Event #82: $800 8-Handed No-Limit Hold’em Deepstack

The 2022 World Series of Poker in its new home at Bally's and Paris Las Vegas has crowned a new champion as Richard Alsup won Event #80: $800 No-Limit Hold'em Deepstack for $272,065 a month after his travel buddy Rob Wazwaz won the same event Event #25: $800 No-Limit Hold'em Deepstack.

This event attracted 2,820 entries which generated a prize pool of $1,979,648

Alsup wasn't even planning on playing this event as he wanted to play the mystery bounty at the Wynn, but Wazwaz convinced Alsup to play by saying "Come play with the fish."

They entered the day with 167 players remaining and the tournament crowned the 38-year-old professional Alsup champion at around 1:30 a.m. after over 13 hours of play.

Event #82: $800 No-Limit Hold'em Deepstack Final Table Results

Alsup was one of the chip leaders on the final two tables before taking a bad beat where he turned trips while Patrick Truong had a full house to become short. Alsup came into the short-stacked final table in the middle of the pack and managed to navigate through to come out victorious with the support of his baby shoe, which Alsup brought out especially on the final table to represent his four-month-old baby.

Winner's Reaction

When asked how it feels to win his first bracelet, Alsup said, "It feels phenomenal. I haven't really been a bracelet chaser but this one is really special. It feels really special because my travel buddy Rob Wazwaz won the same event a month before. The stars aligned, I wasn't even going to play."

On the bad beat mentioned above, Alsup said, "I could have easily went bust on that hand but I saved a few chips and it's an old saying 'A chip and a chair' and I managed to spin it back up. It was just before the dinner break, which allowed me some time to regroup. I had seven big blinds and I came back by stealing blinds a lot."

Alsup already had over $1,500,000 in live tournament earnings, according to his Hendon Mob, which dated his first cash back to 2006, and was asked about his background in poker. Alsup said, "I first got introduced to poker when I was 12 years old. Me and the neighbor kid would play $0.01/$0.02 and play all through the night. I eventually started going to the local casino at Canterbury Park in Minnesota. In 2015 I saw these people were getting big scores in tournaments and I started to take that path. Cash games are great, but I'm in it for the big scores, titles, and bracelets."

Alsup has a four-month-old baby back home and spoke of the difficulties of being away. "I have a baby at home and it's been really hard being away from my family. I love my son and girlfriend so much that it's tough to be away. I'm ready to get out of here, but this tournament of champions freeroll is trying to tempt me to stay."

On the baby shoe at the final table, Alsup said, "I brought this (the shoe) because I had the idea to bring this in case I make a final table. I put this down on my cards as the final table started, and I said, 'Watch out guys, I got that baby run good'. It's magical, I feel like it brought me good luck."

On the final table itself, Alsup said, "I didn't do a lot of raise folding. It was tough five-handed. I had to battle with some amazing players like Ari Engel and others. There were a couple of tough situations with ICM implications, but I told myself I was here to win it. My buddy (Rob Wazwaz) won the bracelet. I'm going to win the bracelet."

On the heads-up play against Brit Gary Whitehead Alsup said, "He was a great guy, but I probably didn't think he's played much heads-up. I didn't want to get in a raising battle with him due to the stacks being shallow. I didn't want to take any chances. I want to play small pots and play post-flop, which worked out really well in my favor."

Final Table Recap

The final table started with the swift elimination of Donny Casho at the hands of Alsup as Casho was very short. Next to go was Frederick Brown as he lost a flip with his ace-king against 2019 Main Event final tablist Artem Metalidi's queens.

The action was seven-handed for a while before Truong was eliminated as he was short after losing a cooler to two-time bracelet winner Engel with his queens against Engel's pocket tens. Alsup would finish him off.

Ukrainian's Metalidi was next to go as Engel took him down blind vs blind before Irishman Marc MacDonnell followed him to the rail quite sometime later as Whitehead eliminated him.

Whitehead eliminated recreational player Ryan Jaworski next as Jaworski shoved into Whitehead's two pair.

Things heated up three-handed where Engel was using aggression to steal blinds before his ace-queen was bested by Alsup's king-jack, which took the action to heads-up.

The battle between Alsup and Whitehead was a passive affair with plenty of limped pots as stacks got very shallow. Alsup would steal pots post-flop, but Whitehead would somehow keep finding ways to double. However, Whitehead couldn't win every all-in, which eventually gave the win and the bracelet to Alsup as his friend and fellow $800 deepstack bracelet winner Wazwaz erupted in joy.

Congratulations to Richard Alsup for winning his first WSOP bracelet in Event #82: $800 No-Limit Hold'em Deepstack!

Be sure to keep it with the PokerNews for the wrap-up of the 2022 WSOP Main Event coverage as well as the tournament of champions from Monday, July 18th at the 2022 WSOP.

Richard Alsup moved all in from the small blind/button for 21,900,000 effective. Gary Whitehead made the call in the big blind.

Gary Whitehead:   
Richard Alsup:   

If Alsup held he would win the tournament and the bracelet.

The flop came     giving Whitehead a straight flush draw. His rail shouted "He's a favourite."

The turn was the   giving Whitehead a pair. The river was the   which resulted in Whitehead doubling up again much to the jubilation of his rail.

Richard Alsup	64,500,000	-13,800,000
Gary Whitehead	48,000,000	13,800,000

Gary Whitehead limped from the small blind/button. Richard Alsup raised to 10,000,000 and Whitehead called.

The flop came     and Alsup bet 9,000,000. Whitehead took a sip of his beer before moving all in. Alsup snap-called.

Richard Alsup:   
Gary Whitehead:   

Both players had top pair but Alsup had Whitehead outkicked. The turn came the   and the river the   which gave Alsup the massive double up to put him in cruise control.

Richard Alsup	90,500,000	40,500,000
Gary Whitehead	22,000,000	-40,500,000

Ari Engel raised to 6,500,000 from the button leaving himself 500,000 behing. Richard Alsup called in the small blind and Gary Whitehead folded in the big blind.

The flop came     and Alsup bet 500,000 putting Engel all in. Engel snap-called.

Ari Engel:   
Richard Alsup:   

Engel need an ace or backdoor spades in order to keep his bracelet dreams alive, however, it didn't come as the turn came the   and the river the   to send Engel to the rail for a third-place finish and a payday of $126,233.

Gary Whitehead	71,500,000	13,500,000
Richard Alsup	41,000,000	11,500,000
Ari Engel	0	-8,000,000

After Gary Whitehead called from the small blind, Ari Engel checked his option.

Both checked down to the river on the board of       before Whitehead lead out for 4,000,000. Engel responded by raising to 12,200,000 and after Engel went deep into the tank, he let it go.

Richard Alsup	29,500,000	-5,500,000
Ari Engel	8,000,000	-182,000,000