David Peters has proven himself to be one of the most prolific tournament poker superstars in the game. The four-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner recorded his 450th tournament cash this week, with the earnings from those scores totaling nearly $43.8 million. As a result, Peters has climbed into fourth place on poker’s all-time money list. The 35-year-old moved up that prestigious leaderboard thanks to a victory in the 2022 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open $50,000 buy-in no-limit hold’em super high roller event. Peters defeated a field of 25 entries, striking a heads-up deal to secure the title and $407,545 in prize money. The score was just enough to see him take a narrow $17,668 lead over fifth-ranked Stephen Chidwick.
This was Peters’ 39th career title and his 92nd cash for six figures or more. The victory also saw him secure 306 Card Player Player of the Year points. This was his second title and seventh POY-qualified final-table finish of the year. With 2,426 points and more than $2.7 million in year-to-date POY earnings, Peters has climbed into 40th place in the 2022 POY standings sponsored by Global Poker. Peters won the POY award in 2016, and has eight top-50 finishes over the last 12 years including three other top-five showings outside of his outright victory.
Peters also earned 291 PokerGo Tour points, enough to move him just outside of the top 30 on that leaderboard.
This event ran over the course of two days at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Hollywood in Southern Florida. The final day began with just five players remaining, each of whom had locked up at least $97,000 in this event following the elimination of high-stakes tournament regular Sean Winter on the money bubble at the end of day 1.
Bracelet winner Byron Kaverman came in as the chip leader, while Peters was the clear short stack with just 12 big blinds to start. Peters chipped up early, then found two double-ups through Krishna Lawrence to chip up to nearly 50 big blinds. Lawrence was left as the short stack, and he soon found himself all-in and at risk with 10
9 dominated by the A
9 of Peters. Lawrence flopped a ten, but Peters picked up the nut flush draw. He made the nuts on the turn to leave Lawrence drawing dead. The river was a mere formality. Lawrence earned $97,000 as the fifth-place finisher, while Peters continued to surge up the chip counts.
Kaverman checked Peter’s momentum when he won a sizable pot during four-handed action, but Peters was able to knock out Spanish poker pro Sergio Aido in fourth place to get back on track. Peters picked up pocket kings against the A-10 of Aido and held to narrow the field to three. Aido earned $133,375 for his strong showing in this event.
Two-time bracelet winner Elio Fox got all-in shortly after Aido’s exit, shoving his last 9 or so big blinds with QJ from the button. Kaverman called with the A
6 out of the big blind. The board came down 9
8575 and Kaverman made a nine-high straight to take down the pot. Fox was awarded $194,000 as the third-place finisher, increasing his career earnings to nearly $12 million in the process.
After that hand, Peters held 1,793,000 to Kaverman’s 1,330,000. The final two negotiated a deal that brought the tournament to an end. Peters was awarded $407,545 and the title thanks to his lead, while Kaverman took home $380,580 as the runner-up. He now has just shy of $17.4 million in lifetime cashes.
Here is a look at the payouts and rankings points awarded in this event:
| Place | Player | Earnings | POY Points | PGT Points |
| 1 | David Peters | $407,545 | 306 | 291 |
| 2 | Byron Kaverman | $380,580 | 255 | 182 |
| 3 | Elio Fox | $194,000 | 204 | 116 |
| 4 | Sergio Aido | $133,375 | 153 | 80 |
| 5 | Krishna Lawrence | $97,000 | 128 | 58 |
Photo credit: SHRPO blog.