Bradley Ruben Denies Jaswinder Lally's Title Defense, Wins Fourth Career WSOP 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.

Jaswinder Lally came within one player of going back-to-back in the World Series of Poker $1,500 buy-in dealer’s choice event. He topped a field of 307 entries in 2021 to secure the bracelet, and navigated his way through a field of 430 in 2022 to make it down to heads-up play with a title defense on the line. In the end, Bradley Ruben emerged victorious, denying Lally to capture his fourth WSOP gold bracelet and the top prize of $126,288.

Ruben first cashed at the series back in 2013. His first bracelet didn’t come until 2020, when he took down a $1,500 buy-in pot-limit Omaha event during the WSOP Online festival for a career-best $220,160 payday. Less than a year later he secured his second bracelet as the champion of a $600 no-limit hold’em PLO six-max event, adding another $69,148 in earnings. He earned his first live bracelet at the 2021 series in Las Vegas, besting a field of 311 in the $1,500 razz event.

Now, with his latest win, he became just the 65th player in poker history to have won four or more bracelets. Incredibly, he is the third player to achieve that feat in the past two days, following David Peters and Scott Seiver.

In addition to the hardware, Ruben also earned 720 Card Player Player of the Year points for the win. This was his first POY-qualified cash of the year.

This event played out over the course of three days. Plenty of notables were among the 65 to make the many, including deep runs from a trio of four-time bracelet winners in John Monnette (36th – $3,021), Tom Schneider (21st – $4,850), and Adam Friedman (15th – $5,993). Friedman is a WSOP dealer’s choice legend thanks to his unbelievable back-to-back-to-back victories in the $10,000 buy-in championship version of this format in 2018, 2019, and 2021 (the tournament was not held during the pandemic shutdown of 2020).

Day 2 came to a close after Friedman’s elimination, with Ruben leading the remaining 14 contenders. Longtime WSOP commentator Norman Chad was the second player to hit the rail on day 3. He ran into the pat 5432 A of Charles Bransford to finish 13th ($5,993). This was his second consecutive year making a deep run in this event, having placed 21st in 2021. This score saw his tournament earnings grow to $101,412.

Five-time bracelet winner Brian Rast (12th – $5,993) and two-time bracelet winner Marco Johnson (8th – $9,875) were among the players to fall as the field was narrowed to the official final table of six.

Ruben made a straight and a low playing stud eight-or-better to scoop and eliminate Bransford (6th – $17,944. Four-time bracelet winner Ben Yu scored his first knockout at the final table when his rundown bested the pocket aces of short stack Jorge Walker (5th – $25,056). Yu turned trips and held from there to chip up heading into four-handed play.

Ruben slid to the bottom of the leaderboard during shorthanded play, but mounted a comeback that was capped off by his elimination of Yu. Ruben made a better two pair in stud hi-lo to send Yu home with $35,793. Ruben then won a big pot in five-card draw to move into the lead.

Bracelet winner Naoya Kihara got the last of his chips in playing the same game. He held pocket jacks and drew three, while Ruben drew three with pocket aces. Kihara was unable to improve on his pair and was knocked out in third place ($52,282).

Heads-up play began with Ruben holding nearly a 3:1 lead over Lally. The gap grew before the final hand arrived while playing Omaha eight-or-better. Lally got the last of his stack in with QQ87. Ruben held A953. The board ran out AKJ47 to give Ruben a flush and a 7-5-4-3-A low for a scoop. Lally’s incredible run at a title defense ended with him earning $78,048 as the runner-up.

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

Winner photo provided by WSOP. Credit: Rachel Kay Miller.

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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