Justin Bonomo Leads Star-Studded Final Table in Event #9: $25,000 No-Limit Hold'em

Justin Bonomo celebrated a prosperous 37th birthday by bagging the chip lead with 2,165,000 in chips as six players remain in Event #9: $25,000 No-Limit Hold'em of the 2022 Poker Masters at the PokerGO Studio from ARIA Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The star-studded streamed final table will also feature Seth Davies (1,800,000), Sean Winter (1,720,000), and Jason Koon (1,340,000). Brian Rast (645,000) and Nick Schulman (425,000) will return to the final day as the shorter stacks. Each player has locked up $81,000, but all eyes will be on the title, trophy, and $432,000 first-place prize.

Bonomo is currently first on the all-time live tournament earnings list according to The Hendon Mob, and a victory would move him up to just under $58,000,000 in earnings. At the conclusion of this tournament, the six remaining players will have more than $175,000,000 in combined live earnings.

2022 U.S. Poker Open champion Winter is eighth on the 2022 Poker Masters leaderboard, while Schulman is 11th. A top-three finish in this tournament would put either player in the lead for the Purple Jacket over Alex Livingston, who currently sits atop the leaderboard.

The field of 54 entrants created a prize pool of $1,350,000 and the top eight finishers earned a piece of it. Bonomo looked to be on the brink of elimination late in the day when he ran into Matthew Wantman's aces, but he flopped trips and doubled to stay alive. Bonomo would soon accumulate more chips as he went on to eliminate Wantman, along with Sam Soverel and Nick Petrangelo, and he held the chip lead as nine remaining players converged on a single table.

The unofficial final table began with nine players, but only eight would make it into the money. As expected, many small pots were played while shorter stacks dwindled, and it would take roughly an hour before the next elimination. Scott Seiver had lost a massive pot in a classic race against Winter when two tables remained, and his misfortune would continue on the bubble. Seiver conceded most of his stack to Rast with pocket nines versus pocket queens, and he was ultimately eliminated on the money bubble.

Victoria Livschitz squeaked her short stack into the money but was soon eliminated in eighth place when her ducks couldn't hold against Koon's big slick. Daniel Colpoys found a likely spot to double when he got his chips in with pocket tens against Winter's pocket sevens in a blind-versus-blind battle. However, Winter hit his two-outer on the turn to eliminate Colpoys in seventh place, and the six remaining players bagged for the night.

2022 Poker Masters Event #9 Final Table

When play resumes, there is 40:00 remaining in Level 15 with blinds at 20,000/40,000 with a 40,000 big blind ante. The button will be on Nick Schulman.

Play will resume at 12 p.m. PT on Saturday, October 1 and the final table will be streamed on delay starting at 1 p.m. PT on PokerGO.com.

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