Jeremy Ausmus Goes ‘One Better’ to win Event #4 of PokerGO Cup

The fourth event of the PokerGO Cup played down to winner on Sunday night in Las Vegas as Jeremy Ausmus made up for his disappointment in coming second on Saturday to take the title.

Having finished as runner-up in Saturday’s Event #3, Ausmus has won three WSOP bracelets during a glittering poker career that has seen him win over $11 million at the live felt and went one better to claim the overall lead in the PokerGO Cup series.

Largest Top Prize So Far Attracts Big Names

The fourth event of the PokerGO Cup saw players pony up a $15,000 entry fee rather than $10,000, creating a top prize of $263,250. A total of 65 entries from 42 unique players saw big names such as WPT Player of the Year Jacob Ferro, WSOP bracelet winner Dylan Linde, Event #3 winner Jake Daniels, four-time WPT Main Event winner Darren Elias and Sean Winter all bust outside the top half.

Others such as John Hennigan, Stephen Chidwick, Dan Shak, Andrew Lichtenberger, Nick Schulman, Sam Soverel and Event #2 winner Sean Perry all missed the money too, as did Chance Kornuth, Bryn Kenney, 2021 PGT Player of the Year Ali Imsirovic and Event #1 winner Daniel Colpoys.

It was Daniel ‘Kid Poker’ Negreanu who bubbled, having earlier lost a damaging hand with pocket tens against Sean Winter’s pocket eights when all the money was in pre-flop and an eight landed on the river. After the event, Negreanu took to Twitter.

“Five up, five down,” said the six-time WSOP event winner. “Five events I was among the leaders then it all turned to dust without a cash. May take the rest of the series off, I definitely lead the series in hours played without a cash by a country mile.”

Lonis Loses Out as Final Begins

With ten players making the money, there were some quick bust-outs at the tail-end of Day 1, with Jake Schindler sneaking into profit by coming 10^th for $29,250. After his exit, Steve Zolotow (9^th for $39,000) and Alex Foxen (8^th for $39,000) both left before players were on the final table bubble.

Ian Bradley missed out on a seat in the final six as Cary Katz became chip leader, Bradley’s flush draw from the flop committing all his chips then missing as Katz’s flopped Broadway reigning supreme. Bradley cashed for $48,750 but Katz had the lead moving on to Day 2.

When that final day started, a shock exit came when William Saliba lost with pocket jacks as the eventual winner Ausmus managed a two-outer to deny both Saliba and Jesse Lonis who busted for $58,500 with pocket aces in a massive three-way hand. Ausmus held pocket tens and hit one on the flop to defeat Lonis in sixth and seriously dent Saliba’s chances.

Brock Wilson Takes the Lead

That hand put Ausmus into a commanding lead, but with five players left, anything could happen, and did. William Saliba had been left with a little over ten big blinds after that three-way showdown with Lonis and Ausmus and lost his seat soon after. All-in with ace-king, he managed to lose to Brock Wilson’s ace-jack as the latter hit a jack on the turn to reduce the field to four and send Saliba home with $78,000.

Bill Klein was almost as short as Saliba before the start of the hand and had less than a third of anyone’s stack when he shipped it in with king-ten of diamonds. Cary Katz called with ace-queen and two queens on the flop helped him to eliminate Klein for $97,500 in fourth place.

With three men left, Katz had 3.2 million, with Wilson (3m) and Ausmus (1.8m) trailing behind him.

The leader, however, was on his way out. Losing a big one to Ausmus with king-queen shot down by ace-deuce, Katz had just 400,000 left at blinds of 50,000/100,000. All-in with queen-nine, Katz looked across and could only smile as his caller Ausmus flipped pocket aces. The found a jack and eight by the turn to give Katz a gutshot chance on the river, but it came to nothing and he exited for a $126,750 payday.

Ausmus Turns It Around to Win

Jeremy Ausmus went into heads-up with only 2.7 million chips compared to Brock Wilson’s 5.4 million, but the three-time WSOP winner didn’t claim gold bracelets in Las Vegas on those occasions for nothing. In what was, shockingly, his first victory at the PokerGO Studio at ARIA Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, Ausmus won an entertaining final duel to grab glory.

With 1.9 million in the pot on a board of J-4-T-T-5, Wilson, holding nine-six put in a strong bet of 1.1 million chips with nothing, but Ausmus only held king-four. Despite this, and using his time bank chips, Ausmus – the only player in history to have two back-to-back top two finishes at this stage – made a superb call to take the pot and with it the lead.

It was a great bluff and an even greater call, and soon, it had earned Ausmus a shot at victory. Wilson drifted to around 1.4 million and called all-in with ace-four. Ausmus, the aggressor, only had queen-three, but a queen on the turn gave him the pot and the tournament.

Wilson’s runner-up result was worth a massive $195,000, but Ausmus took not only the latest title but the $263,500 top prize too.

While the victory was not Ausmus’ biggest in his career – that is likely to remain the fifth place he won in the 2012 WSOP Main Event for $2.1 million – it was one of his most satisfying. Those two back-to-back results of a second and first saw Ausmus take a big lead in the 2022 PokerGO Cup, with 407 points at the top of the leaderboard some way clear of the chasing pack.

Through four events at the 2022 PokerGO Cup, Ausmus has two top-two finishes. He placed second in the previous event for $144,000 and with victory in Event #4, has now won over $400,000 in just two cashes.  Both Cary Katz and Brock Wilson join Scott Ball in having three cashes after four events at the 2022 PokerGO Cup.