Ren Lin Wins Texas Poker Open Main Event for $400,000

The Texas Poker Open $3,300 Main Event has crowned its inaugural winner. Ren Lin topped the 735-entrant field to collect the $400,000 first-place prize and the Texas Poker Open belt buckle trophy.

After traveling and visiting family in China, Lin triumphantly returned to the PGT for the 2024 season. His emphatic win in the Texas Poker Open Main Event was his third career PGT title and 38th career PGT cash. Lin now climbs to $5,347,335 in career PGT earnings, which is 34th all-time in PGT history. 

The first-ever Texas Poker Open series had a marquee $2,000,000 guaranteed $3,300 Main Event. Across seven starting flights, a total of 735 entrants would take a seat to create the $2,205,000 prize pool, which paid the 86 players who advanced from Day 1. The eight-level Day 2 would finish with just 15 players remaining, and Yunkyu Song held a commanding chip lead, with each player guaranteed $27,000 in prize money.

Day 3 action began with the elimination of Shaun Deeb to Miguel Use before Bob Shao was left with one chip and busted shortly after to Song. Spencer Champlin and David Mzareulov traded doubles as the remaining short stacks before they fell in 13th and 12th place, respectively. Jeremy Ausmus pushed with the nut flush draw, but ran into Song's flopped flush draw to exit in 11th, and it would be DJ Alexander who was the final table bubble boy in 10th place.

Song carried the chip lead into the final table with 15.1 million in chips - roughly a third of the chips in play. Use was the first final table casualty when he was rivered by Daniel Moran's flush, while 2013 WSOP Main Event Ryan Riess was eliminated in eighth place when Song's ace-four cracked his pocket kings with a four-flush. After doubling Jonathan Tamayo, Tyler Brown was the next to be eliminated when his top pair was rivered by Ren Lin.

One of the voices of the PGT, Brent Hanks, had surprisingly parlayed his late entry on Day 1F into a seat at the final table. His ups and downs on the final day would eventually end in sixth place to Tamayo. Once Daniel Holmes was eliminated by Lin in fifth, only four players remained, with Lin climbing the ranks to trail Song slightly, while Moran was the shortest 26 big blinds.

Lin and Song battle in a pot where Lin took the chip lead with top pair before a monster pot saw Lin flop top two pair against Song's bottom set. Both players improved on the river, but it was Lin's superior full house that sent him soaring up the leaderboard to sit behind a stack of nearly half the chips in play. Moran then doubled through Song when he flopped trips, and after Song found a double himself, he was eliminated in fourth place when his king-jack suited could improve against the deuces of Moran.

Down to three, Jonathan Tamayo exited next when he three-bet shoved all-in with king-ten and was called by Moran with ace-jack. An ace on the flop rendered Tamayo drawing slim, and when the board bricked out, the Texas-native collected $180,000 in prize money. Lin held a slight chip lead entering heads-up play with 23.5 million to Moran's 20.6 million. A long match was expected with nearly 150 big blinds on the table. However, Lin and Moran had different ideas as all the chips entered the middle on the first hand of heads-up play, with Lin's pocket jacks dominating Moran's pocket tens. The board bricked out for Moran, and the Englishman settled for a runner-up finish and $275,000 in prize money.

Lin was now the inaugural Texas Poker Open Main Event champion and $400,000 richer. He also collected 400 PGT points in his first PGT event of the season and moved into 21st place on the PGT leaderboard. Daniel Moran moved into 37th with 275 PGT points, while Tamayo sits in 59th and Song sits in 74th.

Texas Poker Open Main Event Final Table Results

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