Courtesy of PokerGO
- There were 6,501 entries into the 2022 WSOP Event #21: MONSTER STACK No-Limit Hold’em with a $1,500 buy-in which added up to a prize pool of $8,678,835
- The final heads-up match came down to Mike Jukich versus Mateusz Moolhuizen with the pair playing for a 1st place payout of $966,577 and a coveted gold WSOP bracelet
- This hand from their heads-up match is either the most brutal bad bet yet of the 2022 World Series of Poker or the most glorious victory, depending on how you look at it
The 2022 World Series of Poker is in full swing right now in Las Vegas with event #36 (of 87 total) commencing later today. We have seen enough poker so far to get a sense of which pros are running really hot right now and which aren’t. Which makes this potential WSOP bad beat (or victory?) and interesting discussion…
That group of hot players includes Jack Schindler, David Peters, and Koray Aldemir who are 1st, 2nd, and 5th in the current Player of the Year rankings right now. Also near the top of that list is Mike Jucich (12th in POY points) who won the 2022 WSOP Event #21: MONSTER STACK No-Limit Hold’em.
Event #21 was a $1,500 buy-in tournament that drew in a whopping 6,501 players and a total prize pool of $8,678,835. Depending on how you view this hand below, Jukich won because this was either the most glorious victory of the most brutal bad beat of the 2022 WSOP (so far). Here’s the PokerGo video with a rundown of the play below:
Most Brutal WSOP Bad Beat Yet? Or The Best Victory?
As for how this hand played out, the video starts on the flop so we don’t see any of the pre-flop betting. There’s an update from the WSOP website I’ll include below, but let’s try and break it down anyway…
Worst WSOP Bad Beat or Incredible Victory?
At this point during their heads-up match for the WSOP gold bracelet, Mateusz Moolhuizen was the chip leader with 177 million chips to Mike Jukich’s 128 million chips. It wasn’t terribly lopsided but after this hand, things got VERY skewed.
What we don’t see here is Mike Jukich raises 8,000,000 chips with KsQh and Mateusz Moolhuizen calls from the Big Blind. The blinds were 2M/4M and a 4M BB ante so it’s not a massive raise and a pretty easy call for Moolhuizen to make except that he held 6c2c.
The enticing aspects of the 6c2c is the hand is suited and they’re low. Presumably, with the 10M raise from Jukich he had stronger over cards so he was calling here to try and hit two pair or smash a flush or suck out a straight and he got lucky on the flop.
The pre-flop odds were STACKED against Mateusz Moolhuizen…
Prior to the flop, Moolhuizen’s 2-6 had a 37.58% chance of winning and Kukich’s KsQh had a 61.76% chance of winning (0.66% chance of a tie). When the flop comes 2dKc6d, Mateusz Moolhuizen is sitting PRETTY with two pair and 3 clubs to a flush.
His odds of winning the hand jumped from 37.58% pre-flop to 74.45%. And now is where the action gets really wild…
Moolhuizen decides to try and trap his opponent and checks his two pair. Jukich fires back a bet of 6 million chips. Mateusz Moolhuizen then re-raises to 19 million chips and there is now 45,000,000 chips in the middle of the pot.
Jukich just decides to call the 19 million raise and the turn brings the two of hears. Moolhuizen has Jukich dominated with a full house of 2s and 6s to Jukich’s Kings and 2s. Keep in mind that Jukich is now looking at two pair with the King in his hand and the 2s on the board.
At this point, there are just two Kings left in the deck and Mike Jukich needs one of them to make a stronger full house. He has only a 5% chance of winning the hand…
Moolhuizen bets 20 million chips with his full house made and Mike Jukich comes back over the top all-in. Since Moolhiuzen has more chips his WSOP tournament was at risk and it came down to just two kings.
As you saw, the King of Hearts hit on the river and Mike Jukich won a pot worth 276,000,000 chips. This left Mateusz Moolhuizen with just 49 million in chips to 276M and from there it was only a matter of time until Mike won the event, earned $966,577, a gold bracelet, and 1,310.1 player of the year points.
So what do you guys think, most brutal bad beat or best victory? I say ‘bad beat’ only because it wasn’t too difficult for Moolhuizen to call the initial raise with his 2c6x and from there he was ahead until the river. But Mike Jukich did have a commanding hand pre-flop and ultimately finished with the better hand…
Career WSOP earnings for these two
Mike Jukich now has $1,478,292 in career WSOP earnings with 1 bracelet, 1 ring, and 27 cashes. He previously won a ring in the 2017/18 WSOP Circuit – HORSESHOE BALTIMORE for $165,438. This was only Mateusz Moolhuizen’s second time cashing at the World Series of Poker. He has career WSOP earnings of $599,123 with his other cash coming in an online event in 2020 for $1,761.