WPT World Championship: Benny Glaser Leads The Final Table

The final table of the largest World Poker Tour main event ever held was officially set in the early morning hours of Monday, Dec. 19.

It took a marathon 18-hour day 5 session to narrow the field from the 37 players that started the day to the final six in the 2022 WPT World Championship at Wynn Las Vegas.

The remaining contenders have all locked up at least $1,001,050 by making the final table, but they likely all have their eyes on the title and the top prize of $4,146,400. The eventual champion will also earn a $10,400 seat in this same event next year, along with having their name added to the Mike Sexton WPT Champions Cup.

The chip leader heading into the final table is Benny Glaser with 133,600,000. The British poker pro (pictured above) has four World Series of Poker bracelets to his name and nearly $3.7 million in prior earnings. He also has 15 Championship of Online Poker titles on PokerStars, the most of any player. Glaser only has three prior cashes on the WPT, with his top showing being an 11th-place finish in the 2020 WPT Online Championship. Now, at his first WPT final table, he has a chance to secure the largest top prize in the tour’s history.

Eliot Hudon bagged up the second-largest stack with 80,800,000. The Canadian has more than $150,000 in prior live tournament cashes, with his largest score being a 63rd-place showing in the 2021 WSOP main event for $113,800.

Adam Adler sits in third place with 27,200,000. The Myrtle Beach, SC resident had nearly $1.2 million in prior cashes, with his top accolade being a runner-up finish in the 2018 $10,000 super turbo bounty event at the WSOP for $243,323.

Frank Funaro ended day 5 with 21,100,000. The bracelet winner from Sewell, NJ has nearly $1.6 million in cashes coming into this event. His top score was a second-place finish in a 2020 WSOP Online high roller for nearly $220,000. He also ran deep in this year’s main event, finishing 44th for $214,200.

Jean-Claude Moussa nursed a short stack for hours down the stretch, but managed to make the final table with 19,000,000. The two-time WPT L.A. Poker Classic final tablist had $742,080 in prior cashes before factoring in the seven-figure score he has assured himself with his showing in this tournament.

Rounding out the final six is Colton Blomberg with 14,000,000. His largest previous cash came when he won a $550 buy-in event at this year’s Wynn Summer Classic series for $41,102.

Here is a look at the chip counts heading into the final table:

A Look Back at How Day 5 Played Out

The final day began with 37 players remaining. One of the early knockouts of note saw WPT ambassador and popular poker vlogger Brad Owen sent to the rail in brutal fashion, with his pocket kings losing an all-in to two-time bracelet winner Drew O’Connell. An ace on the flop gave O’Connell a lead that he never relinquished and Owen was eliminated in 35th place, while O’Connell surged toward the top of the leaderboard. Owen fell just short of securing his first-ever six-figure tournament cash, earning $99,600 for his efforts.

Just busted KK<AKo. No 6-figure payout for me.

— Brad Owen (@TheBradOwen) December 18, 2022

The last female player in the field, LoriAnn Persinger, was knocked out in 30th place when her A-K lost a race to the pocket queens of Jean-Claude Moussa. Persinger, a Navy veteran and former poker media member, earned a career-high score of $119,300.

Plenty of other big names fell in the early hours of action, including bracelet winner Igor Kurganov (31st – $119,300), Aaron Massey (29th – $119,300), bracelet winner Jean Gaspard (27th – $119,300), 2022 Wynn Millions runner-up Isaac Kempton (23rd – $144,300), three-time WPT final tablist Garrett Greer (20th – $176,200), and WSOP Circuit Choctaw main event winner Nate Kogel (19th – $176,200). Kogel ran AK into the AA of Glaser. The board kept Glaser ahead to see him jump out to a huge lead with 18 left.

The most accomplished tournament player in the field was eliminated one spot shy of the final two tables. Two-time WPT champion and six-time bracelet winner Daniel Negreanu raised to 800,000 on the button with 22 and Lucas Foster three-bet to 2.3 million from the big blind with KK.

Negreanu called and the flop came down 1042.
Foster bet 2.5 million and Negreanu called with his set. The 10 paired the board to give Negreanu a full house. Foster moved all-in and Negreanu quickly called for around 5 million. Negreanu was a huge favorite to win the hand and double up, but the K rolled off the deck on the river to give Foster a higher full house. Negreanu was eliminated in 17th place ($176,200_. The score saw him increase his career tournament earnings to just shy of $49.2 million, maintaining his hold on the third-place spot on poker’s all-time money list. The 48-year-old Hall of Famer trails only Justin Bonomo ($60,836,813) and Bryn Kenney ($60,836,813) in total earnings.

WPT champion and bracelet winner Soheb Porbandarwala’s run in this event came to an end when his KJ for kings and threes with a jack kicker ran into the AA of Michael Rocco for a higher two pair. The $217,100 Porbandarwala was awarded as the 14th-place finisher was his second-highest career score, behind only the $239,820 he earned as the 2020 WPT Online Poker Open winner.

After the eliminations of short stacks Stephen Kehoe (14th – $269,900) and bracelet winner Jason Gooch (13th – $269,900), the next big clash saw Bryce Yockey’s QQ cracked by the 1010 of Adam Adler. The board brought four spades to give Adler a flush for the win. Yockey, a bracelet winner with more than $3.1 million in prior tournament earnings, added $338,500 to that total with his 12th-place showing in this event.

Krasimir Yankov (11th – $338,500) was sent home thanks that a classic preflop race, with his A-K suited failing to outrun the pocket jacks of Moussa. The unofficial final table of nine was then set when Rami Owera’s K-J was unable to catch up to the pocket sevens of Glaser, who made nines full of sevens by the river to score the knockout and become the first player to surpass the 100-million mark. Owera (10th) secured $429,000 for his deep run.

Michael Rocco was the first to fall after the field combined onto a single final table. Several hours after Owera’s bustout, Rocco’s pocket kings got cracked by the 10-3 suited of Hudon, who turned trips. Rocco called off the last of his short stack on the river and was shown the bad news. He earned $429,000 as the ninth-place finisher.

Drew O’Connell was the next to fall. The two-time bracelet winner lost a race with pocket sixes to the A-K of Adler to narrow the field to seven, earning $547,000 for his efforts.

The long day finally ended when Lucas Foster ran pocket nines into the A-Q of Hudon. An ace on the flop gave Hudon the lead, which he maintained through the turn and river to officially set the final table. Foster took home $704,000 as the seventh-place finisher.

Here is a look at the remaining payouts:

1st: $4,136,000
2nd: $2,830,000
3rd: $2,095,000
4th: $1,608,000
5th: $1,301,000
6th: $1,001,050

The final table will get underway at 4:00 PM local time on Tuesday, Dec. 20.

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