The final day of the 2022 World Series of Poker $1,500 buy-in mixed Omaha eight-or-better event began with a handful of multiple bracelet winners still in contention, looking to add to their collection with more hardware secured at the series. In the end, a debut winner emerged: Bradley Anderson. The Missoula, Montana resident overcame the field of 771 total entries, defeating Scott Abrams heads-up to earn $195,565 and his first bracelet.
“It is definitely surreal. Today was a tough grind. I had a big chip lead going into heads-up, and Scott chipped away at me, but I weathered the storm. I wasn’t really thinking about the money. I was focused on winning the bracelet,” Anderson told WSOP reporters after coming out on top.
This was the second-largest score of Anderson’s career, behind the $355,913 he earned as the fifth-place finisher in the 2014 ‘Millionaire Maker’ event. He now has nearly $630,000 in career cashes to his name.
In addition to the title and the money, Anderson also scored 912 Card Player Player of the Year points as the champion of this tournament. This was his first POY-qualified score of the year.
This tournament featured three games, each a variant of Omaha eight-or-better. The mix consisted of limit Omaha eight-or-better, the pot-limit version of the same game, and Big O, which is shorthand for five-card pot-limit Omaha eight-or-better.
The strong turnout for this event built a prize pool of $1,029,285 that was chopped up by the top 116 finishers. Plenty of big names made deep runs, including two-time bracelet winner Brandon Shack-Harris (72nd – $3,016), three-time bracelet winner Scott Clements (62nd – $3,358), three-time bracelet Chance Kornuth (45th – $4,113), and two-time bracelet winner Nathan Gamble (38th – $4,713).
The final day began with 22 players remaining, and five multi-time bracelet winners still in contention. Two-time bracelet winner Mel Judah fell in 22nd ($8,085), while fellow two-time champion Rami Boukai bowed out in 12th ($10,097).
Five-time bracelet winner Adam Friedman’s run in this event ended just short of the final table. The recent $10,000 seven-card stud championship winner got his short stack all-in with a flush draw and a backdoor low draw on the flop in Big O, but was up against top pair for Mark Erickson. Erickson improved to trips on the turn and held from there to send Friedman’s run in ninth place ($16,740).
Erickson went on to finish sixth for $30,026. Hot on his heels was seven-time bracelet winner Men ‘The Master’ Nguyen, who was scooped in back-to-back big pots to go from the middle of the pack to out in fifth place ($41,377).
Anderson made aces and queens on a non-low board to scoop Peter Neff (4th – $58,089) and take a sizable lead into three-handed action. Two-time bracelet winner Barny Boatman doubled up through Anderson once, but soon was all-in and at risk again. Anderson showed down queens full of aces to scoop the pot. Boatman earned $83,050 for his 56th cash in a bracelet event. He now has nearly $3.1 million in recorded tournament earnings.
Heads-up play began with Anderson holding more than a 3:1 chip advantage over Abrams. In the final hand, the chips went in preflop in a round of Big O with Abrams holding A
98
4
3. Anderson had 76432. A J-5-5-2-10 runout saw Abrams low wrap draw on the turn brick out, giving Anderson a scoop with fives and deuces for the high. Abrams took home $120,881, the second-largest score of his career behind the $590,442 he secured as the 12th-place finisher in the 2012 main event.
Here is a look at the payouts and rankings points awarded at the final table:
| Place | Player | Earnings | POY Points |
| 1 | Bradley Anderson | $195,565 | 912 |
| 2 | Scott Abrams | $120,881 | 760 |
| 3 | Barny Boatman | $83,050 | 608 |
| 4 | Peter Neff | $58,089 | 456 |
| 5 | Men Nguyen | $41,377 | 380 |
| 6 | Mark Erickson | $30,026 | 304 |
| 7 | Jarod Minghini | $22,205 | 228 |
| 8 | Shawn Carter | $16,740 | 152 |
Photo credit: WSOP / Spenser Sembrat.
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