As the second week of the 2022 World Series of Poker prepares for launch, there is going to be quite a bit of business to wrap up from Sunday. ‘The Housewarming’ will come together for the first time under one roof, while a second event was not able to reach a champion by early Monday morning. Add in the other action around Bally’s and Paris Las Vegas and the schedule is full of poker action for the railbirds in attendance.
‘The Housewarming’ Begins Day Two Play
For the first time since it started, the first mega-tournament on the 2022 WSOP schedule, ‘The Housewarming,’ will come under one roof for play. On Sunday, however, there was some trivial things to tie up – such as how many entries would officially be booked and what the eventual prize pool would be.
The final flight of the $500 buy in event drew in a monstrous 7268 entrants over the course of Sunday, pushing the total number of entries over the 20,000-entry mark (20,080, to be exact). The $5 million guarantee that WSOP officials placed on the event was shattered, building a prize pool of $8,435,280. After another 399 combatants survived the Day 1D carnage, the total number that will move on to Day Two play is 899 players.
You might think that, with the massive number of chips in play, that the Day 1D chip leader would have amassed a massive stack. That was not the case in this tournament as Tyler Gaston was only able to pick up 4.51 million chips to take to the Day Two action. That was not enough to knock George “Tony” Degon from the top of the overall standings, however:
1. George “Tony” Degon, 4.655 million (Day 1C chip leader)
2. Tyler Gaston, 4.51 million
3. Justin Liberto, 4.225 million (Day 1A chip leader)
4. Gianluca Pace, 4.085 million (Day 1B chip leader)
5. Jong Kim, 4 million
Action will resume at the poker player unfriendly hour of 10AM (PDT) Monday morning, with plans to play either 17 levels of action or down to five players, whichever comes first.
Event #7 Goes to Overtime
Three days was not enough to determine the champion in the $1500 Omaha Hi/Lo Eight or Better tournament. Scheduled to conclude on Sunday night, two players battled it out into the wee hours of Monday morning and were still unable to come to a champion. Thus, those two players – start of Day Three chip leader Amnon Filippi and Matt Vengrin – will return on Monday afternoon to determine the champion.
Twenty-six players came back on Sunday, which should have told WSOP officials to prepare for a long night. Because of the split-pot nature of any Hi/Lo game, the proceedings can be dragged out for an extremely extended period of time. Filippi started the day at the head of the pack, but he was swamped by Rami Boukai and David Funkhouser in the early action as some of the short stacks dropped.
Filippi was not putting up with that, however. In a monstrous three-way pot, Filippi made a Broadway straight against Funkhouser and Matt Glantz to pick up a three million chip pot and retake the lead. Filippi was also responsible for the knockout of veteran poker professional Mel Judah, making his appearance at a WSOP final table for the first time in several years, in eighth place.
Filippi was in command, but Vengrin would not allow him to get too far away. Vengrin knocked off Funkhouser and Glantz in sixth and fifth places, respectively, as the WSOP curfew came. After Paul Zappulla eliminated Murilo Figueredo in fourth place, the remaining three players were given the option of an additional hour to wrap up the battle or stopping at that point. They decided on another hour and the battle raged onward.
Over the course of that hour, only Zappella would depart at the hands of Filippi, but that did not mean there wasn’t any action. Filippi quickly jumped out to a sizeable lead over Vengrin, but just wasn’t able to take him all the way to the felt to end the event. Thus, these two men will return for action on Monday afternoon at 3PM (PDT) with the table set like this:
Amnon Filippi, 19.525 million
Matt Vengrin, 7.7 million
Brewer Leads Final 15 in $25K Eight Handed High Roller
The 251 entries in the $25,000 Eight Handed No Limit Hold’em High Roller tournament, Event #8 on your schedule, is down to its final fifteen players. Leading the way for Day Three action will be Chris Brewer, who has been able to rack up 5.1 million in chips. That is barely ahead of Chad Eveslage (4.915 million) and Brek Schutten (4.61 million), setting up for a big battle of the “high roller” titans on Monday.
1. Chris Brewer, 5.1 million
2. Chad Eveslage, 4.915 million
3. Brek Schutten, 4.61 million
4. Jake Schindler, 3.15 million
5. Dan Colpoys, 2.385 million
Action will resume Monday afternoon at 1PM (PDT), with the high roller action a part of the streaming package offered by PokerGO. Everyone is guaranteed a $65,511 payday, but the eventual champion will take the lion’s share of the prize pool, $1,415,610, and the WSOP bracelet.
Alex Livingston Heads Seven Card Stud Final Table
Event #9, the $1500 Seven Card Stud tournament, will crown a champion on Monday. Alex Livingston will be the leader with his 2.495 million chips, the only player who is in that rarefied air. His closest competitors are Kenny Hsiung and John Racener, who have done well for themselves too. The remainder of the pack has a tough row to hoe if they are to get in contention for the title.
1. Alex Livingston, 2.495 million
2. Kenny Hsiung, 1.605 million
3. John Racener, 1.16 million
4. Thomas Taylor, 765,000
5. Brad Ruben, 725,000
6. Daniel Weinman, 660,000
7. Hojeong Lee, 585,000
8. John Evans, 170,000
As an aside, we do have our first “double bracelet possibility” alert. Brad Ruben, the champion of the $1500 Six Handed Dealer’s Choice last week, has the chance at picking up some more jewelry. Ruben is going to have to get some breaks to run his way for that to happen, however.
Friedman Four-Peat Denied in $10K Dealer’s Choice Championship
112 entries have taken on the challenge of another “high roller” tournament, the $10,000 Six Handed Dealer’s Choice Championship, but the dream will continue for only 51 of these players after Day One on Sunday. One of those players who was eliminated was the three-time defending champion of the tournament, Adam Friedman, ending what has been a historic run at the WSOP. The field still has a chance to get larger as registration remains open until the cards hit the air this afternoon.
Leading the way currently is Joao Viera’s 425,000 chips, but the pack is tightly bunched with no clear dominant player in the mix.
1. Joao Viera, 425,000
2. Mike Gorodinsky, 401,500
3. Nacho Barbero, 269,500
4. Richard Ashby, 250,500
5. Jean-Robert Bellande, 249,000
Other “high roller” names like Naoya Kihara, Jeff Madsen, Shawn Deeb, and Phil Hellmuth are lurking down the leaderboard. Action resumes at 2PM (PDT), with the plan to get to the final six players.
Familiar Names Capture Online Bracelets
Two online tournaments wrapped up their play on Sunday, with a couple of familiar names earning the jewelry in each case.
In the $5000 No Limit Hold’em High Roller Freezeout, Norbert Szecsi was able to capture his third WSOP bracelet overall in outlasting Tony Dunst for the gold. The final table was replete with top pros, including Phil Galfond, Taylor Paur, and Greg Merson. Those three men went out in sixth, fifth, and third places, respectively. The victory earned Szecsi his third WSOP bracelet and booked a $288,850 first place prize to go along with it.
With the “BIG $500,” the WSOP looked to make a buzz on a lower buy in event with a big crowd (like ‘The Housewarming’). The players did respond, with 1213 entries creating a nearly $800K prize pool. In the end, Germany’s Manig Loeser, who also won the second online event in last year’s WSOP, took home the championship to earn his second bracelet. Loeser topped ‘omahabrian’ to earn the championship and the $127,153 first place check.
