Tournament of Champions

The 2022 World Series of Poker (WSOP) has concluded and Pennsylvania's Benjamin Kaupp has secured the final bracelet after taking down the Tournament of Champions for a career-best $250,000. Kaupp, who takes home his first bracelet, defeated Raul Garza after a brief heads-up battle to resign the runner-up to a $150,000 conslation prize.

The Tournament of Champions was exclusively available to the 570 bracelet and Circuit ring winners from the 2022 WSOP season. A total of 470 players entered the freeroll in an attempt to win a piece of the $1,000,000 prize pool.

Players who made deep runs in the event include Robert Cowen (4th - $75,000) and Yuliyan Kolev (7th - $27,500), both of whom won their second bracelets earlier in the series, as well as ring winners like Gregory Wish (6th - $37,500) and Eric Bensimhon ($20,000).

WSOP Tournament of Champions Final Table Results

Kaupp qualified for the Tournament of Champions after winning a $215 WSOP.com PA Circuit event for $14,954. He now takes home more than 15 times that as he adds a second piece of WSOP hardware to his arsenal.

"It doesn't feel real yet. It just hasn't sunk in quite yet," Kaupp told PokerNews after the victory. "Before this tournament (started), I was going to be just happy to cash."

The Pennsylvanian player said he started playing poker 15 years ago with friends and discovered online poker about 12 years ago.

"I've just been grinding online for the last couple of years, taking it pretty seriously," he said. "I play a lot of the Circuit events online ... I didn't really play poker for a while until the last couple of years when it was legal in Pennsylvania again."

Even without a keyboard or mouse, Kaupp had no trouble getting through a field of accomplished bracelet and ring winners to earn his first bracelet and the six-figure score.

"It was very tough," he said about the tournament. "The final table, everyone was very tough, very aggressive, great with live reads, it seemed. And things went my way, and here I am."

Final Table Action

Day 3 began with 16 players and moved down to a single table within the first few hours of play.

Gianluca Speranza fell in ninth place for $15,000 when his ace-seven was dominated by the ace-king of Wish to end the Italian's run for a second bracelet. Later, the KFC bucket-sporting Kolev went out in seventh for $27,500 when he ran pocket eights into the queens of Kaupp.

After Ali Eslami's elimination in fifth place for $50,000, it looked like Kaupp would be going out in fourth when he moved in with pocket nines against the cowboys of Ryan Messick. However, a nine appeared on the turn to keep Kaupp's tournament dreams alive.

Messick, who immediately flew to Las Vegas to play the event after winning an online bracelet event at the 11th hour, ended up falling in third place for $100,000 when his ace-four couldn't hold up against Kaupp's king-ten.

Heads-up play lasted just four hands as Kaupp used his dominant chip advantage to put pressure on Garza, who won a WSOPC Cherokee $1,100 buy-in event in February for his first ring and $74,995. The Texan managed to double up once but ultimately couldn't overcome the chip deficit.

In the final hand, Garza moved all-in with king-jack, and Kaupp called with ace-six. Neither player improved their holdings. Kaupp's ace-high was good enough to send Garza out in second for $150,000, his second-largest score to date.

That wraps the PokerNews live reporting team's coverage of the final event of the 2022 WSOP. Check out the WSOP hub to see any tournament action from the summer you may have missed.

Benjamin Kaupp jammed the first button with the    and Raul Garza forfeited the big blind with   . Kaupp then received a walk with    and he jammed the third hand of heads-up play with Garza calling.

Raul Garza:   
Benjamin Kaupp:   

The     flop improved Garza to a pair and Kaupp needed running cards. One of them was the   turn but the   river paired the board as Garza doubled for 850,000.

Benjamin Kaupp	12,000,000	-550,000
Raul Garza	2,200,000	650,000

A few orbits later, the next open-shove by Ryan Messick for 1,900,000 in the small blind followed.

Benjamin Kaupp reluctantly called in the big blind with the words "I don't know if I am supposed, feel like you are tight for a reason".

Ryan Messick:   
Benjamin Kaupp:   

The     flop vaulted Kaupp into the lead while Messick then gained some hope with the   on the turn. However, the   river brought no help to Messick and he was eliminated in third place for $100,000.

Benjamin Kaupp	12,550,000	2,250,000
Raul Garza	1,550,000	-50,000
Ryan Messick	0	-2,200,000

Benjamin Kaupp raised it up to 260,000 on the button and Raul Garza jammed for 1,600,000 in the small blind. Ryan Messick forfeited his big blind and Kaupp also let go after brief consideration.

Messick limped the next small blind and folded when Kaupp applied maximum pressure with his big stack.

Kaupp raised to 350,000 in the small blind the next hand with the   , picking up a call by Garza in the big blind holding the   . The bet of just 150,000 by Kaupp on the     flop followed and Garza folded.

Kaupp raised the next button to 260,000 and collected the blinds and big blind ante.

Benjamin Kaupp	10,700,000	1,400,000
Ryan Messick	1,900,000	-800,000
Raul Garza	1,500,000	-600,000

After forfeiting his big blind and small blind, Raul Garza was on the button with a stack of 1,660,000 and pushed all-in. Ryan Messick asked for an exact count and folded in under one minute, Benjamin Kaupp in the big blind snap-folded.

Kaupp limped out of the small blind with the    and Garza checked the option from the big blind with his   , which led them to a     flop. They checked to the   turn and the   river, the latter of which brought a bet worth 160,000 by Kaupp. Within two seconds, Garza's cards went into the muck.

Benjamin Kaupp	9,400,000	500,000
Ryan Messick	2,900,000	-300,000
Raul Garza	1,700,000	-300,000

Ryan Messick min-raised to 240,000 on the button and Raul Garza defended the big blind, then open-shoved for 470,000 on the     flop and earned a snap-call by Garza.

Raul Garza:   
Ryan Messick:   

Garza was ahead with his second pair and gutshot while Messick had one overcard and the open-ended straight draw at his disposal. The   turn changed nothing whatsoever and the same applied for the   river as Garza doubled his short stack.

Benjamin Kaupp	7,700,000	0
Ryan Messick	4,800,000	-700,000
Raul Garza	1,600,000	770,000

Benjamin Kaupp raised it up to 260,000 on the button with    and earned a call from Ryan Messick in the big blind with   . Leading to a flop of     flop, Messick check-called for 175,000 and the   turn was checked. Messick bet the   river for 450,000 and Kaupp let go.

Benjamin Kaupp	7,900,000	-400,000
Ryan Messick	4,300,000	500,000
Raul Garza	1,900,000	-100,000

Ryan Messick raised to 200,000 in the cutoff and Robert Cowen then three-bet jammed his short stack of 1,780,000 in the big blind. A quick call by Messick followed and the rails started shouting.

Robert Cowen:   
Ryan Messick:   

Cowen had outs on the     flop and   turn but bricked the   on the river to become the fourth place finisher, padding his bankroll at the end of the 2022 WSOP with another $75,000.

Right after, the level came to an end as the final three players headed into the next break.

Benjamin Kaupp	5,600,000	200,000
Ryan Messick	4,400,000	1,900,000
Raul Garza	4,000,000	-300,000
Robert Cowen	0	-1,900,000