More Than $34 Million Paid Out Through First 13 WSOP Online Events

The 2022 World Series of Poker Online has been running for over a fortnight, with 13 bracelets awarded so far on GGpoker, the international online partner of the WSOP. There will be 33 bracelets in total awarded on that site, with another 33 scheduled for WSOP.com for players in Nevada and New Jersey.

More than $34 million in prize money has already been paid out through the 13 completed events, with 72,569 total entries made so far. That means the average prize pool per event has been larger than $2.6 million, with the mean turnout being 5,582 entries per tournament.

The series got underway with a $500 buy-in no-limit hold’em event dubbed ‘The Housewarming’. The tournament drew a field of 5,099 total entries, easily surpassing the tournament’s unique $2,022,000 guarantee to create a final prize pool of $2,422,025. The top 600 finishers made the money, but the largest payday was reserved for eventual champion Stefan Schillhabel. The German poker pro earned $296,410 and his first WSOP gold bracelet for the win.

The 2016 WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star main event champion now has more than $11 million in recorded tournament earnings to his name. Other notables who made deep runs included Angelina Rich (4th – $124,993), Markus Prinz (10th – $14,038), and online streamer Kevin Martin (39th – $5,561).

The second event of the opening Sunday included a charity component. The $1,111 buy-in ‘Every 1 for War Relief’ tournament saw $111 from each buy-in donated to the National Bank of Ukraine. The tournament attracted a final total of 730 entries, resulting in a sum of $81,030 for war relief efforts. The remaining $811,030 in prize money was paid out among the top 125 finishers in this no-limit hold’em event.

In the end, the lion’s share was received by Germany’s Claas Eyke Segebrecht. He took home $102,152 and his first gold bracelet as the champion. The 2017 Master Classics of Poker main event winner now has more than $3.3 million in recorded tournament cashes under his belt. The largest of those came when he finished second in the 2019 WSOP Europe main event for $777,709.

Plenty of big names made the money, including high-stakes tournament regular David Coleman (12th – $6,928), bracelet winner Chris Klodnicki (9th – $12,191), and EPT champion Dzmitry Urbanovich (6th – $27,054).

The first non-no-limit hold’em event of the series was the $2,500 buy-in limit hold’em championship tournament. With 124 entries, there was $294,500 to play for. The top 20 finishers made the money. In the end, Brazil’s Rafael Caiaffa emerged victorious with the title, the bracelet, and the top prize of $64,671. This is the third-largest recorded score of his career, with his largest being a $115,800 payday for finishing 55th in the 2008 WSOP main event in Las Vegas. Caiaffa now has more than $330,000 in recorded tournament earnings to his name.

Other notables who made it into the money in this event included Winning Poker Network CEO Phil Nagy (11th – $4,889), bracelet winner Ivan Deyra (10th – $5,149), bracelet winner Yueqi Zhu (9th – $6,821), Ren Lin (8th – $9,036), and recent WSOP $25,000 high roller final tablist Antonio Lievano (6th – $15,856).

Jacopo Achille was the next player to capture their first bracelet during the early days of this series. The Italian player defeated a field of 986 entries in the $1,050 buy-in no-limit hold’em bounty deepstack event to grasp the gold and $96,796 in total prize money. Achille scored $39,862 from the main prize pool as the champion, and another $56,907 in bounty payouts.

The top 134 players cashed in this bounty event, with big names among the in-the-money finishers including bracelet winner Arkadiy Tsinis (32nd – $3,114), 2021 WSOP main event 28th-place finisher Matthew Jewett (9th – $7,917), and Bryan Paris (4th – $17,944).

The $315 buy-in six-handed bounty no-limit hold’em event drew a strong field of 2,312 total entries. When the dust settled, the final bounty was collected by France’s Jon Garde. His total haul from the event included his first bracelet and $60,714 in earnings, with $32,356 in bounty payouts and another $28,358 from the main prize pool.

German Timo Kamphues was the first player eliminated at the official final table. His deep run in this event secured him $13,464 in prize money, enough to see his career recorded earnings surpass the $1.2 million mark. Other notables to cash in this event included bracelet winners Barak Wisbrod (59th – $927) and Nick Maimone (18th – $1,632).

Jonas Lauck was the first winner of this series with a bracelet win already on his resume. Lauck, who won the $1,500 no-limit hold’em super turbo bounty event back in 2019, captured his second career bracelet by taking down the $800 buy-in ‘MONSTER STACK’ no-limit hold’em event, overcoming a field of 1,797 entries. He locked up the aforementioned hardware and $173,224 as the last player standing, increasing his recorded tournament earnings to nearly $2.1 million.

Lauck overcame plenty of tough competition on the final day of this event, including Aditya Agarwal (14th – $7,127), 2018 partypoker LIVE MILLIONS UK main event winner Ioannis Konstas (9th – $17,332), 2010 EPT Copenhagen main event winner Anton Wigg (4th – $73,047), and two-time bracelet winner Yuri Dzivielevski (3rd – $97,410).

The $210 buy-in ‘Million Dollar Mystery Bounty’ no-limit hold’em event sported a monstrous $10,000,000 guarantee, with $1 million for one lucky bounty ticket holder. That seven-figure bounty was drawn by two-time bracelet winner Scott Ball, who apparently misread his bounty ticket at first and thought he had drawn just $1,000. When he went to check his account balance, he found the pleasant surprise of several extra zeros.

In the end, Finland’s Tapio Vihakas was the last bounty hunter standing. Vihakas earned $367,953 in total prize money and his first bracelet as the champion. Japan’s Hyunsup Kim took home $278,450 as the runner-up.

Other notables who made deep runs included 2016 WSOP main event sixth-place finisher Kenny Hallaert (88th), 2018 WSOP main event seventh-place finisher Alexander Lynskey (60th), and high-stakes online tournament crusher Niklas Astedt (49th).

The next event to wrap was the prestigious $5,000 buy-in no-limit hold’em six-handed championship. A tough field of 430 entries turned out, building a prize pool of more than $2 million. Belgium’s Pieter Aerts emerged victorious, capturing his first gold bracelet and the top payout of $400,213. This was the largest recorded tournament score of Aerts’ career. The win saw him become just the third Belgian player ever to win a WSOP bracelet, following in the footsteps of four-time winner Michael Gathy and three-time winner Davidi Kitai.

As one might expect with a buy-in this high, there were plenty of big names among the final handful of tables in this event, including 2019 WSOP main event runner-up Dario Sammartino (31st), two-time bracelet winner Juha Helppi (27th), EPT Sochi main event winner Artur Martirosian (16th), and recent bracelet winner Stefan Schillhabel (14th).

The first non-hold’em event of the series was the $525 buy-in pot-limit Omaha bounty tournament. Canada’s Ami Barer topped a field of 1,142 total entries, securing his first bracelet and $60,889 in total earnings, with $23,711 in main prize pool money and another $37,178 in bounty payouts. Barer now has more than $4 million in recorded tournament earnings to his name, with his largest victory being the $1.4 million he took home as the champion of the 2014 Aussie Millions main event.

There was plenty of tough competition to contend with down the stretch for Barer, with the likes of 2021 WSOP $25,000 event champion Tyler Cornell (30th), Kenny Hallaert (27th), Niklas Astedt (20th), bracelet winner and WPT champion Dylan Linde (19th), and bracelet winner and 2013 One Drop High Roller runner-up Chris Klodnicki (3rd).

The high rollers were out in full force for another five-figure buy-in affair. This time around, the game was heads-up no-limit hold’em, and the cost to enter was $10,000. A total of 97 entries were made, with only the elite eight making the money. Dimitar Danchev was the only player to win each and every one of his one-on-one matches in this tournament. The 2013 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure main event winner earned $327,668 and his first bracelet.

Danchev increased his recorded lifetime earnings to more than $6.3 million with this victory. As a result, he has further extended his lead as Bulgaria’s all-time tournament earnings leader with nearly $3 million more in earnings than his nearest competitor, Ognyan Dimov ($3,284,771). Danchev also became just the 10th player from his home country to have won a bracelet.

Other big names to make the money in this event include Spanish high-stakes regular Sergi Reixach (quarter-finalist), Thomas Muhlocker (quarter-finalist), bracelet winner Shota Nakanishi (semi-finalist), and Dario Sammartino (semi-finalist). Valeriano Toledano took home $187,239 as the runner-up to Danchev.

The price of poker went down considerably from event 10 to event 11. The ‘DOUBLE STACK’ bounty no-limit hold’em event cost just $400 per entry. When registration had officially closed, 3,550 entries had been made, resulting in a prize pool of $1,349,000.

The top 440 finishers made the money, but nobody earned a larger payday than eventual winner Gustavo Mastelotto. The Brazilian player took home $106,562 in total prize money, with $55,064 in bounty payouts and the remaining $51,498 coming from the main prize pool. This was Mastelotto’s largest recorded cash yet, topping the $33,363 he earned for a 70th-place finish in the 2020 WPT World Online Championships.

The stakes rose again for event 12, the $10,000 Super MILLION$ high roller no-limit hold’em event. The tournament featured a massive $5,000,000 guarantee, which was easily surpassed when 593 entries were made to build a final prize pool of $5,752,100.

As a result, the top prize in this event swelled to just shy of $1 million. It was New Zealand’s David Yan who came away with the title and that top payout of $985,565. This was the largest recorded score of his career, increasing his lifetime earnings to more than $2.5 million.

Yan is having quite the month. At the EPT Barcelona festival earlier in August he finished fourth in one €50,000 buy-in event for $324,275, then placed second a few days later in another tournament at the same price point for an additional $619,565.

The final table featured four-time bracelet winner David Peters (6th), and Pieter Aerts (3rd), fresh off his win in the six-max event.

Germany’s Markus Prinz already had more than $1.3 million in recorded tournament earnings to his name, but that likely didn’t detract from his excitement when he took down the online version of the $1,500 buy-in ‘MILLIONAIRE MAKER’ no-limit hold’em tournament for a massive payday of $1,188,098 and his first gold bracelet.

The event attracted 4,706 entries, resulting in a $6,706,050 prize pool that was paid out among the top 584 finishers.

This was the largest score yet for Prinz, whose previous top payout came when he finished fourth in the 2018 partypoker LIVE MILLIONS North America main event for $624,000.

Check back in future issues for more coverage of the 2022 WSOP Online, which is running from Aug. 14-Oct. 18. ♠