The 2022 World Poker Tour Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown The series is currently in full swing in Florida. The last big event to wrap up was the $50,000 high roller no-limit hold’em, which drew 39 entrants to create a prize pool of nearly $1.9 million. After two long days of high-stakes tournaments, Andrew Lichtenberger emerged victorious with the title and top prize of $638,223.

The 34 year old player World Series of Poker The bracelet winner survived a long one-on-one battle with Alex Foxen to win his first title of the year and the 14th of his live tournament career. He now has over $13.1 million in total earnings under his belt.

“I won all the stacks,” Lichtenberger told the SHR Poker Blog when asked about head-to-head play. “I lost the vast majority of the big pots we played and not all of them. Most of them went on the turn or the river, and I continued to have the low end. It was a bit absurd. But here we are. I won the pots that mattered.

In addition to the title and silver, Lichtenberger also earned numerous ranking points as champion of this event. The 408 card player The Player of the Year points he got for the win were enough to put him in 110th place in 2022 POY race, sponsored by Global Poker. Although this is his first title, he now has three final tables under his belt this year. Lichtenberger also received 383 Visit PokerGO points, enough to see him climb to 21st in this ranking.

The first six cashed this event. Brock Wilson was the last player eliminated outside of the money, his pocket kings losing to Lichtenberger’s AJ to burst the bubble. Steven Veneziano (6th – $113,490) was next to hit the rail, his AQ losing a classic preflop run to Andjelko Andrejevic’s pocket sevens.

Five-time bracelet winner Jason Mercier won his first live tournament cash since late 2019 with a fifth-place finish in the event. His run ended when he pushed matched KJ and got a call from Foxen, who was holding AK. Mercier took the lead on the flop with pocket jacks, but Foxen fired a flush on the river to win the pot and reduce the field to four. Mercier earned $141,865, bringing his career total to over $19.7 million.

Andrejevic moved all in with pocket kings against both pocket aces and the nut flush draw for Kirk Steele. Andrejevic found no help on the river and was eliminated in fourth place, earning $198,610 for his strong showing in that event. the WPT the Serbian champion now has nearly $4.5 million in lifetime earnings.

Despite scoring that knockout, Steele was ultimately next down. He pushed from the small blind with pocket eights and got a call from Lichtenberger in the big blind with A-9 suited. Lichtenberger flopped an ace, then improved his nut flush on the river. Steele was sent home with $283,725 in third place, easily the highest live tournament score of his career.

With that, Lichtenberger took a nearly 3-to-1 head-to-head lead with Foxen. As mentioned earlier, the two fought for several hours. There were plenty of swings in the reportedly four-hour showdown, with both players holding healthy leads at one point during the title clash. By the time the final hand came up, Lichtenberger had taken a good lead. With blinds of 50,000 to 75,000 and a big blind bet of 75,000, Foxen limped holding JJ on a stack of 975,000. Lichtenberger moved all in from the big blind with 76 and Foxen called with his big pair. The board went down Qten543 and Lichtenberger drove straight to secure the pot and the title.

Foxen won $515,587 as runner-up. It was his 11th final table of the year, with two titles won and over $1.6 million in POY gains accumulated along the way. Following its impressive results so far in 2022, Foxen now sits in fifth place overall POY ranking and third in PGT points race.

Here is an overview of the payouts and ranking points awarded at the final table:

Winner photo credit: Seminole Hard Rock Poker blog.