Scott Seiver Wins 2022 World Series of Poker $2,500 No-Limit Hold'em Freezeout For Fourth Gold Bracelet

You can follow the 2022 World Series of Poker on Card Player’s series landing page, sponsored by Global Poker, the fastest growing online poker room in the world. Check out the series schedule, as well as event recaps, news, and player interviews.

Scott Seiver won his first World Series of Poker bracelet back in 2008, taking down the $5,000 buy-in no-limit hold’em at his first live tournament final table. Since then, Seiver has gone on to cash for tens of millions on the live circuit, including winning a World Poker Tour championship and other huge titles. He came into the 2022 WSOP with three bracelets to his name, having won a pair of limit championship events in razz and hold’em in 2018 and 2019. The 37-year-old added to what is shaping up to be a Hall of Fame resume by taking down his fourth bracelet in event no. 3, the $2,500 buy-in no-limit hold’em freezeout.

“I’ve wanted another no-limit bracelet for a long time. The fields are so tough, everyone is so good at hold’em, and they are so large, so while I never thought I was due, it was something I really wanted for a while,” Seiver told WSOP reporters after coming out on top.

Seiver defeated a field of 752 entries and a stacked final table full of bracelet winners and high-stakes regulars to secure the hardware and the top prize of $320,059. In doing so, he became the 64th player to win four or more bracelets at the series. Joining him at the final table were the likes of three-time bracelet winner Nick Schulman, two-time bracelet winner Steve Zolotow, American high-stakes regular Chris Hunichen, and Spanish high roller Sergio Aido.

“Honestly, it was so much fun,” Seiver told PokerGO when asked about the other tough players that made it deep with him. “Of course, part of it is a mixed blessing. You play a smaller buy-in tournament like this with, you know, 800 players, and you expect by the end to be a lot more unknown faces. But from around 30 down, it was just killer after killer after killer everywhere. Honestly, some of the toughest two or three tables you’ll see even in high rollers, too. Just great players everywhere. But we had so much fun and the atmosphere was so light. All night last night we were just cracking jokes, screaming, laughing. It was an incredible time and it just makes playing so much more fun when you can have that kind of atmosphere.”

This victory saw Seiver increase his lifetime earnings to more than $24.8 million, good for 23rd on poker’s all-time money list.

The 1,368 Card Player Player of the Year points handed out for this victory catapulted Seiver into 34th place in the 2022 POY race standing sponsored by Global Poker. This was his first title and third POY-qualified final-table finish of the year.

This event played out over the course of three days. The top 113 players made the money, with just ten surviving to the final day. Plenty of notables made deep runs that fell just short of the final table, including bracelet winners like Ken Aldridge (20th – $10,176), Cord Garcia (15th – $12,230), and Dylan Linde (13th – $14,967), who is also a WPT champion.

Day three saw Shawn Hood (10th – $18,645) and season tournament regular Aditya Agarwal (9th – $23,634) hit the rail early. Hunichen got the last of his stack in preflop with A-J trailing the pocket queens of David Goodman. The pair held up and Hunichen was knocked out in eighth place, earning $30,478 to bring his lifetime total to nearly $10.4 million.

Lewis Spencer (7th – $39,970) saw his run come to an end when K-3 suited failed to overcome the A-2 of Seiver, who entered the seven-handed PokerGO live stream with the lead.

Three-time bracelet winner and WPT champion Nick Schulman’s tournament life was soon on the line, with his A-K leading the A-Q of Sergio Aido. A queen on fourth street saw the tables turned, though, and Schulman was knocked out in sixth place ($53,296). The score pushed his career earnings past the $14.3 million mark.

Despite taking down that pot, Aido was ultimately the next to be eliminated. He lost a huge chunk of his stack to Seiver, bet-folding to a shove on the river. He soon was all-in and at risk with pocket sevens facing the A-Q of Zolotow. An ace on the flop gave Zolotow a lead he never relinquished and Aido was sent home with $72,233.

Zolotow remained toward the bottom of the counts even after winning that hand. He ultimately called off the last of his stack in a battle of the blinds, with his K-5 suited unable to beat out the 4-3 suited of Goodman, who had shoved from the small blind. Goodman made a full house to drag the pot and eliminate Zolotow in fourth place ($99,483).

Three-handed play saw all of the remaining players take a turn at the top of the chip counts. Seiver came from behind in a crucial pot, with his A-9 besting the A-J suited of Goodman all-in preflop to see Seiver surge back up the leaderboard. Goodman went on to finish third, with his A-10 failing to overcome the pocket queens of Seiver. He earned $139,193 for his deep run.

Heads-up play began with Seiver holding more than a 3:2 chip lead over Alexander Farahi. He won several early pots, including a hero call with king-high on the river, to extend his advantage to more than 5:1. Farahi mounted a small comeback, but then got all-in with A8 trailing the QQ of Seiver. The board ran out 95353 and Seiver locked up the pot and the title. Farahi was awarded $197,806 as the runner-up, the second-largest score of his career behind the $561,530 he took home for a third-lace finish in the 2017 WSOP Millionaire Maker event.

Here is a look at the payouts and POY points awarded at the final table:

Winner photo credit: PokerGO / Antonio Abrego.

You can follow the 2022 World Series of Poker on Card Player’s series landing page, sponsored by Global Poker, the fastest growing online poker room in the world. Check out the series schedule, as well as event recaps, news, and player interviews.

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