In 2021, Eli Elezra was inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame as a quadruple World Series of Poker bracelet winner. The Israeli poker pro is now 61 and still not done adding to his impressive tournament resume. In the early morning hours of July 2, 2022, he got his fifth career WSOP gold bracelet, winning the pot-limit Omaha eight-or-better $10,000 championship for the second-highest tournament score of his career: $611,362.

Elezra, who still largely focuses on cash games, now has nearly $5.2 million in career tournament earnings. He dedicated this latest victory to two important people in his life: his late father Michel, who died recently, and his wife Hila.

“You saw that I was very emotional there because my father passed away 18 days ago. And I wanted to win for him. And I did,” Elezra said. WSOP journalists after emerging victorious.

Elezra hasn’t played as busy a schedule as he often does on the show so far in 2022.

“This is my fourth $10,000 event instead of my 11th,” Elezra said. “I’m so happy to be able to show them that this Hall of Famer still has it!”

Elezra broke an attendance record of 284 participants at this event. The top 43 finishers made money, with a long list of big names cashing in, including 2012 Main Event champion Greg Merson (29th – $16,171), ten-time bracelet winner Phil Ivey (37th – $16,171), three-time David Bach bracelet winner (36th – $16,171), three-time Paul Volpe bracelet winner (28th – $17,687), three-time Dan Zack bracelet winner (23rd – $20,214), Joao Vieira (17th – $23,521) and recent winner of the fixed limit version of this tournament Amnon Filippi (15th – $27,860).

The final day started with 20 players remaining and three times world poker tour winner Chino Rheem in the lead and Elezra in the middle of the pack. By the time the official final table was set, Elezra had worked his way up to third behind Rheem and Filippos Stavrakis. He quickly closed the gap even further by knocking out Seungjin Lee (9th – $51,353) to narrow the field to just eight contenders.

Charles Coultas was the next to hit the rail. He went all-in on the flop with a low draw, a gutshot and backdoor flush draws against two opponents’ top two pair. Coultas failed to improve on the turn or the river and was eliminated in eighth place ($65,113).

Four-time bracelet winner Josh Arieh was the defending champion of this event. The reigning WSOP The Player of the Year made a valiant effort to defend his title but was ultimately eliminated in seventh place ($83,920) when his flopped bottom pair, flush draw and backdoor low draw failed. improve against top pair Elezra.

Filippos Stavrakis’ run in this event came to an end when his A-5-4-4 couldn’t beat the KKQ-8 with Elezra’s heart with all chips in the middle preflop. Elzra flopped the top set and improved her straight with an ace on the river to win the pot and take a big lead. Stavrakis, who won a $1,000 Pot Limit Omaha event in 2018 during the series, won $109,910 in sixth place.

Bracelet winner Ken Aldridge got his final chips with AA82 facing the Aten95 of Rheem. Rheem made two pair on the turn, and with no possible low thanks to four high cards on the board, Aldridge only needed an ace, queen or jack on the river to stay. in the event. Instead, a brick fell off the bridge at the end and Aldridge was eliminated in fifth place ($146,242).

Elezra scored another knockout, with his pocket jacks and a suited A-3 beating the 8-6-4-2 with a suit for Damjan Radanov. Elezra flopped a set and held from there to slide the whole pot and narrow the field to three contenders. Radanov collected $197,637, the highest tally of his tournament career.

Both bracelets Robert Cowen won came in pot-limit Omaha events, including his $50,000 buy-in win PLO high roller earlier in this series for a career high score of nearly $1.4 million. He came close to getting his third piece of WSOP material in this event, but just fell short when his A844 couldn’t beat the KK99 of Rheem after all chips are entered on a Q9seven fiasco. 6 turn gave Cowen the only low draw to go along with his nut flush outs. The J on the river kept Rheem’s best set of nine, and Cowen was knocked out in third place ($271,219).

Head-to-head play started with Elezra holding around 9 million to Rheem’s 8 million. Elezra pulled away several times, only for Rheem to bounce back. Rheem was in the lead when Elezra scored a huge double with the nut flush that beat two pair. Rheem was down to 17 big blinds after that pot. Shortly after, he went all-in aboard KJ5 with KQQten for top pair and an open ended straight draw. Elezra held AKten5 for kings, a gutshot straight draw and backdoor spade possibilities. 7 tower kept Elezra ahead, and the 5 river saw him improve to a full house to win the pot and the title. Rheem won $377,855 as the finalist.

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

Winner photo credit: WSOP / Seth Haussler.

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