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On Tuesday night in Las Vegas, Rok Gostisa won the final event of the inaugural season of the PokerGO Tour presented by Guaranteed Rate. Gostisa topped the 46-entry field in the $50,000 buy-in PokerGO Tour Championship, securing the bag for $689,100. Gostisa topped Michael Gathy in heads-up play to win the season finale.
“I didn’t expect to win because I came in seven out of seven, so it feels amazing,” Gostisa said in the moments after his victory.
The victory became the largest to date of Gostisa’s live poker career, capping off what has been a truly breakout 2021 on the felt. Prior to this year, Gostisa didn’t have a year with more than $74,000 in live tournament winnings. With this win, Gostisa improved to nearly $1,600,000 in winnings in 2021.
“I was basically just playing online and because of COVID I didn’t travel,” Gostisa said. “This year has been going well, so I’m really happy about how it turned out.”
| 2021 PokerGO Tour Championship Results | |||||
| Place | Player | Country | Prize | ||
| 1st | Rok Gostisa | Slovenia | $689,100 | ||
| 2nd | Michael Gathy | Belgium | $598,900 | ||
| 3rd | Sergi Reixach | Spain | $345,000 | ||
| 4th | Jake Schindler | United States | $253,000 | ||
| 5th | Jacob Ferro | United States | $184,000 | ||
| 6th | Ren Lin | United States | $138,000 | ||
| 7th | Dominik Nitsche | Germany | $92,000 | ||
Gostisa entered the final day seventh in chips and had some stiff competition in front of him. He maneuvered his way to the top of the chip counts over the course of the first couple of hours of play, and then Dominik Nitsche busted in seventh place.
With six players remaining, Ren Lin moved all in with jack-ten from the button and was called by Gostisa in the big blind. Gostisa had pocket sixes and held up to eliminate Lin in sixth place and extend his chip lead.
After that, Gostisa had another pocket pair and another player on the ropes. This time, his pocket tens were up against the ace-deuce of Jacob Ferro. Gostisa’s tens held up, actually improving to a set on the turn, and Ferro was out the door in fifth place.
Jake Schindler would be the next player to bust, and it was Gathy who sent him packing. Gathy had aces and Schindler had two sevens, making for the end of the line for Schindler and setting up three-handed play between Gostisa, Gathy, and Sergi Reixach.
The three players battled for a bit before Reixach was eliminated in third place. On his final hand, Reixach got all in with queen-jack against the king-queen of Gostisa. Reixach couldn’t come from behind to get the double up and was busted in third place, taking home $345,000.
To begin heads-up play, Gostisa was in the lead by just about double the chips. The duel was a tough one, though, as Gathy took the lead and knocked Gostisa down to fewer than 1,000,000 in chips. In fact, Gathy had built up about a 10-1 chip lead over Gostisa during the heads-up match.
Gostisa battled his way back and then found a double up when the two players went at it with top pair against top pair. Gostisa had Gathy out-kicked on a queen-eight-two-seven board. Gostisa had queen-ten against Gathy’s queen-six and was able to double through to take the chip lead after a nine completed the board on the river.
Not too long after, the money went in again. This time, it happened preflop with Gostisa shoving with seven-six of spades and Gathy making the call with the queen jack of clubs. An ace-ace-seven flop put Gostisa in the lead and closer to winning it all. Another ace hit the turn to give Gostisa a full house, but he still needed to fade the river card, with Gathy needing a queen, jack, or the case ace to double up. Another seven on the river would force a chopped pot. The river was a six and that ended it, with Gostisa being crowned the PokerGO Tour Championship presented by Guaranteed Rate. With the two making a deal during heads-up play, Gostisa won $689,100 and Gathy took home $598,900.
With that, the inaugural season of the PokerGO Tour presented by Guaranteed Rate comes to a close. The final day was one to remember, with Gostisa triumphantly winning the final event of the season and Ali Imsirovic being crowned 2021 PokerGO Tour presented by Guaranteed Rate Player of the Year and taking home $200,000. For more on Imsirovic’s season-long win, read the story on his success.
Although the 2021 PokerGo Tour season has come to a close, 2022 is right around the corner and so is the first group of events. As always, stay tuned to the PokerGO Tour schedule for what’s up next.
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