The day before summer officially begins in the Northern Hemisphere (though it has certainly felt like summer in many places for weeks now), the 2022 World Series of Poker has several events in action at Paris and Bally’s Las Vegas. Let’s take a look at some of the highlights:
Steve Albini wins his second bracelet
Famed recording engineer Steve Albini (he doesn’t like the title “record producer”) won his second career WSOP bracelet, emerging triumphant in the $1,500 HORSE event over the weekend. Albini, who has record thousands of albums over the years, including Nirvana’s “In Utero,” the Pixies’ “Surfer Rosa,” and The Breeders’ “Pod,” is an amateur poker player, but one who takes the game quite seriously.
“….when I’m playing poker, I try to commit to it. I try to take it seriously. I try to make sure I devote the attention to it that it deserves as an occupation. But it’s only part of my year. I only play tournaments at the World Series of Poker. I play cash games informally in Chicago. It’s a part of my livelihood, but it’s not my profession.”
This year has been a tough one for WSOP bracelets. Alex Livingston temporarily lost his and Albini dropped his and broke it. “Everything in my life comes in pieces, in parts,” he said.
Millionaire Maker reaches the money
After counting late entries, the field for the $1,500 Millionaire Maker No-Limit Hold’em event ended at 7,962 entries. That created a prize pool of $10,627,935, with 1,195 players getting paid. At least one million dollars was guaranteed for first prize, but when the dust settled, it grew to $1,125,189. The min-cash is $2,400.
The money bubble burst early on Sunday’s Day 2 and, as expected, eliminations came quickly after that. Going into Day 3, there are just 232 players remaining.
Leading the way into Monday’s action is Tom Thomas with 2.875 million chips, equal to 115 big blinds. Not far behind are Paul Ahn with 2.650 million and Seamus Cahill with 2.560 million. Several other players have over 2 million chips.
It’s an early day for the players, as Day 3 got underway at 10:00am PT, with ten 60-minute levels scheduled plus a 60-minute dinner break before calling it a night.
Justin Pechie wins his second after more than a decade
“Freezeout” used to be implied when talking about No-Limit Hold’em tournaments at the WSOP, but now the term needs to be stated in the name of the event to be sure everyone knows. This past weekend, Justin Pechie won one of those tourneys, outlasting 1,773 opponents to win Event #34: $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em Freezeout.
This is Pechie’s second career bracelet and first since 2011, when he won the $1,500 Fixed-Limit Hold’em event. He has loads of WSOP cashes over the years, tending to stick with the lower buy-in events except for the $10,000 Main Event.
“I haven’t really processed it,” Pechie told WSOP.com after winning $365,899. “I never really looked at the amounts or payouts; I just came in and played how I felt I should play, and now it’s kind of sinking in.”
