The twelfth day of action at the 2022 WSOP at Bally’s and Paris casinos in Las Vegas saw just one new event kick off with Limit Hold’em enthusiasts getting a $3,000 version to fire into, while the second and final flight of the $1,500 Monster Stack and Day 2 of the $10,000 Seven Card Stud Championship the other options for players. Meanwhile, two bracelets were awarded, while the $25,000 Pot Limit Omaha High Roller played down to the final five players.
Stefan Lehner Tops Talented Final Table For First Bracelet
Day 4 of Event #16: $3,000 No Limit Hold’em, brought nine players back for the final table, and with shallow stacks to start, it was a brisk seven-and-a-half hour jaunt to crown a winner, Austria’s Stefan Lehner, earning his first WSOP gold bracelet and $558,616, a huge leap from his previous career-high score in 2021 in WSOP Event #29: $1,500 No Limit Hold’em Fifty Stack Online.
Despite stacks at the final table beginning at an average of just 27.5 big blinds, it took until the second level of the day for WSOP bracelet winner Davide Suriano to run into aces and fall in 9th. Nicholas Dolen and former WSOP bracelet winner Joey Weissman would both fall in the next level, while Alex Foxen took control of the final table and ascended into the chip lead.
After Kevin Stevens busted in 6th, the tables turned on Foxen. The man with over $21 million in career Hendon Mob reported earnings first lost a chunk to Lehner, who check-called a flop and turn bet with middle pair correctly. Foxen then lost a flip to Toby Boas, and shortly after lost his last few big blinds with 
to David Miscikowski’s 
to depart in 5th.
Miscikowski, who started the final day as chip leader, would be next to bust, running 
into Boas’s 
in a pre-flop clash. Boas took command of three-handed play from this point, and once Nathan Russler fell to Lehner in 3rd, Boas had a 3:1 chip lead going into heads-up play. Lehner held firm, and eventually caught a huge bluff from Boas to double into his own 4:1 chip lead. Boas would call off his last 7.5 big blinds a short time later with 
, but Lehner’s 
would hold up to leave Boas as the runner-up.
WSOP 2022 Event #16: $3,000 NLHE Final Table Results
- Stefan Lehner – $558,616
- Toby Boas – $345,244
- Nathan Russler – $248,298
- David Miscikowski – $180,795
- Alex Foxen – $133,300
- Kevin Stevens – $99,535
- Joey Weissman – $75,282
- Nicholas Dolen – $57,683
- Davide Suriano – $44,785
Brandes and Arieh Headline Final Five of PLO Championship
With 28 players returning for Day 3 of Event #19: $25,000 Pot-Limit Omaha High Roller, only five would secure seats in for the live-streamed final day of play. Fabian Brandes will return as the chip leader with 13.175 million in chips and he and Tong Li will be searching for their first career bracelet, while WSOP Bracelet winners Josh Arieh, Sam Stein and Scott Ball all look to add to their bracelet totals.
With a veritable who’s who of poker left in the field, plenty of familar faces fell by the wayside throughout the day. Keith Lehr (25th) couldn’t spin up the short stack, while Yuri Dzivielevski (24th) and Noah Schwartz (22nd), all three of whom own WSOP gold, also bowed out early, with each earning a $50,575 payday. Arieh spent much of the middle part of the day chipping up, including winning a substantial pot off of Ben Lamb, who called a 900,000 river bet from Arieh only to be shown the nut flush.
Daniel Negreanu (16th – $57,738) was the first to bust once the field reached two tables, bricking a combo draw against Jonathan Depa’s top two pair. More bracelet winners hit the rail shortly after, including Lamb (15th – $67,313) and Chance Kornuth (13th – $80,105), before Jared Bleznick busted in 10th ($97,266) to Arieh, giving the four-time bracelet winner a big boost to second in chips going to the unofficial final table of nine, right behind Brandes.
David Williams (9th – $120,457), Gregory Shuda (8th – $152,091), and Emmanuel Sebag (7th – $195,713) all earned a six-figure payday, while Depa (6th – $256,582) would be the final elimination of the day, as he called off a micro-stack of just under two big blinds and failed to improve against the aces of Arieh. While Brandes has a healthy edge chip-wise, it will be hard to discount any of the contenders behind him, as even the shortest stack in Ball returns to Day 4 with over 26 big blinds to work with.
WSOP 2022 Event #19: $25,000 Pot Limit Omaha High Roller Final Table Chip Counts
- Fabian Brandes – 13,175,000
- Josh Arieh – 8,900,000
- Tong Li – 6,350,000
- Sam Stein – 5,875,000
- Scott Ball – 5,300,000
Nesterenko Holds Off Altizer For 2-7 Triple Draw Title
An assortment of mixed game pros were on hand for the final day of WSOP Event #20: $1,500 Limit 2-7 Triple Draw Lowball, and all eyes were on Von Altizer, who could’ve become the second woman to ship WSOP gold in an open event already this series. Denis Nesterenko denied Altizer’s quest for a gold bracelet in her third lifetime cash in 2-7 Triple Draw at the WSOP, and earned his first bracelet and $108,250 for his victory.
James Maguire (9th) and Kenny Hsiung (8th) were the final two players to miss the final table of seven, both players falling to Hieu Luu. Next to go was the final day’s starting short stack, Peter Lynn, who managed a payout ladder before failing to improve on the final draw with a four-card eighty-six against a made eighty-seven of Yufei Zhong. Benny Glaser, who won this very event back in 2015 for the first of his four WSOP bracelets, would bust next in 6th when Zhong peeled a seventy-six on the final draw to best Glaser’s eighty-seven.
Despite the two knockouts, Zhong would be next to go, and the remaining four players had very similar stacks from this point. Nearly two hours would pass before Luu busted in 4th, and Evan Sayer would bow out in 3rd a short time later after whiffing on a four-card wheel draw on the final draw, with Altizer’s ninety-eight hanging on. Nesterenko entered heads-up with the chip lead, and quickly expanded it by making a wheel early on to take a commanding lead. The last hand was patted down on all three draws, but Altizer’s eighty-five was no match for the seventy-six of Nesterenko.
WSOP 2022 Event #20: $1,500 Limit 2-7 Triple Draw Lowball Final Day Results
- Denis Nesterenko – $108,250
- Von Altizer – $66,910
- Evan Sayer – $44,347
- Hieu Luu – $30,107
- Yufei Zhong – $20,948
- Benny Glaser – $14,947
- Peter Lynn – $10,945
- Kenny Hsiung – $8,230
- James Maguire – $8,230
Friedman Laps the Field in Seven Card Stud Championship
There were 11 new players joining the 41 returning players on Day 2 of Event #22: $10,000 Seven Card Stud Championship, bringing the total field up to 96 players. Only eight of those players managed to make it through to the final day of play, and Adam Friedman holds a massive lead over the remaining players, with around 40% of the chips in play at an absolutely stacked final table, with 21 WSOP gold bracelets represented, including four by the aforementioned Friedman.
Only fifteen players would receive a payout from the largest Stud tournament at the WSOP, and Steve Zolotow, Brian Rast, Jeremy Ausmus, Dario Sammartino, and Bertrand “Elky” Grospellier all failed to reach the money. After Brandon Cantu bubbled in 16th, Friedman, who held a modest chip lead at the time, began his rapid ascent to domination, first by busting David Prager (15th – $16,170). Once the final table was reached after losing John Monnette (13th – $17,686), Randy Ohel (12th – $17,686), Cary Katz (11th – $20,213) and Thomas Taylor (10th – $20,213) in short order, Friedman turned on the heat even further.
Friedman won most of the first few hands at the final table, bleeding Kevin Gerhart and Phil Ivey down to crumbs in short order. Ivey was able to crawl back from just over half a big bet to survive to Day 3 as the short stack, but Gerhart was less fortunate, as his aces-up couldn’t best the three fives of Ben Diebold to bring play to a close for the day.
WSOP 2022: Event #22: $10,000 Seven Card Stud Championship Final Table Chip Counts
- Adam Friedman – 2,385,000
- Jean Gaspard – 1,231,000
- Yuval Bronshtein – 837,000
- Ben Diebold – 375,000
- Marco Johnson – 236,000
- James Paluszek – 235,000
- Yueqi Zhu – 231,000
- Phil Ivey – 174,000
Another Monster Field for the Monster Stack
3,561 more entrants joined the already massive 2,947 runners from Day 1a in Event #21: $1,500 Monster Stack, bringing the total field to 6,508 entrants over two flights. Only 1,252 players made it through the day, meaning 2,150 players will hit the felt for Day 2 action between the combined flights. Linus Richter put a whopping 788,000 chips in a bag for the Day 1b chip lead, giving him a large cushion over second-place Justin Lee and his 631,000 chips. Vojtech Ruzicka, Pavel Plesuv, Kenna James, and Scott Davies also managed to bag healthy stacks.
Veronica Brill was unable to spin up a stack and reach Day 2, and joining her on the rail throughout the day were Manig Loeser, Felipe Ramos, and Greg Raymer.
WSOP 2022: Event #21: $1,500 Monster Stack Top Ten Chip Counts
- Linus Richter – 788,000
- Justin Lee – 631,000
- Andrew Rosen – 592,000
- Ricardo Eyzaguirre – 549,500
- Tarun Goyal – 549,000
- Sergio Ramirez – 541,500
- Boris Kolev – 504,000
- Matthew Kuba – 498,500
- Nghia Le – 498,000
- Phuoc Nguyen – 494,500
Vampan Leads, Deeb in Contention in Six-Max Limit Hold’em
Short-handed limit hold’em was on tap as the only new event of the day, with Day 1 of Event #23: $3,000 Limit Hold’em Six-Max garnering 213 entrants before registration came to a close. Daniel Vampan bagged up the chip lead among the 93 players to advance to Day 2, with an impressive bag of 217,500, or just over 54 big bets to work with. Many notables are sitting with healthy stacks, including Joao Vieira (176,500), Shaun Deeb (107,000), Robert Campbell (76,000), and defending champion Ryan Hansen (64,500).
A number of top pros were unable to find the end of the day, including Joe McKeehen, Daniel Negreanu, Mike Matusow, Scott Seiver, Nick Schulman, Anthony Zinno, and JJ Liu.
WSOP 2022: Event #23: $3,000 Limit Hold’em Six-Max Top Ten Chip Counts
- Daniel Vampan – 217,500
- Phuong Nguyen – 210,000
- Ruiko Mamiya – 207,000
- Bin Duan – 193,000
- Joao Vieira – 176,000
- Motoyoshi Okamura – 161,000
- Jameson Painter – 160,000
- Lyly Vo – 160,000
- William Smith – 151,000
- Timothy Ebenhoeh – 151,000
Is it getting hot in here, or is it just Josh Arieh’s sun-run at the WSOP so far this year?
Welp….the heat is real! Final 5 of the 25k Plo tmrw. Watch on @PokerGO
— Joshua Arieh (@golferjosh) June 12, 2022
Speaking of heat; is the heat wave in the Bally’s tournament area finally coming to an end?
We've got the AC working at a more acceptable level over at Bally's, if you're playing there now, what do you think?
— WSOP (@WSOP) June 12, 2022
And Allen Kessler posting a…good beat story? Say it ain’t so, Chainsaw!
Omg I put my money in pre with Kings 80% sure the guy had pocket Aces but you can never be sure.
He opened to 2000 at 200-400 and that seemed to discount Aces a little.
Good beat story! pic.twitter.com/aa3fjnhbTW
— Allen Kessler (@AllenKessler) June 11, 2022
Official photographs courtesy of PokerGO, the home of live-streamed action throughout the 2022 World Series of Poker in Las Vegas.
