Ben Diebold Wins 2022 World Series of Poker $10,000 Dealer's Choice Championship

You can follow the 2022 World Series of Poker on our series landing page, sponsored by Global Poker. Check out the schedule, as well as event recaps, news, and player interviews.

The World Series of Poker $10,000 Dealer’s Choice Championship has had the same champion each of the last three times it was held. After back-to-back-to-back wins by Adam Friedman, a new winner emerged in 2022: Ben Diebold. He defeated the field of 123 entries in the unique and prestigious event that features 20 games for players to choose from, with each player being able to select the game for a round before the next player gets their choice. For the win, the 28-year-old poker pro from Charleston, South Carolina earned $299,488 and his first gold bracelet.

“It’s amazing. I just started playing mixed games recently, about two years ago. This very big achievement. It’s my first tournament this series, and I guess I will be playing a lot more nows,” said Diebold after coming out on top.

“I like all games. Switching it up is always fun, doing one thing over and over and over again gets tiring and boring. So, playing different games and jumping back and forth, it keeps your mind fresh and makes things more interesting,” said Diebold about the decision to play more mixed games after a background as a pot-limit Omaha cash game player.

This was just Diebold’s third live tournament victory. His first came four years ago when he took down the Card Player Poker Tour bestbet Jacksonville main event for $75,655. Although he only has 34 career cashes since starting to play more tournaments in 2018, he has already accumulated more than $920,000 in lifetime earnings.

In addition to the title and the money, Diebold also earned 660 Card Player Player of the Year points as the champion of this event. This was his second title and third final-table finish of the year. As a result, he now sits inside the top 100 in the 2022 POY race, which is sponsored by Global Poker. He also secured 299 PokerGO Tour points for the win.

This event was scheduled to run over the course of three days, but a fourth day was ultimately needed to finish off the tournament. Day three began with just 15 players remaining. The bubble had burst late on day 2, with Nacho Barbero (19th – $16,264), bracelet winner Nick Guagenti (18th – $16,264), Ian O’Hara (17th – $16,264), and bracelet winner Jean-Robert Bellande (16th – $16,264) hitting the rail before play ended that night.

More big names fell during as play continued to the official final table of six, with notables like two-time bracelet winner Tuan Le (14th – $20,239), bracelet winner Joao Viera (13th – $20,239), three-time bracelet winner Nick Schulman (12th – $20,239), Mark Gregorich (11th – $25,522), Felipe Ramos (10th – $25,522), three-time bracelet winner Greg Mueller (9th – $32,608), four-time bracelet winner Jeff Madsen (8th – $25,522), and two-time bracelet winner Anatolii Zyrin (7th – $42,205) all falling during day 3 action.

Bracelet winner Randy Ohel spent much of day 3 atop the leaderboard, but losses in back-to-back big pots saw him crash from near the top of the chip counts to on the rail in a matter of minutes. Ohel first lost a classic preflop race playing pot-limit hold’em. All of the chips went in preflop with Ohel holding A-K against the pocket fours of bracelet winner Naoya Kihara. The pocket pair held up and Ohel lost just shy of a quarter of his stack.

Not long after that, Ohel three-bet from the big blind in pot-limit Omaha with KKQQ facing a cutoff raise from five-time bracelet winner Brian Rast, who held J986. Rast called and the flop came down J96. Ohel bet 380,000 with his overpairs, flush draw, and gutshot straight draw. Rast went into the tank with his flopped three pair before announcing ‘pot’, which would be a large enough raise to put Ohel all-in. Ohel made the call and the turn brought the 4. Ohel was in need of a king, queen, ten, or any club in order to double up. The 2 on the river was of no help, and Ohel was eliminated in sixth place ($55,329). He now has more just shy of $2.5 million in career tournament earnings after this latest deep run at the series.

Kihara was the next player to fall, having gotten the last of his chips in after the first drawing playing pot-limit triple draw deuce-to-seven lowball. He and his opponent, two-time bracelet winner Mike Gorodisnky, both drew one card on the second draw, then stood pat. Gorodinsky rolled over an 8-6-4-3-2 low, besting Kihara’s 9-6-4-3-2 to narrow the field to four. Kihara added $73,453 to his tournament tally, increasing his lifetime total to just shy of $1.3 million.

Christopher Claassen’s run in this event also came to an end while playing pot-limit triple draw deuce-to-seven. All of the chips got in after the first draw. Claassen took one and Ben Diebold patted. Claassen then patted himself, and Diebold patted a second time to take the hand to showdown. Claassen showed a smooth nine, but it was not enough to beat Diebold’s 8-7-6-4-3. Claassen was awarded a career-best score of $98,783 as the fourth-place finisher.

Rast slid to the bottom of the chip counts during three-handed play. The two-time Poker Players Championship winner eventually got all-in with A-7 facing the A-K of Diebold. A king-high flop gave Diebold a massive lead, which he never relinquished. Rast was sent home with $134,370 for his third-place showing, increasing his total tournament earnings to nearly $22.3 million.

Heads-up play began with Diebold sitting on 5,720,000, while Gorodinsky had 1,635,000. The pair agreed to halt play for the night, as it was after 2:00 AM local time, and come back to play down to a winner the next day. Play resumed for the bonus day at 2:00 PM local time.

Diebold added to his lead in the early going, but Gorodisnky managed a double up in no-limit hold’em when his A-K held against his opponent’s A-6. Not long after that, all of the chips went in again, this time with Diebold holding 77. He was racing against the QJ of Gorodinsky. The board ran out K9695 and pocket sevens held to lock up the pot and the title for Diebold.

Gorodisnky, who won the $50,000 Poker Players Championship in 2015, earned $185,095 as the runner-up finisher in this event. The score increased his lifetime earnings to more than $3.6 million.

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

You can follow the 2022 World Series of Poker on our series landing page, sponsored by Global Poker. Check out the schedule, as well as event recaps, news, and player interviews.

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