Seiver victorious in WSOP's $2,500 Freezeout NLH

On Friday night in Las Vegas, it was high-stakes poker pro Scott Seiver who ended up taking down the 2022 World Series of Poker Event #3: $2,500 Freezeout No-Limit Hold'em after beating Alexander Farahi heads up. Seiver added a fourth WSOP bracelet to his illustrious resume, and also $320,059 to his already over $24 million dollars in lifetime earnings.

The tournament began with 752 entrants creating a prize pool of $1,673,000, which was divided up between the top 113 players. The field was whittled down to the final 10 on Thursday, and the unofficial final table played out in just over seven hours. With the victory, Seiver became the second player this summer, along with David Peters, to capture their fourth career gold bracelet.

"I've wanted another no-limit bracelet for a long time," said Seiver, referring to his other no-limit hold'em bracelet won in 2008, "the fields are so tough, everyone is so good at hold'em, and they are so large, so while I never thought I was due, it was something I really wanted for a while."

Seiver came into the day as chip leader, but throughout the course of play found the lead changing over a dozen times at multiple stages of the final table. After a tumultuous three-handed period, the heads-up portion lasted just under 30-minutes.

"I'm gonna play a lot of events and maybe chase some Player of the Year," said Seiver, who last month lost his High Stakes Duel III match against Phil Hellmuth.

With the win, Seiver moved to 24th place on the all-time money list, passing Sam Greenwood in the process.

It didn't take long for the official final table to be reached, after Shawn Hood got in his remaining eight big blinds with pocket twos and could not fade the king-queen suited of Farahi. Hood left the tournament in tenth place for $18,645 while the remaining players found themselves nine-handed at the official final table.

The next to fall was Aditya Agarwal, who moved all in against David Goodman holding ace-queen offsuit. Goodman out-pipped him with ace-king suited and the board runout brought no help to Agarwal who exited the tournament in ninth place for $23,634.

Chris "Big Huni" Hunichen left the tournament in eighth place for $30,478 when he moved in against a raise by Seiver and a call by Goodman in front of him. Seiver folded, but Goodman snap-called with queens and it was ahead and remained so against the ace-jack of Hunichen.

Lewis Spencer spent the final table as the short stack and found his run ending in seventh place when he moved in with king-three suited in the hijack, only to get called by Seiver on the button with ace-two offsuit. The board brought a flush draw on the turn, but there was no help on the river for Spencer, who took home $39,970 for his efforts.

Poker commentator and three-time WSOP bracelet winner Nick Schulman looked good for a double-up when he moved in with ace-king and was called by the ace-queen of Sergio Aido. A queen on the turn, however, sealed Schulman's fate, and no king on the river meant Schulman's run ended in sixth place for $53,296.

Aido then lost a massive pot against Seiver when he bet-folded the river for the majority of his stack. He moved all in for his remaining chips with pocket sevens after Steve "The Bald Eagle" Zolotow raised before the flop with his ace-queen. Zolotow called and the ace-high board spelled the end for Aido, whose run finished in fifth place for $72,233.

Zolotow was the next to be eliminated when Goodman moved all in from the small blind with four-three of diamonds and Zolotow called with king-five of diamonds. The flop contained a four and a three on it, with the turn also possessing a four, and the two-time bracelet winner exited the tournament in fourth place for $99,483.

Goodman held the lead going into heads-up play, but many double-ups for the short stacks saw the lead change often throughout the course of play. After a few hours of play, it was Farahi and Seiver who had an even amount of chips and Goodman with the clear short stack.

Goodman moved all in over a raise from Farahi with ace-ten offsuit, which Seiver followed by also going all in with queens and folding out Farahi. Seiver's queens held and the 2018 WSOP Online Player of the Year left the tournament in third place for $139,193.

Farahi found himself also against Seiver's queens when, after the latter gained a large lead on him, the former three-bet jammed his stack with ace-eight, failing to improve. With that, Farahi exited in second place for $197,806.

Final Table
1 Scott Seiver United States $320,059
2 Alexander Farahi United States $197,806
3 David Goodman United States $139,193
4 Steve Zolotow United States $99,483
5 Sergio Aido Spain $72,233
6 Nick Schulman United States $53,296
7 Lewis Spencer United Kingdom $39,970
8 Chris Hunichen Unitied States $30,478
9 Aditya Agarwal India $23,634
10 Shawn Hood United States $18,645

(Article courtesy of World Series of Poker)