The PokerGO Tour had a rather rough ride with their PGT Bounty Blitz “made for streaming” tournament. The fields for that schedule of $5000 tournaments never cracked fifty players in any event, but the PGT got the sour taste out of their mouths with a stirring tournament at Venetian Las Vegas. Battling through a stacked final table off the short stack, Daniel Lee ended the dreams of Lily Kiletto on Monday when he captured the top prize from the 418 combatants in the PGT Venetian Las Vegas Classic.
From the Basement…
Lee did not make it easy for himself in this tournament. He would come to the final table as the shortest stack among the combatants, looking up at players like Ryan Leng, Doug Lee (no relation), Kiletto, and chip leader Jeremy Ausmus. He would waste no time in changing that, however, as the chip lead would come Daniel Lee’s way on the very first hand of action.
After Santiago Montes opened the betting and Ausmus called on the button, Lee would make a statement by three-betting the action from the big blind. Montes lost interest in the hand after Lee’s raise, but Ausmus saw the chance to pick off another player and made the call. The Q-7-5 flop saw another big bet out of Lee (250K) and another call from Ausmus. A deuce on the turn didn’t look dangerous, but Lee slowed down and gave up the lead.
Ausmus would view this as weakness and pounded the pot with a 400K bet, and this time it was Lee who came along for the ride. A King on the river saw Lee check again, and Ausmus put him to the test with an all-in. After a brief tank, Lee would call off his final chips, and Ausmus showed a J-10 for a huge bluff. Lee exhaled as he showed Big Slick, unnecessarily pairing his King on the river to win the hand and snatched the chip lead from Ausmus.
Things would not get better for Ausmus. The “other” Lee at the table, former WSOP Main Event final tablist Doug, moved all in pre-flop, and Ausmus called him. The call was a correct one for Ausmus, as his A-8 topped Lee’s Q-5, but a five on the 9-5-2 flop changed the fates for both men. Another nine on the turn and a deuce on the river sealed the hand for Doug Lee, while Ausmus was left with scraps (150K); he would bust out in seventh place on the next hand (Ausmus would salve his wounds by winning one of the three “High Roller” events coinciding with the PGT Venetian Las Vegas Classic final table after he was knocked out).
Ausmus had barely collected his bags and left the table before the next elimination. Montes decided to challenge Daniel Lee, his A-Q going up against Lee’s pocket tens, and they would fail to connect on an eight-high board. Montes’ sixth-place finish was quickly followed by Ryan Leng’s departure, also at the hands of Daniel Lee, when Lee’s A-J worked a Queen-high straight out of the board after Leng had paired with his K-Q.
To the Penthouse…
Daniel Lee wasn’t going to be stopped. Once he got into the chip lead, he never gave it up, knocking out Marcus in fourth place as the deck continued to hit Lee in the face. Lee’s A-J found an Ace on the flop against Marcus’ K-7 to end his day in fourth place. Kiletto, however, had stayed in the hunt throughout Daniel Lee’s carnage, and she would bring it to heads-up action by making the tournament one less Lee, eliminating Doug Lee in third place when she paired the seven of her K♣ 7♣ and rivered an insult-to-injury flush to end Doug Lee’s day.
Surprisingly, given all his activity, Daniel Lee only went heads-up against Lily Kiletto with a 400K chip lead. He would rectify that situation after Kiletto picked up the blinds and antes to take the lead, raising the action to 450K that Kiletto called. A J-4-8 flop with two clubs lit the wick as Kiletto checked, Lee fired away (350K), and Kiletto went to the check raise for 900K. Undaunted, Lee made it 1.7 million to go, and Kiletto, just as determinedly, went all in with the better stack. Lee called, and the cards went to their backs:
Kiletto (big blind): K♣ 2♣
Lee (small blind/button): K♠ J♠
Lee had flopped top pair, but he had to fade the nine clubs in the deck that would give Kiletto a winning hand. Kiletto was unable to duplicate the flush run she had against Doug Lee as the turn and river blanked, which catapulted Daniel Lee into a massive lead. Although Kiletto would battle valiantly, even doubling up on two occasions, Lee’s lead was too much to overcome.
On the final hand, Daniel Lee would keep the pressure on with a raise to 500K, and Kiletto refused to back down, pushing all in for slightly more than three million in chips. Lee made the call and, for a moment, it seemed his lead was in jeopardy:
Kiletto (big blind): A-10
Lee (small blind/button): K-J
The J-8-7 flop changed the tune of the hand, however, putting Lee in the lead and leaving Kiletto looking for an Ace to come to the table. A second seven wasn’t helpful, and neither was the four on the river. That left Kiletto with no chips and out in second place as Daniel Lee booked the win at the PGT Venetian Las Vegas Classic.
1. Daniel Lee, $250,000
2. Lily Kiletto, $170,000
3. Doug Lee, $120,000
4. Daniel Marcus, $82,000
5. Ryan Leng, $63,000
6. Santiago Montes, $48,000
7. Jeremy Ausmus, $35,000
With the completion of the PGT Venetian Las Vegas Classic, one of the crown jewels of the PGT will take center stage. Later this week, the 2025 Poker Masters will start at the PokerGO Studios at ARIA Las Vegas. Beginning on Thursday, satellite tournaments for the ten-tournament schedule will begin. On Friday, the first tournament of the 2025 Poker Masters, a $1 million guaranteed prize pool tournament with two starting days, takes to the felt. That will take the PokerGO Tour through the end of September.