Brandon Wilson bagged back-to-back PGT titles in Las Vegas last night, picking up $285,000 and launching himself into contention for a guaranteed $1million freeroll seat.
This week’s Last Chance series at the PokerGO Studios in the Aria have already been a resounding success, huge numbers turning out to vie for a spot in the season-ending Championship finale next week.
The series consists of six $10k buy-in No Limit Hold’em tournaments with leaderboard points and Dream Seat/Dream Pass backdoors into the $1million freeroll.
Big money, big names
Event #4 saw 114 entries and a subsequent $1,140,000 prizepool, with 17 spots paid and three 6-figure payouts up top. The also-rans list of day 1 bustouts was littered with big names … Erik Seidel, Ike Haxton, Kristen Foxen, and John Hennigan among them.
The bubble was the first port of call and yesterday’s event #3 champion, Brandon Wilson, was involved…
Wilson: 7♣ 6♣
Rheem: J♣ 10♦
Flop: 5♦ 8♣ Q♣
Turn: 9♣
River: 2♥
Rheem bet pre- and every street after, shoving the river only to be shown the bad news. Everyone else had locked up $17,100.
The final table of seven on day 2 not only had Wilson going for back-to-back wins, but also saw Kristina Holst mirroring Viktoria Livschitz as one of the few women to play and cash in the big buy-in PGT events.
The Chip Behind Theory
The only non-US player at the table, Bulgaria’s Stoyan Madanzhiev, lost a race to bow out in 7th, but his conqueror wouldn’t last much longer…
Sam Laskowitz: J♥ J♦
Kaverman: A♥ A♣
Flop: 10♠ 7♣ 6♦
Turn: 2♦
River: 9♦
Incredibly, Holst had been involved in the hand, leaving a single chip behind (Daniel Negreanu would have been raging given his recent outburst about potential cheating).
That decision allowed her to fold and ladder up to 5th spot; no chip and a chair hero-story but an extra $17k that shows the reasoning behind the single chip behind approach.
Linde’s end came courtesy of a short stack and two opponents checking it down, leaving our podium trio of Kaverman, Ausmus and Wilson fighting over $600k and much-needed leaderboard points.
Kaverman’s hopes eventually rested on A♣ 9♦ and a race against Ausmus’s pocket fives , but when he failed to connect it was heads-up time in Vegas.
Back-to-Back Brandon
Equal in chips, Wilson’s back-to-back run was almost certain after he picked off a huge bluff by Ausmus, closing it out next hand…
Jeremy Ausmus eliminated in second place by Brandon Wilson in PGT Last Chance Event #4.
After a failed queen-high bluff on the river, @jeremyausmus was all-in with six-three suited against Wilson's five-three suited. Wilson flopped a wheel and Ausmus was eliminated.
Ausmus… pic.twitter.com/eOsmPgq4Ln
— PokerGO Tour (@PokerGOTour) January 7, 2025
Event #4: $10,100 No-Limit Hold’em Final Table Payouts
| 1 | Brandon Wilson | USA | $285,000 |
| 2 | Jeremy Ausmus | USA | $176,700 |
| 3 | Byron Kaverman | USA | $125,400 |
| 4 | Dylan Linde | USA | $96,900 |
| 5 | Kristina Holst | USA | $74,100 |
| 6 | Sam Laskowitz | USA | $57,000 |
| 7 | Stoyan Madanzhiev | Bulgaria | $45,600 |
Wilson now sits in 57th place in the overall PGT standings, with only 40 guaranteed seats at the $1million Freeroll Championship. However, he does lead the Dream Seat leaderboard.
The Dream Seat leader board will reward the three highest-ranked players who do not qualify via the top 40, with the next five players on the Last Chance series leaderboard receiving a Dream Pass entry into the exclusive Dream Seat Invitational.
There they will compete against other Dream Pass winners for one of the final six Dream Seats in the PGT $1,000,000 Championship.
With just two events to go, here’s how it looks:
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