopes skittled in 23^rd place, and it wasn’t long before the Day 3 chip leader and perennial powerhouse in this year’s Main Event, Aaron Mermelstein, joined him on the rail in 20^th place. Kenny Tran busted in 17^th place to break the hearts of his many fans.

The last female player to remain in the Main Event was Efthymia Litsou and she busted in 18^th place for $323,100 when her ace-ten ran into the pocket kings of Tag Team bracelet winner from earlier in the series, Espen Jorstad. A ten-high board sent Litsou to the rail and made it an all-male race to the bracelet and $10 million top prize.

With the final table bubble stretching out into the night, players went past not only a dinner break and midnight, but a breakfast break too. David Diaz made s stunning fold with a full house to a better full house, but was afforded no fortune and busted in 13^th place, and after Vadim Rozin slithered out in 12^th with ace-ten shot down by ace-king, everyone was on tenterhooks. Robert Welch lost with king-five shot down by Espen Jorstad’s ace-king, and upon his exit, tournament directors announced that the final 10 would cease play and return for an unprecedented finale rather than the traditional nine-handed final day kick-off.

Players ran to their rails, hugged each other, and in general celebrated wildly as the epic 17-hour poker marathon was over.... for now. In two days’ time, the final ten will return, and one of them will win $10 million and the WSOP Main Event!

Mike Allis Wins First Bracelet After Three-Hour Heads-Up

Mike Allis got the better of Ryan Riess after an epic rollercoaster heads-up match lasted three hours and produced a first-time winner. The $1,111-entry One More for One Drop event has been one of the most popular of the whole 2022 World Series of Poker and the finale gave it the send-off it deserved.

Only three players returned to the felt for the fifth and final day of the event and it didn’t take long for Basel Chaura to be busted in third place for $250,157. The 2013 world champion Ryan Riess won the crucial coinlip with pocket fours beating Chaura’s queen-jack in an odd manner. The 7-6-3 flop looked safe for Riess, but a queen on the turn meant Chaura was winning. It came in clubs, however, and gave Riess the chance to four-flush his way to victory. That he did on the jack of clubs river card, giving Chaura two-pair, but Riess the flush.

Heads-up was anything but quick, as a topsy-turvy battle proceeded to play out for three hours, with Riess taking the lead on several occasions as both men had the advantage but failed to see out victory. Eventually, Riess’s pocket nine were beaten by Allis’ six-three offsuit, when he rivered a straight after all the chips had gone into the middle pre-flop. Riess earned $331,056 for his second-place finish, but Allis claimed his first bracelet and the top prize of $535,610.

 Pulusani Wins Second Bracelet, Denies Taylor Her First

Sandeep Pulusani crowned a brilliant comeback from the lower end of the chipcounts to become a WOP champion for the second time as the only previous bracelet winner showed his class in Event #77. The $1,500 Mixed NLHE/PLO battle for gold saw Pulusani come back from seventh in chips to reign supreme and claim the $277,949 top prize to boot.

The final table began with Pulusani one of several short stacks looking down rather than up, and his fellow straggler Richard Kellett needed to improve quickly. That he did in spectacular fashion as he bounced off the canvas and scored the first knockout of the final table, as William Leffingwell busted in eighth for $30,129. His exit was followed by the departures of Norwegian Vegard Andreassen (7^th for $39,114) and Noah Bronstein (6^th for $51,372).

In the top five, there was an exit for the aforementioned Kellett, before Vincent Lam and the overnight leader Aden Salazar bowed out. Heads-up saw Esther Taylor make the final duel, but she had a deficit of 2:1 to make up. That lead grew, only for Taylor to double her way back into contention before the final hand played out, with her queen-seven taking on Pulusani’s pocket nines for the win if it went against her. A queen landed on the river, but by a cruel twist of fate, it fulfilled a straight for Pulusani, who claimed gold for the second time at the expense of Taylor.

Farmer Leads Lucky Sevens Final Day

Christopher Farmer goes into the final day of the $777-entry Lucky 7’s event with the lead after bagging up an appropriately on-message total of 77.4 million chips on the penultimate day of this packed-out event. With his nearest rival Rodney Turvin on 58 million, the next-nearest player, Kyle Miholich, has only 31.7 million as everyone bar Turvin has less than half Farmer’s stack.

On a dramatic day at the felt, 285 players were reduced to that final nine, with stars of the game such as Gediminas Uselis (147^th), Ismael Bojang (136^th), Calvin Anderson (120^th), Cherish Andrews (95^th), Andrew Barber (92^nd), Martins Adeniya (49^th), James Mackey (41^st), Mike Takayama (16^th) and final table bubble boy Binchiat Tay (10^th) all missing out on the final day.

Of the players shooting for glory and gold in equal measure tomorrow, there is one man whose experience sticks out in the field. Five-time WSOP bracelet winner Allen Cunningham will be going for his sixth piece of gold wristwear, but will have to do so from eighth position of the nine racing to the finish line, starting play with the equivalent of 13 big blinds.

Sebastian Aube Wins Event #78 for $499,636

Canadian player Sebastian Aube won the $2,500-entry NLHE final table of Event #78, earning himself half a million dollars in the process, after beating Julien Loire heads-up for the win. With 22 players coming back for the final day, there were deep runs for players such as Kenny Hallaert (22^nd), overnight leader David Miscikowski (13^th) and Thomas MacDonald (11^th), but by the time the final nine were reached, Aube had the lead.

Busted in ninth place was Jonathan Zari and his exit was followed by two others for big names that cleared a path for less experienced players to battle for victory as Ran Koller (8^th for $52,240) and Matt Berkey (7^th for $68,102) both left. Aube’s route to glory didn’t go all his own way, with Brian Etheridge running him close after a strong performance at the final table saw him go out in third place after previously dominating.

Julien Loire made the final duel, but Aube had a chip lead of 27 million to 20 million and never lost the lead, winning a pivotal pot with a better kicker to the same top pair as his opponent to have four times as many chips as Loire. They all belonged to Aube after his full house toppled Loire’s rivered straight to claim his first gold bracelet at the Frenchman’s expense.

Shack-Harris Leads Razz Championship, Kornuth and Hastings Chasing

A huge day of action in the $10,000-entry Razz Championship saw Brandon Shack-Harris pick up the biggest stack to bag up at the close of play, his pile of 1,152,000 the thinnest of value bets ahead of Brian Hastings (1,149,000). Of the 13 players who remain, an amazing nine of them are former bracelet winners, with the top seven all having won gold before with 20 bracelets between them.

Behind the top two, Julien Martini (873,000) is closest to the top, while Max Pescatori (724,000) and Chance Kornuth (707,000) hover in the middle ground of a leaderboard stacked with talent. A little further back, Brazilian GGPoker pro Felipe Ramos (413,000) will battle for his first bracelet, while the 2021 world champion Koray Aldemir (480,000) will be hoping to win more gold in what would be a very high-profile event to take down.

Opening Days of Two More Events Close

In Event #80, the $600-entry Mixed NLHE/PLO event saw 2,107 entries produce a prize pool of $1 million and play down to 76 survivors, each of whom won money on the day. In an event where there was a 25% increase on last year’s field, Honduran player Jorge Briones (2,585,000) built up a big lead over most of the field, with John Dollinger (2,135,000) following him in the counts.

Behind the top 10, some seriously talented players lurk, with Player of the Year leader Daniel Zack (1,295,000), Asi Moshe (880,000) and Phil Hui (280,000) still alive, albeit with varying probabilities of success based on their current stacks.

In the final event of the night to close, Mark Davies ended Day 1 in the lead with 1,127,000 chips as Yuki Kashihara (829,000) and Tony Bracy (704,000) also made the podium in the in the $5,000-entry Freezeout event.  With players such as Kitty Kuo (580,000), Terence Etim (524,000), Cliff Josephy (419,000) and Anthony Spinella (412,000) all finishing with above average stacks, there were a total of 153 survivors from 756 players who took part in the tournament.

While many players bagged a stack with which to attack Day 2 of the event, some stars failed to get near tomorrow’s money places, with payouts starting at $8,021 for coming 114^th or better. German crusher Ole Schemion, poker power couple Kristen and Alex Foxen, Stephen Chidwick, Upeshka De Silva, 98^th-place WSOP Main Event finisher Chris Da-Silva and Calvin Anderson all fell short of grabbing a bag on the opening day.

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