Martin Zamani wins biggest-ever PGT $10K in Last Chance series

Posted on: January 8, 2025 16:04 PST

Wednesday afternoon at the PokerGO Studio brought about the conclusion of Event #5 of the PokerGO Tour Last Chance series. The $10,000 buy-in event attracted a field of 121 entrants to generate a prize pool of $1,210,000 with 18 places paid and $302,500 for the eventual winner.

The 121 entries served to make Event #5 the biggest PGT-operated $10,000 tournament in history, surpassing the record of 119 set during Events #2 and #3 of the series.

When the final hand was dealt, Martin Zamani stood alone atop the podium to lay claim to the $302,500 top prize and the PGT Last Chance title.

Zamani began proceedings with a sizable chip lead, but Rania Nasreddine wasn't far off in second place after parlaying her series debut into a final table appearance. Brek Schutten came into day third in the counts, having moved into the Top 40 of the PGT Leaderboard with this cash. Ren Lin and Kristen Foxen started in the middle of the pack while the short stacks Chris Brewer and Joey Weissman rounded out the final table competitors.

Short stacks bow out quickly

It didn't take long for Weissman to find a spot to commit the majority of his remaining chips as he raised from UTG with . The action folded around to Zamani in the big blind who moved all-in over the top. Weissman quickly called and found himself in great shape against Zamani's . The flop, however, left him drawing at three immediate outs to stay in the tournament. The turn and river weren't the cards he needed to see and Weissman's run came to an end with a seventh-place finish.

Chris Brewer couldn't spin up his short stack to make a run at the win in PGT Last Chance Event #5.

Brewer took his chances at a double when he called off his stack with after Schutten moved all-in over the top of his preflop raise. Brewer needed to connect with the board to down Schutten's , but the runout offered no such assistance and his day came to an end in a sixth-place finish.

With a little more than ten big blinds remaining, Lin took his shot when he moved all-in with . Nasreddine, next to act, made a quick call with to clear Foxen from the small blind and Zamani from the big blind. Lin was in rough shape with only two immediate outs and the flop left him drawing all but dead. The turn and river confirmed Lin's elimination and sent him to the payout desk to collect his fifth-place cash.

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Zamani runs away with it

After leveraging his big stack to pick up several pots, Zamani laid down the hammer in a blind versus blind confrontation against Schutten. From the small blind, Zamani opted to exert maximum pressure on his opponent by moving all-in with . Schutten looked down at in the big blind and quickly called. Zamani was behind, but the flop paired his holding to vault him into the lead. The turn added outs for Schutten, but the river wasn't the card he needed and his day came to an end in a fourth-place finish.

Rania Nasreddine parlayed her series debut into a podium finish.

After getting unlucky in a key pot against Foxen, Nasreddine was left with only crumbs to work with. Zamani, with a commanding chip lead, moved all-in from the button with and Nasreddine called off her remaining chips with . With a shot at a double to give herself some breathing room, Nasreddine simply needed to fade Zamani's six outs, but the runout had other ideas in mind and her series debut came to an end in a third-place finish.

With more than a 6-to-1 chip lead, Zamani had the tournament all but locked up as heads-up play began between he and Foxen. With less than ten big blinds remaining, Foxen needed to double quickly to get back into the fight. Thus, when Zamani moved all-in from the button, Foxen put her tournament life on the line with . Unfortunately for Foxen, she was up against Zamani's and the runout failed to improve her holding, bringing her run to an end in a second-place finish.