The final day of the 2022 World Series of Poker $10,000 short deck event featured five players with collective prior tournament earnings of more than $101.5 million dollars. Three of the five contenders were already bracelet winners, including one five-time champion at the series. In the end, the player that came out on top was the one with the shortest tournament resume: Shota Nakanishi. The Japanese player came in with the chip lead and outlasted the stacked final table to secure his first WSOP bracelet and the top prize of $277,212.
“I’m so happy! Very happy right now,” Nakanishi told WSOP reporters after his victory.
“I play lots of short deck, many times. I’ve been playing online for three years. I also enjoy no-limit hold’em and sometimes pot-limit Omaha,” said Nakanishi.
This year’s short deck event drew a record turnout of 110 entries to build a prize pool of $1,025,750. The top 17 finishers made the money, with big names like 2013 main event champion Ryan Riess (16th – $16,449), six-time bracelet winner Daniel Negreanu (15th – $16,449), three-time World Poker Toru champion Chino Rheem ()14th – $19,590), 2017 Poker Players Championship winner Elior Sion (9th – $29,712), and rising high-stakes star Chris Brewer (8th – $29,712) all making deep runs.
The final day began with Nakanishi on top of the leaderboard and Stephen Chidwick. The British bracelet winner got off to a rough start, with his two pair and turned flush draw running into the flopped straight of bracelet winner and two-time main event final tablist Ben Lamb.
Chidwick was left on fumes after a brick on the river. He soon got all-in with A-9 trailing the A-J suited of Nakanishi. Chidwick found no help and was eliminated in fifth place ($65,143). The score increased Chidwick’s career earnings to more than $43.1 million, good for fifth place on poker’s all-time money list. he now sits just $106,123 behind fourth-ranked David Peters.
Chidwick also earned enough rankings points to strengthen his hold on fourth in the Card Player Player of the Year standings and the fifth-place spot on the PokerGO Tour leaderboard.
Sean Winter was the next to fall. He got the last of his short stack in preflop with pocket queens, only to find himself in rough shape against the pocket kings of Nakanishi. The larger pair held and Winter was eliminated in fourth place ($88,168). This was the American poker pro’s 13th final-table finish of the year, with two titles won and more than $2.1 million in POY earnings secured along the way. As a result, he now sits in sixth place in the POY rankings and is 10th in the PGT race.
Five-time bracelet winner Brian Rast was the short stack to start three-handed action. He scored a quick double-up through Lamb to move into second position. lamb was able to double back through Rast with pocket aces beating K-Q to leave the two-time poker Players Championship winner on fumes. Rast got the last of his extremely short stack in soon after that. His 10-8 was unable to outrun the K-10 suited of Nakanishi and Rast was sent home with $121,718 for his third-place showing. He now has more than $22.4 million in lifetime tournament cashes after this latest score.
Nakanishi held almost a 2:1 chip lead when heads-up play began. Lamb hung around for a while, but ultimately ran AQ into the AK of Nakanishi to bring the tournament to an end. The board bright the 766J8 to lock up the pot and the title for Nakanishi.
Lamb was awarded $171,331 as the runner-up finisher. This was his fifth cash of the series, including a third-place finish in the $50,00 pot-limit Omaha event for $622,861. He now has more than $14.7 million in lifetime cashes.
Here is a look at the payouts and rankings points awarded at the final table:
| Place | Player | Earnings | POY Points | PGT Points |
| 1 | Shota Nakanishi | $277,212 | 600 | 277 |
| 2 | Ben Lamb | $171,331 | 500 | 171 |
| 3 | Brian Rast | $121,718 | 400 | 122 |
| 4 | Sean Winter | $88,168 | 300 | 88 |
| 5 | Stephen Chidwick | $65,143 | 250 | 65 |
| 6 | Scott Smile | $49,113 | 200 | 49 |
| 7 | Robert Wilke | $37,800 | 150 | 38 |
Winner photo credit: PokerGO / Enrique Malfavon.
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