David Coleman Goes Wire-to-Wire for Second PGT Kickoff Title

David Coleman started his fourth consecutive PGT Kickoff final table with the chip lead, and despite a few hiccups, he emerged victorious to capture the title and $73,800 in Event #4: $5,100 No-Limit Hold'em. 

Coleman briefly lost the chip lead early when king-queen could not run down the ace-jack of Nikita Kalinin but quickly gained it back when his ace-three out-flopped the ace-jack of Victoria Livschitz to send her out the door in sixth place for $12,300. 

Justin Bonomo was the next to fall when his pocket queens ran squarely into the pocket kings of Jeremy Becker. The board ran out nine-high, and Bonomo collected $16,400 for the fifth-place finish for his first cash of the 2024 PGT Season. 

Kalinin road the early double and secured two ladders, but his day would go no further when he ran his 11 big blind short stack into the middle with king-eight only from the small blind only for Becker to wake up with ace-ten in the big blind. Kalinin flopped a flush draw but could improve no further as he collected $22,250 for his fourth-place finish and second cash of the PGT Kickoff. 

All three players sat nearly dead, even in chips, following the elimination, and they stayed that way for much of the first level of play until Coleman found max value on the river with his trip fives against Becker's single pair to take a commanding chip lead once again. 

One hand later, Becker was all in for 465,000 from the small blind with jack-six of diamonds against the pocket tens of Coleman from the big blind. A six on the turn provided Becker a sweat, but when the river bricked, he was out the door in third place for $30,750. 

Heads-up play lasted two hands as Coleman shoved the big blind with king-three over a Ustimov open. Ustimov snap-called with ace-king for 1,570,000 and looked to be in great shape to double into the chip lead, but a three on the flop immediately vaulted into the lead. 

The turn and river bricked out as Coleman ended the day as he started it coming from behind to send a player to the rail as Ustimov headed to the payout desk to collect his $49,200 second place prize. 

Event #4: $5,100 No-Limit Hold'em Payouts

David Coleman Running Away with Early Season PGT Success

The fourth event of the 2024 PGT Kickoff series saw its smallest field of the season, with only 41 entrants to create a prize pool of $205,000. With his second win of the series, Coleman now sits more than double the amount of second-place Dylan Weisman, four events into the PGT Season. 

Coleman picked a great time to run hot, as each event in the Kickoff series awards double points and is already almost halfway to last year's PGT Championship cutoff of 1,200 for the top 40 fifteen days into the new year. 

Runner-up Ustimov also secured this third cash of the young season and now cracks the top five on the leaderboard with 171 points, 419 points behind first-place Coleman. Fourth-place finisher Kalinin also breaks the top ten thanks to his second cash of the series and is now tied with Jeremy Ausmus for tenth. 

Event #2 runner-up Sergei Kislinskii just missed out on his second cash of the series when his jack-nine could not run down the pocket eights of Bonomo as he hit the rail in seventh, bursting the money bubble and sending the players to the final table. 

2024 PGT Leaderboard Top Ten

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