Brandon Wilson Comes Back From Three Big Blinds to Capture Event #3 Title

Brandon Wilson was down to just three big blinds and, with half his chip stack in the middle, looked down at four-deuce of clubs in the big blind but, after flopping a flush to stay alive, rallied all the way back, eventually defeating Landon Tice heads-up to capture the title and the $297,500 first place prize in Event #3: $10,100 No-Limit Hold'em. 

After surviving the all-in with four-deuce, Wilson would score his first elimination of the final table when he sent David Chen home in seventh place for $47,600 after Chen was left with just 25,000 chips when moments earlier Tice's ace-king out kicked his ace-jack. 

Wilson kept his foot on the gas from there and would send four-time WPT Champion and start-of-day short stack Darren Elias home in sixth place for $59,500 when his pocket deuces held against Elias' ace-king. 

Not to be outdone, Tice would take the tournament chip lead for the first time when his king-six would outflop the ace-eight of Dylan Linde to send the RunItOnce instructor out the door in fifth place for $77,350.

Tice would further extend his chip lead moments later as his pocket sixes would flop a set to send PGT regular Sam Soverel and his ace-four home in fourth place for $101,150. 

One hand latter tart-of-day chip lead Keith Lehr moved all in for close to four million on the button with pocket nines, only for Tice to wake up in the big blind with pocket kings. No nine materialized on the runout, and Lehr had to settle for the $130,900 third-place prize while Tice took a nearly four-to-one chip lead into the heads-up match against Wilson. 

With the blinds already in nosebleed territory and sitting at 125,000/250,000 with a 250,000 big blind ante, Wilson quickly bridged the gap between the two combatants, retaking the chip lead without a showdown culminating in a three-barrel bluff for his tournament life. 

Despite the pressure, Tice looked to have weathered the storm when he flopped a straight and got two streets of value out of Wilson's flopped top pair, but the deck had other plans. 

In the penultimate hand of the tournament, Wilson found himself all in pre-flop, holding pocket threes against the ace-king of Tice, and when an ace or a king failed to materialize on board, Wilson now found himself with the four-to-one chip lead. 

Tice would get two shoves of his own through before he was the one holding the pocket threes with his tournament life at risk against the jack-ten of Wilson. Unlike Tice, Wilson found one of his overcards on the flop in the form of a jack to send the fellow young gun home in second place for $184,450. 

Event #3: $10,100 No-Limit Hold'em Final Table Payouts

Wilson Takes Over Dream Seat Spot, Chen Falls Out of Top Three

The 119 entrants in Event #3 matched the PGT record for entries into a $10,000 buy-in event set during Event #2, and with the win, Wilson now sits tied with Shannon Shorr for the top spot on the PGT Last Chance leaderboard with 298 points as the two look to lock up one of the three Dream Seats into the 2024 PGT Championship. 

Seventh-place finisher Chen made the final table for the second event in a row after finishing third in Event #2. However, after only picking up 48 points, his two-event total of 179 points trails Tice by five points for the final Dream Seat spot with three events to play.

Third-place finisher Lehr picked up his first cash of the series to also find himself in position to secure a Dream Pass, while Victoria Livschitz may have failed to find her second cash of the series in Event #3, but she remains in the top eight, three points behind Lehr with 128 points.

Sam Laskowitz has yet to make a final table during PGT Last Chance, but with three cashes in three events sits in one of the final two Dream Pass spots on the leaderboard with 105 points, four points ahead of Stephen Song, who leads Matthew McEwan by eight points for the final spot. 

PGT Last Chance Leaderboard

Top 40 Remains Unchanged

Despite another record-setting field and a prize pool of $1,190,000 for the second event in a row, the top 40 of the 2024 PGT season kept the same players in the field. There were some changes to the order, however. 

Nick Schulman picked up his second cash of the series, adding 24 points to his season total, giving him 1,710 points on the season to pass Aram Zobian for eighth on the leaderboard, while 2024 WSOP Main Event Champion Jonathan Tamayo still sits in fourth but remains on the outside looking in with just two cashes on the season. 

Soverel and Joe Serock also moved up the leaderboard, scoring a cash in Event #3 but remaining outside the top ten. Serock is the closest, sitting in 13th place with 1,476 points. 

Stephen Chidwick found his 13th cash of the 2024 season in Event #3 but remains at 45th on the leaderboard, trailing 40th-place Jonathan Little by 29 points heading into the final three events of the season.

2024 PGT Leaderboard Top 10

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