Norbert Szecsi and Manig Loeser Win First Two Bracelets of 2022 World Series of Poker Online

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.

The 2022 World Series of Poker Online will see 13 bracelets handed out, with at least one event held each Sunday from June 5 through July 17. The WSOPO kicked off with a double header that ended in a pair of accomplished grinders at the series adding to their bracelet collections.

The first event to conclude was the $5,300 buy-in no-limit hold’em freezeout. A total of 218 entries were made in the tournament, building a final prize pool of $1,090,000. After a long night of high-stakes online action, Hungary’s Norbert ‘Balkan500’ Szecsi emerged victorious with the title, the $288,850 top prize, and his third career gold bracelet.

Szecsi won his first bracelet at the 2013 WSOP, taking down a $1,000 buy-in no-limit hold’em event for $345,037. In 2018 he secured his second bracelet as the champion of a €1,650 buy-in pot-limit Omaha and no-limit hold’em tournament, adding another $99,585 in earnings.

Szecsi now has more than $4.2 million in recorded scores to his name.

As one might expect, given the higher buy-in, the final table was stacked with accomplished players. Early casualties included Adam ‘PHsGoldShoes’ Hendrix (8th – $26,160), WSOP Circuit main event winner Michael ‘mikejozoff’ Jozoff (7th – $39,240), and three-time bracelet winner Phil ‘HeyGuys’ Galfond (6th – $52,320).

Galfond was live-streaming his play in this event online. His virtual rail sweated for over eight hours before his tournament came to an end thanks to a classic preflop race, with his A-K unable to outrun the pocket queens of two-time bracelet winner and 2012 main event champion Greg ‘DustedYou’ Merson.

6th place in the $5k #WSOP Freezeout for $52k. What an awesome stream audience!

Thanks for the support and for keeping me company, and for all the new subs. Would’ve loved to close it out of course, but I’m thrilled with the day. I’ll be back!

— Phil Galfond (@PhilGalfond) June 6, 2022

A player currently known only as ‘qpoker205’ knocked out two-time bracelet winner Taylor ‘galactar’ Paur (5th – $63,220) to narrow the field to four. ‘qpoker205’ was then sent to the rail in fourth place ($74,120) when they ran pocket jacks into the pocket kings of Merson.

Merson lost a chunk of his stack to World Poker Tour champion and two-time bracelet winner Tony ‘Panoramic’ Dunst. He then got all-in with K-7 trailing the K-10 of Szecsi, finishing third for $96,465 when the board brought no help.

Szecsi was able to expand his chip lead in the early going of heads-up action. On the final deal, Dunst shoved with K-4 offsuit and Szecsi called with A-2. Dunst flopped a four but Szecsi had an overcard and the nut flush draw. He paired his ace on the turn and held from there to take down the pot and the title. Dunst earned $169,950 as the runner-up.

The second bracelet awarded online on Sunday came in the no-limit hold’em ‘BIG 500’ event. The tournament drew 1,213 total entries to create a prize pool of $799,200. In the early-morning hours of Monday, June 6, German poker pro Manig ‘Ohio77’ Loeser saw the final virtual pot pushed his direction. For the win he secured $127,153 and his second gold bracelet.

Loeser had won his first bracelet in the second WSOP Online event on the schedule last year, taking down the $600 buy-in ‘Monster Stack’ for a six-figure payday. The 33-year-old now has more than $12.1 million in recorded earnings, with notable titles including these two WSOP victories, a Triton Super High Roller event win, and a victory in the 2019 European Poker Tour Monte Carlo main event.

‘omahabrian’ did much of the damage at the final table, knocking out the first two players after the field converged onto one virtual table. Daniel ‘Utradonk420’ Pricola finished in seventh place ($17,502) when his A-8 suited ran into the pocket kings of ‘Yumyummm’.

‘omahabrian’ struck again, knocking out Louie ‘xILoUieIx’ Torres (6th – $23,176) to enter five-handed action with the lead. Matthew ‘WhiteMJ’ Hewitt busted ‘Yumyummm’ in fifth place ($31,008), only to see their tournament come to an end in fourth place ($41,878). Hewitt ran Q-J into the K-Q suited of ‘omahabrian’ for the majority of his stack, and was sent to the virtual rail shortly after that. ‘omahabrian’ then picked up pocket kings against the A-Q of ‘tzinhoo’ to take nearly a 5:2 chip lead into heads-up play with Loeser.

Loeser was able to work his way into the lead in time for the final hand of the tournament. With a final board of AK92J, Loeser moved all-in for just over the size of the pot. ‘omahabrian’ made the call with K4, only to be shown the winning A7 by Loeser. ‘omahabrian’ earned $78,641 as the runner-up finisher.

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.

Szecsi photo credit: PokerGO.

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