The 2022 World Series of Poker (WSOP) is well underway at Bally’s and Paris Las Vegas on the Las Vegas Strip. A week and a half into the seven-week series, 18 winners have been crowned. Let’s take a look at what has happened so far at the 2022 WSOP.
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Kate Kopp Grabs First Gold
The first gold bracelet of the summer, and the first-ever gold bracelet awarded at the WSOP’s new venue on the Las Vegas Strip, went to Kate Kopp, a dealer from Cleveland, Ohio. Kopp topped a field of 832 players to win Event #1: $500 Casino Employees for $65,168.
It was Kopp’s second time reaching the WSOP Casino Employees event final table. In 2018, she placed third in the event for $26,250.
David Peters Wins Fourth WSOP Bracelet
David Peters, one of the game’s more elite players and a regular in PokerGO Tour (PGT) events around the world, picked up his fourth-career WSOP gold bracelet when he won Event #2: $100,000 High Roller Bounty for a seven-figure score of $1,166,810.
A brand new event on the WSOP schedule, the $100,000 High Roller Bounty drew a field of 46 entries. Every knockout was worth $25,000. The final table was live streamed on PokerGO, with Peters emerging victorious after he defeated Chance Kornuth in heads-up play.
“It’s always nice to beat someone that’s hot, and someone that is a great player,” Peters told PokerGO. “It was nice to beat a player like that for sure.”
With the score, Peters moved into fifth place on poker’s all-time money list as tracked by HendonMob.com.
“It’s such a prestigious tournament with so many great players, but definitely getting number four is big,” Peters told PokerGO about winning his fourth WSOP bracelet. “There’s not too many people that have four, so it’s kind of nice to be lumped in with that group of players. This is a very, very nice start to the series.”
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Scott Seiver Scores Fourth Bracelet
David Peters wasn’t the only player to win his fourth WSOP gold bracelet in the opening batch of events. Scott Seiver, another one of the most highly regarded high-stakes players in the world, bagged his fourth piece of WSOP jewelry when he won Event #3: $2,500 No-Limit Hold’em Freezeout for $320,059.
“I feel great,” Seiver told PokerGO. “I just was really fired up to play a bunch of tournaments. There is something just so special about the World Series of Poker. The past few years, I’ve only played a few events here and there, and I kind of wanted to just, you know, push it a little bit and see how I felt. So far, so good.”
In Event #3, Seiver topped a field of 752 entries to get the victory. He defeated Alexander Farahi in heads-up play, with Nick Schulman finishing in sixth place.
Henry Acain Tops Enormous 20,080-Entry Field
With 20,080 entries, Event #5: $500 Housewarming became the fourth-largest live tournament in WSOP history. The mammoth field made way for a $701,215 winner, and it was Henry Acain who came out on top.
Acain played very well on the final day, battling with start-of-day chip leader Christian Taylor to take pole position at the final table of the event and then never looked back. On the final hand, Acain, who had a big chip lead at the table, was able to crack Jared Kingery’s pocket aces to win his first-ever WSOP gold bracelet.
Dan Smith Wins First-Ever WSOP Bracelet
Dan Smith, one of the most successful poker professionals without a World Series of Poker gold bracelet entering the 2022 WSOP, finally picked up his first piece of WSOP gold when he won the prestigious Event #6: $25,000 Heads-Up Championship for $509,717.
To get to the final, Smith had to go through Jake Daniels, Laszlo Bujtas, Alex Foxen, Jonathan Jaffe, and Dario Sammartino. It was then time for Smith to face Christoph Vogelsang on the PokerGO feature table stage. After a hard-fought, lengthy battle, Smith came out on top to win more than $500,000 in prize money and his first-ever gold bracelet.
“I’m not typically a very sentimental person,” Smith said. “I remember before the One Drop final table, everyone was like, ‘how important is it for you to be playing for this bracelet?’ and I was, ‘I’m focused on the $10 million today.’ Today it really is, and was about the bracelet.”
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Chad Eveslage and Jake Schindler Score High Roller Gold
Two more high roller poker tournaments found winners at the 2022 WSOP, with Chad Eveslage winning the record-setting Event #8: $25,000 NL Hold’em High Roller for $1,415,610 and Jake Schindler winning Event #12: $50,000 NL Hold’em High Roller for $1,328,068. Schindler also finished second to Eveslage in Event #8 for $874,915
In Event #8, the 251-entry field became the largest field for a WSOP $25,000 high roller tournament. In Event #12, Schindler topped a field of 101 entries.
The two results also helped Schindler move to the top of the WSOP Player of the Year leaderboard and the 2022 PGT leaderboard.
Norbert Szecsi and Manig Loeser Win First Two Online Bracelets
Norbert Szecsi, playing on WSOP.com as “Balkan500,” picked up his third WSOP gold bracelet when he won WSOP.com Online Event #1: $5,300 NL Hold’em High Roller Freezeout for $288,850. Tony “Panoramic” Dunst placed second and Greg “DustedYou” Merson finished third. In WSOP.com Online Event #2: $500 NL Hold’em BIG 500, Manig “Ohio77” Loeser emerged victorious for $127,153.
Filippi, Livingston Among Other Winners
Amnon Filippi and Alex Livingston were among the other early winners at the 2022 WSOP, both winning their first WSOP gold bracelet. Filippi won Event #7: $1,500 Omaha Hi-Lo for $252,718 and Livingston won Event #9: $1,500 Seven-Card Stud for $103,282.
Brad Ruben, Ben Diebold, Raj Vohra, Michael Moncek, Leo Soma, Dominick Sarle, Bryan Schultz, and Daniel Zack were the other winners from the first week and a half at the 2022 WSOP.
Ruben won $1,500 Dealer's Choice 6-Handed for $126,288, Diebold won Event #10: $10,000 Dealer's Choice Championship for $299,488, Vohra won Event #11: $600 NL Hold'em Deepstack for $335,286, Moncek won Event #13: $1,500 Limit Hold'em for $145,856, Soma won Event #14: $1,500 NL Hold'em 6-Handed for $456,889, Zack won Event #15: $10,000 Omaha Hi-Lo Championship, Sarle won Event #17: $2,500 Limit Mixed Triple Draw for $164,243, Bryan Schultz won Event #18: $1,000 NL Hold’em Freezeout.
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