WSOP Day 49 Recap: Jensen and Nguyen Win Bracelets, Tournament of Champions Underway

The 2022 World Series of Poker (WSOP) is approaching its conclusion, and on Monday, two more WSOP bracelet winners were crowned in events that needed an extra day to finish.

The inaugural WSOP Tournament of Champions also kicked off from Bally's on the Las Vegas Strip with players competing in a $1,000,000 freeroll to claim the final title of the series.

Minh Nguyen Wins 1st WSOP Bracelet in $1,500 The Closer

Event #85: $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em The Closer attracted 2,039 entrants and created a prize pool of $3,962,280. The final day would see 17 players return to Bally's to play for the $536,280 first-place prize.

Nguyen led those final players into the day, and when the final table was reached, he had improved on his chip lead. The double knockout of Madelyn Carr (4th) and Michael Liang (3rd) would put The Closer into heads-up play with Day 1A chip leader Ahmed Karrim holding a slender lead over Nguyen.

Nguyen opend up a lead over Karrim before the final hand saw Karrim shove the turn with two pair, but Nguyen had the nut straight and called to send Karrim out in second place.

WSOP 2022 Event #85: $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em The Closer Final Table Results

Greg Jensen Wins $10k 6-Max for $824,649

One of the toughest events at the WSOP every year, Event #86: $10,000 6-Handed No-Limit Hold'em attracted 394 entrants and created a prize pool of $3,674,050.

As was the case in The Closer, an additional day was needed to conclude the event as the final six players returned on Monday with Moldova's Pavel Plesuv in the lead.

It was a quicker than expected day as the Jensen dominated the final table and eliminated all but one of the players. Jensen collected $824,649 and his first WSOP bracelet.

WSOP 2022 Event #86: $10,000 6-Handed No-Limit Hold'em Championship Final Table Results

Robert Cowen Leads Day 1 of WSOP Tournament of Champions

With 575 eligible players for the inaugural WSOP Tournament of Champions, a total of 463 players took their seat on Day 1 with registration open until the start of Day 2.

Just 149 players would survive into Day 2 with two-time WSOP bracelet winner Robert Cowen finishing as the chip leader with 428,000 in chips. Cowen holds a dominating lead over the field as Ali Eslami (305,000), Daniel Sepiol (285,000), Aleksejs Ponakovs (247,500), and Zachary Seymour (241,000) round out the top five chip counts. 

WSOP bracelet winners Daniel Strelitz, Shankar Pillai, Joe McKeehen, David Jackson, Dominik Sarle, Joe Cada, Ryan Laplante, Manig Loeser, Nacho Barbero, Alex Foxen, and 2022 WSOP Player of the Year Dan Zack all survived into Day 2 that begins at 11 a.m. PT in Bally's.

You can watch the complete 2022 WSOP Main Event archive 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.