When 75 celebrities turned up at the PokerGO studio in Las Vegas for the first stop on the 2024 Celebrity Poker Tour, our eyes scanned the list for those we thought had the best chance of winning the $20k up top.
Check it out. Who d’ya like?
Brad Owen, perhaps? Not a bad choice. Rampage? Definitely possibly. Wolfgang? A million subscribers can’t be wrong.
All strong contenders, for sure, but for our (fictional) money we were looking squarely at last year’s champ, Nemo Zhou, and the ‘part-time player’ with over $250k in winnings from the last 12 months, Princess Love.
And guess what? We called it. Princess Love showed her class as pro fighters were knocked out and musicians went flat, ultimately outrunning a running back to take down the win.
Now, how are we going to spend all that (fictional) profit…?
Big names play some big hands
The evening tore along at turbo speed, but there were some big hands played. These included sportsbook founder Trent ‘bookitwithtrent’ Attyah flopping set-over-set…and still losing the pot. I mean, what are the odds? (Trent?)
Attyah, who at one stage held half the chips in play, was up against the Carolina Panthers’ Laviska Shenault and influencer Tana Mongeau. They all found a reason to love the flop, but come the river only one celebrity was celebrating, as Mongeau's open-ender came good.
Trent: K♠K♦️️
Laviska: 7♠7♣
Tana: 9♠6♦️️
Flop: K♣7❤️8♦️️
Turn: Q♣
River: T♠
Princess Love, meanwhile, had also flopped a lower straight draw with 5♠6♠, and led out. She would fold to Trent’s raise, showing the solid poker instincts that helped her navigate all the way to the top spot.
Princess takes the crown
With 10 players remaining, Princess Love got it all-in pre-flop against two opponents, her jack-high needing a little luck to beat the pair of nines that had the lead. It would be a sweat, but the backdoor flush came through and propelled her into a strong position at the final table.
Eventually, the field of 75 was down to just three: Princess Love, Tana Mongeau and Keith Smith of the Atlanta Falcons.
Mongeau was first of the three to exit, taking a check for $5k with her and promising to return for the next stop on the Celebrity Poker Tour.
We know how long heads-up play can last, but this was to be no grueling poker marathon. In the end, one hand was all it took to crown Princess Love with the title we always knew she had coming (we swear). Keith Smith pocketed $10k for his runner-up finish, while Love walked away with the $20k top prize.
As we expected, it was a savvy and controlled performance from Love that proved too much for the field.
PokerOrg's Tiffany Michelle talked to her after the win.
Congratulations, Princess Love!
You can relive the highlights of last night’s Celebrity Poker Tour event over at the PokerOrg Instant feed, or watch a replay of the whole shindig right now below.
The Celebrity Poker Tour will be back soon with another stop, and when it does we’ll be there to capture the action. See you there!
Featured imaged courtesy of PokerGO/Celebrity Poker Tour
