Eric Blair Wins First Career PGT Title and $254,800 in Event #4: $10,100 No-Limit Hold'em

Eric Blair sat in the middle of the pack most of the day and was down to less than ten big blinds three-handed, but "Big Vegas" didn't let the pressure get to him as he battled back to defeat Joey Weissman heads-up to deny Weissman his second 2025 PokerGO Cup title while taking home $254,800 plus 255 PGT points and the trophy. 

Blair doubled start-of-day chip leader Justin Saliba when his ace jack could not run down Saliba's pocket fives to drop below ten big blinds, but Blair then picked up aces to double right back through Saliba a few hands later. 

Saliba, who had been the runaway chip leader for most of the day thanks to timely aggression, ended up getting a little too aggressive with king-four suited as he three bet shoved for just over two million chips from the big blind only for Weissman to wake up with ace-jack on the button. Weissman rivered a jack, and Saliba was out the door in third place for $117,500 plus 118 PGT points. 

From there, the heads-up match was a back-and-forth affair as Blair and Weissman traded the chip lead multiple times before Blair found himself all in for nearly six million chips with king-queen against Weissman's pocket eights. A queen on the flop left Weissman with just a single big blind and was out the door on the next hand, collecting $161,700 plus 162 PGT points for his second, second-place finish of the series. 

Blair got the trio to three-handed play after sending betMGM ambassador Darren Elias out the door in fourth place for $88,200 plus 88 PGT points after Elias got his last 170,000 into the middle with queen-nine against Blair's eight-four suited. 

On hand earlier with Elias in the big blind, Aram Zobain committed ICM suicide when he got nearly a million chips into the middle with pocket fives against the ace-jack of Saliba. Saliba turned broadway, and Zobian headed to the rail in fifth place for $68,600 plus 69 PGT points. 

Justin Sternberg came into his first career PGT final table on the short stack and was knocked further down the counts when his ill-timed king-high bluff ran square into the flopped trip aces of Weissman. Sternberg had just three big blinds after the bluff gone wrong but managed to score a double when he rivered quad nines against Saliba. 

Despite the double, Saliba would finish the job a few hands later when his ace-king wout kicked Sternberg's king-ten, sending him home in sixth place for $49,000 plus 49 PGT points. 

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

Weissman Adds To His 2025 PokerGO Cup Points Lead

Event #4 failed to set another PokerGO Studio record, but it still attracted 98 entries, creating a prize pool of $980,000. The top 14 players reached the money with Neil Warren, the unfortunate bubble boy, when his kings ran square into Saliba's pocket aces. 

Weissman finished runner-up for the series' second event and, combined with his win in Event #2, is now 212 points clear of Event #1 winner Michael Moncek on the overall series leaderboard. Moncek, who finished runner-up to Weissman in Event #2, failed to pick up his third cash of the series in Event #4 to stay on 369 points. 

Event #4 winner Blair picked up his first cash of the series and sits in fourth, sixty-one points behind Event #3 winner Adam Hendrix for third place on the leaderboard. 

The rest of the top ten all sit under 200 points for the series, as Harvey Castro, Joao Simao, Cherish Andrews, Manuel Fritz, and Erik Seidel all failed to cash in Event #4. Third-place finisher Saliba, however, picked up his second cash of the series to sneak into the top ten. He now sits in ninth place with 142 points, twelve points ahead of Seidel. 

Rounding out the payouts from Event #4 are Patrick Leonard (7th), Kristen Foxen (9th), Sam Laskowitz (10th), Matthew McEwan (11th), and Jim Collopy (13th), who all picked up their second cash of the series, while John Riordan (8th) and Nick Schulman (14th) scored their first. 

2025 PokerGO Cup Leaderboard

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