David Peters Wins PokerGO Cup Event #1: $5,100 No-Limit Hold'Em

David Peters came into the final table of Event #1 with a slight chip lead, but after losing that lead on the first hand of play, battled back and defeated Mark Ioli heads-up to capture the title and $141,525. 

Peters went right to work on the day's first hand when Cody Daniels put his short stack into the middle with ace-queen against Peters king-nine. Daniels flopped a queen and found the early double, but fate had other plans. 

One hand after the double, Cody again found himself all in pre-flop with ace-queen and looked to be in great shape when Mark Ioli called with ace-jack. A clean flop and turn left Ioli drawing to three outs, and when the jack of hearts hit the felt on the river, Ioli made his pair to take the chip lead as C. Daniels headed to the payout desk in sixth place for $27,750. 

Dusti Smith came into the final table as the short stack and, after securing the ladder, would go no further as she got her last seven big blinds into the middle from the small blind with ace-ten only to run square into Shawn Daniels's pocket queens. The board ran out jack high, and Smith collected the $36,075 prize for her fifth-place finish. 

Former high-stacks regular Fabian Quoss made a rare appearance on the poker felt and parlayed his way into fourth place when his turned diamond flush draw ran into Peters's overpair of jacks. Quoss needed a king or a diamond on the river to stay alive, but when the ace of spades hit the felt, he headed to the payout desk to collect his $49,950 prize. 

Three-handed play started as a bit of a tug-of-war with roughly 40 big blinds separating the three stacks. When the dust settled, Shawn Daniels found himself on the short end of the stick when he got his last 11 big blinds into the middle with king-jack against Peters ace-eight of clubs. 

Two clubs on the flop left S. Daniels drawing thin, and when the turn and river failed to fall paint, he was out the door in third place for $63,825 and his first cash of the 2024 PGT Season. Even with the elimination of S. Daniels for Peters, Ioli held a nearly two-to-one chip lead over Peters to start heads-up action, but the lead was short-lived. 

With the board reading eight-eight-six and just 850,000, Peters checked, and Ioli fired for 300,000. Peters check-raised to 750,000, and after using a pair of time extensions, Ioli moved all in with a covering stack. Peters' snap-called for just under three million with nine-eight, leaving Ioli's ten-six drawing to runner-runner. 

The turn four gave Ioli a straight draw, but the river bricked, giving Peters a chip lead he would not relinquish. Ioli could never recover after that and would eventually head out the door in second place for $88,800 when his king-five of spades ran into Peters king-ten. 

Jeremy Becker Cracks PGT Season Leaderboard Top Ten, Peters 11th

Event #1: $5,100 No-Limit Hold'em drew 111 entrants to kick off the 2024 PokerGO Cup, which created a prize pool of $555,000, with the top 16 players finding cash and the PGT points. 2023 PokerGO Cup Event #5 champion Anthony Hu was the unfortunate bubble boy when his ace queen could not improve against Peters' pocket fours. 

PGT Regulars Erik Seidel (15th), Andrew Lichtenberger (13th), and Jonathan Little (7th) all found their first cash of the season, but it was high-roller newcomer Jeremy Becker (8th) who scored his third cash of the young season to inch his way up the leaderboard. He is now sitting in seventh place with 197 points. 

Event #1 winner Peters also scored his first cash of the 2024 season and now sits just outside the top ten in eleventh place with 142 points, but all eyes are still on PGT Kickoff Champion David Coleman, whose two wins and four total cashes still paces the leaderboard with 590 points. 

PokerGO Tour 2024 Leaderboard - Top Ten

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