This year’s Super Bowl of poker wraps up this weekend in Las Vegas. Florida players cleaned up at the 2022 World Series of Poker.
Back east, live poker is flourishing at Florida casinos. However, still hasn’t expressly legalized online poker in the Sunshine State.
At the World Series of Poker in Vegas, dozens of Flori thrived. Floridians combined for 40 final tables appearances and $8,592,762 in earnings. Additionally, Florida poker players won six WSOP bracelets.
Six Floridians win WSOP bracelets, make final tables
Brian Hastings won his sixth career bracelet this summer. It’s the most all-time in Florida and puts the poker veteran in an elite club of just 17 players with half a dozen WSOP titles. Furthermore, he made three final tables over the course of the seven-week series.
Bracelet winners Brad Ruben, Phil Hui and David Jackson also added to their jewelry collections. While Raj Vohra and Jake Schindler won their first.
Hastings, Ruben, Schindler and Sean Winter made multiple final table appearances at the 2022 WSOP.
Ruben was the first to do so, accomplishing that feat in the first week of June. He won the $1,500 dealers choice 6-handed event for $126,288 and followed it up with a seventh-place finish in the $1,500 seven card stud for $12,276 just three days later.
Schindler, who is embroiled in a cheating scandal for using real-time assistance programs while playing online sessions, fell just short of winning his first bracelet in the $25,000 High Roller. He finished runner-up to Chad Eveslage for $874,915. Two days later, he got redemption with a victory in the $50,000 High Roller for $1.33 million.
Hastings’ win came in the $10,000 limit 2-7 lowball triple draw championship. He topped a field of 118 entries to earn the top prize of $292,146. He added two seventh-place finishes in $10K buy-in championship events: the seven card stud hi-lo for $49,571 the razz championship for an additional $50,295.
Though Winter didn’t win a title, he made three final tables. Early in the summer, he finished in fifth place in the $25,000 heads-up championship for $75,045. He also took third in the $3,000 6-handed pot-limit Omaha for $156,401 and fourth in the $10,000 short deck no-limit hold’em for $88,168.
Hui and Prociak dominate pot-limit Omaha
Impressively, both Hui and Orlando’s David Prociak made deep runs in the $1,500 pot-limit Omaha.
Prociak, a bracelet winner with nearly $900,000 in WSOP earnings and $1.65 million in overall earnings, added $140,783 to his total with a third-place finish in the event. His elimination was the result of Florida-on-Florida violence after Hui took the last of his chips.
Hui then entered heads-up play with less than 40% of the chips in play against France’s Daniel Tordjman. Ultimately, he completed the comeback and bested Tordjman to top the 1,438-entry field and earn $311,872. It was Hui’s third bracelet. He won his first in 2014 in the $3,000 pot-limit Omaha hi-lo before besting an elite field in the 2019 $50,000 Poker Players Championship.
Jackson denies Hellmuth another bracelet
After three days of play in the $3,000 no-limit hold’em freezeout, the 1,359-entry field was trimmed to just two. Florida native and WSOP bracelet winner David Jackson heads-up against all-time bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth.
Jackson gained the chip lead during the final two tables, grew his stack from there, and got the better of Hellmuth several times along the way. It looked like Jackson was running away with the tournament as he entered heads-up play with more than 80% of the chips in play.
However, Hellmuth caught fire out of the gate to close the gap. In fact, he even briefly took the lead. Then, Jackson regained form and made quick work of Hellmuth to deny the 16-time bracelet winner from extending his record.
In the process, Jackson also won his second career bracelet and the first-place prize of $598,173. His other WSOP victory was an online $777 event during the 2021 GGPoker International series for $194,178.
Former tennis pro Vohra sees ‘a dream come true’
Former tennis pro Raj Vohra has WSOP results dating back to 2008, when his first score resulted in a final table appearance. That year, he took fifth place in a $5,000 no-limit hold’em event for $195,834, It would be another 14 years before he got back to the promised land.
Vohra reached the final table of the $600 no-limit hold ’em deepstack event. He started in eighth place of the remaining 10 players but won a huge coin flip while eight-handed to pull into contention and never look back.
Vohra called the win “a dream come true,” further saying it was the best moment of his life.
Florida’s 2022 WSOP final table results
Just a few days remain in the 2022 WSOP. Floridians have logged 40 final-table finishes so far. On top of that, they’ve added three more scores from online bracelet events.
All Florida players who made final tables at the 2022 WSOP:
A-G
- Abdullah Al-Shanti – sixth place in Event No. 54: $500 SALUTE to Warriors – No-Limit Hold’em ($60,196)
- Toby Boas – second place in Event No. 16: $3,000 No-Limit Holdem ($345,244)
- Jeff Brown – sixth place in Online Event No. 4: $1,000 PLO 6-Max ($22,952)
- Joey Couden – fifth place in Event No. 26: $10,000 Limit Hold’em Championship ($58,226)
- Kyle Dempsey – ninth place in Event No. 1: $500 Casino Employees No-Limit Hold’em ($4,813)
- Kenneth Drewry – ninth place in Event No. 62: $1,500 Super Turbo Bounty No-Limit Hold’em ($27,526)
- Michael Duek – third place in Event No. 69: $10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha 8-Handed Championship
- ($548,015)
- Chris Ginley – eighth place in Event No. 3: $400 No Limit Hold’em Ultra Deepstack ($12,119)
- Fred Goldberg – seventh place in Event No. 53: $5,000 Mixed No-Limit Hold’em; Pot-Limit Omaha ($90,864)
H-M
- Brian Hastings – wins Event No. 31: $10,000 Limit 2-7 Lowball Triple Draw Championship ($292,146); seventh place in Event No. 40: $10,000 Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo 8 or Better Championship ($49,571); seventh place in Event No. 79: $10,000 Razz Championship ($50,295)
- John Holley – seventh place in Event No. 36: $1,500 Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo 8 or Better ($16,737)
- Phil Hui – wins Event No. 45: $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha (8-Handed) for $311,782
- Mohammed Jaafar – fourth place in Event No. 71: $1,111 One More for One Drop ($190,363)
- David Jackson– wins Event No. 65: $3,000 Freezeout No-Limit Hold’em ($598,173)
- Andrew Kelsall – sixth place in Event No. 23: $3,000 6-Handed Limit Hold’em ($21,170)
- Nolan King – second place in Event No. 74: $1,500 BOUNTY Pot-Limit Omaha 8-Handed ($117,545)
- Randy Levin – fourth place in Event No. 54: $500 SALUTE to Warriors – No-Limit Hold’em ($57,554)
- Jason Mercier – sixth place in Event No. 28: $50,000 HIGH ROLLER Pot-Limit Omaha ($260,819)
- Charles Mitchell – third place in Event No. 47: $1,000 SENIORS No-Limit Hold’em Championship ($323,057)
O-S
- Bart O’Connell – sixth place in Event No. 15: $10,000 Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better Championship ($80,250)
- Chris Papastratis – second place in Event No. 36: $1,500 Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo 8 or Better ($83,598)
- David Prociak – third place Event No. 45: $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha (8-Handed) ($140,783)
- John Racener – fifth place in Event No. 44: $10,000 H.O.R.S.E. Championship ($108,253)
- John Riordan – fifth place in Online Event No. 10: $3,200 NL Hold’em High Roller ($66,512)
- Brad Ruben– wins Event No. 4: $1,500 Dealers Choice 6-Handed ($126,288); seventh in Event No. 9: $1,500 Seven Card Stud ($12,276)
- Anthony Ruttler – seventh place in Event No. 51: $400 COLOSSUS No-Limit Hold’em ($67,310)
- Jake Schindler – wins Event No. 12 $25,000 High Roller ($1.3M); second place in Event No. 8: $25,000 High Roller (874,915)
- Emmanuel Sebag – seventh place in Event No. 19: $25,000 High Roller Pot-Limit Omaha ($195,713)
- Sam Soverel – fifth place in Event No. 50: $250,000 Super High Roller No-Limit Hold’em ($1,001,142)
- Matthew Steinberg – sixth place in Event No. 2: $100,000 High Roller Bounty No-Limit Hold’em ($180,872)
T-Y
- Arkadiy Tsinis – second place in Online Event No. 6: $500 No Limit Hold’em Turbo Deepstack ($81,870)
- Raj Vohra – wins Event No. 11: $600 No-Limit Hold’em Deepstack ($335,286)
- Sean Winter – fifth place in Event No. 6: $25,000 Heads Up No-Limit Hold’em Championship ($75,045); third place in Event No. 39: $3,000 6-Handed Pot-Limit Omaha ($156,401); fourth place in Event No. 60: $10,000 Short Deck No-Limit Hold’em ($88,168)
- Steven Wolansky – sixth place in Event No. 13: $1,500 Limit Hold’em ($24,149)
- Jerry Wong – second place in Event No. 17: $2,500 Mixed Triple Draw Lowball ($101,514)
- Wing Yam – fourth place in Event No. 41: $1,000 Super Turbo Bounty No-Limit Hold’em ($64,702)
- Nick Yunis – second place in Event No. 47: $1,000 SENIORS No-Limit Hold’em Championship ($111,724)
A YouTube video of Brian Hastings winning his sixth career bracelet.
