Justin Zaki Wins Poker Masters Event #3: $10,100 No-Limit Hold'em For $244k

The action started quickly and after making the final table in event number two, Ren Lin was hoping to top his sixth-place finish this time around. However, he was unable to do so when he got it all in with poket sixes against the king-queen offsuit of Ausmus. Ausmus was able to spike a king on the flop to send Lin out the door in seventh place.  

Jim Collopy was the sixth-place finisher when he moved all in from the button with jack-ten of diamonds and was called by Brinkenhoff in the small blind with ace-king offsuit. Collopy was able to find a ten on the flop, but could not fade the over cards of Brinkenhoff, as the ace of diamonds fell on the river. Collopy would collect $47,000. 

PokerGo Veteran Cary Katz came into the final table as one of the middling stacks but couldn’t find his footing early on and became short fairly quickly. Although he got it in good with ace-ten offsuit against Zaki’s ace-three suited, Zaki was able to outflop Katz and hold to eliminate him in fifth place.  

It was a very swingy day for Victoria Livschitz. She came into the final table second in chips, but after losing early pots to Katz and Zazki, she became one of the low stacks and was forced to resort mainly a shove or fold strategy. Livschitz would be all in on a few separate occasions for her tournament life and was able to fade elimination, but things came to a head in a pot with Zaki where both players made a flush and Livschitz called off her remaining chips against Zaki's river raise. Unfortunately, Livschitz’s flush was second best and she was eliminated in fourth place for nearly $85,000. 

The third-place finisher was Brinkenhoff. Brinkenhoff also had an up-and-down day but found himself as the chip leader early on when he was able to outdraw the top pair of Zaki by spiking an ace on the river in an all in pot. His day came to an end however when he four-bet shoved pocket three's from the small blind over the three-bet of Zaki in the big blind. Zaki's ace-king was able to spike a king on the flop and send Brinkenhoff home with a payday of more than $112,000.

Heads-up play started with Zaki having a sizeable chip lead over Ausmus, and although Ausmus doubled twice to nearly even the match, once with king-nine offsuit to the king-deuce offsuit of Zaki, and again with ace-four offsuit to Zaki's king-nine, things came to a head when Zaki shipped in pocket fours preflop and Ausmus called with ace-queen offsuit. Zaki would flop a set and go on to hold to eliminate Ausmus in second place and grab the second PGT title of his career.

With his second-place finish, Ausmus has now amassed over a staggering $12,000,000 in his PGT career.