PokerStake’s Brandon Wilson Wins Biggest in Epic PGT Last Chance Campaign
Over the course of six PokerGO Tour Last Chance events, PokerStake player Brandon Wilson won an epic $446,850. On the basis of six $10,100 buy-ins, that’s a return on investment of $386,250, or 737%! He wasn’t the only PokerStake player to win big over a series that saw several of our players make the $1m PGT Freeroll Championship leaderboard Top 40 with plenty to spare.
Wilson’s Epic Results
Over the course of six events, Brandon Wilson crushed the PokerGO Last Chance series, which rewards players who cash deep in events with vital points to qualify for the season-ending PGT $1m Championship Freeroll. Although he didn’t cash in the opening event, Brandon made the money in Event #2, turning his $10,000 entry fees in the opening two events into the black with a result worth $22,050.
Far better was to come in Event #3, which Brandon won outright for a spectacular top score of $275,400. Beating the Spanish professional Sergio Aido heads-up for victory and the infamous PGT trophy, Brandon put himself within touching distance of the $1m Freeroll by virtue of his PGT Last Chance results alone, triumphing at a final table that also included Phil Hellmuth, Jeremy Becker and another PokerStake favorite, Chino Rheem.
While cashes eluded him in Events #4 and #5, Event #6 was a huge one. With 83 total entries, Brandon finished as runner-up for another six-figure score, this time cashing for $149,400. If you’d invested $100 in Brandon’s action across all six events, then you’d be cashing out for $737 this morning. Outlasting players such as his fellow PokerStake players Josh Arieh and Jonathan Little at the final table, only Alex Foxen topped him, winning the final event for $232,400 and in doing so finishing 1st on the PGT season leaderboard.
Brandon’s late charge was good enough to see him land in 40th place and avoid the need to qualify via the Last Chance counts.
David Coleman and Chino Rheem Both Advance
Both David Coleman and Chino Rheem enjoyed similarly spectacular Last Chance series. David cashed in Events #2, #3 and #4 to win $417,300, while Chino cashed in four out of the six events, winning a slightly lower total of $334,700. For David, his success came early, as he banked close to half a million dollars in three consecutive events.
Unlucky to lose heads-up in both Events #2 and #4, David saw the title go to Patrick Leonard in the earlier of the two tournaments before Neil Warren got the better of him in Event #4. On both occasions, however, David outlasted over a hundred players to reach that stage and added to an 11th place finish in Event #3 for another $27,000, he’ll be confident of winning more from his position of 23rd in the Top 40.
Where you finished on the leaderboard equates to your starting stack in the final, so while Brandon will begin with 125,000 chips and David 230,000, Chino Rheem will start with 330,000 chips, fewer than only Sam Soverel (340,000) and Alex Foxen (350,000), who occupied the top two places on the leaderboard at the end of the final qualifying event. It’s been a superb year for Chino and his cashes in Events #3 through #6 mean that he’ll go into the $1m Championship Freeroll with real hope of taking it down.
Which Other PokerStake Players Made the Cut?
With a total of 54 people qualifying for the season-ending $1m PGT Championship Freeroll, which other PokerStake players made the grade? Well, it’ll be no surprise to tell you that the current reigning PPC and WSOP Main Event world champion, GGPoker Ambassador Michael Mizrachi made the final tournament. His incredible World Series of Poker in the summer mean he’ll go into the action fourth in chips on 320,000 of them. Kristen Foxen qualified in 10th place with 1,671 points, marginally ahead of Daniel Negreanu, whose 1,630 mean he made it in 11th position.
Adam Hendrix (1,610), David Coleman (1,382), Dylan Linde (1,269), Brandon Wilson (1,166) and the reigning PGT Championship winner Jeremy Ausmus (1,084) all made the cut too and courtesy of the Top 40. That’s not the end to our list of qualifiers, however. David ‘ODB’ Baker’s runner-up results in Events #1 and #5 mean he makes it from the PGT Last Chance leaderboard and having cashed for $384,400 in the series, will undoubtedly be someone to watch when the action gets underway on Monday night.
The $1,000,000 PGT Championship Freeroll kicks off on Monday, when it will play down to the last six remaining players. All those half-dozen will be in the money, the million-dollar prizepool that is entirely free, with last year’s winner Jeremy Ausmus taking home $500,000 as the ultimate winner.
Who will win the trophy this year? We can’t wait to find out.