There was high drama in more ways than one at the World Series of Poker at Bally’s and Paris Casinos in Las Vegas today, as not only was the 2022 WSOP Main Event Champion crowned (which you can read about here), but another gold bracelet was awarded in an online event, while the $3,000 H.O.R.S.E. will need an extra day to crown a champion, and the remaining three tournaments on the docket ended prematurely after a scary incident at MGM Grand just down the Strip.
Pennsylvania’s Li Ships Lucky Sevens
Today’s other WSOP gold bracelet was doled out to the winner of Online Event #11: $777 No-Limit Hold’em Lucky 7’s, and just a hair over that lucky 777 number of entrants participated, with 781 total entries pushing the prize pool to $854,700. In the wee hours of Sunday morning, it was Fred “staeks” Li who earned the bracelet and $159,060 after besting Zach “zoks7” Okin in heads-up play.
With players looking for a last shot a WSOP glory, the action was swift from the start, as it took just six hours from the start of the tournament to reach the bubble. After the bubble had burst and the remaining 167 players were in the money, Jamie “DanBilzerian” Kerstetter and Ian “apokerjoker2” Steinman were some of the first to earn a piece of the prize pool. David “dpeters17” Peters made a strong run, but was eliminated in 15th place for $7,094, and when Vincent “Allinvin138” Moscati was eliminated in 9th for $11,538, the eight-handed tournament reached the final table.
Li started the final table with a comfortable chip lead over the field, but Okin swiftly closed the gap with back-to-back eliminations of short stacks Daniel “IGetLost” Dizenzo and Michael “LatinoLoco” Acevedo to kick off the final table. Li struck back by taking out Dominick “flow_cold” Sarle next, but Okin reeled off the next two eliminations to bring the field to three.
The defining hand of the tournament took place soon after, with Michael “Mike916” Guzzardi jamming just under ten big blinds with 
, and Okin, who held the chip lead, three-bet shoved with 
. Li woke up in the big blind with 
in a completely nasty cooler of a hand, and a dry ten-high board left Li with an over 2:1 chip lead against Okin. A few levels later, Okin got his last chips in with 
, but Li’s 
turned a ten to send the Pennsylvania native home with his first WSOP gold bracelet.
WSOP 2022 Online Event #11: $777 NLHE Lucky Sevens Final Table Results
- Fred “staeks” Li – $159,060
- Zach “zoks7” Okin – $98,291
- Michael “Mike916” Guzzardi – $69,573
- Bobby “Ericartmenez” Oboodi – $49,914
- Ryan “doyouliftbro” Jones – $36,239
- Dominick “flow_cold” Sarle – $26,667
- Michael “LatinoLoco” Acevedo – $19,915
- Daniel “IGetLost” Dizenzo – $15,043
Fourth Day Needed to Crown $3k H.O.R.S.E. Champ
A total of 22 players returned for what was originally going to be the final day of play in Event #84: $3,000 H.O.R.S.E. inside of Bally’s, but three players hung on long enough to force overtime and Day 4 of action after a twelve-hour day on the felt. Tomasz Gluszko leads the trio, albeit with just over ten big bets when play resumes. Roberto Marin will return with around nine big bets, while Lawrence Brandt, who won a bracelet earlier in this year’s WSOP in Event #58: $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha 8-or-Better, will return with just a hair over six-and-a-half big bets in his quest for a second bracelet of the series. Brandt would join elite company in doing so, as the other two players who have earned dual bracelets are current WSOP POY leader Dan Zack and WSOP Main Event champ Espen Jorstad.
Despite an early double, John Racener (20th – $6,835) was one of many early casualties, and Brandt did double duty soon after, eliminating both Cody Espeseth (18th – $6,835) and Joseph Thomas (17th – $7,978) in one hand of Razz to surge up the leaderboards. Andre Akkari (11th – $11,644) and start of day chip leader David Bach (9th – $14,594) both fell just short of the official final table of eight, where things slowed down considerably.
It would be two hour long levels later before Yarron Bender and Perry Freidman were eliminated a few hands apart, and the next level saw the departure of Kristan Lord, before Kevin Gerhart, who was seeking his fifth WSOP bracelet of his accomplished career, bricked a massive draw in Omaha 8-or-Better against Richard Tatalovich to fall in fifth. Tatalovich would meet his end in the same game a few orbits later, whiffing an open-ended straight draw against the kings-up of Marin to bring the field down to three. Play will resume at 2 p.m. PDT until a champion is crowned.
WSOP 2022 Event #84: $3,000 H.O.R.S.E. Final Table Chip Counts/Results
- Tomasz Gluszko – 5,320,000
- Roberto Marin – 4,465,000
- Lawrence Brandt – 3,300,000
- Richard Tatalovich – $61,789
- Kevin Gerhart – $44,415
- Kristan Lord – $32,583
- Perry Friedman – $24,403
- Yarron Bendor – $18,669
Broken Glass Leads to Pandemonium and a Shortened Final Day at Paris
Things were humming along in some of the last tournaments of the series, including the second and final flight of Event #85: $1,500 The Closer, as well as Event #86: $10,000 NLHE 6-Max Championship and Event #87: $5,000 8-Handed NLHE. A tweet by DJ MacKinnon was the first sign that something was about to be amiss in the Paris Ballroom:
I’m fine but apparently there was an active shooter at MGM, everyone in the casino just started sprinting out of there at once.
— DJ MacKinnon (@djmacjr) July 17, 2022
The crowd that cleared out of MGM as a result of the active shooter scare apparently made their way to Paris, as reports of players stampeding out of the poker room began to fill the Twitter airwaves, with tables and chairs being knocked over as players left, fearful of a legitimately terrifying prospect before them. Joey Ingram had an up-close view of the chaos as it happened:
Chaos broke out in the WSOP poker room tonight as a report of a shooting echo’d down the Las Vegas strip (the report was found to be false as of now by Las Vegas police) pic.twitter.com/G5Gjqq3KxP
— Joey Ingram ? (@Joeingram1) July 17, 2022
Shortly after reports of the alleged incident came out, the Las Vegas Metro Police Department tweeted out that the noise that players and patrons had heard was not gunfire, but a broken window, allegedly caused by someone throwing rocks at the front glass doors at the MGM.
Reports of a shooting near the MGM tonight are unfounded. Initial reports are a glass door shattered causing a loud noise which startled people in the valet area.
— LVMPD (@LVMPD) July 17, 2022
Thankfully for players at the WSOP, it looks as though the incident left no one seriously wounded or worse for wear, although Daniel Negreanu did get a nasty and quite literal bad beat to end his WSOP:
How my WSOP ended… pic.twitter.com/dabeNhIT09
— Daniel Negreanu (@RealKidPoker) July 17, 2022
The WSOP informed players a bit later that play had concluded in all tournaments held in Paris for the evening, as opposed to trying to bring the scattered players back with the situation still in flux. Those players will return to Bally’s tomorrow to either complete Day 1b then combine with the survivors from Day 1a, in the case of The Closer, or return and start Day 2 in the $5,000 NLHE and Day 3 in the $10,000 NLHE at the level they left off on.
Jeremy Ausmus shares some wisdom about the secret of Phil Hellmuth’s continued success in poker:
If there’s one thing I’ve learned over the 18 years I’ve played poker for a living it’s that complaining helps immensely….I mean look at @phil_hellmuth wsop results
— Jeremy Ausmus (@jeremyausmus) July 16, 2022
The Chainsaw’s WSOP comes to a close after another unfortunate cooler:
And so ends my 2022 @wsop campaign. Utg opens another guy flats Aces, I'm going all in from big blind despite the action with queens. Had 20-25bb. @StakeKings pic.twitter.com/zKtWn4rQLq
— Allen Kessler (@AllenKessler) July 17, 2022
Official photographs courtesy of PokerGO, the home of live-streamed action throughout the 2022 World Series of Poker in Las Vegas.
