Woof Leads Final 16 After Day 2 in Tournament of Champions; Cowen Among the Big Stacks
All but one gold bracelet of the 2022 World Series of Poker in its new home at Bally’s and Paris Las Vegas has found a new owner already, and most poker tables in the vast convention centers of the two hotels on the Las Vegas Strip have already been placed in storage. However, one more champion will be crowned on July 20, 2022, as sixteen players out of 470 entries remain in Event #89: Tournament of Champions.
The final tournament on the schedule replaces the former invitation-only Global Casino Championship, which was only available to specific qualifiers of the WSOP Circuit. For the 2022 edition, the field of eligible players was expanded to WSOP bracelet winners of the current summer in "Sin City," as well as 470 of them out of nearly 600 eligible champions entered the fray. They battled for their portion of the $1,000,000 guaranteed prize pool in the restricted freeroll, and 16 players remain after 20 levels of 60 minutes each.
Day 2 concluded with Canada's Jonathan Woof atop the leaderboard with a stack of 2,190,000. Only four further finalists have a seven-figure stack at their disposal including Carlos Loving (1,800,000), Robert Cowen (1,685,000), and Benjamin Kaupp (1,250,000) as they possess more than 50 big blinds each. Among the players in the top ten are also two further 2022 WSOP bracelet winners in Yuliyan Kolev and Ali Eslami.
Top 10 Chip Counts After Day Two
| Position | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jonathan Woof | Canada | 2,190,000 | 110 |
| 2 | Carlos Loving | United States | 1,800,000 | 90 |
| 3 | Robert Cowen | United Kingdom | 1,685,000 | 84 |
| 4 | Benjamin Kaupp | United States | 1,250,000 | 63 |
| 5 | Erik Bauer | Netherlands | 985,000 | 49 |
| 6 | Gregory Wish | United States | 955,000 | 48 |
| 7 | Raul Garza | United States | 915,000 | 46 |
| 8 | Yuliyan Kolev | Bulgaria | 870,000 | 44 |
| 9 | Ali Eslami | United States | 790,000 | 40 |
| 10 | Ryan Messick | United States | 660,000 | 33 |
Nine of the sixteen hopefuls will aim to keep the last WSOP gold bracelet of the series on home soil, while six hail from Europe. All of them have already locked up $7,400 as a boost for their bankroll, while the winner walks away with the top prize of $250,000 and live poker's most sought-after hardware.
The 2022 WSOP Main Event champion Espen Jorstad made an appearance via late registration prior to the start and was one of nine players to attempt spinning up 15 big blinds. However, Jorstad never got up and running to depart in the opening stages. Many other big names would follow without anything to show for such as the former WSOP Main Event champions Joe McKeehen and Joe Cada, Alex Foxen, Stephen Song, Manig Loeser, Ari Engel, and David Jackson to name all but a few.
Last to bow out before the money was none other than Daniel Weinman, who came runner-up to Zack in a close POY race. In one of the most classic setups in No-Limit Hold'em, Weinman got it in for 51 big blinds with pocket kings only for Carlos Loving to snap-call with pocket aces. There were sixty players "loving" the cooler as they all locked up a min-cash of $3,500.
Almost one dozen gold bracelet winners already earned a slice of the prize money courtesy of the WSOP and that also included the 2022 WSOP Player of the Year Dan Zack, who collected a min-cash worth $3,500 to wrap up the inaugural stop at Bally’s and Paris Las Vegas. Other notables to bow out in the money on Day 2 were Maxx Coleman, Aleksejs Ponakovs, Gaetan Balleur, Fred Li, Yevgeniy Minakrin, Daniel Strelitz, and Dan Smith.
Coleman got a short stack in with queen-jack only to see Kolev wake up with aces behind to deal the final blow. The Bulgarian was in a very jovial mood all day long and his "woooo" whistles found some mimicking on the same and other tables for hours to follow.
One of the noteworthy clashes inside the money saw Ryan Messick at risk with ace-king suited against the pocket kings of Christopher Bissinger and an ace appeared in the window. Messick had only qualified in the early morning hours on July 18 in Pennsylvania and jumped on a plane right away, he will be among the 16 returning hopefuls while Bissinger departed in 22nd place.
The final day of the Tournament of Champions and the 2022 WSOP will recommence at 11 a.m. local time on the two Horseshoe Feature tables. Recommencing blinds in level 21 will be 10,000-20,000 with a big blind ante of 20,000. Once the field has reached the final five or six contenders, the action will also be picked up by the PokerGO live stream as well with the broadcast to get underway as of 4 p.m. local time.
Stay tuned for the conclusion of the 2022 WSOP as the PokerNews live reporting team will be in the Bally's Event Center until the last gold bracelet has been awarded.