Phil Hellmuth denied 17th WSOP bracelet

After three full days of play, David Jackson was crowned the winner of the 2022 World Series of Poker Event #65: $3,000 Freezeout No-Limit Hold'em inside Bally's - Las Vegas and Paris Las Vegas.

The now two-time WSOP bracelet winner beat Phil Hellmuth in heads-up play to secure the $598,173 first-place prize. Hellmuth, who was close to extending his bracelet collection to 17, walked away with a $369,698 payday.

Jackson earned his first WSOP bracelet after taking down Event #25: $777 LUCKY SEVENS as part of the 2021 GGPoker WSOP Online Bracelet Events. Jackson made it through a field of 2,014 entries to win the bracelet and $194,178.

The $3,000 Freezeout attracted 1,359 entries which generated a $3,628,530 prize pool. The likes of Daniel Negreanu, Maria Ho and Justin Bonomo all contributed to the prize kitty but found themselves on the wrong side of the rail after being dispatched on Day 1.

Notables who fell on Day 2 included reigning WSOP Main Event champion Koray Aldemir and 2019 Main Event winner Hossein Ensan. The polarizing Martin Kabrhel also bowed out at this stage.

Day 3 began with 26 players remaining, and that rapidly became ten. Julien Martini's aces were cracked by Hellmuth in the early going, which helped propel Hellmuth to a deeper run.

"I was just in my zone, honestly. I felt like I was going to win. I knew I was going to win. I felt like it was meant for me," said the newly crowned champion minutes after his tremendous victory.

"I'm just in awe. I'm just happy. I'm happy, but it's just hard to process right now," Jackson told PokerNews. "This one [second bracelet] the feeling, it definitely feels much better. The online one was like a 700 or 777 event. So there were a lot of people, but it was an easier field. This one was a tougher field," he added.

Jackson started with a healthy chip lead but soon made it level, but Jackson wasn't concerned about any resurgence from the Poker Brat. "I just played my game. I stayed calm and just continued on."

The unofficial final table of ten quickly became the official final table of nine. Day 2 chip leader Keiji Ito moved all in with Jackson and Anton Wigg calling. Jackson folded out Wigg and dispatched Ito with his rivered set of sevens.

Wigg then followed Ito out the door soon after. He ended up being on the wrong end of a classic race against Justin Saliba. Wigg's ace-king could not leapfrog his opponent's pocket queens, and he became the first official final table casualty. The next departure would come from Richard Scardina. His four-bet jam was snap-called by Jeffrey Lo's pocket aces, and they managed to hold to bring the tournament to seven-handed play.

Onur Unsal finished the event in seventh place. He emptied the clip on the river, but ran into Jackson's flush. Unsal just had queen-high but netted $62,423. Renan Bruschi suffered the baddest beat of the final table. He called Jackson's four-bet shove with pocket aces while his opponent had pocket kings. Jackson found a king on the flop to sail into the lead, and the turn and river were kind to Jackson.

The final five players moved onto the feature table inside Bally's Event Center and it didn't take long for Timothy Sullivan to leave it. Saliba had left Sullivan short the hand before with Lo finishing the job off with his superior ace.

Hellmuth was the next player all in and at risk, he got it in with a pair of nines and held versus the suited ace-five of Jackson just before the break. When the players returned, Saliba got his stack into the middle on the flop after committing most of his chips preflop. He was called by Jackson, who secured another elimination after his top pair remained best.

Three-handed play lasted for around 45 minutes. Lo moved all in on the turn and found himself up against the trip sevens held by Jackson.

Heads-up play began with Jackson having a four-to-one chip lead against Hellmuth and they were level soon after with Hellmuth raking in a sizeable pot with pocket aces. Jackson widened the gap yet again and eventually sealed the victory after he rivered Broadway to beat Hellmuth's ace-high.

Final Table Results
1 David Jackson United States $598,173
2 Phil Hellmuth United States $369,698
3 Jeffrey Lo Hong Kong $266,559
4 Justin Saliba United States $194,525
5 Timothy Sullivan United States $143,699
6 Renan Bruschi Brazil $107,472
7 Onur Unsal Turkey $81,390
8 Richard Scardina United States $62,423
9 Anton Wigg Sweden $48,494

(Article courtesy of World Series of Poker)