The first weekend of the 2022 World Series of Poker is ready to go on Friday, with two tournaments down to their final day of action. The first “big” preliminary tournament will also take to action, while the “big” high roller event will work down to its final four. It sets up for a busy day of activity around the Bally’s and Paris Las Vegas properties.
Event #3 Features Scott Seiver, Steve Zolotow at Final Table
The Paris Las Vegas is the host of “The Mothership,” the stadium which holds many of the bracelet events for the WSOP, and Friday it will see quite a bit of action. Up first is the final table of the $2500 No Limit Hold’em Freezeout event (meaning there was no reentry option), and there are big names up and down the leaderboard. When the chips hit the air on Friday afternoon, Scott Seiver will rule over the remaining ten players with his 6.15 million in chips.
Seiver earned his way to the top of the leaderboard after blitzing the field in the final breaths of Thursday’s play. He knocked out both Jan Bednar and Shawn Daniels in twelfth and eleventh places, respectively, which allowed him to build up that massive stack. Even though Seiver might feel comfortable now, the hounds are at his heels for that WSOP bracelet.
David Goodman was able to work his way to the second slot on the leaderboard, sitting with almost four million in chips (3.9 million, to be exact). It starts to get a bit more fun when you look down the standings and you see Steve Zolotow in third place, with such names as Sergio Aido, Chris ‘Big Huni’ Hunichen, and Nick Schulman sitting down the board.
1. Scott Seiver, 6.15 million
2. David Goodman, 3.9 million
3. Steve Zolotow, 3.125 million
4. Alexander Farahi, 2.615 million
5. Sergio Aido, 2.57 million
6. Chris Hunichen, 2.41 million
7. Aditya Agarwal, 1.87 million
8. Lewis Spencer, 1.465 million
9. Nick Schulman, 1.415 million
10. Shawn Hood, 890,000
Fourteen Left in Dealer’s Choice; Sweet Sixteen in Heads Up Championship
In what is one of the most difficult tournaments around because of the variety of games it entails, the $1500 Dealer’s Choice tournament has reached the final 14 players for the start of their Day Three activity. Leading the way there is Brad Ruben, who is the only player over the two million mark in chips. In fact, there are only three players who have eclipsed the one million plateau:
1. Brad Ruben, 2.102 million
2. Jorge Walker, 1.42 million
3. Alfred Atamian, 1.004 million
4. Ben Yu, 848,000
5. Naoya Kihara, 808,000
6. Charles Bransford, 650,000
7. Jaswinder Lally, 565,000
8. Christopher Roman, 552,000
9. Dean Joe, 539,000
10. Norman Chad, 526,000
The $25,000 Heads Up No Limit Hold’em Championship, Event #6 on the roster, went through two rounds of action on Thursday and has determined their “Sweet Sixteen.” These are the following heads up matches that will start the action on Friday:
Dylan Destefano v. John Smith
Kevin Rabichow v. Phil Ivey
Sean Winter v. Matthew Gonzales
Christoph Vogelsang v. Koray Aldemir
Chance Kornuth v. Patrick Kennedy
William Stanford v. Dario Sammartino
Alex Foxen v. Dan Smith
Anthony Zinno v. Jonathan Jaffe
By the end of Friday night, the Final Four will be determined in this event, with the champion being crowned on Saturday. Action in this tournament will be part of the streaming package at PokerGO.com.
“The Housewarming” Opens for Business
The WSOP over the last few years has made the weekends about their “mega” tournaments – tournaments that have a low buy in and bring in humongous fields. That will be happening on Friday as the continuing salvos of “The Housewarming,” the event that officially welcomes the poker world to Bally’s and Paris Las Vegas, take place at Bally’s. Thursday saw the first of four Day Ones take to the felt, looking to bring in enough players to cover the $5 million prize pool that has been guaranteed by the WSOP.
In Day 1A action on Thursday, Justin Liberto was able to amass 4.225 million in chips, good enough to take the Day 1A lead over the 147 players remaining (out of 3373 entries). Will that stand up through the fires of a Day 1B, 1C and 1D through the weekend? We will have to keep an eye on the action from Las Vegas as the 2022 World Series of Poker cranks up to full throttle.
