If it's January, that must mean that the PokerGO Tour is hosting another series of high roller tournaments (again, you could say that every month or so!). This time it is the latest edition of the PokerGO Cup, a tournament series that is taking place for the fourth time. Two of the scheduled 10 events have come to an end, with high roller regulars David Peters and Dylan Weisman emerging as winners of those tournaments.
Peters leads the 111th field and wins event #1
Event No. 1 of the PokerGO Cup 2024, a $5,000 No Limit Hold'em tournament, surprisingly registered 111 participants. This created a very sizable prize pool of $555,000, with sixteen players making money. The tournament began on Thursday and worked its way down to the final six players for Friday's action.
David Peters started the day with the chip lead, and it was significant. His 4.95 million chips were well ahead of runner-up Mark Ioli (3.515 million), while Fabian Quoss (2.195 million) and Shawn Daniels (2.08 million) also had a shot at the title. There were only two players who needed the proverbial miracle to win: Cody Daniels (575,000) and Dusti Smith (555,000), who wanted to get healthy quickly.
Cody Daniels was the first player to double through Peters, but he converted his chips just as quickly against Ioli and was eliminated in sixth place. In this hand, Daniels got his chips with an AQ against Iolis AJ, and everything went smoothly on the king-high flop and turn. However, a jack came on the river, cruelly snatching Daniels' hand and passing it to Ioli, who took the lead with the knockout.
Smith was the next to achieve this feat. He doubled up by Quoss and fell by Shawn Daniels, leaving him on the rail in fifth. In her elimination hand, Smith was unable to find a pairing ace for her A-10 to defeat Daniels' pocket queens, and the tournament was now four-handed.
Peters rose from the ashes by defeating Quoss in fourth place and Shawn Daniels in third, but he was still about three million chips behind Ioli going into heads-up play. Ioli took the first hand, but that was the extent of his game. Peters doubled after flopping trip eights with his 9-8 against Iolis Gutterball 10-7 on an 8-8-6 flop, bringing a four and an ace to complete the board.
On top of that, Peters ended his deal quickly. In the final hand, Peters applied pressure with an all-in and Ioli didn't believe him, but called and the cards were put on the table. Peters' K-10 wasn't great, but it was better than Ioli's K-5 and after the board reached queen high, he was the champion of Event #1.
1. David Peters, $141,525 (142 points)
2. Mark Ioli, $88,800 (89)
3. Shawn Daniels, $63,825 (64)
4. Fabian Quoss, $49,950 (50)
5. Dusti Smith, $36,075 (36)
6. Cody Daniels, $27,750 (28)
Dylan Weisman wins the first $10,000 fight in Event #2
The 2024 PokerGO Cup brought even more action to the table on Friday as Event #2, a no-limit tournament with a buy-in of $10,000, opened for play. By the end of the late registration period, the tournament had received 89 entries, creating a prize pool of $890,000. With a first place prize of $240,100 (and thirteen payable slots), the battle for money was tight.
The six-handed final table was much closer together than its Event No. 1 counterpart. At the top was Canadian Mike Watson, but his chip stack of 2.63 million was only just above Byron Kaverman's 2.405 million chips. Behind these two lurked Anthony Hu with 2.505 million chips, while Daniel Smiljkovic (1.635 million) and a return visit from Weisman (1.53 million) rounded out the contenders. For his part, David Coleman was at the final table, but it would be difficult to achieve anything with 425,000 chips.
Kaverman and Watson would clash early on, with Kaverman emerging victorious and taking the chip lead from his Canadian counterpart. Coleman was eliminated from the tournament by Smiljkovic in sixth place as Coleman's KQ failed to catch Smiljkovic's AQ after an ace flopped. However, Kaverman's lead was short-lived as he doubled Weisman (pocket nines) when his Q♥ 9♥ Failed to connect to a Nine High board.
Weisman now had the lead and would not relinquish it. Weisman defeated Watson in fifth place and Kaverman finished Hu's tournament in fourth place, and there was a sense that the two players would meet at some point. This happened in a three-handed game and sealed the tournament for Weisman.
On this hand, Kaverman opened the bet at 200,000 and Weisman three-bet all-in on the action in the small blind. That was enough for Smiljkovic to get out of the way, but Kaverman made the call and the cards were revealed:
Kaverman: A♥ Q♥
Weisman: 10♦ 9♦
The flop was golden for Weisman, coming in with J-8-7 for a flopped straight, but Kaverman had runner-runner potential. A ten on the turn left Kaverman searching for a king to complete an unlikely Broadway straight – and it would remain unlikely as the river deuce ticked Weisman and gave him a huge lead heads-up.
How powerful was Weisman's leadership? His 10.2 million chips easily exceeded Smiljkovic's 925,000, but the German tried. He doubled once through Weisman, but failed on another attempt when his 9-8 off-suit failed against Weisman's AJ on a KQQ 3-10 board. With just two heads-up hands, Weisman completed the task and won Event #2 of the 2024 PokerGO Cup.
1. Dylan Weisman, $240,300 (240 points)
2. Daniel Smiljkovic, $155,750 (156)
3. Byron Kaverman, $111,250 (111)
4. Anthony Hu, $80,100 (80)
5. Mike Watson, $62,300
6. David Coleman, $44,500 (45)
The 2024 PokerGO Cup continues next week, with the $25,000 Main Event starting on February 2nd. Coverage of the tournament will be streamed as part of the programming package on PokerGO. Players also want to earn points toward the Player of the Series award, which will earn them a bonus of a $25,000 PGT Passport and the PokerGO Cup trophy.
(Photo courtesy of PokerGO)
