It took an extra day to find a winner in Event #49: $2,000 No-Limit Hold’em and Bulgaria’s Simeon Spasov emerged as the newest champion at the 2022 World Series of Poker (WSOP) after defeating Mike Watson in heads-up play for $527,944.
The event, which ran for the first time at the 2022 WSOP, drew 1,977 runners and generated a prize pool of $3,519,060.
Spasov, who began the day as one of the short stacks, completed the improbable victory over Watson after cracking aces to survive Day 3 before spinning it up on Day 4. It marked Spasov’s first gold bracelet and his best finish after previously running to 19th in the 2021 WSOP $800 Deepstack event.
Event #49: $2,000 No-Limit Hold’em Day 4 Results
| Place | Name | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Simeon Spasov | Bulgaria | $527,944 |
| 2 | Mike Watson | Canada | $326,296 |
| 3 | Daniel Custodio | Portugal | $239,679 |
| 4 | Ioannis Angelous Konstas | Greece | $177,761 |
| 5 | Walter Ripper | Brazil | $133,129 |
| 6 | Christopher Frank | Germany | $100,688 |
| 7 | Evan Sandberg | United States | $76,912 |
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Day 4 Action
Watson came into the day as the chip leader, but he fell behind early when Spasov found a double with ace-queen. A short time later, Evan Sandberg got his short stack into the middle, but Daniel Custodio made a pair of aces on the river to eliminate him in seventh place.
Christopher Frank wasn’t far behind in sixth place after Spasov’s ace-queen outdrew his pocket nines. A short time later, Watson doubled through Custodio with pocket queens and he was back near the top of the leaderboard.
Brazil’s Walter Ripper was aggressive throughout the final two days, but his run came up short when Ioannis Angelou Konstas left him short with pocket kings. Ripper was eliminated a few moments later as Spasov continued his hot final table run with the knockout.
Angelou Konstas went on a late run and started to build chips by doubling through the bigger stacks, but he was out in fourth place when he picked up pocket queens only to have Spasov spiked a straight on the river with pocket tens.
Three-handed play continued until Custodio got it all in with ace-deuce suited but Watson made a straight with king-queen to send him home with third-place money.
Watson and Spasov faced off for more than an hour after both dominated the final table throughout the afternoon. Spasov built his lead and kept Watson at bay until the big moment came when Watson got it in with ace-nine and lost to Spasov’s ace-queen. It was the third big hand of the day he won with ace-queen after cracking pocket aces with the same hand to keep his tournament alive on Day 3.
Congratulations to Simeon Spasov for winning Event #49: $2,000 No-Limit Hold’em at the 2022 World Series of Poker!
Be sure to keep it with the PokerNews live reporting team for live updates from the floor throughout the 2022 WSOP in its new home at Bally’s and Paris Las Vegas.
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Las Vegas-based PokerNews Live Reporting Executive, originally from Chicago, IL