Ben Diebold and Mike Gorodinsky To Battle for WSOP Gold Bracelet in Event #10: $10,000 Dealer's Choice 6-Handed Championship
The decision on who takes home the gold bracelet in the largest $10,000 Dealer's Choice 6-Handed Championship in the history of the World Series of Poker has been postponed. Out of a field of 123 entries, Ben Diebold and Mike Gorodinsky remain in contention to follow into the footsteps of three-time champion Adam Friedman in the latest mixed game competition of the 2022 WSOP in its new home at Bally’s and Paris Las Vegas.
Both have locked up the lion's share of the $1,146,975 prize pool after surviving seven 90-minute levels in the Bally’s Event Center. Diebold holds a commanding lead of 3.5 to one over Gorodinsky, who will aim to come from behind and secure his third WSOP gold bracelet.
With more than $2.6 million in WSOP cashes spread over 31 results, Gorodinsky has far more experience than Diebold but the latter ramped up his live cash game activities on American soil during the last few years significantly. Diebold also has some deep runs in tournaments to show for with almost $700,000 in recorded cashes. In March 2022, he won a $3,000 Bounty Event at the Wynn right here in Las Vegas for $96,810 and will surpass that amount by a significant margin no matter if he wins or finishes in second place.
| Seat | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Bets |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ben Diebold | United States | 5,720,000 | 29 |
| 2 | Mike Gorodinsky | United States | 1,635,000 | 8 |
Just before the end of the night, Brian Rast was eliminated in third place and that brought an end to a fairytale comeback story on Day 3 of Event #10: $10,000 Dealer's Choice 6-Handed Championship. During the early stages with ten players remaining in the second level of the day, Rast was left with fewer than two big bets and spun that into the commanding lead on the final table after he knocked out Randy Ohel in sixth place.
Ten of the 15 returning contenders already had a WSOP bracelet win under their belt and among the early casualties were
Jordan Siegel, Tuan Le, and Joao Vieira. Once the field combined to the final two tables, Nick Schulman was eliminated by Ben Diebold and Mark Gregorich came up second-best against Mike Gorodinsky.
What followed was a very tense period in which GGPoker ambassador Felipe Ramos stuck around with a severe short stack only to bow out in tenth place. Three-time WSOP bracelet winner Greg Mueller and four-time champion Jeff Madsen then missed out on the unofficial final table and the final seven contenders were led by Ohel and Rast.
Anatolii Zyrin became very short and doubled several times before he ran with ace-queen into the ace-king of Rast in Pot-Limit Hold'em, a variant he had selected himself just prior. One of the most pivotal hands followed just a few minutes later when the two chip leaders clashed in Pot-Limit Omaha. Rast had the best of it to knock out Ohel and take over the reign atop the leaderboard for an extended period.
Two hours passed until Naoya Kihara was eliminated by Gorodinsky and four-handed play lasted even longer as the stack sizes were almost even at some point. Once Diebold went on a hot streak to take over the lead, he never looked back anymore. Christopher Claassen became his next victim and Rast was then handcuffed with a very short stack to ultimately be denied a shot at his sixth WSOP gold bracelet for now.
Final Table Results and Remaining Payouts
| Place | Winner | Country | Prize (in USD) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $299,488 | ||
| 2 | $185,095 | ||
| 3 | Brian Rast | United States | $134,370 |
| 4 | Christopher Claassen | United States | $98,738 |
| 5 | Naoya Kihara | Japan | $73,453 |
| 6 | Randy Ohel | United States | $55,329 |
The final two players will return to the Thunderdome in the Bally’s Event Center on Wednesday, June 8, 2022, as of 2pm local time and determine the champion of the record-setting $10,000 Dealer's Choice Championship. Stay tuned right here on PokerNews to find out who will lift the gold bracelet for the winner shots then.
History of the WSOP $10,000 Dealer's Choice Championship
| Year | Entries | Prize Pool | Winner | Runner-Up | 1st Prize |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 108 | $1,015,200 | Quinn Do | Rep Porter | $319,792 |
| 2016 | 118 | $1,109,200 | Jean Gaspard | William O'Neil | $306,621 |
| 2017 | 102 | $930,600 | John Racener | Viacheslav Zhukov | $273,962 |
| 2018 | 111 | $1,043,400 | Adam Friedman | Stuart Rutter | $293,275 |
| 2019 | 122 | $1,146,800 | Adam Friedman | Shaun Deeb | $312,417 |
| 2021 | 93 | $867,225 | Adam Friedman | Phil Hellmuth | $248,350 |
| 2022 | 123 | $1,146,975 | TBA | TBA | $299,488 |