The PokerGO Mixed Games series neared its conclusion on Friday with Alex Livingston winning the festival's next-to-last event, $25,300 10-Game Championship to earn $324,465. The event also saw Max Hoffman logging his fifth final-table finish of the series to assure himself the honor of being the 2024 PGT Mixed Games overall champion.
Livingston, a native of Canada who now resides in Las Vegas, became the seventh consecutive first-time winner of a PokerGO Tour event and the eighth first-timer in nine completed events to become a new PGT event champion. Only Event #2 winner John Hennigan had previously won a PGT tourney before lifting a trophy again last weekend. For Livingston, most famed in poker for this third-place effort in the 2019 WSOP Main Event, it was a long time coming, as he'd already cashed in 25 prior PGT tournaments.
Livingston dominated much of Event #9's action, finishing Thursday's Day 1 with a chip lead nearly twice that of his closest competitors among 13 players who moved on to Friday's conclusion. In the end, Livingston and eventual runner-up Dylan Weisman reached heads-up play nearly even in chips and the two agreed to a deal involving most of the money before playing on to decide the winner. The two players then swapped the lead a couple of times before Livingston pulled ahead, then eliminated Weisman in a hand of no-limit 2-7 single draw.
Event #9 drew 41 entrants and built a $1,025,000 prize pool, the largest pool of the series. The final six players locked up the money spots when Jared Bleznick busted in seventh part way through Friday's action. The final six finishers and their payouts were as follows:
PGT Mixed Games Event #9: $25,300 10-Game Championship Results
Place
Player
Country
Prize
PGT Points
1st
Alex Livingston
Canada
$324,465
221
2nd
Dylan Weisman
United States
$290,535
148
3rd
Dan Zack
United States
$153,750
92
4th
Max Hoffman
United States
$112,750
68
5th
John Racener
United States
$82,000
49
6th
Walter Chambers
United States
$61,500
37
Hoffman and Zack duel for overall title
The battle within a battle involving the PGT Mixed Games leaderboard boiled down to Max Hoffman and Dan Zack. Hoffman began the day with a narrow lead in a wide-open race, and once he made the money, most of the other leaderboard challengers were eliminated. Event #9's large prize pool meant more PGT leaderboard points would be awarded, and the series' last event, a small-field $5,100 tourney, wouldn't provide enough points for anyone to overtake what Hoffman had already locked in.
While Hoffman's closest three leaderboard challengers didn't make the Event #9 pay spots, one other player did, Dan Zack. And when Hoffman busted in fourth to Dylan Weisman in a hand of no-limit 2-7 single draw, Zack was still in the hunt and guaranteed at least third in the event.
Had Zack been able to ladder up one more spot from there, he would've overtaken Hoffman and locked up his own second PGT Mixed Games overall title. Hoffman led Zack by 44 points with three players remaining, and the jump from third to second was worth 56 leaderboard points. But it wasn't to be, Weisman again notched the elimination, getting the last of Zack's chips in a tough cooler during a round of 2-7 triple draw.
Hoffman managed to claim the overall title despite not winning any of the events. Instead, all five of his cashes in the series - tied for the most - were final-table finishes, including back-to-back runner-up efforts in Events #5 and #6.
Featured image/data courtesy PokerGO
