Nick Petrangelo Looks to Complete the Climb Up the Stairway to Millions; Leads $100K Finale

Fresh off his win in Event #7: $50,000 No-Limit Hold’em, Nick Petrangelo holds 61 percent of the chips in play as Event #8: $100,000 No-Limit Hold’em is down to the final three. Joining Petrangelo in the final three are Sean Perry, who sits second in chips with 1,085,000, and David Peters, who holds the short stack with just 410,000.

Petrangelo is not only looking for back-to-back Stairway to Millions titles, but the long-time high-stakes veteran has a chance to turn $25,000 into the over $1.7 million in prize money after climbing the Stairway to Millions thanks to his second-place finish in Event #6 and his win in Event #7. Perry and Peters, on the other hand, secured their first cash of the series.

Registration in Event #8 closed with 19 entrants, and Petrangelo held the chip lead from then on but really started to put on the gas once the final table of nine began. Ali Imsirovic found himself all-in for 217,000 holding ace-king only to run into Petrangelo’s pocket aces with eight to go. The pot moved Petrangelo north of 1.6 million, and he’d keep climbing from there, even if play slowed to a halt. Petrangelo held over 50 percent of the chips in play after the Imsirovic elimination, and none of the other players gave an inch in the ensuing battle.

After trading chips around the table for the better part of four hours, Bill Klein was the next to fall at the hands of Petrangelo when Petrangelo’s ace-seven ran down his pocket queens. An ace on the flop gave Klein one foot out the door, and when the dealer turned a seven, Petrangelo improved to two pair, needing to fade a queen or a king on the river. The river fell a blank, and Petrangelo had his second victim of the final table.

They played hit a wall for the second time after Klein’s elimination, and it would be another two hours before Stephen Chidwick would fall in fifth place. Thirty minutes later, Alex Foxen found himself all-in on the bubble, holding pocket nines against Petrangelo’s king-jack.

The flop and turn fell clean for Foxen, but the river landed a king, and Foxen was eliminated, denying him his second cash of the series while the buzzsaw that was Petrangelo chopped down his final tree of the evening to close with the chip lead for tomorrow’s streamed final table.

The 19 entrants into Event #8: $100,000 No-Limit Hold’em created a prize pool of $1,900,000, and the final three are all guaranteed at least $304,000. All eyes, however, are on the first-place prize of $1,026,000.

Click here to view the 2022 Stairway To Millions Structure and Payout Information

When play resumes there is 58:27 remaining in level 13, with the button in seat 2 and there is a dead small blind.

The final three players will return to the PokerGO Studio on Thursday, January 20, at 2 p.m. PT with the final table airing on PokerGO.com at 3 p.m. PT.

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