Quan Zhou Wins Super High Roller Series Event #2 for $316,000

The 2024 Super High Roller Series continued from the Merit Royal Diamond Hotel & Spa in North Cyprus, and it is Quan Zhou who secured the victory in Event #2: $25,750 No-Limit Hold'em (7-Max) to claim his first PGT title.

Zhou topped a 39-player field to secure his third win of 2024 and first on the PGT. He picks up $316,000 in prize money, 190 PGT points, and moves to 198th on the PGT leaderboard. Zhao's lifetime tournament earnings climbed to more than $9,535,000, according to The Hendon Mob, and he remains in fifth place on China's All-Time Money List. This victory was the eighth-largest career score for Zhou, with his most significant score being from a fifth-place finish in the 2023 Triton Monte Carlo $125K Main Event for $1,165,000.

Final table action picked up with seven players remaining, but only six finishing in the money. It would be one of the longest televised money bubbles in PGT history at these stakes. Unfortunately, for Aram Zobian, he would be eliminated in seventh place when the jack-eight of Felipe Ketzer outdrew his queen-ten.

Ren Lin had surged out ahead of the pack, while Ketzer and Lewis Spencer were the two short stacks with seven and six big blind stacks, respectively. However, it would be Jeremy Ausmus who pushed with ace-queen and ran into the pocket tens of Lin. The board bricked out, and Ausmus exited in sixth, while Lin sat with roughly 55% of the chips in play.

Spencer found a double when he went runner-runner flush against Zhou, while Zhou doubled right back through Lin with ace-jack. The lone Brazilian, Ketzer, called all-in from the big blind for two more big blinds with three-deuce and was against the king-eight of Zhou. Ketzer's bottom pair wasn't enough to surpass Zhou's third pair, and the tournament was swiftly down to the final four players; two from China and two from the United Kingdom.

Spencer then found pocket queens but ran into the pocket kings of Lin. The Brit struck a queen on the flop, and when no king fell, he doubled to be contending for the chip lead. His fellow countryman and overnight chip leader Heath's tournament would come to an end next when he was all-in with queen-jack against Zhou's ace-three. Zhou flopped two pair and Heath was eliminated on a blank turn card to leave just three in Event #2. 

A huge cooler occurred shortly after with Zhou flopping Broadway, and Lin flopping a flush. All the chips went in and Lin sat with 5,140,000 of the 7,800,000 in play. Zhou chipped up and then doubled through Lin with ace-queen suited against pocket sixes. Spencer was now the short stack with 18 big blinds, but he doubled through Lin also, holding with ace-queen against ace-jack, to have more than half the chips in play.

Following the break, Lin was all-in with king-jack against Zhou's ace-king. Zhou flopped top pair, but Lin had outs to Broadway. The turn and river blanked out, and Lin was eliminated in third place, while Zhou entered heads-up play with a slender lead over Spencer.

On the second hand of heads-up play, Spencer found himself all-in holding pocket sixes against Zhou's ace-deuce suited. The flop brought an ace, and no case six fellow for Spencer as he would settle for a runner-up finish to Zhou. Zhou collected the $316,000 first-place prize, 190 PGT points, and PGT Gold Cup.

2024 Super High Roller Series Event #2 Results

After his victory, Quan Zhou moves to 198th on the PGT leaderboard with 222 PGT points. Lewis Spencer moves into 156th with 282 PGT points, while third-place finisher Ren Lin sits in 42nd on the PGT leaderboard with 773 PGT points.

Benjamin Heath collected his second cash of the season and is now 150th on the PGT leaderboard, while Ketzer also claimed his second cash and sits 454th. Jeremy Ausmus extends his lead in fifth place on the PGT leaderboard over Aram Zobian. Ausmus' 16th cash of the PGT season has secured him 1,536 PGT points and $3,596,576 in PGT earnings for 2024.

PGT Leaderboard Top 10 

These are the leaderboard standings as of Monday, August 19, 2024. The complete and current PGT leaderboard is at pgt.com/leaderboard.

The next event on the Super High Roller Series schedule is Event #3: $25,750 No-Limit Hold'em (6-Max) on Monday, while on Tuesday, the Event #4: $51,500 No-Limit Hold'em (7-Max) will take center stage. Wednesday will be the Event #5: $102,000 No-Limit Hold'em Main Event, followed by Event #6: $25,750 No-Limit Hold'em Mystery Bounty on Thursday, and then the $306,000 buy-in Super High Roller Bowl IX on Friday.

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