KT Park Wins WSOP Event #52 to earn first gold bracelet

The 2022 World Series of Poker (WSOP) continues in Las Vegas, Nevada, with players from around the states and the world hoping to earn gold bracelet glory by winning a poker tournament event. Just recently, online player KT Park was able to win his first gold bracelet, outlasting a field of 456 players in Event #52 to score a win.

The event had a $2,500 buy-in and played in a nine-game mix 6-handed format. The win was earned in Park’s second-ever live WSOP event after he defeated Andre Akkari in heads-up play.

Details of the Event

On the final day of play, a total of 24 players would return to the felt. Several eliminations took place during the first two levels of the event, leaving 13 players after the first break. Several top players were knocked out early including Phil Hellmuth and Scott Seiver. Even more big names left the table after the break including Daniel Negreanu.

When eight players remained, Park began to take over the table, building a solid chip lead during an Omaha 8 or Better round. At that time, Park had over 50% of the chips at the table. After two more eliminations, the final table would be set with six players, each ready to earn a nice payout.

While poker players were being eliminated by others, Park was taking down big pots to build his chip stack further. H eventually landed over 10 million and would take out the fourth, third, and second-place finishers to win the event.

In the heads-up round, the two final hands would go down and secure the victory for Park. In Limit Hold’em, both players were in the hand and park would win with the top pair of Ks against Akkari’s 8s. This hurt Akkari’s hand considerably, so on the next hand, he was all-in.

Akkari held 10-7 off-suit while Park had K-3 of hearts. The board fell 7-4-A-5-2 giving Park a straight to win the hand and his first-ever World Series of Poker gold bracelet. The win is pretty impressive considering Park has only played in one other live WSOP event, which took place earlier in the series, a $1,500 8-Game tournament. He was unfortunately eliminated on Day 1 during that event.

It will be interesting to see if Park participates in any additional WSOP action as the series comes to an end soon.

Final Table Results of Event #52:

Place Player Prize First KT Park $219,799 Second Andre Akkari $135,848 Third Phil Long $90,411 Fourth David Bach $61,588 Fifth Taylor Paur $42,965 Sixth Michael Chow $30,713