Spencer Champlin topped off a busy two weeks of travel last night, following up cashes in Florida and New Jersey with a maiden PGT victory in Las Vegas worth $157,500.
The Maine pro was among 125 entries to the penultimate event #4 of the PokerGO Tour KickOff Series, only six short of the record set last year at the PokerGO Masters opener.
With double leaderboard points available and 18 spots paid from the $630,000 prizepool the battle on day 1 was fierce. Among those who failed to trouble the cashier’s cage:
No Money for the Hellmuths
Phil Hellmuth (73rd), Erik Seidel (65th), Maria Konnikova (50th), Victoria Livschitz (41st), Phil Hellmuth III (29th), and Natalie Ferguson (24th).
The bubble was a painful affair for Ryan Leng. In event #3 he bubbled when he got it all-in with AQo only to run into Neil Warren’s pocket queens. Yesterday he was all-in again with AQ, this time suited, and looking to double his way to safety against Martin Zamani…
Leng: A♠ Q♠
Zamani: A♥ 9♣
Flop: 10♦ 2♥ J♦
Turn: 7♥
River: 9♠
Proof that poker can be exhilarating, dramatic and brutal all at the same time. Now in the money, we also lost Kristen Foxen and David Peters before the end of the day.
Leonard looking for 2 out of 3 out of 4
The final table once again featured Patrick Leonard, the Englishman at his third FT from 4 events. There would be no repeat of his event #2 scoop, however…
Patrick Leonard eliminated in seventh place by Mike Vanier in PGT Kickoff Event #5.@padspoker was all-in with jack-ten against Mike Vanier's pocket tens.
Leonard earns $25,200 and 50 PGT points. pic.twitter.com/KJN6ekYiD5
— PokerGO Tour (@PokerGOTour) January 24, 2025
Joey Weissman, Sam Soverel and Eric Blair all followed “padspoker” to the rail, despite getting their chips in good each time, leaving us a podium trio – Champlin, Zamani and Michael Vanier – looking to divvy up more than $300,000 in prizemoney.
Zamani’s end would come when an all-in hand finally held up at the final table…
Zamani: A♣ 5♥
Champlin: A♥ J♠
Flop: Q♣ 6♠ 4♣
Turn: 7♥
River: Q♦
Champlin had fought his way back from a short-stack to heads-up contender for a title and it was all one-way traffic from then on, aided by the deck running hot for him.
Kings and kings heads-up
The finale came with his second helping of pocket kings, snapping off Vanier’s pre-flop shove and dodging the straight draw…
Vanier: K♣ 10♦
Champlin: K♠ K♥
Flop: A♠ Q♥ K♦
Turn: 3♠
River: 9♥
…and with that, Spencer Champlin had bagged his maiden PGT win and continued a decade of at least one live tournament win per year (with the exception of the pandemic year 2020).
Champlin came to Vegas on the back of cashes in Atlantic City and Hollywood, Florida this month, with a lifetime best score of $425,000 for his runner-up finish last week at the Lucky Hearts Poker Open.
Event #4: Final Table Results
1 Spencer Champlin USA $157,500
2 Michael Vanier USA $97,650
3 Martin Zamani USA $69,300
4 Eric Blair USA $53,550
5 Sam Soverel USA $37,800
6 Joey Weissman $31,500
7 Patrick Leonard $25,200
The $10k buy-in finale to the PGT KickOff has reached its final table, with Kristen Foxen leading the way and last year’s PGT Championship winner Jeremy Ausmus in the mix.
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