David Peters became the first player to win an open bracelet event at the 2022 World Seris of Poker, putting on a dominant performance in the debut of the $100,000 buy-in no-limit hold’em high roller with $25,000 bounties. Peters secured 11 knockouts, representing nearly a quarter of the 46-entry field in this high-stakes event.
For the win he earned his fourth career gold bracelet and $1,441,810 in total prize money. He earned $1,166,810 from the prize pool and another $275,000 in bounty payouts.
“It feels great, especially the first event of the series, the first event being away from the Rio, it’s such a prestigious tournament with so many great players,” said Peters when asked about starting the summer off with a win. “Getting number four is big. There are not too many people who have four. It’s a very, very nice start to the series.”
Won it for 1.46M including bounties and my 4th bracelet! pic.twitter.com/iqWDZrrhHc
— David Peters (@dpeterspoker17) June 3, 2022
Peters became just the 63rd player in poker history to have won four or more WSOP bracelets, even though it wasn’t that long ago that he was considered one of the best without one. He secured his first in 2016, taking down a $1,500 buy-in no-limit hold’em event for $412,557. His second and third bracelets were earned in online events. 2020 saw him emerge victorious in the $10,000 heads-up no-limit hold’em online event for $360,480. In 2021 he won the $7,777 buy-in no-limit hold’em online high roller for $283,940.
The 35-year-old poker pro now has more than $42.7 million, enough to put him in fifth place on poker’s all-time money list.
This victory saw Peters earn plenty of rankings points, including 600 Card Player Player of the Year points. This was his fourth POY-qualified score of the year, and it saw him move inside the top 125 in the 2022 standings, which are sponsored by Global Poker. He also scored 400 PokerGO Tour points, putting him in 34th place on that leaderboard.
Peters has been one of the most consistent performers in the POY race over the last decade-plus, with eight top-50 finishes over the last 12 years including three top-five showings and an outright POY win in 2016.
“I pride myself on continuously getting better and continuously adapting to whatever new strategies people implement or different dynamics, and picking up like tendencies on players… doing whatever needs to be done to keep competing against the best,” said Peters when asked about his consistent performance on the circuit. “It feels good to still be doing well after all these years, not having too difficult a time keeping up as players get better and better every year. It feels good to continue competing at a high level.”
This event ran over the course of three days. While players could earn $25,000 bounties throughout the event, only the top seven were paid out from the main prize pool. Two-time bracelet winner Nick Petrangelo was knocked out on the bubble when his pocket kings lost to the pocket eights of 10-time bracelet winner Phil Ivey, who rivered a straight. Despite scoring that elimination, Ivey was ultimately the first to hit the rail after the bubble burst. He was one of many players to fall at the hands of Peters, who won a race with A-J beating Ivey’s pocket sevens. Ivey earned $133,127 from the prize pool and 150 POY points. He now sits inside the top 20 in the POY, and is third in the PGT standings.
Matthew Steinberg finished sixth for $180,872, with recent World Poker Tour Choctaw main event winner Chance Kornuth claiming his bounty to bring day 2 to a close.
Kornuth took a healthy chip lead into the final day, ending with 143 big blinds. Peters was the next-largest stack with 89 big blinds, while the bottom three on the leaderboard combined for 44 total big blinds between them.
The final day lasted just over an hour. Right off the bat, reigning WSOP main event champion Koray Aldemir called all-in facing a button raise from Kornuth. Aldemir had K-2, which was leading the J-7 of Kornuth until the flop brought a seven. Aldemir picked up some outs with a deuce o the turn, but was unable to improve any further. He earned $249,693 for his latest deep run at the series.
Not long after Aldemir was sent home, Ali Imsirovic found himself all-in and at risk. He committed the majority of his stack preflop, three-betting a button raise from Kornuth with K-Q. Peters just called his raise with pocket aces and called again for Imsirovic’s last 185,000 after an eight-high flop. A blank on the turn left Imsirovic drawing dead. He took home $350,158 as the fourth-place finisher. This was his 20th final-table finish of the year, extending his lead in the POY standings.
2019 WSOP main event runner-up Dario Sammartino got the last of his stack in preflop with A-8 suited and found himself trailing the pocket jacks of Peters. The board improved neither player and Sammartino was knocked out in third place.
Peters took brought a 3:2 chip lead into heads-up play with Kornuth. It disn’t take long for him to convert that lead into the title.
In the final hand, Peters raised from the button with KK and Kornuth three-bet with 88. Peters four-bet, only to have Kornuth five-bet shove. Peters made the call and the board ran out 976A7 to lock up the pot and title for Peters.
Kornuth earned $721,144 as the runner-up, the largest payday of his career. This was his sixth final-table finish of 2022, with three titles won and more than $1.9 million in POY earnings accrued along the way. As a result, he now sits in third place in the POY standings.
Got 2nd place to @dpeterspoker17 and immediately regged the 25k HU pic.twitter.com/xlzS5F7kod
— Chance Kornuth (@ChancesCards) June 3, 2022
Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Prize Pool Earnings | POY Points | PGT Points |
| 1 | David Peters | $1,166,810 | 600 | 400 |
| 2 | Chance Kornuth | $721,144 | 500 | 216 |
| 3 | Dario Sammartino | $498,696 | 400 | 150 |
| 4 | Ali Imsirovic | $350,158 | 300 | 105 |
| 5 | Koray Aldemir | $249,693 | 250 | 75 |
| 6 | Mathew Steinberg | $180,872 | 200 | 54 |
| 7 | Phil Ivey | $133,127 | 150 | 40 |
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