The 2023 Poker Masters’ $10,000 Buy-In tournaments ended recently. Nich Schulman signed up for Event No.7: $25,200 Buy-In, hoping to win the title. The tournament attracted 44 entrants, and Schulman’s dream came true when he bagged the $374,000 first-place prize.
Schulman garnered 420 Card Player Player of the Year (POY) points, thus increasing his total POY race points to 2,430. He ties in 99th place with Yuri Dzivielevski.
The former amassed 224 PokerGO Tour (PGT) points and improved his position in the Poker Masters Purple Jacket to sixth place. ARIA Resort & Casino hosted the tournament in two days at the PokerGO Studio.
What the Top Finalists Won
- Nick Schulman-$374,000;420 POY points and 224 PGT points
- Nick Petrangelo-$242,000;350 POY points and 145 PGT points
- Brian Rast-$165,000;280 POY points and 99 PGT points
- Chris Brewer-$121,000;210 POY points and 73 PGT points
- Victoria Livschitz-$88,000;175 POY points and 53 PGT points
- Justin Saliba-$66,000;140 POY points and 40 PGT points
- Ren Lin-$44,000;105 POY points and 26 PGT points
How Things Unfolded at the Final Table
Rin Lin left the tournament in seventh place with $44,000, and the remaining six players proceeded to the final day. Justin Saliba finished sixth after Brian Rast’s A-10 beat his pocket threes. The former won $66,000 and collected 140 POY points.
Schulman knocked out two players. His pocket nines defeated Victoria Livschtiz’s A-4 suited and busted them in fifth place. Schulman used 908 suited to make a small blind shove against Chris Brewer’s A-Q that he woke up with.
Brewer called, and the flop favored him. However, Schulman got a crucial chip lead after an eight landed on the turn. A blank on the end busted Brewer in the fourth position with $121,000, increasing his POY earnings to over $11 million.
Nick Petrangelo used pocket sixes to make a button raise in the next large preflop, while Rast used A-2 to call a 14 big blind three-bet shove. The latter combined a gutshot with a flop overcard.
A six landed on the turn and earned Petrangelo the set, while Rast urgently required a four on the river. However, a king turned tables as it sent Rast packing in third place with $165,000. His exit set up a fierce battle of the blinds between Petrangelo and Schulman, with Petrangelo having a 3,625,000:2,975,000 chip advantage.
Schulman won the first pots and got an over 4:1 chip lead. He used ADiamond SuitJHeart Suit to make 12.5 big blinds effective open-shove from the button that Petrangelo called off using AHeart Suit4Club Suit.
QClub SuitJSpade Suit3Diamond Suit10Spade SuitJDiamond Suit completed the board and earned Schulman the victorious trip jacks, while Petrangelo finished as the runner-up with a $242,000 consolation prize.
