The primary champion of the 2024 Poker Masters has been determined. Spencer Champlin overcame a discipline of 131 entries within the $5,100 buy-in no-limit maintain’em kickoff occasion to safe the title and the highest prize of $160,475.
This was the Scarborough, Maine native’s first PokerGO Tour title, and his second-largest recorded event rating. The 2-time World Collection of Poker Circuit ring winner now has practically $3.2 million in lifetime earnings accrued throughout 387 in-the-money finishes.
Champlin now has seven final-table finishes in 2024, with this being his first title of the 12 months. This win earned him 528 Card Participant Participant of the Yr factors and 160 PokerGO Tour factors. He now sits in 87th place within the 2024 POY race standings introduced by World Poker, and is inside attain of the highest 200 within the PGT rankings.
This occasion ran for 2 days contained in the PokerGO Studio at ARIA Resort & On line casino in Las Vegas. The sturdy turnout constructed a prize pool of $655,000 that was paid out among the many high 19 finishers. Loads of massive names cashed, together with present POY race second-ranked contender David Coleman (seventeenth), 2013 WSOP foremost occasion champion Ryan Riess (sixteenth), bracelet winner Alex Foxen (fifteenth), bracelet winner Chris Hunichen (eleventh), Eshaan ‘Brown Balla’ Bhalla (ninth), two-time Tremendous Excessive Curler Bowl winner Isaac Haxton (eighth), and World Poker Tour champion Matthew Wantman (seventh).
Solely contenders six moved on to the live-streamed ultimate desk, with 2024 WSOP Circuit Commerce On line casino foremost occasion champion Jessica Vierling coming into day 2 atop the chip counts.
The primary knockout got here proper after playing cards bought within the air. Champlin shoved with Q
3
from the small blind after it folded round to him. Bracelet winner Nicholas Seward known as all-in from the large blind for 14 massive blinds whole with A
Ok. Seward remained forward by means of the flip, however a queen on the river noticed him eradicated in sixth place ($32,750). This elevated Sweards’s lifetime event haul to almost $1.6 million. The biggest chunk of that whole ($516,135) got here from his win on this 12 months’s $3,000 six-max occasion on the WSOP.
Bracelet winner Zachary Grech misplaced a giant chunk of his stack semi-bluffing with a straight draw into the flopped two pair of Vierling. He was left with fewer than three massive blinds after bet-folding the river. He picked up pocket queens shortly after that to offer himself some respiratory room, however was quickly all-in and in danger with 86 trailing the A5 of bracelet winner and WPT champion Dylan Linde. Linde made aces and fours to safe the pot, whereas Grech settled for $39,300 because the fifth-place finisher. The 2023 WSOP On-line $400 turbo occasion champion now has over $862,000 in recorded earnings.
A preflop cooler spelled the tip of Dan Shak’s run on this occasion. He had the most effective of it to start out, with pocket tens main the pocket nines of Vierling. A 9 on the flip gave Vierling a set and the lead, but additionally improved Shak to an open-ended straight draw. The board paired on the tip, although, giving Vierling nines stuffed with queens and the pot. Shak was despatched to the rail with $52,400 for his efforts. His event resume now options practically $15 million in profession cashes.
Linde was left because the shortest stack after his A-Q was outrun by the A-4 of Champlin in a preflop all-in confrontation. Not lengthy after that he bought all-in with Q-6 suited from the small blind, solely to run into Ok-Q for Champlin. Linde was drawing lifeless by the flip and completed in third place. The $72,050 payout for this consequence elevated his profession earnings to almost $10.3 million.
Heads-up play started with Vierling holding roughly a 2:1 lead over Champlin. She pulled even additional forward after successful a giant pot with pocket aces towards the highest pair of queens held by Champlin. She nearly closed out the title with Ok-Q main Champlin’s Q-J in a preflop all-in, however Champlin paired his jack on the flip and held from there to double out of the hazard zone. He then doubled once more with A
7 holding towards the Ok7 of Vierling to shut the hole much more.
From there on it was a back-and-forth affair. Champlin took the lead with an eight-high straight besting Vierling’s seven-high straight, solely to have Vierling bounce again out in entrance with a set of fours besting Champlin’s second pair.
The 2 in the end battled for roughly an hour earlier than the ultimate hand of the event was dealt. Champlin held roughly a 5:3 lead and AQ on the button. He opened with a min-raise to 500,000 on the button and Vierling, who had 24.3 massive blinds to start out, three-bet shoved from the large blind with AJ.
Champlin rapidly known as and the board ran out 953AQ to offer him aces up and the title. Vierling, who earned her seat on this occasion in a $560 satellite tv for pc, walked away with $98,250 because the runner-up. This deep run grew her lifetime earnings to greater than $1.2 million.
Here’s a have a look at the payouts and rankings factors awarded on the ultimate desk:
Place
Participant
Earnings
POY Factors
PGT Factors
1
Spencer Champlin
$160,475
528
160
2
Jessica Vierling
$98,250
440
98
3
Dylan Linde
$72,050
352
72
4
Dan Shak
$52,400
264
52
5
Zachary Grech
$39,300
220
39
6
Nicholas Seward
$32,750
176
33
Photograph credit: PokerGO / Miguel Cortes.
