David Coleman Captures First PGT Title and $120,150 in PGT Kickoff $5K

David Coleman went wire-to-wire as he captured the title and $120,150 first-place prize in Event #1: $5,100 No-Limit Hold'em by defeating Aram Zobian in a heads-up clash. 

Coleman started the day with just 30,000 chips in front of Stephen Chidwick but quickly added to his stack when he eliminated Viktor Ustimov in seventh place for $17,8000 on one of the first few hands of the stream. 

His chip lead would balloon even further when he picked up pocket aces in the big blind against Clemen Deng's pocket jacks from the button. A five-bet shove by Deng was met with a snap call from Coleman, and when the board ran out king-high, Deng headed to the payout desk in sixth place for $22,250 while Coleman now sat with just north of 30% of the chips in play. 

The heater would continue for Coleman when he picked up pocket jacks in the small blind against Nikita Kalinan in the big blind. Kalinan ended up all in for 1.4 million effective, and when he tabled pocket kings, Coleman's heater appeared to go up in smoke. 

A jack on the turn, however, left Kalinan drawing to two outs of his own, and when the river brick, Kalinan was out the door in fifth place for $31,150 while Coleman increased his chip lead to over 50% of the chips in play. 

Continuing the blind-on-blind battle theme, Coleman once again found himself with the best of it when Jeremy Ausmus shoved for 1,965,000 from the big blind with ace-eight only to find out he was up against Coleman's ace-ten. 

A ten on the turn left Ausmus needing a diamond on the river to stay alive, and while a red card hit the felt, it was the queen of hearts as Ausmus headed to the payout desk in fourth place for $40,050 while Coleman closed in on 60% of the chips in play. 

Three-handed play started with a hiccup for Coleman when his ace-seven ran into Chidwick's ace queen as the UK's all-time money leader found a quick double only to fall the very next hand. Coleman opened the button to 200,000, and Chidwick immediately put his new chips to work by three-betting the small blind to 2,850,000 with 45,000 behind. Zobian used a time extension in the big blind and moved all-in for just north of three million. Coleman mucked, and Chidwick flipped in the remainder of his chips. 

Chidwick held king-ten of hearts against the ace queen of Zobain and got even worse news when Coleman announced he folded king-ten. The board ran out jack high, Chidwick was out the door in third place for $55,625, and Zobain found himself squarely in the chip lead. 

Heads-up play was a back-and-forth battle for over an hour as each player would wrestle the chip lead from the other before heading to a break with the blinds set to increase to 100,000/200,000. On the first hand after the break, Coleman found himself all in for 3,625,000 with ace-eight against Zobian's ace-seven. The board ran out king-high, but Coleman's eight played to secure him the double. 

Moments later, Zobian found himself all in with queen-eight for his last 2,675,000, only to be in rough shape when Coleman had him outkicked with queen-nine. The board ran out ace-high, and once again, Coleman had Zobian just outkicked to send him home in second place for $77,875.  

Event #1 saw a total of 89 entrants take a seat inside the PokerGo studio and, with double the PGT points at stake, created a prize pool of $445,000, with the top thirteen players making the money. Just missing out on the streamed final table was Ryan Reiss when his queen-ten could not improve against the ace-five of Ausmus. 

Others who found a cash and the double points but missed out on the final table were Eric Baldwin, Michael Jozoff, John Riordan, Alex Condon, and Lewis Spencer. Johan Guilbert was the unfortunate bubble boy in Event #1 when the ace-king of Deng outkicked his ace-nine to send the players into the money. 

Also, missing out on a cash included PGT regulars Kristen and Alex Foxen, David Peters, Jesse Lonis, Andrew Lichtenberger, and PokerGo broadcaster Jeff Platt, who made a rare appearance on the other side of the felt inside the studio but fell victim to his own curse early on day one. 

Event #1: $5,100 No-Limit Hold'em Payouts

The PGT Kickoff Series continues with four more events inside the PokerGO Studio, and the live reporting team has got you covered with all the action as the 2024 PGT season gets underway.

In addition to live reporting on day one, you can catch all the final table action with live streams starting at 1 p.m. PT on the PokerGO YouTube channel as Donnie Peters and Remko Rinkema will be on the call as we kick off an action-packed 2024 slate. 

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