Top 10 poker stories of 2022

The New Year is here, and one of the best ways to wrap up the year behind us is to look at some of the most interesting stories.

So, without further ado, here is a list brought to you by mypokercoaching.com with the top 10 poker stories of 2022.

10. Neeme, Polk and Owen buy a Texas poker room

In January, three of the biggest and most prominent content creators in poker — Andrew Neeme, Brad Owen, and Doug Polk — announced they were buying a majority share in the popular Lodge Poker Club in Austin, Texas.

After seeing what potential poker has in Texas, the three decided to invest in the biggest poker club in the state to try and use their massive following to promote the poker room.

The Lodge Poker Club and Card room, known as the “Lodge Mahal,” is the most popular poker room in Austin. It operates as a membership club and charges monthly fees or hourly seat fees to avoid breaking state laws.

9. Launch of WPT Global Poker Site

On 31 August, WPT Global partnered with World Poker Tour to launch a brand new poker site.

Since the platform licensed the World Poker Tour name, which has been operating for over 20 years and is one of the biggest and most recognizable brands in the poker industry, it is easy to see why this was a big story.

With this launch, WPT Global instantly jumped into the conversation as one of the best online poker sites and already accepts players from more than 50 countries.

That said, WPT Global is staying away from the U.S. market and will primarily focus on acquiring international players.

8. Hellmuth’s epic heads-up run on High Stakes Duel

The start of 2022 saw Phil Helmuth continue his streak in the High Stakes Duel show. After defeating Antonio Esfandiari in 2020, Daniel Negreanu, and Nick Wright in 2021, the “Poker Brat” got his revenge against Tom Dwan for his only defeat on the show at that time and tied the match at 1-1.

Dwan backed out from their third match, and Scot Seiver became Hellmuth's next opponent. The fifth round of the show saw both players put $800,000 in the middle, and the 13-time bracelet winner was triumphant once again.

His streak ended with losing to Jason Koon in December, but there is no denying that the most winningest player in WSOP history has shown the poker community that he can hold his own even in the tough heads-up format.

Phil Hellmuth (@phil_hellmuth) is @PokerGO's High Stakes Duel champion once again after defeating Tom Dwan in the $400,000 heads-up rematch. https://t.co/ytG3xOefze
— PokerStake (@pokerstakecom) January 27, 2022

7. WSOP hits the Strip

The 2022 World Series of Poker was hosted at Bally's Las Vegas Hotel and Casino, marking the first time in 17 years that it was not held at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino.

This also marked the return of the WSOP to the Strip, where the first WSOP tournament was held in 1970.

Bally's Las Vegas Hotel and Casino venue are set to become the new Horseshoe after rebranding and renovation. Horseshoe Las Vegas, as the new venue will be called, will be located at the corner of Flamingo Road, and its casino floor and public areas will be completely based on the old building on Freemont Street.

6. Jungleman goes back-to-back at WSOP

After winning the $50,000 Poker Players Championship in 2021, Daniel “Jungleman” Cates successfully defended his title in 2022.

Cates claimed his second World Series of Poker bracelet after battling through a 112-player field filled with some of the best poker players in the game. In addition to the gold bracelet, he was rewarded with a $1,449,103 payday for his efforts.

One of the most interesting things about Jungleman’s triumph is that he predicted his win on Twitter a couple of days before it actually happened. This again showed that he has what it takes to back his words.

With the victory, Cates became the first player to win back-to-back Players Championships and only the third player to win it multiple times.

MACHO MAN DAN COMPLETES THE TITLE DEFENSE! @junglemandan is now the only back-to-back champion in the history of the $50K Poker Players Championship.

With his victory, he earns his second @WSOP bracelet and $1,449,103.

?? - Event Replay: https://t.co/TUwvTCktxt pic.twitter.com/9JJxupLLay
— PokerGO (@PokerGO) July 1, 2022

5. WPT Global hosts inaugural $1 for $1 million online poker tournament

Not long after World Poker Tour partnered with WPT Global online poker room and launched a new site, it decided to host one of the biggest tournaments in terms of ROI that online poker has ever seen.

The inaugural WPT Global $1 for $1 Million guaranteed the winner a $100,000 payday, which translates to an ROI of 10,000,000%.

To cover the guarantee, the tournament would have to have one million entrants, making WPT the first poker room ever to put a seven-digit guarantee on a tournament with a buy-in of less than $10. In other words, it was the world's largest guaranteed tournament with a micro-level buy-in.

In the end, the player nicknamed "???" won first place in the inaugural $1 for $1 million tournament, the title, and the $100,000 for his efforts.

4. Jorstad crowned 2022 WSOP Main Event champ

The 2022 World Series of Poker Main event had 8,663 runners, making it the second-largest in WSOP history.

Espen Jorstad from Norway defeated Adrian Attenborough from Australia heads up to claim the $10 million first-place prize and his second WSOP bracelet. His first WSOP bracelet came in the $1,000 Tag Team No-Limit Hold'em just a few days before.

With this win, Jorstad, who introduced himself to the poker community through his Twitch channel where he streamed cash games, surpassed Felix Stephensen and climbed to the top of the Norway all-time poker money list.

Your 2022 WSOP Main Event Champion is Norway's Espen Jorstad! Jorstad ultimately topped a field of 8,663 players claim the grand prize of $10,000,000 and his second gold bracelet of the series.

?? @hayleyocho https://t.co/A4PqWvKJEL pic.twitter.com/kdOAYi63Ia
— WSOP - World Series of Poker (@WSOP) July 17, 2022

3. PokerGO bans accused cheaters

After several accusations of cheating against Ali Imsirovic and Jake Schindler in September, the streaming platform PokerGO decided to ban both players from their events.

As PokerGO stated, they would not be allowed to play in the events organized by the platform until at least the end of the season, when they will have an opportunity for an appeal.

Imsirovic has been one of the top poker players on the live tournament scene for the last several years and managed to win 14 titles and make 30 final tables for a total of $5.9 million in winnings last year. He continued his hot run in 2022, earning around $3.5 million before the suspension.

Schindler, who also had the chance to win the PGT title before he was banned, also netted $2.2 million at the World Series of Poker and won the Super High Roller Bowl Europe event in April for $3.2 million.

2. Kenney collusion allegations

If there is one thing that marked 2022 in the poker world, it was cheating allegations. At one point during the year, allegations about cheating and collusion in poker were thrown left and right.

One of the most publicized stories regarding cheating was that of Bryn Kenney, accused of high-stakes collusion and cheating by a poker player named Martin Zamani. Kenney is the all-time biggest winner in tournament history with $57 million, while Zamani was a part of his stable.

After he accused Bryn of cheating in a Twitter post, Zamani went live in an interview and explained in detail some of the stuff he did and saw while working with Kenney. This included sharing hole cards with other players that played in the same tournament, colluding with other high-stakes players to achieve better results, and ghosting poker players.

In a later interview with Pokernews, Kenney denied all accusations, claiming that Zamani was bitter that he was thrown out of the stable and was using drugs.

1. Adelstein- Lew live stream cheating scandal

Another cheating scandal took place in September when one of the world's best and most popular live cash game players, Garrett Adelstein, accused amateur poker player Robbi Jade Lew of cheating in a live-streamed cash game.

Adelstein made the accusation after a hand in which Lew called a huge river all-in (total pot $269,000) with jack high, and he had a missed open-ended straight flush draw. Making the whole hand even more suspicious was the chatter after the hand in which Lew could not reasonably explain why she made the call.

After one of the most interesting poker hands, both players played a couple more before leaving the table to talk privately. In the end, Lew agreed to give Adelstein back his money, but the Hustler Casino decided to investigate the matter and hired a legal team to look into all aspects of the game.