Frenchman Jonathan Pastore Wins Event #46: $5,000 6-Handed No-Limit Hold'em ($771,765)
The latest bracelet winner has been crowned at the 2022 World Series of Poker in Event #46: $5,000 6-Handed No-Limit Hold’em. From the time the final table began at 3:00 p.m. PT, Jonathan Pastore had a steady climb to the top to come out victorious and become the latest WSOP bracelet winner.
There was a total of 920 players that started the tournament with a total prize pool of $4,243,500 which paid out 138 places. The money bubble was paid out towards the end of Day 2 with many big names taking home a piece of the pot including Dmitry Yurasov ($8,053), Daniel Negreanu ($8,807), Norbert Szecsi ($10,874), Anthony Zinno ($21,597) and Robert Mizrachi ($40,855).
2022 WSOP Event #46: $5,000 6-Handed No-Limit Hold’em Final Table Results
| Place | Winner | Country | Prize (in USD) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jonathan Pastore | France | $771,765 |
| 2 | Stephen Song | United States | $476,990 |
| 3 | Tamer Alkamli | Canada | $331,503 |
| 4 | Elio Fox | United States | $234,036 |
| 5 | Paraskevas Tsokaridis | Greece | $167,882 |
| 6 | Patrick Sekinger | United Kingdom | $122,395 |
Winners Reaction
This is Pastore’s first WSOP bracelet and the biggest cash of his career. He almost didn’t play the event because there were a few other ones he wanted to play, but ultimately decided that it was such a prestigious one that he might as well just give it a try.
When talking to PokerNews, the energy surrounding Pastore was electric with many friends on the rails.
“Having all of my friends on the rail really helped me. We are a big group of friends and poker players who live in Malta and came to play the World Series. Coming from the amateur poker circles in France, with all my friends around me, I feel I mixed those two worlds today and it’s beautiful.”
"Having all of my friends on the rail really helped me."
Pastore was in the top 10 chip counts at the end of Day 2. Throughout Day 3, he had some ups and downs but steadily climbed throughout the day, making it to the final table with the third-highest chip stack before they bagged for the night. Stephen Song was the chip leader at the end of Day 3, finishing with half of the chips in play and it was he who Pastore beat in heads-up play to come out on top.
“I got into some tough spots against him yesterday but today was really easy for me. The beginning of the final table was difficult but everything went well after and today I didn’t have any tough spots.”
He only had good things to say about his opponent and felt honored to get to play heads-up with him.
“Playing against Stephen Song heads-up was really a great feeling. He is a player I admire and I wish we had more players like him in the poker community.”
When asked what was next for him about more WSOP events and just plans for his winnings, Pastore said: “I want to stay focused and keep playing all the events that were on my schedule. For my winnings, I want to invest money and not really start playing much higher buy-ins. I also really want to study mixed games to play a lot of those events next year so I'll work on that and keep playing online a lot.”
Final Day Recap
The sixth-place finisher for this event was Patrick Sekinger who was knocked out by Tamer Alkamli in the final hand of the night on Day 3.
The remaining five players returned today and resumed play at 3:00 p.m. PT. It wasn’t long before Pastore eliminated Greece's Paraskevas Tsokaridis in fifth place, taking home $167,882 and the cantaloupe he brought with him.
American Elio Fox was the next man down in fourth place after a preflop all in that ended with Stephen Song hitting a full house to knock him out.
Three-handed play continued for a while before Canadian, Tamer Alkamli, who was short stacked, got it all in against Pastore in a coin flip that had Pastore coming out on top, sending Alkamli out in third.
The final hand had Pastore with three-quarters of the chips facing off against Song who was aggressively betting each street before getting the last of it all in on the river. Pastore tanked before calling with a pair of queens and caught Song with a five-high bluff and he ran to his rail who went wild with his victory.
This concludes PokerNews’ coverage of the event, but there is still plenty more to come from the 2022 WSOP so be sure to keep it locked in!