It took Nick Schulman two hours to topple Joao Simao in heads-up play to land the $283,050 top prize in the opening event of the PGT Last Chance Series. The victory sees Schulman enter the top 10 as we near the 2024 PGT Championship.
There were 111 entries in the $10k opener to the Last Chance series, those currently outside the top 40 on this year’s PGT standings hoping to leapfrog rivals and bag a seat at the $1,000,000 Championship. There are also Dream Seats and Dream Passes up for grabs, more of which later.
An Evening at the Races
Last night, the final table of seven battled it out at the PokerGO Studios in Vegas’ Aria casino, and the first blow was struck by Brazilian star, Joao Simao.
Simao: K♥ Q♥
Zobian: 5♥ 5♦
Flop: J♥ J♦ 10♥
Zobian survived the flop but couldn’t dodge the overcards and open-ender…
Turn: Q♠
River: 9♣
Nguyen Le’s exit was the reverse, his KQ unable to catch Schulman’s pocket 6s, and Matthew McEwan followed him to the rail, this time the pocket pair – black treys – losing the race to Yockey’s big slick.
Caught in a Trap
Down to four, and with $100 short of $100k sewn up, it would be Yockey out next after falling into Simao’s trap.
Yockey: A♣ 10♦
Simao: K♠ K♥
Simao flatted in the big blind and it paid off…
Flop: 10♣ 4♥ 3♣
…check-raising and then snapping off Yockey’s shove. There would be no reprieve for the Californian …
Turn: 2♥
River: 2♣
Victoria Livschitz was looking to join Kristen Foxen in the female winners of a PGT event category, but shortstacked, she busted in 3rd when Simao flopped top and bottom.
That left Schulman and Simao facing off for the title and it would prove to be a marathon heads-up battle, with Schulman surviving a ‘last-card scare’, rivering a king to stay alive.
The same story repeated itself a while later, Schulman somehow once again avoiding defeat and eventually, with the blinds out of control, the roles reversed…
Joao Simao eliminated in second place by Nick Schulman.@joaosimaobh was all-in holding jack-deuce against the jack-seven suited of @NickSchulman, and when a seven landed on the river, Event #1 came to a conclusion.
Simao collects $177,600 and 178 PGT points. pic.twitter.com/U81kbXLIpu
— PokerGO Tour (@PokerGOTour) January 4, 2025
It was Schulman’s second PGT win of the season and his eighteenth cash, launching him into the top 10 on the 2024 PGT overall leaderboard.
Event #1: $10,100 No-Limit Hold’em Final Table Payouts
| 1 | Nick Schulman | USA | $283,050 |
| 2 | Joao Simao | Brazil | $177,600 |
| 3 | Victoria Livschitz | USA | $127,650 |
| 4 | Bryce Yockey | USA | $99,900 |
| 5 | Matthew McEwan | USA | $72,150 |
| 6 | Nguyen Le | USA | $55,500 |
| 7 | Aram Zobian | USA | $44,400 |
Players well outside of the top 40 still have a (last) chance to bag a seat at the $1million freeroll finale.
- A unique series leaderboard will award a Dream Seat to the three highest-ranked players from this week’s play not already in the top 40
- The next five players on the series leaderboard will receive 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 into the PGT $1,000,000 Championship.
Complicated? Well, hopefully it’ll become clearer as the Last Chance series plays out! The second of six events has already made it to their final table and we’ll bring you the best of that action tomorrow.
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