Six Players to Return for Finale of Event #12: $50,000 High Roller
The 2022 World Series of Poker at Bally’s and Paris Las Vegas continued today with more exciting high roller action in Day 2 of Event #12: $50,000 High Roller No-Limit Hold'em 8-Handed. The event attracted 101 entries to create a prize pool of $4,835,375.
Brek Schutten bagged the chip lead with 10,125,000 chips partially propelled by a hot run in the last couple hours of the day. Thailand’s Punnat Punsri will be returning with the second-highest stack, and Jake Schindler will be coming into the finale third in chips with another shot at a maiden bracelet following his close runner-up finish in Event #8: $25,000 High Roller.
Shannon Shorr, David Peters, and Andrew Lichtenberger will start the final day on the bottom half of the leaderboard, although they will still have room to make a run at the title.
There were 39 players in their seats to start the day and the field was whittled down to only six players who will return on Day 3 looking for gold. The remaining contenders are each guaranteed at least $326,464, but all eyes are on the first-place prize of $1,328,068 and the coveted bracelet.
Final Table Seat Draw
| Seat | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Shannon Shorr | United States | 3,650,000 | 15 |
| 2 | Andrew Lichtenberger | United States | 1,325,000 | 5 |
| 3 | Jake Schindler | United States | 4,650,000 | 19 |
| 4 | Brek Schutten | United States | 10,125,000 | 41 |
| 5 | Punnat Punsri | Thailand | 7,150,000 | 29 |
| 6 | David Peters | United States | 3,425,000 | 14 |
Action of the Day
There were 23 players returning to the felt who bagged on Day 1, and 16 additional players entered before late registration closed at the beginning of Day 2.
Phil Ivey was one of the late entrants looking to make a run. He picked up aces and kings within the first few hands of the day to chip up early, but couldn’t continue his early fortune and busted before the money. Chance Kornuth continued his recent hot streak by being the first to move over 4 million chips, but he later lost a big chunk of it to Schutten in a classic cooler.
The top 16 players grabbed a piece of the prize pool. Hand-for-hand play began with two eliminations away from the money, and it took nearly two hours before the bubble finally burst. Vitaliy Rizhkov was first eliminated on the soft bubble, and then several double-ups occurred.
Eventually, it was Marius Gierse to burst the bubble when he got his short stack in and couldn’t improve. From there, a trio of eliminations occurred rather quickly, as Mikita Badziakouski, Shaun Deeb, and Kornuth all made their way to the payout desk to collect $80,000 each.
It would take another hour for the next elimination to transpire when Finland’s Eelis Parssinen lost the rest of his stack. Dan Shak was next to go, and 2021 WSOP Main Event champion Koray Aldemir followed soon after. Dan Smith has been riding a heater lately, but in this tournament, his run came to an end after running into Punsri’s kings. The nine remaining players then converged on the final table.
Chips were exchanged around the final table before Sean Winter became the first elimination there in ninth place when he couldn’t hold on a nines versus ace-jack flip. Italian pro Dario Sammartino was the next to make his exit when he ran his short stack into a better ace.
The seven remaining players would play for almost two hours, where Schutten would pull ahead to become the clear chip leader. Schutten faced a speed bump when Punsri picked up aces at the perfect time to double through him, but he still held the lead.
Michael Rocco was the final player to be eliminated just before the end of the night. He was left with under one big blind after running ace-jack into Schindler’s ace-king and started to make a comeback, but was knocked out by Punsri. The plan was to play down to five players, but a full day of play meant a hard stop after ten levels, and the six remaining players bagged and tagged.
The final table is slated to commence at 3 p.m. local time on Wednesday, June 8, and is scheduled to be streamed on delay on the PokerGO platform starting at 4 p.m. Stay tuned as the PokerNews live reporting team returns to bring you updates until a champion is crowned.