Randy Ohel Surprises With WSOP Event #22 Triumph

Randy Ohel has picked up a gold bracelet for winning the $2,500 buy-in 2-7 Triple Draw Lowball (Limit) event #22 at the World Series of Poker (WSOP) in Las Vegas.

Most railbirds were expecting to see a battle between the likes of David ‘Bakes’ Baker (third for $59,925), Shawn Buchanan (sixth for $20,322), Layne Flack (eighth for $14,725) and Josh Arieh (ninth for $10,970) for the top prize of $145,247. But it eventually came down to a heads-up clash between New York State’s Benjamin Lazer and Vegas’ Ohel.

What followed was an incredible head-to-head in the Amazon Room of the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino that took six-and-a-half hours to complete. The chip lead swapped back and forth regularly, while both players had the vast majority of their chips in play several times – only to somehow battle back.

Champion Celebrates Success Calmly

Of course, something had to give eventually, with Lazer – who was down to under one big blind – shoving the remainder of his stack into the middle, to be quickly called by Ohel.

The first draw saw Lazer and Ohel take two cards, while, on the second draw, Lazer stood pat and Ohel drew one. The third draw saw Ohel stand pat as Lazer drew one card. Ohel then showed 9-6-4-3-2, while Lazer revealed 8-6-5-3-5 for a pair of fives to hand the title to Ohel.

Lazer collected $89,714 for his runner-up finish, while Ohel – who enjoyed the support of many fans at the rail – really just looked relieved as he calmly celebrated his triumph.

WSOP 2012 Event #22 Top 10 Payouts

1. Randy Ohel (USA) – $145,247

2. Benjamin Lazer (USA) – $89,714

3. David ‘Bakes’ Baker (USA) – $59,925

4. Farzad Bonyadi (USA) – $40,987

5. Jason Lavallee (Canada) – $28,585

6. Shawn Buchanan (Canada) – $20,322

7. Von Altizer (USA) – $14,725

8. Layne Flack (USA) – $14,725

9. Josh Arieh (USA) – $10,970

10. Nam Le (USA) – $10,970