Landon Tice Leads the Final Six Players in Event #5: $10,000 NLH
It turned into a rollercoaster of a day for many of the players in Event #5: $10,000 NLH at the PokerGO Cup inside the PokerGO Studio in Las Vegas. A whirlwind of double-ups along with a flurry of bustouts to cap off the night resulted in Landon Tice bagging the chip lead with just six players remaining.
A total of 69 entries were recorded for the first of five $10,000 buy-in events this week to determine the PokerGO Cup champion by Sunday evening. Many of the top pros in the Las Vegas area were in action today which created a prizepool of $690,000 to be spread amongst the final 10 places.
A couple of late-night knockouts vaulted Tice into the lead as he will return to a stack of 3,115,000 chips. "Smooth as rice, for Landon Tice," was the comment Sean Winter made in the last hand when Tice turned over pocket queens against the pocket fives of Aram Zobian. The board ran out clean for the young phenom who scored the last elimination of the night en route to his chip lead.
Final Table Seat Draw
| Seat | Player | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Landon Tice | 3,115,000 | 62 |
| 2 | Qinghai Pan | 1,250,000 | 25 |
| 3 | Michael Berk | 2,610,000 | 52 |
| 4 | Sam Laskowitz | 305,000 | 6 |
| 5 | Chris Hunichen | 610,000 | 12 |
| 6 | Sean Winter | 735,000 | 15 |
Day 1 Action
It was a smaller field compared to the $5,000 buy-ins that were on the schedule the previous week but still a strong showing of 69 entries to kick off the second week of the PokerGO Cup. The action was fast and furious from the first cards off the deck. Michael Berk, returning second chips, was responsible for two of the first three eliminations on the day. His third bullet was the lucky charm as he will be looking to score a big chunk of the remaining prizepool up for grabs.
With only 10 places getting paid, the action slowed down at the final two tables. Nicholas Seward was once near the top of the leaderboard but with multiple short stacks doubling up, Seward was unable to keep his momentum rolling. He also ran into a red-hot Tice on the stone bubble when the two clashed in the blinds. Tice flopped trip nines and Seward was left drawing dead, earning the unwanted title of the bubble boy.
That left 10 players remaining and it was a long time until the next elimination occurred. Multiple players took turns with the chip lead, however, none of them could hold on to it. Brock Wilson had a bounty on his head, courtesy of Drake Kemper, and that proved to be the turning point when Wilson was finally eliminated in 10th place.
The two tables were hand-for-hand on the pay jump which led to two eliminations at the same time. Darren Elias ran his pocket tens into the pocket jacks of Berk, and Kemper was on a rollercoaster against Tice. Kemper flopped a three-outer but Tice rivered his own three-outer, bringing the field down to the final table of seven players.
It didn't take long for Zobian to get his chips in the middle after that, leaving just six players to return for the final table tomorrow. The action is scheduled to get underway at 11:45 a.m. PST with the blinds resuming at the start of level 18 at 25,000/50,000/50,000. The PokerNews updates will begin at the same time as the PokerGO live stream, at approximately 1 p.m. local time.
Event #5: $10,000 NLH Payouts
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | $207,000 | ||
| 2nd | $134,550 | ||
| 3rd | $93,150 | ||
| 4th | $69,000 | ||
| 5th | $51,750 | ||
| 6th | $37,950 | ||
| 7th | Aram Zobian | United States | $27,600 |
| 8th | Darren Elias | United States | $24,150 |
| 9th | Drake Kemper | United States | $24,150 |
| 10th | Brock Wilson | United States | $20,700 |
Keep it locked here to find out who will be taking home the first-place prize and moving up the leaderboard on the PokerGO Cup standings.