In August of 2011, Joshua Pollock presented his first final table in a major poker tournament in Poker Legends of Poker World Tour The main event, placing him fourth on the first six-figure payday of his career. Since then, he has had a lot of success in the ring, including two wins World Series of Poker gold bracelets;
Almost 11 years since day one WPT The final table, Bullock again made it to the last six in 2022 WPT poker legends $5,250 for the No-Limit Hold’em Main Event. This time, he was able to clinch the win, as he emerged victorious from a field of 642 entries at Park West Bicycle Casino near Los Angeles to claim his first win. WPT Title and first prize $573,350.
“This tournament was a dream,” Bullock said. WPT Reporters after coming out on top. “I ran really well on day one and ran really well on day two, especially in the last tier. I went from one of the bottom stacks to the chip leader. This is probably the best I’ve had in any tournament.”
This was the biggest result of Bullock’s career, and saw his lifetime earnings from tournaments increase to just $2 million. The victory also saw him secure 1680 card player overall player points. This was the first POY– This year’s qualifying score, but it alone was enough to catapult him into the top 150 in 2022 POY sponsored race Global Poker.
This event ran from August 27 to September 1. A total of 642 entries were submitted across three starter rides, exceeding the $2.5 million guarantee to build a $3,113,700 prize pool. Top 81 contestants have made money, with notable personalities among those who have made it deep including twice WPT GC Tran Champion (36), WPT Winner Ryan Tusock (35), Winner Stephen Song (21), WPT Nam Lee (20), two-time bracelet winner Michael Wang (19), and 2013 champion Jordan Christos (11).
The last day started with only six players and six times WPT Finalist Ray Kartoumi in the lead. Adam Hendrix was the clear short stack with 11 big blinds to start. He found a double in the second trade of the day but he was still the first to fall.
After only three hands after doubling, Hendrix moved all in 1042y board with A.K To draw a royal flow. Received a quick call from 2019 WPT Venice Main event winner Matthew Wantman, who rolled 44 for a group of four. 3 On the river it was empty and Hendrix was eliminated in sixth place, earning $119,000 off his deep course. This was Hendrix’s ninth finish on the final table of the year, winning two titles and over $1 million in earnings to date. A total of 4,049 POY Of points, it now ranks ninth in the overall standings.
The next elimination took place after only three hands after Hendrix was sent to pack up. Wantman raised the bar to 300,000 blocks, and Lei Lei moved to close to 2,100,000 from the big blind. A snap called with K is required.K. Show Lee A.y. Wantman a group of Kings fumbled and held from there to narrow the field to four. Lei earned a career best salary of $156,000 for his fifth place appearance.
But the knockout wave is far from over. Today’s eleventh hand saw Aaron Motoyama min-up from under the gun with a 99. Bullock from the big curtain called Q10 Flip Flip 832. Bullock collected everything on Motoyama’s minimum continuous bet, who called the all-in with one big blind lower than Bullock and increased his bet on the board. Bullock improved to a pair of queens in Q In turn, Motoyama was left in trouble with one card coming. 8 There was no help and Motoyama was eliminated in fourth place ($207,000). This was his biggest result ever on the championship circuit. His lifetime income increased to over $1.2 million.
Play started with three hands with the final trio all within walking distance of each other, all sitting on over 65 big blinds. Given that, it took noticeably longer for the next elimination hand to arrive.
As the short-handed act continued, Wantman began to lag behind the rest of the group. In the 80’s distribution of the day, he pushed his last five big starter blinds with an A-2 from the small curtain. Bullock woke up with an A-9 suited to the big dim and flopped at nine to leave Wantman paint thin. The role and River didn’t bring the needed miracle to Wantman and he was sent home in third place ($280,000). This was his seventh appearance on the final table of the year. With 844,666 dollars in POY His earnings so far this year are 2,778 points, and he is now 33rd in the POY The race is heading into the last third of the year.
After defeating Wantman for third, Bullock took a better than 3:2 lead in a singles match with Kartoumi, who was in his sixth career. WPT Final and second table of this year, after finishing third in WPT Choctaw A key event earlier in 2022. Qartomy managed to work his way up to the top during the early showdown move, but Bullock eventually re-established himself at the top of the leaderboard. Bullock quickly expanded his advantage to 2:1.
On the last hand, Bullock raised to 1,300,000 from the button with 88 While the duo were playing 250,000-500,000 limits with a big blind of 500,000. Qartomy Three’s Big A . 10,600,000 blind8. Bullock quickly called his pocket pair and dropped the board 954ys To secure fate and the title of Bullock. Kratoumi earned $380,000 as a runner-up, the second-highest result of his career. He now has more than $5.1 million in cash to his name.
Al-Qurtami also received 1,400 awards POY points, which is enough to see him move to 57th place on POY On the leaderboard when it was combined with the 912 he took third place in Choctaw earlier this year.
Here is a look at the payments and POY Points awarded on the final table:
place | player | earnings | POY points |
1 | Joshua Bullock | $573,350 | 1680 |
2 | Ray Kartoumi | 380 thousand dollars | 1400 |
3 | Matthew Wantman | 280 thousand dollars | 1120 |
4 | Aaron Motoyama | 207,000 dollars | 840 |
5 | Layla | 156000 dollars | 700 |
6 | Adam Hendricks | 119,000 dollars | 560 |
Image credits: Joe Giron / World Poker Tour.