David Peters Beats Chance Kornuth to Win Fourth WSOP Bracelet for $1.1 million

The latest WSOP bracelet win saw David Peters crowned champion for the fourth time, as he beat Chance Kornuth in one of the quickest final tables ever to take place and certainly the quickest of this year’s series so far.

With just 26 hands taking place, the final day saw five players reduced to just one winner in an hour as Peters got the better of a superb standard of an opponent and claimed over $1.1 million for the top prize and his fourth gold at the World Series of Poker.

World Champion First to Go at the Final

Heading into the final day, the eventual winner Peters was in a buoyant mood ahead of the action.

I feel like all of the high quality poop jokes somehow propelled me into having a good day. 2/5 with 1/3 of the chips in play and 1.16M to 1st. FT tomm at 1pm PST with stream on @PokerGO starting at 2

— David Peters (@dpeterspoker17) June 2, 2022

Koray Aldemir is one of the most respected players in the world, as is the current defending world champion, having won the WSOP Main Event in 2021. Aldemir lasted just one hand at the final table, however, after runaway chip leader Chance Kornuth busted him with jack-seven after Aldemir was committed with king-deuce.

The flop of 9-7-4 put Aldemir behind and could not recover through the deuce turn and eight river to bust for a score of $249,693, a shade more than Matthew Steinberg (7^th for $180,872) and Phil Ivey (6^th for $133,127) did before him.

It wasn’t long before the last four became the final three. Ali Imsirovic busted for $350,158 when his king-queen couldn’t triumph against Peters’ pocket aces when all the chips went into the middle on an eight-high flop. The board played out with no paint at all and the under-fire Bosnian, who has been accused of cheating and provided no answer to several claims against him, was on the rail.

Sammartino Can’t Claim Maiden Bracelet

Dario Sammarino has never won a WSOP bracelet, but after finishing as runner-up in the 2019 WSOP Main Event, the Italian poker sensation has already finished in third place twice in just eight events. Sammartino was the victim of the longest period of play without an elimination, as the Italian first doubled up then lost out to the eventual winner. Ace-eight was no good against pocket jacks, and Sammartino cashed for $498,696.

Sammartino was as gracious as he is stylish at the felt and having been eliminated, congratulated both his opponents on making it so far. Heads up saw Peters, who had been behind Chance Kornuth until that point, finally go into battle ahead of his great rival and as both men battled for their fourth bracelet, Kornuth needed to improve from a stack of 10.9 million against Peters’ 16.8 million.

Peters Conquers Kornuth in Double-Quick Time

“It was clear that his focus was on the next tournament, the next chance of gold, the next hand.”

In just the second hand of heads-up play, Peters, well ahead, three-bet with pocket kings. Kornuth, holding pocket eights, moved all-in and saw the bad news immediately when Peters snap-called. The flop of 9-7-6 saw Kornuth flop an open-ended straight draw, and although he missed on the ace turn, he still had one card to come to achieve a huge double-up.

In the end, Kornuth couldn’t hit his eight-outer, as a seven dropped on the river and Peters’ victory was confirmed. For Peters, his fourth bracelet at the World Series of Poker came with a top prize of $1,166,810, the biggest prize awarded at the 2022 WSOP so far.

Kornuth had to assuage his disappointment with the runner-up prize of $721,144, and as he jumped right into the fray of the $25,000 Heads Up Championship, it was clear that his focus was on the next tournament, the next chance of gold, the next hand.

Peters, however, had his moment under the lights and now one of the clear modern greats of the game, joined several other legends on four WSOP bracelets such as 2009 world champion Joe Cada, 2021 Player of the Year Josh Arieh, Mike Matusow and Huck Seed among others. Given Peters’ remarkable endurance of poker’s many eras this century, it is hard to see him remaining on that number for very long at all.

Photo courtesy of PokerGO, home of the 2022 World Series of Poker, with final tables live streams throughout June and July.