Running from January 25, the PokerGo Cup 2024 being hosted inside the PokerGO Studio at ARIA Resort & Casino has entered its final stage with just three more events left to play out. The latest event to crown its winner was Event #5: $10,100 No-Limit Hold’em, which saw 83 entrants and created a prize pool of $830,000, with the top 12 players securing a min-cash of at least $20,750. In the end, American poker pro Justin Zaki emerged victorious, taking home the title and a $232,400 top prize. The victory marked Zaki’s first live title of 2024. Also, it was his biggest tournament of the year.
Running from January 30-31, the event saw Event #4 fourth-place finisher Chino Rheem exiting as the unfortunate bubble boy. His A-7 offsuit ran into Chidwick’s AQ off suite, leading to his elimination. Lewis Spencer (12th), Daniel Negreanu (11th), and Ariel Mantel (7th) all picked up their first cash of the 2024 Series, while Event #4 winner Cary Katz picked up a tenth-place finish in Event #5 to grab second place on the leaderboard with 252 points. Event #3 winner Jonathan Little finished ninth and picked up 25 points. He still sits atop the leaderboard with 277 points. Event #5 winner Zaki picked up his first cash of the series and moved to fourth place with 232 points on the coveted leaderboard.
Final Day Action
Zaki overcame a stacked final table in Event #5: $10,100 No-Limit Hold’em. The play for the second and final day of the event began with a bang with Joris Ruijs three-bet jamming for 1,190,000 with Kd 6d and running into the start of the day chip leader Stephen Chidwick’s A-K. The board ran out king-high, and Ruijs was eliminated in sixth place for $41,500. During level 17, Zaki’s pocket jacks sent start-of-day short stack Justin Saliba (A-9 offsuit) to the rail in fifth place for a $58,100 prize.
The next to fall was Soverel who lost his majority of stacks with trips with Q-10 to Joey Weissman’s turned full house of A-10. Shortly after that, he exited in fourth place for $78,850. He was followed by the start of the day chip leader Chidwick whose KQ offsuit failed against AQ offsuit of Weissman. The board ran out Ace-high, eliminating England’s all-time money leader in third place for $107,900.
Heads-Up Play
Zaki came into the heads-up play with over a 2:1 lead. He relinquished the chip advantage, but was able to pull back. Zaki battled his way back and regained the chip lead on the last hand of level 21 when he picked off Weissman’s river bluff with his set of tens to collect over 70% of the chips in play. On the first hand in level 22, Weissman shoved his A-Q and Zaki woke up with pocket kings. The board did not help Weissman and he headed to the cage to collect his $149,400 second-place prize.
Event #5: $10,100 No-Limit Hold’em Final Table Payouts (USD)
| Place | Name | PGT Points | Prize |
| 1st | Justin Zaki | 232 | $232,400 |
| 2nd | Joey Weissman | 149 | $149,400 |
| 3rd | Stephen Chidwick | 108 | $107,900 |
| 4th | Sam Soverel | 79 | $78,850 |
| 5th | Justin Saliba | 58 | $58,100 |
| 6th | Joris Ruijs | 42 | $41,500 |
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Image Credit: PokerGo
