The 2022 World Series of Poker tournament series has come to an end, and we’re taking a look back at the biggest news to come out of the event. So if you missed anything exciting, you’ll be able to read all about it in our 2022 WSOP recap.
Jeremy Ausmus wins three bracelets in 9 months
For most poker players, it’s hard to win one bracelet – but Jeremy Ausmus has managed to win three in just nine months. His third came just weeks before the 2022 WSOP, after winning the 6-Handed Limit Hold’em event for $142,147.
Before that, Ausmus won the 2021 High Roller PLO event for $1.18 million in November 2021 and the COVID-19 Relief NLHE Charity Event for $48,687 in September 2021. This is quite an impressive achievement and certainly sets some sort of record. It is unlikely that we will see another venue accomplish such a feat, as the 2021 World Series of Poker ended just six months before the 2022 installment.
Music producer Steve Alibi tops the WSOP bracelet
At BeatTheFish, we’re big music fans – so, we were thrilled when legendary music producer Steve Alibini won his second World Series of Poker bracelet in the $1,500 HORSE Championship for $196,089. However, it’s not the best time -…
Shortly after he got his hands on the bracelet – he fell and broke it!
Neymar Jr. in his first WSOP tournament
Soccer superstar Neymar Jr. has been making a name for himself in the poker world for several years now, but until now he had only participated in WSOP events once – until now. After finishing 49th in the Super Turbo Bounty No-Limit Hold’em, Neymar Jr. can finally add participation in a World Series of Poker tournament to his long list of accomplishments.
Pot awarded to wrong player in $1M guaranteed online tournament
It’s not often you see big mistakes in World Series of Poker tournaments – but there was quite a mishap during the $10,300 buy-in Super High Roller tournament on GGPoker. In this hand, Simon Mattsson entered using QsQd against Tom Talboom, who had 10s10d.
The table showed Ks6dKc7c5c, which meant that Mattson should have won with a pair of queens. The pot, however, was awarded to Talboom and, of course, this did not go unnoticed:
Eventually, GGPoker responded that it was a “conditional error” that caused the problem, where the system recognized the game as Flip&Go. The player was refunded, but news of the incident continues to spread and damage the brand’s reputation.
July 2 Alex Foxen finally wins a WSOP bracelet
For years Alex Foxen was at the top of his game, crushing high roller events around the world. The poker community had been waiting for his first WSOP bracelet for a long time, and his time finally came during the $250,000 Super High Roller event.
Foxen was up against some very strong competition, including Phil Ivey and Dan Zack, but managed to come out on top. He now joins his wife Kristen Foxen (who has three bracelets) as part of the WSOP bracelet winners club.
“It really means a lot to me. It was kind of a monkey on my back. I’ve always wanted a bracelet. It feels like really special to get my first one in,” Foxen said.
Phil Hellmuth’s WSOP entry was whistled at
We’ve seen Phil Hellmuth make a grand entrance at the World Series of Poker before – and always in costume – but he’s never received such an icy reception. He appeared in a Darth Vader costume and while some onlookers cheered, many whistled him out.
We’re not quite sure why, but the above tweet seems to be a good clue. It appears that WSOP players were annoyed by his efforts to get attention, but some believe that the outcry was due to a lack of fanfare. Hellmuth usually has no less than a dozen models working with him, and it’s possible that WSOP players felt a little let down.
July 10 Layne Flack accepted into Poker Hall of Fame
Last year, the poker world was shaken by the death of Layne Flack at the age of 52. He is best known for being a pioneer in the modern years as a 6-time WSOP bracelet winner. During his career, he amassed $5 million in live tournament winnings and is known by his peers, such as Phil Helmuth and Mike Matusow, for bringing fun to the game.
“Layne had such an amazing ability to read other players at the table, it was the best I’ve ever seen,” – he said. “He was able to talk players into chips, but always within the rules. He always made playing poker a pleasure, and we need characters like Layne in the game.” Congratulations to Flack’s family, his legacy is now safe – ” Matt Savage, executive director of the WPT Tour and fellow Hall of Fame nominee.
July 17 active shooter scare
While the World Series of Poker is one of the most exciting events in the industry, it has never seen anything like the Active Shooter Scare that took place at the end of the tournament. The sound of breaking glass was misinterpreted as gunfire, causing customers to flee the casino. We were relieved to learn that there was no shooter in the event, but many were injured, including Daniel Negreanu.
Espen Jorstad wins WSOP Main Event
When we reported on Day 7 of the World Series of Poker Main Event, Espen Jorstad was in 5th place with 31.1 million chips, while Jeffrey Farnes was leading the chip counts. By the time the final table was set, the tables had flipped – Jorstad became chip leader with 83.2 million chips, and his lead over the rest was a little less than half.
When the field shrank to just two players, Jorstad found himself in the lead with Adrian Attenborough. It didn’t take long for him to secure the victory, as Jorstad limped out with Qd 2s and Attenborough checked with Jc4s.
The flop revealed 4h2h2c, Attenborough raised to 14m – to which Jorstad raised to 31m. On the turn, 8s were revealed, causing Attenborough to check and Jorstad to raise to 62m. On the river, Qc, Jorstad made his move, and his opponent tanked for nearly 10 minutes before checking. Jorstad then turned over his winning hand to secure the title of winner of the 2022 WSOP Main Event and a huge $10 million prize.
Dan Zack winner of WSOP Player of the Year
For more than five years, Dan Zack was a big winner at the World Series of Poker, but he never came out on top in the race for PotY. It was thought that 2019 would be his year, after player 47th and 65th.
Now he has finally joined the likes of Daniel Negreanu, Erick Lindgren and Jason Mercier as WSOP Player of the Year. The full list of wins for 2022 is as follows:
- Tournament of Champions – 55th place for $3,500
- Event #80: $600 Mixed No-Limit Hold’em; Pot-Limit Omaha Deepstack – 12th place for $9,092
- Event #75: $777 Lucky 7’s No-Limit Hold’em 7-Handed – 188th place for $3,200
- Event #74: $1,500 BOUNTY Pot-Limit Omaha 8-Handed – 149th place for $1,645
- Online Event #7: $500 No Limit Hold’em Deepstack – 63rd place for $2,238
- Event #68: $1,000 Million Dollar Bounty No-Limit Hold’em – 492nd place for $3,841
- Event #63: $10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better Championship – 23rd place for $20,214
- Event #58: $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better – 48th place for $5,294
- Event #53: $5,000 Mixed No-Limit Hold’em; Pot-Limit Omaha – 91st place for $8,761
- Event #50: $250,000 Super High Roller No-Limit Hold’em – 8th place for $488,095
- Event #46: $5,000 6-Handed No-Limit Hold’em – 91st place for $8,807
- Event #40: $10,000 Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo 8 or Better Championship – 1st place for $324,174
- Event #31: $10,000 Limit 2-7 Lowball Triple Draw Championship – 3rd place for $129,670
- Event #30: $1,000 Pot-Limit Omaha 8-Handed – 166th place for $2,004
- Event #24: $1,000 FLIP & GO No-Limit Hold’em – 43rd place for $4,330
- Event #15: $10,000 Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better Championship – 1st place for $440,757
- Event #5: $500 The Housewarming No-limit Hold’em – 200th place for $4,805
- WSOP Circuit Super Series Event #5 – $50,000 GTD NLH – 47th place for $410.
Benjamin Kaupp wins Tournament of Champions
The final event of the 2022 World Series of Poker was the Tournament of Champions, which concluded yesterday. The event was open only to an exclusive group of players – 570 winners who landed bracelets and rings from the 2022 WSOP season. 470 players entered the event for a chance to win a piece of the $1 million prize pool.
Kaup raked in an impressive $250,000 after beating some very talented players, including Yuliyan Kolev, who took first place in the $1,500 Millionaire Maker event for $1.4 million. He qualified by winning the $215 Circuit event in Pennsylvania for $14,000, so his Tournament of Champions victory is by far the biggest win of his career.