WSOP Day 46 Recap: Main Event Ends with Three in the Hunt for $10 Million as Espen Jørstad Build Huge Final Day Lead 

The 2022 Main Event final table has been filled with tension and thrills as it races to a conclusion. The Class of 2022 were reduced from 10 to three players as the penultimate day of the biggest poker tournament in the world took place in Las Vegas. With six other events producing three bracelet winners and their own drama along the way, Day 46 of the WSOP was one of the busiest of the entire series. 

Main Event Drama Sees Jørstad Pile Up Massive Lead 

Just three players remain in contention to win the 2022 WSOP Main Event, with Norwegian player Espen Jørstad leading the remaining three players with over half the chips in play. On a frantic day of action, play began with ten in seats instead of the traditional nine. Unofficial it may have been, but for all intents and purposes, it was the final table. The first player to leave was Asher Coniff, who shipped 15 bigs into the middle with pocket tens and lost to Michael Duek’s ace-king for a result worth $675k. 

Over 100 hands later, the field was finally down to eight as Matthew Su, who began the day in the joint lead, crashed out for a score of $850k. He was followed from the felt by Philippe Souki, who lost with aces when short before British player John Eames used his pocket rockets to decimate Aaron Duczak’s stack. The Canadian busted in seventh before Jeffrey Farnes (6th) and Matija Dobric (5th) both missed out on the final day. 

One player or one level would expire before the final table was reached and it was a cold deck that meant only a trio would see the final day of the event. Eames shipped it for 24 big blinds with ace-jack and was called by Espen Jørstad with pocket kings. Those cowboys shot down the Brit and Jørstad, who hails from Norway, will have a massive lead heading into the final day. 

Jørstad, 34 years old, has a stack of 298 million and is well clear of Australian Adrian Attenborough’s stack of 149.8 million. Attenborough is a consistent performer who has banked $1.4m in his live tournament career and the 28-year-old will be some threat, even with only 50 big blids to Jørstad’s 99 big blinds. Short stack of the three remaining players is Argentinian wildcard Michael Duek, who was the youngest player to reach the final table and at 23 years old could go two places higher than in Event #69 of this series, where he came third for $548,015.

You can read all about the first day of the final and learn more about each of the remaining three players right here.

WSOP 2022 Event #80 $10,000 Main Event Final Table Chips/Results:

1st    Espen Jorstad    Norway    298,000,000
2nd    Adrian Attenborough    Australia    149,800,000
3rd    Michael Duek    Argentina    72,100,000
4th    John Eames     United Kingdom    $3,000,000
5th    Matija Dobric    Croatia    $2,250,000
6th    Jeffrey Farnes    U.S.A.    $1,750,000
7th    Aaron Duczak    Canada    $1,350,000
8th    Philippe Souki    United Kingdom    $1,075,000
9th    Matthew Su    U.S.A.    $850,675
10th    Asher Coniff    U.S.A.    $675,000

Joao Vieira Wins Second Bracelet for $1.3 million 

Portuguese poker star Joao Vieira won his second WSOP bracelet as he closed out a thrilling final table in Event #83, taking home the top prize of $1.3 million and the gold. With nine players reaching the final table, Greek player Alexandros Theologis busted first, losing a race with pocket jacks to Brian Rast’s ace-king as the latter attempted to win his sixth gold bracelet in the year he was nominated for the Poker Hall of Fame. 

Stephen Chidwick was dominated to defeat in eighth place before Fedor Holz, who had, like Chidwick, reached the final day in the podium places behind Dan Colpoys, busted in seventh. The German was all0in with ace-queen, but like Chidwick, he was dominated to his elimination, this time by Lander Lijo with ace-king. 

Sean Perry’s exit in sixth came just before Brian Rast’s bust-out in fifth as Rast fell with ace-jack to Vieira’s ace-king. It was then the turn of the overnight chip leader to lose out, with Colpoys all-in with pocket sixes but unable to catch against Vieira’s pocket eights. That gave the Portuguese player the lead but he lost that lead into the heads-up stage when an extended period ended with Galen Hall, who led with three left, lost to Lijo. 

In a heads-up that pitched players from rival countries in Western Europe Portugal and Spain together, Lijo began with a lead of 19.5 million to Vieira’s 12.6 million. Vieira was down to 10 big blinds at one stage but doubled up and then took the lead before trips gave him an unassailable 9:1 chip lead. The Portuguese player closed out victory shortly afterwards with pocket aces as Lijo called off his micro-stack with eight-five of spades and an ace on the turn ended the matter with Vieira’s rail celebrating wildly. 

WSOP 2022 Event #83 $50,000 High Roller Final Table Results:

1st    Joao Vieira    Portugal    $1,384,415
2nd    Lander Lijo    Spain    $855,631
3rd    Galen Hall    U.S.A.    $625,941
4th    Dan Colpoys    U.S.A.    $463,589
5th    Brian Rast    U.S.A.    $347,658
6th    Sean Perry    U.S.A.    $264,034
7th    Fedor Holz    Germany    $203,107
8th    Stephen Chidwick    United Kingdom    $158,278
9th    Alexandros Theologis    Greece    $124,974

Mo Arani Wins $5,000 Freezeout Event for $665k 

American player Mo Arani won his first WSOP gold bracelet as he took down the $5,000-entry Freezeout Event #81, beating Johannes Straver to the title and top prize of $665,459. At a fast-paced final table, Arani outlasted other top pros like Adam Hendrix and Toby Lewis in the top five as Cliff ‘JohnnyBax’ Josephy also went close, coming in seventh for $86,917. 

Overnight, the chip leader had been Peter Turmezey, as the Hungarian came in looking to continue his dominance of the final eight players. He was unable to conclude the event in that vein, however, as he slid out in third place for $292,665. With Francois Pirault (6th) and Michael Katz (8th) also making the final table it was yet another quality set of players who battled for gold.

WSOP 2022 Event #81 $5,000 NLHE Freezeout Final Table Results:

1st    Mo Arani    U.S.A.    $665,459
2nd    Johannes Straver    Netherlands    $411,279
3rd    Peter Turmezey    Hungary    $292,665
4th    Adam Hendrix    U.S.A.    $211,295
5th    Toby Lewis    United Kingdom    $154,806
6th    Francois Pirault    France    $115,122
7th    Cliff Josephy    U.S.A.    $86,917
8th    Michael Katz    U.S.A.    $66,638

Alsup Ousts Whitehead for Gold in Deepstack Win

Richard Alsup claimed victory in the $800-entry Deepstack NLHE Event #82, winning a top prize of $272,065 in thrilling circumstances in Las Vegas. With players such as two-time WSOP bracelet winner Ari Engel and Irish poker pro Marc MacDonnell reaching the final four players, the support and excitement was incredible as players battled it out for the top prizes.

Artem Metalidi from Ukraine also made the final table after a strong series, but crashed out in sixth place, before Ryan Jaworski finished in fifth. With Alsup dominating the final exchanges of heads-up, the transatlantic tussle ended with British hope Gary Whitehead falling just short of glory, and Alsup claimed the first bracelet of his career.  

WSOP 2022 Event #82 $800 NLHE Deepstack Final Table Results:

1st    Richard Alsup    U.S.A.    $272,065
2nd   Gary Whitehead    United Kingdom    $168,093
3rd    Ari Engel    Canada    $126,233
4th    Marc Macdonnell    Ireland    $95,487
5th    Ryan Jaworski    U.S.A.    $72,759
6th    Artem Metalidi    Ukraine    $55,849
7th    Patrick Truong    U.S.A.    $43,188
8th    Frederick Brown    U.S.A.    $33,648
9th    Donny Casho    U.S.A.    $26,413

David Bach Leads $3,000 H.O.R.S.E. Event with 22 Remaining 

David Bach is the chip leader on 1,094,000 chips ahead of the final day of action in the $3,000-entry Event #84, the H.O.R.S.E. tournament. With players such as Perry Friedman (985,000) and Tomasz Gluszko (982,000) running him close, the talented American will also face challenges from players inside the top 10 such as Mike Mattel (843,000), Kevin Gerhart (778,000) and Andre Akkari (747,000). 

With shorter stacks such as Lawrence Brandt (606,000), Lena Wang (400,000) and Jorden Siegel (389,000) all still battling for gold, there was no final day place for busted players such as Daniel Weinman, Adam Friedman and Brad Ruben. 

WSOP 2022 Event #84 $3,000 H.O.R.S.E. Top 10 Chipcounts:

1st    David Bach    U.S.A.    1,094,000
2nd    Perry Friedman    U.S.A.    985,000
3rd    Tomasz Gluszko    Poland    982,000
4th    Roberto Marin    U.S.A.    968,000
5th    Mike Wattel    U.S.A.    843,000
6th    Andrew Brown    U.S.A.    827,000
7th    Joseph Thomas    U.S.A.    796,000
8th    Kevin Gerhart    U.S.A.    778,000
9th    Andre Akkari    Brazil    747,000
10th    Richard Tatalovich    U.S.A.    738,000

Two Events Close Day 1 Flights 

Two more events ended on Day 1 in the World Series of Poker as players such as Daniel Negreanu, Barry Greenstein, Phil Hellmuth, Maria Konnikova and Justin Bonomo all failed to progress in the $1,500-entry the Closer NLHE Event #85.

Chip leader when time was called was the South African player Ahmed Karrim, who built a chip mountain of 1,695,000 chips, with Indian pro Raghav Bansal behind on 1.6 million. Elsewhere in the top 10 chipcounts, Sean Ragozzinin (1,550,000) starred for Australia and Japanese player Kazuhiro Shirasawa (1,235,000) also featured in the action of the day. 

WSOP 2022 Event #85 $1,500 The Closer Top 10 Chipcounts:

1st    Ahmed Karrim    South Africa    1,695,000
2nd    Raghav Bansal    India    1,600,000
3rd    Sean Ragozzini    Australia    1,550,000
4th    Garrett Johnstone    U.S.A.    1,450,000
5th    Tony Nieman    U.S.A.    1,285,000
6th    Kazuhiro Shirasawa    Japan    1,235,000
7th    Teddy Cablay    U.S.A.    1,200,030
8th    Neil Rauschhuber    U.S.A.    1,100,000
9th    Jessie Bryant    U.S.A.    1,000,020
10th    Ronnie Anderson    U.S.A.    935,000

Players such as David Jackson (326,000) and Ben Heath (311,000) both finished in the top 10 of Event #86’s Day 1, as the $10,000-entry 6-Max NLHE event saw 349 players reduced to 150 by the close of Day 1. 

With Barry Woods (400,000) in charge in the leaderboard, other big names such as Jared Jaffee (201,000), Brian Rast (131,500), Kristen Foxen (131,000), Erik Seidel (935,000), Scott Seiver (73,000), Chance Kornuth (59,500), and the 2021 event winner Ben Yu (42,000) all made the cut. 

Stars such as Daniel Negreanu, David Peters, Justin Bonomo, Shaun Deeb, Igor Kurganov, Matt Berkey, Alex Foxen and Ryan Riess all failed to progress on the day. 

WSOP 2022 Event #86 $10,000 6-Max NLHE Top 10 Chipcounts:

1st    Barry Woods    U.S.A.    400,000
2nd    Ugur Secilmis    Turkey    378,000
3rd    Masashi Oya    Japan    357,000
4th    Pierre Calamusa    France    333,500
5th    David Jackson    U.S.A.    326,000
6th    Eli Berry    U.S.A.    325,000
7th    Johan Guilbert    France    316,000
8th    Ben Heath    United Kingdom    311,000
9th    Christophe Panetti    Switzerland    309,500
10th    Craig Mason    U.S.A.    302,500

You can watch the 2022 WSOP Main Event final table live on PokerGO. For a limited time, save $30 on a new annual subscription when you sign up for PokerGO.com using the promo code WSOP30.