Andrew Lichtenberger Wins Poker Masters Event #7 for $465,000

The latest brand-new winner of a PokerGO Poker Masters event in 2022 is Andrew Lichtenberger. Incredibly, after seven winners, no-one has won two events and not only that, but the overall leaderboard is wide open.

The Purple Jacket, which goes to the overall winner at the end of the 12-event series will still need to be measured up and could well go down to the last event of them all.

Making the Money Places

The battle to win the first $25,000-entry event of the series so far began back on Day 1, when just 10 people would win their way into the money places. With 69 total entries, the first player to cash was back on Day 1, where legendary player Bill Klein banked $51,750 for sneaking into the money places.

Next to depart – once everyone had made the unofficial final table – was Isaac Kempton, who earned $69,000 in ninth place, the same amount won by the nine-time WSOP winner Erik Seidel in eighth. Last to leave on the night was Brian Rast, whose luck ran out in seventh place, leaving the poker legend to cash out his winnings of $86,250.

Heading into the final day, it was the Japanese player Kazuhiko Yotsushika who had the lead, with a massive 2,535,000 chips ahead of the eventual winner Andrew Lichtenberger (2,255,000) and WPT and WSOP winner Chance Kornuth (2,170,000). With Event #5 runner-up Cary Katz (1,740,000) and Sean Winter (1,235,000) both looking strong, even the short-stack, British player Billy Wragg (420,000) looked to be in with a chance of winning the trophy and $465,750 top prize.

Katz and Kornuth Crash Out

The action got underway on the final day with just six players in seats and everything to play for, with Martin Zamani’s win in Poker Masters Event #7 leaving the field wide open for a run at the Purple Jacket. It was the short-stacked Wragg who lost his place first, however, after he ran into a monster. Wragg’s ace-king was up against it when Sean Winter’s pocket aces ran home clean on a ten-high board to reduce the field to five as Wragg won $103,500.

With three straight top two finishes in the PokerGO U.S. Open, Winter was looking like a threat to win his first Poker Masters event. He didn’t need to do anything to take out Chance Kornuth in fifth place for $138,000, as the eventual winner did the damage for him. Andrew Lichtenberger raised all-in with ace-king and Kornuth’s pocket queens were unable to hold. The flop of 8-3-3 was safe enough, but the king of diamonds on the turn meant Kornuth was chasing just two outs and no queen came on the three river, Lichtenberger being accused of winning “around 68%” of his flips by Cary Katz before the deal, to much amusement around the felt.

Katz was laughing on the other side of his face when he bowed out in fourth place, slipping to less than ten big blinds, but a double put him back into contention only for his hopes to be dashed a short time later. All-in with ace-queen, Katz was still live to the river after Kazuhiko Yotsushika’s pocket fives had remained ahead on the board showing 9-4-4-4. But no ace, queen or four came on the river of a three to again doom ‘El Hefe’ to a top four finish without a trophy to go with it this series.

With Katz’s elimination came the golden carrot dangling in front of the remaining three players; whoever won Event #7 would go top of the overall leaderboard and could at least consider whether a kale-packed diet over the last few days might be needed to bring them down a dress size in time for a suit fitting.

Lucky Chewy Shows his Skills

It was Katz’s conqueror Yotsushika who ended up losing out in third. He moved all-in from the small blind with jack-nine off-suit and was snap-called by Winter in the big blind. As it turned out, the two men were flipping for a valuable pot and it was the Japanese who needed to improve with Winter holding pocket sixes.

The flop of A-8-7 gave Yotsushika a 38% chance of improving enough to win the hand, with everything between a nine and a jack giving him the better hand, but a king on the turn then another sent play heads-up. Lichtenberger led with 5.85 million, but Winter had put himself right back in contention with that elimination and sat on 4.5 million.

After almost three hours at the felt, heads-up lasted only 20 minutes or so, with the two Americans battling it out for glory and the overall Poker Masters lead. A big hand where Lichtenberger had pocket queens saw Winter’s stack down to a third of that amount, however, and when Winter committed his chips with pocket eights on a board of A-5-2-9-J, ‘Lucky Chewy’ made the call with nine-four, brilliantly figuring out that he’d gone ahead on the turn.

While Winter won $345,000 in the runner-up position, it was Lichtenberger won the $465,750 top prize and the trophy. The overall leaderboard now has Lichtenberger in the lead with 279 points from Cary Katz on 271 points and Jeremy Ausmus on 242.