Shaun Deeb opened to 1,300 from early position and Justin Saliba three-bet to 3,700 in the hijack. Deeb called.
On the 
flop, Deeb check-called for 2,300. The 
fell on the turn and Deeb check-folded to a 9,000 bet.
Marle Spragg in the big blind was in a three-way pot that checked through on the flop of 
.
Katie Lindsay in the small blind checked on the 
turn and called a bet of 1,600 from Spragg, while the other player in the hand folded.
Lindsay checked again on the 
river and Spragg sized up to 6,000. Lindsay thought for a minute and called, only to muck when Spragg turned over 
for a flopped flush.
One of poker's top tournament players, Jake Schindler, won the first tournament in the March High Roller series at Wynn, a $10,000 buy-in no-limit hold'em event.
The future Poker Hall of Famer received $166,600 for beating out 49 entrants, adding on to his already impressive resume that includes nearly $29 million in live tournament cashes according to the Hendon Mob. Play began and concluded Tuesday at the Las Vegas Strip resort hotel and casino.
Schindler entered Monday's final table with the chip lead, but he lost it to Darren Elias momentarily. After Chris Brewer busted in seventh place ($19,600), Joseph Cheong was the shortest stack, but he'd spin it up and eventually end up heads-up against Schindler.
Cheong's rise up the leaderboard started with a lucky hand in which he moved all-in with 
against the 
of Elias and of Ali Imsirovic when he spiked a on the river.
In the end, however, he couldn't overcome a 4:1 chip disadvantage that he faced at the beginning of heads-up play. But he did take home $107,800 for his second-place finish. Schindler won his second high roller of 2022. His first was for $287,500 in PokerGO Tour's Stairway to Millions $25,000 no-limit hold'em tournament.
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jake Schindler | $166,600 |
| 2 | Joseph Cheong | $107,800 |
| 3 | Darren Elias | $73,500 |
| 4 | Byron Kaverman | $53,900 |
| 5 | Sean Winter | $39,200 |
| 6 | Ali Imsirovic | $29,400 |
| 7 | Chris Brewer | $19,600 |
Remember, there are still three PokerGO Tour High Rollers taking place here at the Wynn Millions, all of which count for the 2022 PGT Leaderboard. There will be $10,500 buy-in High Rollers on both March 6 & 7, as well as a $15,700 High Roller on March 8. Click here to see the current PokerGO Tour Leaderboard.
Level: 5
Blinds: 300/600
Ante: 600
Players are now on their second 10-minute break of the day.
Cherish Andrews was in position a heads-up pot on a board reading 
with an array of chips already in the middle.
The opponent put out a stack of pink chips to put Andrews all-in for 30,500 and she entered the tank as she thought through the hand. Eventually, Andrews put in a call for her tournament life.
The opponent tabled 
for queen-high and Andrews showed 
to stay alive and take down the big pot.
The day before attempting to defend his title in the 2022 Wynn Millions, Andrew Moreno, who is in today's field, made an interesting post on social media talking about why he didn’t chip a big tournament he had won just over a week earlier.
The tournament was the Venetian Event #27: $2,500 Ultimate Stack, which attracted 542 runners and offered up a $1,233,050 prize pool. Moreno, who won the 2021 Wynn Millions for $1,460,106, went on to win the tournament for $242,293.
Moreno explained the situation in his post: “The word ‘chop’ got thrown around a few times. First, when we were 4-handed, I politely declined. Then again, when we were 3-handed. Once again, I respectfully declined. When I got heads up, the gentlemen proposed a chop and even offered to give me slightly more money despite having me out chipped 12 million to my 8 million. He was puzzled as to why I would decline a deal. I did so for two reasons.”
Moreno then explained the first reason was that he thought he had an edge, while the second was because he wanted to “seize the opportunity for invaluable final table experience.” Moreno went on to elaborate on “playing for it all” in the post, but PokerNews also took the opportunity to ask him about it during Day 1b of the 2022 Wynn Millions.
“A lot of times in lower stakes buy-ins, dailies, and those sorts of things, people want to chop. A lot of those people tend to take shots in bigger tournaments, and I just recognized a lot of the people that get to the end, I’ve played with a few of them in these bigger events, they just lack the experience because they’re always chopping. It can really cost you because the final three or four places, that’s where all the money is, so if you have no experience between you always chop these dailies, I think it can come back to hurt you a lot more later. I don’t think people really think about that when they chop because they’re so focused on securing some cash.”
| Place | Player | Hometown | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Andrew Moreno | Las Vegas, NV | $242,293 |
| 2 | Brent Hart | Inglewood, CA | $166,462 |
| 3 | Bret Wigal | Las Vegas, NV | $117,140 |
| 4 | Christina Gollins | Henderson, NV | $83,847 |
| 5 | Guillermo Sanchez Otero | United Kingdom | $63,502 |
| 6 | Timothy Pai | San Jose, CA | $47,472 |
| 7 | Barry Hutter | Hollywood, FL | $35,142 |
| 8 | Leonardo Valenzuela | Shepherd, MT | $27,127 |
| 9 | Noam Muallem | Las Vegas, NV | $21,578 |
Ironically, Moreno did do a three-handed deal at last year’s Wynn Millions final table, but to be fair, he was the short stack at the time and there were literally millions on the line. As for what it was like to be back where he had his seven-figure life-changing victory just months before welcoming his first child into the world with wife Kristy Moreno (formerly PokerNews hostess Kristy Arnett)?
“It’s really surreal. It feels like a dream,” he admitted. “I started my poker career here at the Wynn. They used to have the $3 chips for the $1-$3 no-limit game like 15 or 20 years ago. It’s just kind of nice to have it come full circle all these years later.”
As for his defense strategy, Moreno added: “I just take everything hand-by-hand. Anytime my hand goes too far in the future it doesn’t serve me, so I just bring it right back to what’s happening right in front of me. As the tournament progresses there’s more noise with those sorts of things, like pay jumps or bubbles, but I really try to focus on every single hand.”
For more on Moreno, check out the post-victory interview he did with PokerNews:
With roughly 12,000 in the pot on a board, Katie Lindsay checked in early position and Spencer Champlin bet 5,500 in the hijack. Andrew Moreno called the hijack, and Lindsay raised to 20,000. Champlin called and Moreno folded.
Lindsay jammed for approximately 15,000 on the river and Champlin called.
Champlin showed 
to take the pot over Lindsay's 
.
The button player had 10,000 chips committed to the pot and she was facing a jam by Ren Lin in the cutoff for approximately 32,000.
"If you want me to call, I'll call you," the button player told Lin. "Do you want me to call?"
"Depends how much you love me," Lin responded.
"Will you show if I show?" she asked.
"Of course," Lin replied.
The button player folded her 
face-up, while Lin revealed .
"Seven-eight?!?!" Lin exclaimed.
"It was suited!" the button player pointed out.
Marle Spragg was out of position in a four-way pot that checked through on the flop of 
.
Spragg checked again on the 
turn and the next player to act bet 1,700. The two other players in the hand folded and Spragg called.
Spragg checked a third time on the 
river and her opponent checked back. Spragg tabled 
for a pair of aces and took down the pot as her opponent mucked.
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