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David Chen becomes the youngest winner in PGT history by taking down Event #5: $10,100 No-Limit Hold'em of the 2024 Poker Masters presented by PokerStars NAPT.

The MIT grad was able to collect the trophy and $217,500 first-place prize after defeating Jim Collopy heads-up. This is the 21-year-old's biggest lifetime win and first six-figure score according to The Hendon Mob, and puts Chen's total earnings to date at $234,299. He is just eight days shy of turning 22 years old. 

It was an impressive third straight final table for Collopy and his highest finish of the three, topping his sixth-place finish in event number three and his third-place finish in event number four. Collopy's second-place finish today places him atop the Purple Jacket Leaderboard just ahead of Jeremy Becker. 

The field of 75 entrants created a prize pool of $750,000 and the final 11 players earned a piece of it. Kristen Foxen just missed out, busting on the money bubble when Laskowitz's nines cracked her aces. Jeremy Ausmus, (11th), Nicholas Seward (10th), David Coleman (9th), and Jeremy Becker (8th) busted before the final table.

Samuel Ju fell in seventh and was followed to the rail by Isaac Haxton in sixth. Haxton was short-stacked and got his last few big blinds in with king-ten, but failed to improve against Chen's ace-queen.

Sam Laskowitz was the first player to exit the streamed final table in fifth. Laskowitz came in as a middling stack but would become short early on after tangling with Collopy in a three-bet pot on an ace-high board that didn't go to showdown. Laskowitz would then find himself all in against Chino Rheem multiple times, once to outdraw Rheem with tens against Rheem's jacks, and again to lose with queens to Rheem's ace-king offsuit. His day would come to an end after defending the big blind against a late position open from Chen. Laskowitz check-raised all in over Chen's continuation bet on a seven-five-four rainbow board after flopping middle pair with ace-five offsuit. Laskowitz was not able to improve against Chen’s jacks and would take home $52,500 for the effort.  

Out in fourth was Filipp Khavin. Khavin started the day as the chip leader but was not able to get anything going early on and fell to one of the short stacks. In his final hand, Khavin moved his twelve big blind stack in with ace-five offsuit from the big blind against a button raise from Chen who was holding ace-eight offsuit. Both players flopped a pair, but Khavin would not improve beyond that to be the fourth-place finisher for more than $71,000.  

Out next was Chino Rheem. Rheem’s clashes with Laskowitz early on, and then with Chen later made for an entertaining, yet volatile day for him. He started the final table as the short stack, but was able to win a flip against Laskowitz with queens against Laskowitz's ace-king to move into third chip position. However, he was never able to climb higher than that and became short again after a hand with Chen where he limp/called a raise from the small blind and then check-raised a ten-ten-six board. Rheem was forced to fold after continuing on the deuce turn for 225,000 and getting raised to 900,000 by Chen. Rheem would be eliminated shortly after when he defended his big blind against Chen’s button open, and then check-called it off on an ace-jack-ten flop with queen-eight offsuit vs Chen’s king-four offsuit. Rheem would not improve and was out the door in third place, taking home over $101,000 for the podium finish. 

Chen started heads-up play with around a one-and-a-half to-one chip lead, and although Collopy was able to close the gap momentarily when he made two-pair with seven-deuce of hearts against Chen's top pair of aces, he found himself short after a pot where he called a river raise to see Chen table two pair with ten-six on jack-six-five-king-ten. Collopy would then move all in from the button with ace-five offsuit and get called by Chen with jack-nine of spades. Chen flopped a flush to end Collopy's run in second place and secure himself the trophy and $217,500 first-place prize. 

2024 Poker Masters Event #5 Final Table Payouts

Place Name Country Payouts PGT Points
1st David Chen  United States $217,500 218
2nd  Jim Collopy United States $142,500 143
3rd Chino Rheem United States $101,250 101
4th Filipp Khavin United States $71,250 71
5th Sam Laskowitz United States $52,500 53

Poker Masters Purple Jacket Leaderboard

Jim Collopy takes over the top spot from Jeremy Becker, but Becker collected his second cash of the series to remain close behind. Jeremy Ausmus and Nicholas Seward collected an additional cash as well, and with today's win, Chen has moved into the top five. With three events still left to play, it's anyone's game.  

Rank Player Points Wins Cashes Winnings
1st Jim Collopy 295 0 3 $294,800
2nd Jeremy Becker 285 1 2 $285,000
3rd Justin Zaki 244 1 1 $244,400
4th Jonathan Little 227 1 1 $226,800
5th David Chen 218 1 1 $217,500
6th Spencer Champlin 190 1 2 $190,475
7th Jeremy Ausmus 178 0 2 $177,600
8th Michael Moncek 165 0 1 $165,000
9th Harvey Castro  146 0 1 $145,800
10th Nicholas Seward 122 0 4 $143,750

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PokerGO, PGT, Chino Rheem, Jim Collopy, Poker Masters, Samuel Laskowitz, Filipp Khavin, David Chen