Nick Petrangelo went from just one big blind in his stack to winning the Stairway to Millions Event #7: $50,000 for $567,000 this week. His victory — as well as paying out a little over half-a-mill — also catapulted him to the top of PokerGO's Player of the Year leaderboard.
Petrangelo's victory took him to a total of 445 points in the 2022 PokerGO Tour rankings, giving him a handy lead over his next-highest placing foes: Michael Wang (354 points), Ali Imsirovic (351 points), and Punnat Punsri (251 points).
Imsirovic in particular is worth Petrangelo keeping an eye on, as he won last year's PokerGO Tour Player of the Year.
The Stairway to Millions is a chain of tournaments with rising buy-ins. Every player who cashes in one event gets part of their payout as a ticket to the next tourney. This gives players who enter the $1k kick-off event a chance to run it up to a $100,000 buy-in in the last comp.
Chance Kornuth was the only player who managed to cash in all of the first three events, flat out winning Events #2 and #3. However, in Event #4 he failed to cash, breaking the chain.
Nick Petrangelo wins
Petrangelo bought his way into the $50k event, joining 21 other entries in the field. With $1,050,000 in the prize pool, only three places paid, and some of the best players in the world to beat, Petrangelo wasn't facing an easy ride.
Other players who entered but failed to make the final table included: Gal Yifrach, Stephen Chidwick, Cary Katz, Sean Winter, and Jake Schindler.
Unsurprisingly, the final table was stacked. Sean Perry, Jason Koon, and Anuj Agarwal were eliminated before the money bubble broke and the final three players finished Day 1.
The three remaining sharks returned to the live-streamed final table with Ali Imsirovic holding around half the chips in play and Chris Brewer the short stack with 11 big blinds.
Day 2 was a brisk affair. Petrangelo knocked Brewer out in third, closing a little on Imsirovic's chip lead before losing some ground. Some sharp play and lucky cards soon gave Petrangelo the lead.
With Petrangelo down to just 500,000 in chips and Petrangelo at 2.6 million, an all-in nearly evened the score and a cunning bluff put Petrangelo in the lead.
The final hand saw a pre-flop all-in and Petrangelo's pocket aces hold against Imirovic's ace-nine.
Imsirovic wins $315,000 for second and finds himself in 3rd on the POY leaderboard.
Petrangelo, Imsirovic, and Brewer also won a ticket to the final event of the series, Stairway to Millions Event #8: $100,000.
"With his Stairway To Millions Event #7: $50,000 NL Hold'em victory, Nick Petrangelo moved to the top of the 2022 @PokerGO Tour leaderboard," tweeted PokerGO after Petrangelo's victory.
PokerGO Stairway to Millions Event #7: $50,000 complete final table results
| Position | Player Name | Payout |
| 1st | Nick Petrangelo | $567,000 |
| 2nd | Ali Imsirovic | $315,000 |
| 3rd | Chris Brewer | $168,000 |
| 4th | Anuj Agarwal | Money Bubble |
| 5th | Jason Koon | N/A |
| 6th | Sean Perry | N/A |
Featured image source: PokerGO
