Andrew Lichtenberger Holds 40% of the Chips in Play as Event #1: $10,000 No-Limit Hold'em is Down to the Final Six

Andrew Lichtenberger scored a huge double just after the money bubble burst to move into the chip lead and never looked back as he closed the night with 3.875 million as Event #1: $10,000 No-Limit Hold’em is down to the final table of six.

With 11 players to go, Lichtenberger found himself all in for 865,000, holding pocket queens against the pocket nines of Wesam Abdallah. Lichtenberger flopped a set and faded Abdallah’s straight draw to take the chip lead and never look back.

Joining Lichtenberger at the final table are Darren Elias in second with 1.740 million, Daniel Colpoys in third with 1.710 million, Matthew Wantman in fourth with 980,000, Michael Lang in fifth with 735,000, and Scott Ball is the short stack with 615,000, good for just 15 big blinds.

Lichtenberger came into the final table of nine with the chip lead at just over two million and quickly saw his stack grow when he picked up pocket aces to eliminate Jake Schindler in eighth place to move just shy of three million chips. Schindler held ace-queen and was drawing dead by the turn to walk away with $30,800 for a day’s work.

Shannon Shorr entered the final table third in chips with just over 1.5 million, but after running his ace-king into the pocket jacks of Colpoys, he found himself just under half a million in chips and battling with the other short stacks. Shorr would eventually fall in seventh place for $38,500 when his pocket nines ran into Colpoys pocket jacks just as level 14 came to a close.

Cary Katz found his way to the final table, but his journey was short-lived when he was the first to fall in ninth place for $23,100. Jesse Lonis just missed out on the final table after he navigated one of the shortest stacks on the bubble to a tenth place finish, eventually falling when his ace-seven ran into Lichtenberger’s pocket jacks to walk away with $23,100.

Playing in his first PokerGo Tour event, Wesam Abdallah navigated the minefield of high stakes regulars to finish in 11th place for $23,100 after running his ace-eight in the pocket jacks of Ball.

Mitchell Halverson was cruising along with just under a million chips with 14 players to go but would lose three-quarters of his stack to Elias when he flopped top pair with ace-queen and paid off a big river bet only to see Elias table pocket aces leaving Halverson crippled. Halverson hung around as long as he could, scoring one double through Elias along the way before falling in 12th place to burst the money bubble when his ace-king ran into the pocket fives of Elias.

Others to miss out on their first cash of the series included defending PokerGo Cup Champion Daniel Negreanu, reigning PokerGO Tour Player of the Year Ali Imsirovic, Sean Perry, Sean Winter, Stephen Chidwick, and Chris Brewer.

When play resumes level 15 will begin and the button is in seat 1

The final six players will return to the PokerGO Studio on Thursday, February 3, at 12 p.m. PT with the final table airing on PokerGO.com at 1 p.m. PT.