The first-ever StormX Invitational event on PokerGO was a huge success.
The event was planned as part of the partnership between PokerGO and StormX. StormX is a crypto cash-back app that has been sponsoring PokerGO content since the two companies partnered earlier this year.
The announcement for the StormX Invitational followed a few months later.
The extensive invitation list drew from the worlds of poker, crypto, and the famous. From poker came players like Phil Hellmuth, Tom Dwan, Xuan Liu, Lynne Ji, Matt Berkey, Nick Schulman, and commentators Jeff Platt and Brent Hanks.
From the world of crypto and investment came eventual winner Oliver Blakely; CEO and co-founder of StormX, Simon Yu; Yu-Chi Lyra Kuo; and Victoria's Secret model turned investor Amber Arbucci.
The celebrity attendees came from fields as diverse as Nascar (Landon Cassill) and UFC (Bruce Buffer).
Each of the 111 players in the field bought in for $5,000 with the last nine standing making the final table and the money. With $555,000 in the pot, that put $183,150 up top. The narrow payout bracket also meant that the min-cash in 9th place was a little over three times the buy-in ($16,650).
Phil Hellmuth put in a little time ahead of the event training Arbucci in the finer points of White Magic, tweeting: "Giving @AmberArbucci a lesson for tomorrow's @StormXio $5,000 buy-in poker tourney; she’s good people, cool, and she also happens to be a model. My wife loves it when I give models poker lessons after midnight!"
Adding, as always, "#POSITIVITY"
Final table action
The min-cash eventually went to Maria Ho who took 9th ($16,650). That left David Williams as the only poker player at the final table (though here he was hustling under the title "sports analytics and Masterchef finalist" rather than as a poker pro).
Williams eventually took 6th for $33,300. He was followed out by Dave Mei (5th - $38,850), DJ Crypto (4th - $49,950), and R.Dawg (3th - $72,150).
That left Blakely, a managing partner at Ascensive Assets, heads up with marketing specialist Branden Hampton. Blakely vanquished his opponent when he caught a pair of sevens on the turn against Blakey's king-high diamond flush draw. The river came down no-diamond, no-king and Blakey took the tourney down for $183,150.
Hampton won $111,000 for second place.
Given the success of this event, it seems likely that there will be more StormX Invitationals in the future.
"Really enjoyed firing off in the StormX Invitational (and to listen to Bruce warm-up for Saturday, because he's the GOAT)," wrote Jeff Platt. "Loving the partnership between PokerGO & StormX"
StormX Invitational complete final table results
| Place | Player Name | Payout |
| 1st | Oliver Blakey | $183,150 |
| 2nd | Branden Hampton | $111,000 |
| 3rd | R.Dawg | $72,150 |
| 4th | DJ Crypto | $49,950 |
| 5th | Dave Mei | $38,850 |
| 6th | David Williams | $33,300 |
| 7th | Frank Zhang | $27,750 |
| 8th | Jay Rosenkrantz | $22,200 |
| 9th | Maria Ho | $16,650 |
Featured image source: PokerGO
