Brian Hastings came into the final day of the 2022 WSOP Event #31: $10,00 Limit 2-7 Lowball Triple Draw Championshipwith five WSOP bracelets, the second biggest chip stack, and a pair of his baby's socks in his pocket for good luck. Some or all of those things gave him the edge he needed to take the whole thing home.
"It's awesome. I really love the World Series every year," Hastings said in his post-match interview. "It is a lot of fun just trying to compete in all these events against great players. It's an honor to be in that kind of company."
Until today, only sixteen people in history had won six or more World Series of Poker bracelets. Now there are seventeen.
Rachel Kay Miller tweeted a photo of the lucky socks beside bracelet number six with the caption: "Brian Hastings (@brianchastings) plays with a pair of his daughter's socks in his pocket, and that is just too pure to not share."
The event attracted 118 players who ponied up $10,00 each. That put the prize pool at $1,100,350, with $292,146 up top for first.
Among them were players like Daniel Negreanu, Phil Ivey, and Scott Seiver. At the final table, Hastings had to face down Yuval Bronshtein, Daniel Zack, and fellow five-timer Shaun Deeb.
Hastings had to beat Eric Wasserson heads up to clinch the deal. It took an hour and a half of play for Hastings to finish Wasserson off. By the time the last hand was dealt there was only about four and a half big bets between them.
Wasserson took home $180,559 for his second-place finish.
There are only eight people in the world with more bracelets than Hastings now.
But there's still more than half of the series left to go. In Vegas, all that could change in a moment with the turn of a card.
