2022 WSOP Day 12: Two More Bracelets Won; Friedman on Fire in the $10K Stud

June 11 was the 12th day of the 2022 World Series of Poker (WSOP) and although it was on a Saturday, there was no weekend break for the players. Two more players became WSOP champions and, therefore, bracelet winners, while four other events made progress to awarding their much sought-after jewelry.

Austria's Stefan Lehner got his hands on his first WSOP bracelet when he came out on top in Event #16: $3,000 No-Limit Hold'em. Lehner overcame a tough final table to win a bracelet plus $558,616 in prize money.

Russia's Denis Nesterenko was the second bracelet winner on Day 12, after taking down Event #20: $1,500 Limit 2-7 Lowball Triple Draw. This was only the second time Nesterenko had played in a WSOP event and he already has some poker gold.

Elsewhere, poker Goliaths Adam Friedman and Josh Arieh find themselves in great positions in their respective events; Friedman the $10,000 Seven Card Stud Championship, and Arieh in the $25,000 Pot Limit High Roller. Let's start with that second event.

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Arieh Looking For His Fifth Bracelet in the PLO High Rollers

Only five of the 64 players who bought into Event #19: $25,00 Pot-Limit Omaha High Roller three days ago remain in the hunt for this tournament's bracelet and the $1,467,739 top prize. Twenty-eight players returned for Day 3 but were reduced to five over the course of just over ten hours of play.

Austrian Fabian Brandes was the chip leader when the dust had settled; Brandes bagged up 13,175,000 chips and hold a lead of at least 11 big blinds going into the final day's action.

Josh Arieh returns with 8,900,000 chips, the second-largest stack, and in a great spot to win his fifth WSOP bracelet. Arieh sits down in sea four, surrounded by the chasing pack. There is little in the way of difference when it comes to the stacks of Tong Li (6,350,000), Sam Stein (5,875,000) or Scott Ball (5,300,000) when play resumes.

June 12 at 4:00 p.m. local time is when the cards are back in the air in this event. You can follow all the action at PokerNews, in addition to watching a stream on PokerGO, which is on a 45-60 minute delay due to showing hole card information.

Seat Assignments For the Final Day

Lichter Tames The Monster Stack

Some 2,947 players turned out for Day 1a of Event #21: $1,500 Monster Stack on June 10 and another 3,561 bought in on today's Day 1b, the final flight of this monster-sized event. Linus Lichter tamed the monster and bagged up a tournament-leading stack pf 788,000, almost 150,000 more chips than second-placed Justin Lee.

More than 1,100 players found a bag at the close of play, including WSOP bracelet winner Boris Kolev (504,000) who finished in the top ten in the Day 1b overnight chips counts.

Other bracelet winners safely through to the second day of action include, Arash Ghaneian (437,500), Ben Dobson (356,000), Anthony Spinella (304,000), Scott Davies (281,500), Adrian Mateos (206,000), Joao Simao (183,000), and Yuri Dzivielevski (152,000).

More than 2,000 players return to their seat in Bally's on Day 2, which shuffles up and deals at 10:00 a.m. on June 12. Ten 60-minute levels are planned, as is the bursting of the money bubble.

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Event #21: $1,500 Monster Stack No-Limit Hold'em Day 1b Top 10 Chip Counts

Friedman Is Running Away With the $10K Stud Championship Title

Mixed game specialist Adam Friedman is on course to win his fifth WSOP bracelet because he is by far the chip leader at the final table in Event #22: $10,000 Seven Card Stud Championship. Friedman, who missed out on winning his fourth straight $10,000 Dealer's Choice Championship event, has almost twice the chips as any other player at the final table.

While Friedman is an odds-on favorite to win this event, his final table opponents are a talented bunch. All but one of them, James Paluszek, has at least one bracelet to their name, although the legendary Phil Ivey has ten bracelets! Ivey finds himself in unfamiliar territory due to being the shortest stack when play resumes courtesy of his 174,000 stack, which is worth the equivalent of four big bets.

The returning players have already secured $28,258 but there is $248,254 and a bracelet up top. Can anyone stop Friedman on his march towards a fifth gold bracelet?

Event #22: $10,000 Seven Card Stud Championship Final Table

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Vampan Gunning For His First Bracelet

Daniel Vampan has seven WSOP cashes on his record but he has never gone deeper than a 66th place finish. That looks set to change with Vampan holding the chip lead in Event #23: $3,000 Limit Hold'em 6-handed where only 93 of the 213 starters made it through Day 1.

Vampan bagged up 217,500 chips when the curtain came down on Day 1. Only Phuong Nguyen (210,000), and Ruiko Mamiya (207,000) finished with more than 200,000 chips.

Plenty of stellar names progressed to Day 2 alongside the trio of big stacks mentioned above. Joao Vieira (176,000), Motoyoshi Okamura (161,000), Shaun Deeb (107,000), Ian Johns (96,500), Eric Froehlich (87,000), Greg Mueller (66,000), and Brian Hastings (63,000) among them.

Also through is Ryan Hansen who won this event in 2021. Hansen returns to battle with 64,500 chips in his arsenal.

Play resumes at 2:00 p.m. local time on June 12 with the plan to complete another ten levels.

Event #23: $3,000 Limit Hold'em 6-Handed Top 10 Chip Counts