The 2022 World Series of Poker Online came to an end on July 17th, with the final two events of a 13-tournament slate for Nevada and New Jersey players wrapping up just a few days before the live WSOP also concluded.
The $5,300 buy-in no-limit hold’em freezeout high roller event drew a field of 245 entries, building a prize pool of $1,225,000 that was paid out among the top 35 finishers.
After less than 12 hours of online tournament action, Italian poker pro Gianluca Speranza emerged victorious with the title, earning his first WSOP gold bracelet and the top prize of $324,625.
This was the fourth-largest recorded tournament score of his career. He had secured his largest payday just a few months earlier by taking down the €25,000 buy-in high roller event at the European Poker Tour Monte Carlo for $895,650. The 2017 WSOP Europe main event runner-up now has nearly $4.9 million in career earnings to his name.
Speranza, playing under the screen name ‘Inmyhouse’, outlasted a number of big names that made deep runs in this event, including bracelet winner Andrew Lichtenberger (34th), recent online bracelet winner Julien Perouse (24th),
Leonard Maue (22nd), two-time bracelet winner Taylor Paur (18th), bracelet winner Kenny Huynh (14th), three-time bracelet winner Paul Volpe (9th), and bracelet winner Kazuki Ikeuchi (4th).
Paul Scaturro knocked out recent WSOP Circuit Bicycle Casino main event winner Michael Jozoff in third place ($108,413) to take the lead into heads-up play with Speranza. The Italian was able to edge his way ahead early, though, and then won the decisive pot with pocket queens all-in against the pocket sixes of Scaturro. The larger pair held up and Scatturo was eliminated in second place ($189,875).
WSOP Online $5,300 No-Limit Hold’em High Roller Freezeout
| Place | Player | Earnings |
| 1 | Gianluca ‘Inmyhouse’ Speranza | $324,625 |
| 2 | Paul ‘rungood27’ Scaturro | $189,875 |
| 3 | Michael ‘mikejozoff’ Jozoff | $108,413 |
| 4 | Kazuki ‘hyahhoo3’ Ikeuchi | $83,300 |
| 5 | Jakob ‘Silenzium77’ Miegel | $71,050 |
| 6 | Joao ‘WinamaxPT’ Vieira | $58,800 |
| 7 | Angel ‘CHROMEKINGNJ’ Lopez | $44,100 |
| 8 | Patrik ‘Nemamprachy’ Ciklamíni | $29,400 |
The second WSOPO event to determine a champion on Sunday was the $500 buy-in no-limit hold’em ‘Summer Saver’. By the time registration officially close, 1,648 entries had been made to build a $741,600 prize pool.
The largest share of that money was ultimately awarded to Shaun ‘BabyLegs’ O’Donnell. The Succasunna, NJ resident earned his first bracelet and $125,330 as the champion.
This was O’Donnell’s second-biggest tournament score ever, trailing only the $129,930 he earned as the 60th-place finisher in the 2018 WSOP main event. He now has more than $601,000 in recorded scores under his belt.
The top 247 finishers made the money in this tournament, which meant plenty of big names secured one last WSOPO score before the series came to an end, including three-time bracelet winner Shankar Pillai (58th), Landon Tice (44th), World Poker Tour main event winner Booby Oboodi (21st), four-time bracelet winner Anthony Zinno (15th), and two-time WSOP main event final tablist Jeff Shulman (11th).
Incredibly, Scaturro managed to final table this event in addition to the high roller tournament. He added $22,100 to his impressive haul for the day with a sixth-place finish in this event. Bracelet winner Boril Kolev also made an appearance at the final table, finishing fifth for $29,738.
WSOP Online $500 No-Limit Hold’em ‘Summer Saver’
| Place | Player | Earnings |
| 1 | Shaun ‘BabyLegs’ O’Donnell | $125,330 |
| 2 | Andrew ‘Pokasmoka’ Benedict | $77,275 |
| 3 | Benjamin ‘Denali2020’ Chung | $55,620 |
| 4 | Soheb ‘bdbeatslayer’ Porbandarwala | $40,417 |
| 5 | Boris ‘goldenbracelet’ Kolev | $29,738 |
| 6 | Paul ‘rungood27’ Scaturro | $22,100 |
| 7 | Lawrence ‘MeldyMan’ Meldman | $16,612 |
| 8 | Guy ‘PhilLaak’ Dunlap | $12,607 |
| 9 | Michael ‘mygame’ Lavenburg | $9,715 |
O’Donnell photo credit: Borgata Poker Blog.
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