2022 WSOP Day 44: Main Event Reaches Its Final Table

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Jul 14, 2022 8 min read

Wow! What an incredible day of poker it was on Day 44 of the 2022 World Series of Poker (WSOP) at Bally's and Pris Las Vegas. Three players became WSOP champions while the Main Event finally whittled its entrants down to only 10 after a grueling 17-hour session, a true grind that was steeped in drama, bad beats, and epic bluffs.

The first bracelet of Day 44 went to Idaho native Mike Allis, who took down Event #71: $1,111 One More for One Drop. Only three players returned for the fifth and final day, and Allis came out on top, defeating the 2013 WSOP Main Event champion Ryan Riess heads-up to secure his first bracelet and a career-best$535,610.

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Sandeep Pulusani became a two-time WSOP champion after taking down Event #77: $1,500 Mixed No-Limit Hold'em/Pot-Limit Omaha for $277,949. Pulusani won a $3,000 No-Limit Hold'em event in 2013 and captured his second gold bracelet some nine years later.

There was also a bracelet for amateur player Sebastian Aube, who was the victor in Event #78: $2,500 No-Limit Hold'em. Aube only recently started playing poker. The Canadian bought Daniel Negreanu's masterclass and whatever he learned from it worked because he cashed in the $1,111 One More for One Drop before triumphing in this $2,500 buy-in No-Limit Hold'em tournament.

Jorstad and Su Lead 10 Players into Unofficial Final Table of Main Event

The unofficial final table of the most famous poker tournament in the world is set as only 10 players remain in Event #70: $10,000 No-Limit Hold'em Main Event World Championship at the 2022 World Series of Poker.

Norway’s Espen Jorstad bagged the shared chip lead with United States’ Matthew Su, as both players will return to the felt with 83,200,000 chips, good for 69 big blinds when action resumes.

There were 8,663 players who began the tournament, and after grinding it out for many hours over the past week, 35 players took their seats on Day 7 with aspirations of reaching the prestigious Main Event final table. The field was whittled down to 10 contenders, and only one of them will achieve poker immortality by winning $10,000,000 and the coveted gold bracelet.

The original plan was to play down to nine players, but after a marathon day that lasted more than 16 hours, a decision was made to stop play and end the night, or rather, to end the morning, as the sun was already shining brightly in Las Vegas when the announcement was made shortly after 6 a.m.

The remaining players rejoiced and bagged to return for Day 8, which will commence on Friday, July 15th at 2 p.m. local time when the players will battle it out on a single table, slated to be streamed on PokerGO.

Is this the greatest fold in WSOP history?

2022 Main Event Unofficial Final Table Seat Draw

A huge turning point down the stretch occurred when the biggest pot of the tournament transpired with Jorstad on the right side of a massive cooler. He picked up aces against the ace-king of GGPoker qualifier Tom Kunze, and held to claim the massive pot.

"Obviously it's the dream,” Jorstad said as he bagged up for the night. “Getting it in as the biggest favorite that you can be in the biggest tournament and the biggest spot of your life, feels pretty good."

"It probably needs to sink in a bit. Right now I'm just omega-exhausted and I need to eat, drink, sleep. Tomorrow I'll be like ‘oh, it's pretty awesome.’"

Jorstad recently won his first WSOP bracelet in Event #55: $1,000 Tag Team along with Patrick Leonard, who was on the rail to cheer on and support his bracelet buddy.

Su came into the day with a stack in the bottom half of the leaderboard, but rivered two pair to survive early in the day, and steadily added to his stack to share the end-of-day chip lead with Jorstad.

Matija Dobric bagged the third-biggest stack and has some experience with deep Main Event runs as he made it to Day 7 in last year’s Main Event before he ultimately fell in 32nd place. The Croatian has already surpassed that result and will soon have a shot at a gold bracelet.

Canada’s Aaron Duczak, United Kingdom’s John Eames, and Australia’s Adrian Attenborough are in the middle of the pack and will also have an opportunity to claim the title and eight-figure payout.

Michael Duek, Jeffrey Farnes, and Asher Conniff will be near the bottom of the leaderboard when play resumes, but they will each have at least 20 big blinds and room to play in the famously deep-structured tournament.

United Kingdom’s Philippe Souki was on the ropes several times and down to three big blinds at one point, but was cheered on by his exuberant rail every time he won a pot, and he will be entering Day 8 with a short stack of 11 big blinds and a dream.

Final Table Payouts

All ten returning players have locked up at least $675,000, with $10,000,000 waiting up top for the winner.

Day 7 runners that did not bag for another day include two-time bracelet winner Marco Johnson (35th - $262,300), 2020 WSOP Main Event champ Damian Salas (27th - $262,300), Aaron Mermelstein (20th - $323,100), last woman standing Efthymia Litsou (18th - $323,100), and Kenny Tran (17th - $410,000).

Day 8 will return with one hour and 48 minutes remaining in Level 38 with blinds at 600,000/1,200,000/1,200,000, and play is scheduled to continue until there are four players left. The tournament is then slated to conclude with the final four players returning for Day 9 on Saturday, July 16, and they will battle it out on the felt until a winner is declared.

Stay tuned as the PokerNews team returns to provide coverage of all the final table action of the 2022 WSOP Main Event from Bally’s and Paris Las Vegas.

Click here for the WSOP Main Event live updates

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Farmer Plants Seeds of Victory in the Lucky 7's

Christopher Farmer is the man at the top of the chip counts in Event #75: $777 Lucky 7's where only nine players from the 6,903 who started this tournament remain in contention for the $777,777 top prize.

Farmer takes his seat at the final table with 77,400,000 chips, a substantial lead over Rodney Turvin (58,000,000) and Kyle Miholich (31,700,000) who round out the podium finishes.

Also at the final table is the five-time WSOP bracelet winner Allen Cunningham, who last struck poker gold in 2007. Will Cunningham end his 15-year bracelet drought? Tune into PokerNews from 12:00 p.m. local time on July 14 to find out.

Event #75: $777 Lucky 7's No-Limit Hold'em Chip Counts

Find the Lucky 7's final table updates here

Brandon Shack-Harris Leads the $10K Razz Championship

Brandon Shack-Harris is hunting for his third WSOP bracelet as he leads the final 13 into Day 3 of Event #79: $10,000 Razz Championship. Shack-Harris goes into Day 3 armed with 1,152,000 chips, with only six-time WSOP bracelet winner Brian Hastings the only other player with a seven-figure stack, namely 1,149,000.

The rest of the field is stacked with incredible poker players, including French mixed games specialist Julien Martini (873,000), Max Pescatori (724,000), Chance Kornuth (707,000), Joao Vieira (677,000), and reigning WSOP Main Event champion Koray Aldemir (480,000).

Players return to their seats from 2:00 p.m. local time on July 14 and play until a champion is crowned.

Event #79: $10,000 Razz Championship Top Ten Chip Counts

Love high-stakes Razz? You'll love these live updates.

Briones Bags The Chip Lead in the $600 NLHE/PLO Mix; Dan Zack Lurking Outside the Top 10

Honduras may not be the first country that springs to mind when you think about poker but Jorge Briones is set to put Honduras on the poker map if he continues how he started in Event #80: $600 Mixed No-Limit Hold'em/Pot-Limit Omaha.

Briones finished Day 1 armed with 2,585,000 chips, enough to see him top the chip counts with only 76 of the 2,107 starters remaining. Two bracelet owners find themselves in the top ten, namely Nipun Java (1,775,000) and Jonathan Dimmig (1,710,000), while three-time winner Dan Zack is lurking just outside the top ten (1,295,000). Further down the counts is Asi Moshe (880,000).

Cards are back in the air from 1:00 p.m. local time on July 14, and the plan is to continue playing until only one player remains.

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Event #80 $600 Mixed No-Limit Hold'em/Pot Limit Omaha Day 2 Top 10 Chip Counts

Will Honduras get itself a WSOP champion?

Davis The Only Player Over 1M in the $5,000 NLHE Freezeout

Mark Davis is loving life right now thanks to bagging up a huge chip stack after Day 1 of Event #81: $5,000 Freezeout No-Limit Hold'em. Davis finished the night with 1,127,000 chips, the only player with a seven-figure stack.

Yuki Kashihara (829,000) was the only player to get near Davies in the overnight chip counts, but even he is some distance away from the Alabama native.

Only 153 of the 736 starters progressed to Day 2, and only 114 of those who return for Day 2 will receive some of the $3,487,050 prize pool. Some $665,459 of that sum is reserved for the eventual champion.

Others looking to get closer to the runaway leader include Kitty Kuo (580,000), James Romero (500,000), Nacho Barbero (432,000), Galen Hall (319,000), Benny Glaser (231,000), Michael Mizrachi (170,000), and Michael Gathy (41,000).

Cards are back in the air from 2:00 p.m. local time on July 14.

Event #81: $5,000 Freezeout No-Limit Hold'em Top 10 Chips

Tune into all the $5K NLHE Freezeout updates

Matthew Pitt hails from Leeds, West Yorkshire, in the United Kingdom, and has worked in the poker industry since 2008, and worked for PokerNews since 2010. In September 2010, he became the editor of PokerNews. Matthew stepped away from live reporting duties in 2015, and now concentrates on his role of Senior Editor for the PokerNews.

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