If it is January, it must mean that the PokerGO Tour is off on another series of high-roller tournaments (then again, this could be said about every month!). This time around, it is the latest running of the PokerGO Cup, a tournament series that is in its fourth year. Two events out of the scheduled ten have concluded, with high-roller regulars David Peters and Dylan Weisman emerging as the champions of those tournaments.
Peters Tops 111 Entry Field to Win Event #1
In Event #1 of the 2024 PokerGO Cup, a $5000 No Limit Hold’em tournament, a surprising 111 entries were logged in the books. That built a very decent prize pool of $555,000, which sixteen players earned cash from. The tournament started on Thursday, working its way down to the final six players for Friday’s action.
David Peters started the day with the chip lead, and it was a sizeable one. His 4.95 million chips were decently ahead of the second-place stack (3.515 million) of Mark Ioli, 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 would need the proverbial miracle to win, with Cody Daniels (575,000) and Dusti Smith (555,000) looking to get healthy quickly.
Cody Daniels drew the first blood, doubling through Peters, but he just as quickly turned those chips over Ioli in being eliminated in sixth place. In that hand, Daniels got his chips in with an A-Q against Ioli’s A-J, and things were running smoothly through the King-high flop and turn. A Jack came on the river, however, to cruelly rip the hand from Daniels and give it to Ioli, who took over the lead with the knockout.
Smith was the next to pull off this feat, doubling through Quoss and falling at the hands of Shawn Daniels to head to the rail in fifth place. In her elimination hand, Smith could not 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 with knockouts of Quoss in fourth place and Shawn Daniels in third, but he was still about three million chips in arrears to Ioli going to heads-up play. Ioli took the first hand of action, but that was about the extent of his play. Peters doubled up after flopping trip eights with his 9-8 against Ioli’s gutter ball 10-7 on an 8-8-6 flop, which brought a four and an Ace to complete the board.
On top again, Peters finished his business quickly. On the final hand, Peters put the pressure on with an all-in and Ioli didn’t believe him, making the call, and the cards were tabled. Peters’ K-10 was not great, but it was better than Ioli’s K-5 and, after the board ran out 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 Takes First $10K Battle in Event #2
The 2024 PokerGO Cup kicked up the action a notch on Friday when Event #2, a $10,000 buy-in No Limit tournament, opened for play. By the end of the late registration period, 89 entries had been received in the tournament to build an $890,000 prize pool. With a $240,100 first-place prize (and thirteen paying slots), the battle was a heated one to just make the money.
The six-handed final table was much closer together than its Event #1 counterpart. Leading the way was Canada’s Mike Watson, but his 2.63 million in chips was only slightly up over Byron Kaverman’s 2.405 million stack. Lurking behind these two was Anthony Hu, with 2.505 million in chips, while Daniel Smiljkovic (1.635 million) and a return visit from Weisman (1.53 million) rounded out the contenders. David Coleman, for his part, was at the final table, but it was going to be tough to do something with 425K in chips.
Kaverman and Watson would clash early on, with Kaverman emerging victorious and taking over the chip lead from his Canadian counterpart. Coleman dropped from the tournament in sixth place at the hands of Smiljkovic, Coleman’s K-Q not catching up to Smiljkovic’s A-Q after an Ace flopped. Kaverman’s lead was short-lived, however, as he doubled up Weisman (pocket nines) when his Q♥ 9♥ failed to connect on a nine-high board.
Weisman now held the lead, and it would be one that he would not relinquish. Weisman took out Watson in fifth place and Kaverman ended Hu’s tournament in fourth place, and you could feel that the two players would eventually clash. That came in three-handed play, and it sealed the tournament for Weisman.
On that hand, Kaverman opened the betting to 200K and Weisman all in three-bet the action off the small blind. That was enough for Smiljkovic to get out of the way, but Kaverman made the call, and the cards were turned up:
Kaverman: A♥ Q♥
Weisman: 10♦ 9♦
The flop was golden for Weisman, coming down J-8-7 for a flopped straight, but Kaverman had runner-runner potential. A ten on the turn left Kaverman looking for a King to complete an unlikely Broadway straight – and it was to remain unlikely, as the river deuce put the checkmark on Weisman and gave him a monster edge going to heads-up action.
How monster was Weisman’s lead? His 10.2 million in chips thoroughly crushed Smiljkovic’s 925,000, but the German gave it a try. He doubled once through Weisman but failed on another effort when his 9-8 off suit failed against Weisman’s A-J on a K-Q-Q-3-10 board. With only two hands of heads up, Weisman had completed the job 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 will continue through the next week, with the $25,000 Main Event beginning on February 2. Coverage of the tournament will be streamed on PokerGO as a part of their programming package. The players are also looking to earn points towards the Player of the Series award, which will award them a bonus of a $25,000 PGT Passport and the PokerGO Cup trophy.
(Photo courtesy of PokerGO)
