Brandon Wilson Captures Back-To-Back PGT Last Chance Titles

Less than 24 hours after capturing his first career PGT title, thanks in part to a colossal bluff, Brandon Wilson made a huge hero call to pick off 2024 PGT points leader Jeremy Ausmus heads-up en route to back-to-back tournament titles and the $285,000 first place prize in Event #4: $10,100 No-Limit Hold'em. 

With both players sitting nearly dead even in chips and one the first hand of heads-up play, Wilson opened to action with a raise on the button to 425,000 with pocket tens as Ausmus defended his big blind with queen-five offsuit. 

A king-high flop saw Ausmus check while Wilson continued for 250,000 before Ausmus check-raised to 750,000. Wilson called as the turn fell the seven, giving Ausmus a gutshot straight draw. 

Ausmus kept his foot on the gas with a bet of 1,500,000 before Wilson called as his shot clock expired. The river paired the board, and Ausmus used a time extension before moving everything in with the covering stack. Wilson went into the tank and used two time extensions of his own before slamming down a stack of purple chips into the middle for the call. 

Ausmus could only shake his head and tap the table as Wilson collected the pot to take just under a fifteen-to-one chip advantage. Ausmus was out the door two hands later after getting it in with six-three of diamonds, only for Wilson to flop a wheel with five-three of clubs as he settled for the $176,700 second-place prize. 

To his credit, Ausmus appeared to be relegated to a third-place finish as he started three-handed play almost four million chips behind Byron Kaverman and over six million chips behind Wilson. However, after doubling through both of his opponents, he would take the chip lead into heads-up play when his pocket fives sent Kaverman's ace-nine to the payout desk in third place for $125,400 before the disastrous first hand of the heads-up match.

Wilson had started the day as the chip leader and was in cruise control at the top of the counts until heads-up play began as he had eliminated Dylan Linde in fourth place for $97,900, but for most of the day, it was Kaverman who was driving the action. 

Kaverman had started the day near the bottom of the chip counts and watched as the start of the day short stack Stoyan Madanzhiev fell in seventh place for $45,600 early when his pocket fives were outturned by Sam Laskowtiz's nut flush but quickly shot up the counts with a double through Kristina Holst. 

Holst would find a double of her own to stay alive but was left with just 25,000 when she opened to 800,000 on the button, only for Laskowitz to re-shove the small blind for two million with pocket jacks before he ran square into Kaverman's pocket aces from the big blind, who covered both players. Holst folded and scored the ladder to fifth place for $74,100, while Laskowitz was left out in the cold to pick up his $57,000 sixth-place prize for his fourth cash of the PGT Last Chance Series. 

Event #4: $10,100 No-Limit Hold'em Final Table Payouts

Wilson All Most Assuradly Locks Up a Dream Seat

With his second win of the series, Wilson now sits alone at the top of the PGT Last Chance Series leaderboard with 583 points and, barring a monumentally run by one of his opponents, almost certainly will find his name called for one of the three Dream Seats into the 2024 PGT Championship.  

Event #2 champion Shannon Shorr continues to have the driver's seat for the second Dream seat courtesy of his 298 points as he still leads Landon Tice and David Chen by over 100 points. In contrast, Tice still only has a five-point edge on Chen for the third and final Dream Seat, as none of the trio picked up a cash in Event #4. 

Fourth-place finisher Linde picked up his second cash of the series after one-upping his fifth place in Event #3 to round out the top five with 174 points, ten points behind Tice for that final Dream Seat. 

Chen and Linde may not have a Dream Seat locked up. Still, they are in the first two positions to score a Dream Pass into the Dream Seat Invitational on January 9th. After his third-place finish, Kaverman now sits sixth on the leaderboard with 153 points thanks to his second cash of the series, which also awards a Dream Pass. 

Stephen Song also picked up his second cash of the series and now sits with 135 points, good for seventh place, while Keith Lehr sits in eighth place with 131 points, three points ahead of Victoria Livschitz for the last Dream Pass. 

PGT Last Chance Leaderboard

Ausmus Adds to Overal Points Lead; Justin Saliba Into the Top 40

After Events #2 and #3 tied the record for most entrants into a $10,000 buy-in in PGT history with 119 hopefuls making their way inside the PokerGO Studio, Event #4 almost matched them as it drew 114 souls, tieing Event #1 of the 2023 Poker Masters for the second largest $10k in history with a $1,140,000 prize pool with 17 players finishing inside the money.

Justin Saliba started Event #4 in 41st place and on the outside looking on for the 2024 PGT Championship, but with a 13th place finish, he picked up 24 PGT Points to knock Jonathan Little from the top 40 while simultaneously denying Matthew Wantman a spot after Wantman also picked up 24 points for a 14th place finish. Wantman also leap-frogged Little and now sits in 41st while Little falls to 42nd. 

Also, currently on the outside looking in for the top 40 is Laskowitz. Still, after picking up his fourth cash in as many events, he now sits in 48th place with 842 points with two events to go. However, with several players inside the top 40 not meeting the three cash minimum for qualification, Little, Wantman, and Laskowtiz are all in a position to move into the top 40 if those players fail to find a third cash. 

One of those players chasing a third cash, 2024 Main Event Winner Jonathan Tamayo, dropped to 0-4 at the PGT Last Chance Series and will only have two more shots if he is to find a starting stack for the championship. 

Event #4 runner-up Ausmus added to his starting stack for day one of the Championship, picking up 177 points. He sits almost 1,000 points ahead of second-place Daniel Negreanu, with 2,966 points on the season, and will be looking to become the fifth player to cross the 3,000-point mark during the four-year history of the PGT if he can find a cash in the final two events. 

Jesse Lonis also picked up a cash in Event #4, finishing in twelfth place to add 24 points to his total for the season leapfroging Michael Rooco for fourth place on the overall leaderboard with 1,843 points in the process. 

2024 PGT Leaderboard Top 10

Connect with PokerGO.com on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok. Watch daily poker clips on the PokerGO YouTube channel. Join the conversation on the PokerGO Discord server. You can save $20 off an annual subscription to PokerGO.com by using the code “PGT2024” at checkout.