The 2022 World Series of Poker is heading into its second weekend of activity, and what better way to kick it off than with a big Friday schedule. In one event, Alex Foxen looks to become the latest to remove his name from the “best without a bracelet” list. In another, Yuval Bronshtein will look to finish his work and take the latest $10,000 Championship event of the series.
Yuval Bronshtein Tops Final Five in Omaha Hi/Lo Championship
24 players came back on Thursday to work towards the championship of Event #15, the $10,000 Omaha Hi/Lo 8 or Better Championship, and it proved to be an entertaining day of play. Yohannes Becker led the way upon the call of “shuffle up and deal,” but he would face some severe issues early. Becker locked into a huge betting war against Jake Liebeskind, and the result was that one player would depart.
Becker and Liebeskind got their bets to the center and the cards on their back with a 2-6-7-K-3 board showing, and the news was not good for Becker. His A-J-6-3 rivered two pair with a seven-low, but Liebeskind was able to clip him with an A-4-Q-5 for a straight to the seven and a six-low. That sent all but one big bet from Becker over to Liebeskind; he would depart in 21st place on the next hand.
The hand shot Liebeskind over the million-chip mark, but that would be the high point of his day. Liebeskind will be a part of the five-man final table, but he will be the short stack in play with only 295,000 in chips. Bronshtein rocketed to the lead on the strength of knocking out Bart O’Connell in sixth place on the final hand of the night, but the tournament is far from over:
1. Yuval Bronshtein, 4.175 million
2. Dustin Dirksen, 3.165 million
3. Daniel Zack, 2.44 million
4. Ray Dehkharghani, 1.695 million
5. Jake Liebeskind, 295,000
The reason the tournament is far from over is that the blinds are beginning to eat into the stacks. The blinds are currently 80K/160K, meaning Liebeskind does not even have two big blinds left in his stack. Even Dehkharghani only has about eleven big blinds left, while chip leader Bronshtein is relatively well-stacked with 26 big blinds in front of him. A couple of missteps by anyone could result in a huge swing at the final table.
The players will return at 5PM (Pacific Daylight Time) to resume their game. At stake is one of the latest WSOP bracelets to be awarded, along with a $440,757 payday for the eventual champion.
Two Tournaments Look to Reach Final Tables
Event #15 will be the only tournament that should crown a champion on Friday, but two others will set themselves up to figure out a winner on Saturday.
In Event #16, the $3000 No Limit Hold’em, Alex Foxen will lead the final 75 players to the post for Day Three of the tournament. Foxen, who has yet to feel a WSOP bracelet touch his wrist, is the only player over two million chips (2.07 million, to be exact) at this mark in the tournament. He certainly has some quality players in pursuit, including Niall Farrell (1.61 million) and Adrian Mateos (1.165 million), among others. Plans are to play down to the final table in this event, with the champion to be determined on Saturday.
In Event #17, the $2500 Mixed Triple Draw Lowball tournament motors on with seventeen players left in the event. Playing under the bright lights of Paris Las Vegas will be chip leader Bariscan Betil, who sits with 1.19 million in front of him for action. A former November Niner (remember that?), Jerry Wong, is closely chasing Betil with his 1.14 million stack, while Andrew Brown (1.01 million), Frank Kassela (750K) and John Monette (600K) lurk in the pack. This tournament is scheduled to play out today, but circumstances may make it a part of the Saturday schedule.