It was Jonathan Little’s turn to shine at the Poker Masters in Vegas last night, the popular coach and YouTuber taking down event 4 of the highstakes series for $226,800 after dispatching all of his final table rivals.
The third $10k buy-in so far of the eight-tournament series sponsored by PokerStars NAPT brought in 81 entries. That meant a prizepool of $810,000 and the top 3 taking down 6-figure scores.
Ike Haxton, Daniel Negreanu, Cary Katz, Sam Soverel and poker’s leading couple, the Foxens, were all in the mix early on day one, though only two among them would make it to the money.
Kings on the Bubble
The money bubble burst at 12 players, the unlucky 13th player being Lucas Foster at the hands of Clemen Deng…
Deng: K♥ K♣
Foster: A♦ J♥
Foster 3-bet jammed on Deng and quickly received the bad news…
Flop: 10♠ 6♥ 2♠
Turn: Q♦
River: 10♦
That gave the remaining dozen a guaranteed $20,250, with Alex Foxen falling soon afterwards in 11th spot ($24,300) and Ren Lin’s third cash of the series, though the affable Chinese pro is heading in the ‘wrong direction’ with 6th, 7th and now and 8th place worth $32,400.
Leading the final table was Jonathan Little, who had spun up less than one big blind to a commanding stack, with Jim Collopy and Ike Haxton rounding out the top three.
It was Little who took the first scalp, ousting Deng in a big ace over ace battle and then did the very same to Haxton…
Haxton: A♠ 10♠
Little: A♥ J♦
Flop: 10♦ 7♣ 4♦
Turn: J♥
River: 7♦
Little kept applying pressure and also had the cards to back it up, sending Wayne Nowak to the rail in 5th spot when all the chips went in on an ace-high flop, Little’s A♦ Q♣ holding up against Nowak’s A♠ 2♣ .
Incredibly, Little then dismissed Soverel by flopping top pair and flush draw, turning a straight, and then rivering the (unneeded) flush and proceeded to take out Jim Collopy in 3rd place, flopping top two in a race against Collopy’s pocket deuces.
Heads-up for the Win
Kicking off heads-up, Little’s rampant play had ensured a 6:1 chip lead against relative newcomer to the highstakes arena, Harvey Castro. The younger man fought back but ultimately Little prevailed, the final hand rather lacking in excitement with ace-high getting the job done for Little.
2024 Poker Masters Event #4 Final Table Payouts
| Place | Name | Country | Payouts | PGT Points |
| 1st | Jonathan Little | USA | $226,800 | 227 |
| 2nd | Harvey Castro | USA | $145,800 | 146 |
| 3rd | Jim Collopy | USA | $105,300 | 105 |
| 4th | Sam Soverel | USA | $76,950 | 77 |
| 5th | Wayne Nowak | USA | $56,700 | 57 |
| 6th | Isaac Haxton | USA | $40,500 | 41 |
| 7th | Clemen Deng | USA | $32,400 | 32 |
Little’s victory jumps him straight into third spot, just behind Justin Zaki with whom he had such an enthralling battle in the PokerGO Cup earlier this year. Justin Becker is still out front, but with four events still to go much can change.
Poker Masters Purple Jacket Leaderboard
| Rank | Player | Points | Wins | Cashes | Winnings |
| 1st | Jeremy Becker | 255 | 1 | 1 | $255,000 |
| 2nd | Justin Zaki | 244 | 1 | 1 | $244,400 |
| 3rd | Jonathan Little | 227 | 1 | 1 | $226,800 |
| 4th | Spencer Champlin | 190 | 1 | 2 | $190,475 |
| 5th | Michael Moncek | 165 | 0 | 1 | $165,000 |
| 6th | Jeremy Ausmus | 155 | 0 | 1 | $155,100 |
| 7th | Jim Collopy | 152 | 0 | 2 | $152,300 |
| 8th | Harvey Castro | 146 | 0 | 1 | $145,800 |
| 9th | Michael Brinkenhoff | 123 | 0 | 2 | $122,625 |
| 10th | Nicholas Seward | 122 | 0 | 3 | $121,250 |
