Christopher "Pay_Son" Staats Wins First WSOP Bracelet In Event #26: $3,200 NLH High Roller 6-Max ($111,609)
After nearly 12 hours of battle on the virtual felt on Thursday evening, Christopher "Pay_Son" Staats defeated Dan "BackDoorDan" Smith in heads-up play to win the 2022 WSOP Online Event #26: $3,200 NLH High Roller 6-Max for his first WSOP bracelet and the $111,609 top prize.
The event attracted 149 entries including 38 re-entries to create a $452,960 prize pool with the top 18 players collecting at least a $8,606 min-cash.
According to The Hendon Mob, Staats is a Oklahoma native with close to $1.3 Million in live tournament earnings, which includes a career-best score in the 2018 $1,000 No Limit Hold'em Little One for One Drop after finishing third for $254,580. Staats has been recording cashes since 2009 and can now finally add a WSOP bracelet to his trophy case.
WSOP Online Bracelet Event #26 Final Table Results
| Rank | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Christopher "Pay_Son" Staats | United States | $111,609 |
| 2 | Dan "BackDoorDan" Smith | United States | $79,675 |
| 3 | Brett "Metanemesis" Apter | United States | $56,891 |
| 4 | John "Relevancy" Ripnick | United States | $40,675 |
| 5 | Pete "PeteChen" Chen | Taiwan | $29,034 |
| 6 | David "Bewater" Goodman | United States | $20,745 |
Final Table Action
After the official six-handed final table was set it didn’t take long for an all in to happen. David "Bewater" Goodman moved in with pocket fives and was called by Smith with ace-king. It was a flip situation but when the board ran out with an ace, Goodman was eliminated in sixth place.
A little while later Pete "PeteChen" Chen was all in with ace-seven against the ten-five for John "Relevancy" Ripnick with the bigger stack. The board looked clean for Chen until the river fell a five and Chen was eliminated in fifth place.
Four-handed play went on for some time until Ripnick moved all in with nine-ten and was called by Brett "Metanemesis" Apter with king-queen. The board ran out with two queens and Ripnick was sent to the rail in fourth place.
After over an hour of three-handed battle, Apter was all in with less than two big blinds with ace-deuce against the queen-three for Smith. The flop fanned out a three and when the rest of the board didn’t improve Apter, he was sent out in third place.
Heads-up started with Smith having a slight lead on Staats and the action went back and forth for a while. The final hand saw Staats shove all in with the chip lead holding jack-eight and was snap-called by Smith with ace-queen. When the board ran out with a jack, Smith was sent to the rail in runner-up position and Staats scored the victory and first career bracelet.
That's a wrap here at Event #26: $3,200 NLH High Roller 6-Max. Be sure to stick with PokerNews as we continue to bring you full coverage of this series on WSOP.com!
, it was the flopped jack that eliminated Smith in second place and scored the victory for Staats. 
and the trip queens for Apter sent Ripnick out in fourth place.
, and the river scored the pot for Ripnick and Chen was eliminated in fifth place.
, it was the flopped ace for Smith that sent Goodman out in sixth place.
and the tens held up to send Abrahams out in seventh place.
and the full house for Ripnick took the pot and Hastings was sent to the rail in eighth place.
, John "Relevancy" Ripnick bet out 40,000 and Galen "turkmalloy" Hall moved all in for 230,000, which Ripnick snap-called. 
it was the king high flush that scored the pot and sent Hall out in ninth place.
