WSOP 2022 Wrap-up: Biggest prizes, bracelet winners, player of the year and more

This year’s World Series of Poker (WSOP) was special for a number of reasons.

For one, the WSOP moved back to June/July (following last year’s November run) and with it brought back the summer camp vibe of years gone by. For the first time since 2019, the series felt like it was truly getting back to normal, post-covid.

Secondly, the WSOP has a brand new home at the Ballys/Paris properties, meaning the series took place on the Vegas strip for the first time in its history. The reviews are in and it appears that these new venues were a huge success.

We could go on all day listing reasons why the 2022 WSOP was one of the best yet, but instead, let’s just get down to the brass tacks.

Who won what? How much did they win? How many people played? And who was the best player of the year?

Here’s your ultimate wrap-up of the 2022 WSOP.

THE MAIN EVENT

The $10,000 WSOP Main Event is the biggest event on the poker calendar and this year saw 8,663 people take their shot at becoming the world champion.

But there can only be one winner.

Norway’s Espen Jorstad took the honors this year, winning his second WSOP bracelet (he’d won his first earlier in the series by taking down the $1,000 Tag Team event) and the first place prize:

$10,000,000.

1 – Espen Jorstad (Norway) $10,000,000
2 – Adrian Attenborough (Australia) $6,000,000
3 – Michael Duek (Argentina) $4,000,000
4 – John Eames (United Kingdom) $3,000,000
5 – Matija Dobric (Croatia) $2,250,000
6 – Jeffrey Farnes (United States) $1,750,000
7 – Aaron Duczak (Canada) $1,350,000
8 – Philippe Souki (United Kingdom) $1,075,000
9 – Matthew Su (United States) $850,675
10 – Asher Conniff (United States) $675,000

To find out more about Jorstad, check out our article:

WSOP 2022 Main Event Champion: Who is Espen Jorstad?

BIGGEST PRIZES OUTSIDE OF THE MAIN EVENT

In the Super High Roller world, the biggest prize went to Alex Foxen who took down his first WSOP bracelet.

Foxen won the $250K buy-in Super High Roller for $4,563,700, defeating a 56-player field.

As for the lower buy-ins, it was Bulgaria’s Yuliyan Kolev who took the largest prize with his win in the $1,500 Millionaire Maker.

As promised, Kolev banked a whopping $1,125,141 for his efforts, outlasting 7,961 players. But that was by no means the biggest field at this year’s WSOP…

LARGEST FIELD

That title belongs to the $500 buy-in The Housewarming event, which took place near the beginning of the series.

The event received a staggering 20,080 entries to create a prize pool of $8,435,280.

When the dust settled, it was Henry Acain of the USA who took it down for $701,215.

PLAYER OF THE YEAR

Having come very close to the title in previous years, perennial WSOP crusher Dan Zack finally clinched the top spot in the WSOP Player of the Year race in 2022.

Zack took down two bracelets, winning both the $10K Seven Card Stud Hi/Lo Championship and the $10K Omaha Hi/Lo 8 or Better Championship for $324,174 and $440,757, respectively.

He also had a bunch of other deep runs to collect those all-important PoY points.

2022 WSOP Player of the Year Final Leaderboard

1 – Dan Zack – 4,530
2 – Daniel Weinman – 4,040
3 – Koray Aldemir – 3,275
4 – Shaun Deeb – 3,197
5 – David Peters – 2,982
6 – Yueqi Zhu – 2,766
7 – Joao Viera – 2,752
8 – Joao Simao Peres – 2,735
9 – Alex Foxen – 2,548
10 – Brian Rast – 2,520

JUNGLEMAN GOES BACK TO BACK

One of the biggest stories of the summer belonged to the dude dressed as Macho Man Randy Savage.

Yep, Dan “Jungleman” Cates–or Macho Man Dan as he was to be referred to throughout the tournament–took down the prestigious $50K buy-in Poker Players Championship for $1,449,103, defeating a field made up of the very best all-around players in the game.

What made it extra special is that Cates also won this very same event last year, so he became the first player to win it in back-to-back years. Cates has two WSOP bracelets and both have come from winning the $50K PPC!

BIG NAMES THAT WON THEIR FIRST BRACELET

ALEX FOXEN
Event: $250K Super High Roller
Prize: $4,563,700

DAN SMITH
Event: $25K Heads-Up No Limit Hold’em Championship
Prize: $509,717

OTHER BIG NAMES WHO WON BRACELETS

To name just a few:

DAVID PETERS
Event: $100,000 High Roller Bounty
Prize: $1,166,810
Bracelets: 4

SCOTT SEIVER
Event: $2,500 Freezeout No-Limit Hold’em
Prize: $320,059
Bracelets: 4

ELI ELEZRA
Event: $10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better Championship
Prize: $611,362
Bracelets: 5

BRIAN HASTINGS
Event: $10,000 Limit 2-7 Lowball Triple Draw Championship
Prize: $292,146
Bracelets: 6

JOAO VIEIRA
Event: $50,000 High Roller No-Limit Hold’em
Prize: $1,384,415
Bracelets: 2

WHO WON MULTIPLE BRACELETS THIS YEAR?

There were only three players who won more than one WSOP bracelet in 2022:

Espen Jorstad

$10K Main Event – $10,000,000
$1K Tag Team – $74,042

Dan Zack

10K Seven Card Stud Hi/Lo Championship – $324,174
$10K Omaha Hi/Lo 8 or Better Championship – $440,757

Lawrence Brandt

$3,000 H.O.R.S.E. – $205,139
$1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better – $289,610

BBZ STUDENT WINS BRACELET

We’ll wrap up this wrap-up with one of our own.

👏 👏 CONGRATULATIONS! 👏 👏

BBZ long-term student @SchwibbsPoker ships a WSOP Online Bracelet. He’s now the proud owner of the much-coveted wrist jewellery. That thing will be jangling on the wrist nicely as he furiously clicks from table to table this Sunday. GG ALEX! 🔥 pic.twitter.com/gyIXybewF5

— BBZ Poker (@BBZPoker) July 16, 2022

Read our interview with Schwibbs here.