5 Can’t-Miss WSOP 2022 Poker Tournaments
Every poker player worth their salt dreams of flying to Las Vegas and competing in the World Series of Poker. The WSOP is the pinnacle of poker events; think the Super Bowl or the World Cup. The biggest difference is that anyone can play, as long as they can afford it!
The 2022 WSOP features 88 live events, each awarding colossal cash prizes in addition to poker’s most sought-after piece of jewelry: a gold WSOP bracelet. There are also 14 bracelet-awarding online events, but let’s be real: we’d rather be at Bally’s and Paris Las Vegas rubbing shoulders with like-minded poker lovers and the game’s elite stars.
Each of the 88 live events is special in its own right, but unless you’re a complete animal (with a near-limitless bankroll to boot), you’re not going to be able to hit them all. So we did the hard work for you and chose five can’t-miss tournaments to chase that bracelet. We wonder if you’ll run into any of these current pros who haven’t won a WSOP bracelet yet…
It would have been easy to recommend the $250,000 Super High Roller or the $50,000 Poker Players’ Championship, but honestly, who has that kind of money to spare, never mind that much money to drop on a single poker tournament? So instead, we picked five WSOP 2022 events that are, well, a little more affordable. Happy bracelet hunting!
Event #51: Colossus No-Limit Hold'em
With a name like the Colossus, you’d expect this event to be huge, right? Well, you’d be right; it is nothing short of monumental. The inaugural Colossus ran in 2015 and saw a staggering 22,374 players buy in for $400, making it the largest-ever live poker tournament in terms of attendance. Numbers have dwindled somewhat since that first-ever Colossus, but it still draws in the five-figure crowd.
The 2022 WSOP edition of the Colossus costs a mere $400 and kicks off with Day 1A on June 24. The attendances in the WSOP events that have already concluded show a more than 20% uptick from last year, so expect a Colossus crowd north of 15,000 entrants. This should mean a top prize in the region of $400,000, which is pretty ridiculous for a $400 buy-in. Of course, there is a coveted gold WSOP bracelet for the champion, too; let’s not forget that!
Past Five Colossus Results
| Year | Entrants | Prize pool | Champion | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 9,399 | $3,101,670 | Anatoliy Zyrin | $314,705 |
| 2019 | 13,109 | $4,382,515 | Sejin Park | $451,272 |
| 2018 | 13,070 | $6,535,000 | Roberly Felicio | $1,000,000 |
| 2017 | 18,054 | $9,027,000 | Thomas Pomponio | $1,000,000 |
| 2016 | 21,613 | $10,806,500 | Benjamin Keeline | $1,000,000 |
Event #55: TAG TEAM No-Limit Hold’em
Poker is not usually considered a team sport, but in this event, you’ll have to learn how to share if you want to win. The $1,000 event on June 26 requires two-to-four players to register, check in, and compete together as a team. Each player must play at least one blind lever before the end of late registration. Players can tag in or out any time their team is not active in a hand, and all prize money is evenly split. Who says sharing isn’t caring?
Past TAG TEAM Results
| Year | Teams | Prize pool | Champion | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 641 | $590,490 | Mike Ruter & Samy Dighlawi | $113,366 |
| 2019 | 976 | $878,400 | Ohad Geiger, Daniel Dayan, & Barak Wisbrod | $168,395 |
| 2018 | 1,032 | $928,800 | Giuseppe Pantaleo & Nikita Luther | $175,805 |
| 2017 | 843 | $758,700 | Nipun Java & Aditya Sushant | $150,637 |
| 2016 | 863 | $776,700 | Ryan Fee & Doug Polk | $153,358 |
Event #66: Mini Main Event No-Limit Hold'em (freezeout)
The $1,000 buy-in Mini Main Event is perfect for those of you who shudder at the thought of having to fork out $10,000 of your hard-earned cash to play in the actual WSOP Main Event. And, just like the Main Event, the Mini Main Event is played as a freezeout, so if you dust off your initial starting stack of 60,000 chips, you are done.
The Mini Main Event has 30-minute blind levels and a much better structure than other events with similar buy-ins. In addition, there is only a single Day 1, so expect Bally’s and Paris Las Vegas to be packed to the rafters on July 1, as upwards of 5,000 players battle it out to become the Mini Main Event champion.
Only two Mini Main Events have taken place before. Jeremy Saderne took it down in 2019, outlasting 5,500 opponents to snag the $628,654 top prize. Greece’s Georgios Sotiropoulos is the reigning champ, having bulldozed his way through 3,820 opponents on his way to getting his hands on a $432,575 bankroll-boosting score.
Past Mini Main Results
| Year | Entrants | Prize pool | Champion | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 3,821 | $3,400,690 | Georgios Sotiropoulos | $432,575 |
| 2019 | 5,521 | $4,968,900 | Jeremy Saderne | $628,654 |
Event #70: Main Event No-Limit Hold'em World Championship
Surprise! No, not really; you should have known we weren’t going to skip out on, quite literally, the main event. The $10,000 Main Event is the WSOP event that everyone dreams of winning. Not only does becoming the Main Event make you poker’s world champion, but it also comes with massive, life-changing, million-dollar payouts.
$10,000 is a little steep for a tournament entry, but you can always satellite into the Main Event for a fraction of its cost. In addition, the tournament has the best structure of any tournament anywhere on the planet, with 120-minute blinds.
Expect a massive grind if you want to simply cash in this tournament because the money usually starts being awarded on Day 4; the structure is that good!
German pro Koray Aldemir is the current world champion, having won in 2021 for a cool $8 million. Everything points towards the 2022 WSOP Main Event being one of the biggest on record, which means an eight-figure payout is not outside the realms of possibility! Get it won!
Past Five Main Event Results
| Year | Entrants | Prize pool | Champion | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 6,650 | $62,011,250 | Koray Aldemir | $8,000,000 |
| 2019 | 8,569 | $80,548,600 | Hossein Ensan | $10,000,000 |
| 2018 | 7,874 | $74,015,600 | John Cynn | $8,800,000 |
| 2017 | 7,221 | $67,877,400 | Scott Blumstein | $8,150,000 |
| 2016 | 6,737 | $63,327,800 | Qui Nguyen | $8,005,310 |
Event #71: One More for One Drop No-Limit Hold'em
The Little One for One Drop is a fun tournament with a $1,111 buy-in where $111 of that amount goes to the One Drop Foundation, a charity that helps bring fresh water to areas with no safe water. So not only does entering this event, renamed “One More for One Drop” this year, help you do your part for a worthy cause, but it also comes with a bumper payday.
Scott Ball won this event in 2021 and padded his bankroll with $396,445. However, the 2019 champion James Anderson won the largest Little Drop prize, a whopping $690,686. This was Anderson’s reward for outlasting 6,247 opponents. It should be a similar turnout in 2022!
Past Five Little One For One Drop Results
| Year | Entrants | Prize pool | Champion | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 3,797 | $3,800,797 | Scott Ball | $396,445 |
| 2019 | 6,248 | $5,623,200 | James Anderson | $690,686 |
| 2018 | 4,732 | $4,258,800 | Wei Guo Liang | $559,332 |
| 2017 | 4,391 | $3,951,900 | Adrian Moreno | $528,316 |
| 2016 | 4,360 | $3,924,000 | Michael Tureniec | $525,520 |
Photo Credit: Melissa Haereiti
Tight Poker Staff
