Nick Schulman has taken down Event #1 of the $10K PGT Last Chance series at the PokerGO Studio at Aria in Las Vegas, winning $283,050. Schulman survived a seesaw day that saw him start with the chip lead but drop to near elimination before fighting back for the win. You can watch the final hand play out in the video above.
Schulman topped Joao Simao after a two-hour heads-up duel to earn his second title of the official 2024 season, which wraps up with the $1,000,000 Freeroll Championship next week. He's already locked up a seat in that event and is now ninth on the PGT's season-long leaderboard. Simao, who earned $177,600 as the runner-up, could have moved to the edge of qualifying for the championship himself but will now need another solid final-table run to qualify.
Third place went to Victoria Livschitz and fourth to Bryce Yockey in a finale that saw the players finish the day as they started, with the exception of Matthew McEwan and Nguyen Le, who swapped the fifth and sixth spots. Aram Zobian, who began the day on the shortest stack, was also the first to be eliminated, finishing seventh.
Schulman loses stack, mounts comeback
The down-and-up Day 2 for Schulman began not long after Zobian's early bustout. Schulman attempted a major move on Simao, who was in second place at the time, but Simao easily called Schulman's river bluff holding the nut straight. Schulman, though, then managed several double-ups as other players faltered and eventually hit the rail.
By the time the finale reached heads-up play, Simao still held the lead, and he eventually built it up to 5-to-1 against Schulman. In a key hand, Schulman avoided busting by catching a king on the river to make a Broadway straight. Schulman doubled up twice more to stay in the game, then, with the blinds advancing and both players short-stacked, finished off Simao in an all-in hand where he held J-7 against Simao's J-2. Neither player connected with the runout until a river seven completed Schulman's comeback for the win.
PGT Last Chance Event #1 final-table results:
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nick Schulman (USA) | $283,050 |
| 2 | Joao Simao (Brazil) | $177,600 |
| 3 | Victoria Livschitz (USA) | $127,650 |
| 4 | Bryce Yockey (USA) | $99,900 |
| 5 | Matthew McEwan (USA) | $72,150 |
| 6 | Nguyen Le (USA) | $55,500 |
| 7 | Aram Zobian (USA) | $44,400 |
Song leads way to Event #2 final
As Event #1 played to a winner, Day 1 action in Event #2, another $10,100 NLH offering, began action and played down to its own final table. Leading the way into the Saturday finale will be Stephen Song, who narrowly eclipsed David Chen, Ben Tollerene, and Joe Serock atop the Day 1 counts.
Attendance bumped up eight entries from the Event #1 turnout, with 119 total entries recorded, which set an all-time high for a PGT $10K event. The turnout produced a $1,190,000 prize pool, with 17 players making the money. Bubbling the money spots was Brock Wilson, which guaranteed the final 17 players at least $17,500 each, with the winner to receive $297,500.
Here are the final table stacks and payouts:
- Stephen Song: 3,205,000
- David Chen: 2,955,000
- Ben Tollerene: 2,785,000
- Joe Serock: 2,630,000
- Shannon Shorr: 1,255,000
- Adam Hendrix: 955,000
- Ren Lin: 880,000
- Jeremy Becker: $47,600
- Sam Laskowitz: $35,700
- Steve Yea: $35,700
- Chino Rheem: $29,750
- Ian Bradley: $29,750
- Stephen Chidwick: $23,800
- Aram Oganyan: $23,800
- Dylan Weisman: $23,800
- Ed Sebesta: $23,800
- Jeffrey Slayton: $17,850
The final table of Event #2 will be streamed on PokerGO starting at 1pm Vegas time.
Images and video courtesy of PokerGO
