Do It for Dari: Dash Dudley Wins 3rd WSOP Gold Bracelet for Daughter After Coming Back from 3BB Short Stack

On Wednesday, Event #62: $1,500 Super Turbo Bounty NLH at the 2022 World Series of Poker (WSOP) was slated to be a one-day affair. However, after a massive 2,569 entrants competed and generated a $2,145,115 prize pool, an extra day was needed to close things out.

The final 20 players returned on Thursday to play down to a winner, and after five hours of action, it was Michigan’s Dash Dudley emerging victorious to claim a $301,396 top prize and his third career gold bracelet.

“Feeling amazing. This is the story you dream of,” Dudley said in his post-victory interview. “Three blinds left to start the day with 20 players left and somehow catch enough heat to get here and then close it out for number three. That was the goal this summer so it feels amazing.”

Dudley previously won the 2019 WSOP Event #52: $10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha 8-Handed from $1,086,967 and four months later took down the WSOP Europe Event #2: €500 PLO for €51,600. Earlier this summer, Dudley finished runner-up to Robert Cowen in Event #28: $50,000 High Roller PLO for $861,442.

“I promised the wife I’d bring [Dari] back a bracelet and I did.”

Dudley’s spin-up began early when he got it in with six-deuce offsuit against pocket pairs of eights and fives. Dudley managed to make a straight and just like that was back in the game.

“I didn’t plan to play this tournament, I was going to play the PLO8 yesterday, but thought I’d take a shot at this real quick,” he said. “Never had chips really but somehow made it happen. Super blessed.”

Event #62: $1,500 Super Turbo Bounty Final Table Results

In-the-Money Finishers

The top 386 finishers made the money and on Day 1 some familiar names cashed including Ren Lin (23rd - $11,208), 2022 Wynn Millions champ Tony Sinishtaj (26th - $11,208), Jonas Mackoff (42nd - $7,557), MSPT Hall of Famer Kou Vang (51st - $6,293), Michael Wang (58th - $5,290), and Upeshka Desilva (75th - $3,848).

On the added day, some players to fall short of the final table were Elvis Toomas (11th - $21,692), Kerrie Shelton (13th - $17,249), Mihai Manole (14th - $13,841), and Chris Fraser (16th - $13,841), who collected 25 bounties during his time in the tournament!

Final Table Action

Ken Drewry was the first to exit the final table after three-bet jamming with pocket sevens against the open of Jan Bednar, who had raised with aces. Not long after, Dimitre Dimitrov took his lead after failing to get there with ace-queen against the pocket kings of John Bredengerd.

Bednar then collected the bounty of Kevin Davis after flopping a set of sevens that turned into a full house against the latter’s two pair aces and jacks. Japan’s Yuhei Sanada lost most of his chips when his ace-three couldn’t overcome Dudley’s pocket threes, and he bowed out a short time later in sixth place sending the last of his chips, and his $500 bounty, over to David Sanchez.

Harpreet Padda was ousted when he and Sanchez shared a king-jack and both lost to Dudley’s ace-king, and while that left Sanchez sort he managed to mount a comeback thanks to a Big Slick of his own. That’s the hand he held to double through Bednar, who had an inferior ace-jack. Bednar was left with just 50,000 after the hand and sent those last two chips, plus his $500 bounty, over to Dudley.

Three-handed play proved to be a swingy affair with the trio taking turns holding the chip lead. Bredengerd managed to pull out to a significant lead only to see it disappear after he doubled his opponents several times. Just like that, Bredengerd was out in third after flopping middle pair only to see Sanchez get there with his two overs and a flush draw.

Sanchez began heads-up play with a slight chip lead over Dudley, but the latter wrested it away before the final hand went down. It happened when Sanchez jammed the button with king-jack only to run into Dudley’s king-queen. The better hand prevailed and Sanchez had to settle for second place and $186,258 in prize money. With that, Dudley collected the last two bounties of the tournament.

What’s more, he got something special to take back home to his wife and their first daughter, 10-month-old Dari.

“I promised the wife I’d bring [Dari] back a bracelet and I did,” said Dudley, who was sporting a shirt with a picture of his daughter that read “Do It for Dari.”