Henry Acain Defeats Massive Field of 20,080 Entries In The World Series of Poker 'Housewarming' Event

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 World Series of Poker moved to a new venue in 2022. To celebrate Paris Las Vegas and Bally’s first year hosting the series, the WSOP named their opening weekend tournament ‘The Housewarming’. The $500 buy-in no-limit hold’em event featured a $5 million guarantee, which was easily blown away by a massive turnout of 20,080 total entries. This was the fourth-largest live field in WSOP history, trailing only the 2019 ‘Big 50’ (28,371 entries), the 2015 Colossus (22,374), and the 2016 Colossus (21,613). As a result, $8,433,600 in total prize money was paid out among the top 2,778 finishers.

This event kicked off with the first of four starting flights on June 2. Six days later, one player finally emerged from the sea of entries to seize the bracelet and the top prize of $701,215: Henry Acain. This was the Stockton, California resident’s first six-figure cash in a live tournament. His previous top score was a $30,000 payday earned for a runner-up showing in a 2021 Venetian DeepStack Championship $400 buy-in event. He now has more than $857,000 in total career earnings.

“Amazing, I feel pretty good about it”, Acain told WSOP reporters after securing the bracelet. “It’s like my dream come true.”

Acain also earned 720 Card Player Player of the Year points for this win. This was his second POY-qualified score of the year, having placed fifth in a $600 event at Venetian in March for $14,876 and 175 points. He now sits in 229th place in the 2022 POY race, which is sponsored by Global Poker.

Only 899 players survived the four starting flights and moved onto day 2. A number of big names made deep runs, but fell short of making the final table, including bracelet winner Ryan Depaulo (322nd – $3,680), bracelet winner Anthony Marquez (253rd – $4,190), two-time World Poekr Tour main event winner Daniel Weinman (248th – $4,190), Matt Affleck (59th – $12,735), Will Failla (21st – $28,100), and two-time bracelet winner Brandon Cantu (13th – $43,515).

The final day began with twelve players remaining. Acain was fourth in chips to start. By the time the field combined onto one table, he had moved into the outright lead. He then busted Yavine Brewer (10th – $54,705) with A-8 beating pocket jacks to set the official final table.

Acain scored another knockout when his pocket queens held against the pocket sevens of Isidro Martinez (9th – $69,235) in a big preflop confrontation. Erik Carvalho was the next player to hit the rail, having been left on fumes after his A-Q lost a huge all-in to Jared Kingery’s A-K. He finished eighth for $88,214.

2018 WSOP Casino Employee event winner Jordan Hufty’s run in this tournament ended thanks to a brutal cooler. He got all-in preflop with pocket queens, only to find himself up against the pocket aces of Christian Taylor. The superior pair held up and Hufty was eliminated in seventh place ($113,145).

Just before the first break of the day, Darnell White ran K-Q suited into the A-Q of Kingery. He was unable to come from behind and finished sixth for $146,080.

Jen-Yue Chiang was down to just a couple big blinds when his final hand was dealt. He shoved with K-7 as the first to act, and was called by only Kingery out of the big blind. Kingery’s 10-9 made a jack-high straight on the river to send Chiang home with $189,850.

Orez Mokedi secured a career-best payday of $248,340 as the fourth-place finisher after he got all-in with pocket sixes and lost to the A-8 of Christian Taylor, who flopped two pair and rivered a full house. With that Taylor took the chip lead heading into three-handed action.

Acain was able to move back atop the chip counts thanks to a huge clash between him and taylor. With a flop of 1063, Acain moved all-in for 227,000,000 holding AJ. Taylor called with K10. The 9 on the turn gave Acain an unbeatable flush to leave taylor drawing dead. The J on the river was a mere formality, and the huge pot was pushed to Acain.

Taylor was soon all-in. He picked up pocket eights and went with them for his last few blinds. Acain had picked up A-J again. An ace-high runout spelled the end of Taylor in this event. He was awarded $326,965 for his deep run, by far the largest score of his live tournament career.

With that, Acan took nearly a 4:1 chip lead into heads-up play with Kingery. He nearly closed out the event when all of the chips got in preflop with his pocket jacks leading the A-3 of Kingery, but an ace-high flop saw that short stock double up to close the gap considerably.

In the final hand it was Acain who came from behind with A-3. He open-shoved from the button with A3 and Kingery called with AA. The case ace hit on a A87 flop to improve Kingery to top set. The K on the turn gave Acain the nut flush draw, which came in on a 4 river. Kingery’s aces were cracked to see him finish second for $433,255, while Acain secured the title in dramatic fashion thanks to running clubs.

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

Winner photo credit: PokerGO.

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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