ARIA Resort & Casino’s PokerGO Studio hosted the 2023 PokerGO Tour (PGT) Mixed Games II series. It included the $10,200 Triple Draw Mix tournament that featured 51 entrants and had a $510,000 that the leading eight finalists shared. Still, the event constituted triple draw ace-to-five lowball, triple draw deuce-to-seven lowball, and badugi.
It lasted for two days and Hal Rotholz, a New York player won $163,200, the pool’s lion’s share after eliminating his opponents at the final table. It is his third-biggest payout and he has about $1.4 million in poker earnings now. Besides, the prize was Rotholz’s 17th score in 2023 and he has competed at five final tables.
His recent victory earned him 300 Card Player Player of the Year (POY) points and improved his position at Global Poker’s current POY points race to 843rd place. Still, he garnered 163 PGT points which increased his total points to 181, and position in the points leaderboard to fifth place.
Only four players advanced to the tournament’s final day. Some of the talented players who missed the title despite cashing included David “ODB” Baker, Chino Rheem, and Jared Bleznick.
The Event’s Largest Prizes
- Hal Rotholz-$163,200;300 POY points and 163 PGT points
- Nick Schulman-$107,100;250 POY points and 107 PGT points
- Jeremy Ausmus-$71,400;200 POY points and 71 PGT points
- Andrew Yeh-$51,000;150 POY points and 51 PGT points
- David Baker-$40,800;125 POY points and 41 PGT points
- Chino Rheem-$30,600;100 POY points and 31 PGT points
- Julio Belluscio-$25,500;75 POY points and 26 PGT points
- Jared Bleznick-$20,400; 0 POY points and 20 PGT points
The Final Table’s Highlights
Nick Schulman had the largest stack when Day 2’s action began and Rotholz followed him closely. Andrew Yeh left the table early after finishing fourth with $51,000 when Rotholz’s 8-7 beat his 907 in the round of deuce-to-seven.
Ausmus left the table in third place with $71,400 and increased his career winnings to over $16.9 million after drawing a king. His elimination kicked off a tough match between Schulman and Rotholz who had a 3:2 chip advantage.
The two finalists exchanged the chip lead a few times before Rotholz got the upper hand. The dealer dealt the event’s final hand in the round of badugi. Each of the players was more cautious when making a move.
Schulman opted to make a button raise while Rotholz made a big blind call before drawing two cards to his opponent’s single card. The latter wagered prompting the former to make an all-in raise.
Rotholz called before picking a card and Schulman stood pat on the draw. The latter held 9Club Suit5Diamond Suit4Heart SuitASpade Suit and the former had 3Heart Suit2Spade SuitAClub Suit. Rotholz urgently required a nine or four diamond to secure the trophy and pot.
He excited his supporters when he got the nuts from the 4Diamond Suit. Rotholz sent Schulman packing as the runner-up with $107,100.
