PokerGO Cup Event #6 Won by Alex Foxen for $317,000

The sixth event of the 2023 PokerGO Cup was an increased buy-in on the previous five, with the first four events costing $10,000 and Tuesday’s dramatic Event #5, which was dominated by Anthony Hu – costing $15,000 to play. This time, Event #6 cost a whopping $25,000 to sit down in the company of some of the biggest and best poker players on the planet and 50 entrants made sure there was a $1.25 million prizepool to be fought over.

Eight Make the Money

With 50 entries, only eight players would make the money and the man who laddered from eighth to fifth yesterday, Brian Kim, fell just short of sneaking into the money places again. This time he was ‘Bubble Boy’ as his time was up in ninth place. All-in with pocket jacks on the money bubble, Kim was desperately unlucky if truth be told, as Nick Schulman got there with pocket tens, flopping a ten with all the chips going into the middle pre-flop.

That hand sent everyone else into the money and to the final table of eight. At that stage, Turkish player Orpen Kisacikoglu was the chip leader, sitting as he did behind just over 2 million chips, with Daniel Negreanu the short stack on 160,000. Behind Kisacikoglu was Alex Foxen on 1.4 million, and with others such as Nick Schulman and Cary Katz lurking, it was a top-quality field heading towards an eventual winner.

As the chips more or less dictated, Negreanu needed to push and hope to double up quickly. Kid poker got it into the middle with ace-seven suited, but Kisacikoglu called with ace-ten, including the ten to block the suit Negreanu was hoping he might flush with. The board was a sweaty 9-6-4-8-7 as each man was drawing to the other’s card for a straight, with the Turkish player prevailing. Negreanu, Canada’s all-time top earner and the man in third place on the all-time money list, cashed for $50,000 and immediately hopped into Event #7, which at the time of going to press led to him making the final table.

Perry Pipped to Top Four Places

With seven remaining, the race was on to join other event winners during this year’s PokerGO Cup such as Ed ‘Cousin Eddie’ Sebesta, who won Event #3 earlier this week for $216,000. Next to fail in that attempt was Nick Schulman, who lost two big hands to the eventual end of day leader Kisacikoglu. First, the British-based Turkish player bet the river to take down a chunky pot. Then, his shove with ace-queen ran out the winning hand in incredibly fortuitous fashion. Up against Schulman’s ace-king, Kisacikoglu looked to have binked a suckout when the flop came queen-high. Schulman, however, thought a reprieve was due on the turn of a king, only for another queen to land on the river.

That hand gave Kisacikoglu and enormous lead heading into the final six, and his stack – more than double anyone else’s – was there to be shot at. Sam Soverel’s short stack shove with ace-nine ran into trouble almost immediately, losing to Cary Katz’s pocket queens, with a board of 9-7-7-4-6 condemning Soverel to a sixth-place finish worth $75,000.

Next to go was Sean Perry, whose return to the PokerGO Studio at ARIA Hotel & Casino Resort was great news for anyone except those he faced across the felt for their hard-earned money. Perry had enjoyed a prosperous run to the final table, but ran out of luck in fifth place, cashing for $100,000 when his pocket tens were eclipsed by Aram Oganyan’s pocket jacks pre-flop and post-flop.

Alex Foxen Wins After ICM Deal

Cary Katz’s fourth cash of the series so far came when he finished fourth for $125,000. Katz, who owns PokerGO, won more than enough to be freerolling the last two events when his pocket fives couldn’t hold when flipping against the ace-jack belonging to Oganyan, who flopped an ace to rocket into second place on the leaderboard.

At that stage, Foxen was leading on 3.4 million, Oganyan had 2.03 million and he was a raised bet better off than Kisacikoglu with 2,005,000 chips. After the Turkish player won a couple of smaller pots, he took out Oganyan with ace-eight beating ace-seven to propel him up to 5.6 million chips.

Foxen only had 1.85 million, but with Foxen recovering some chips and late registration closing in the next event, Event #7, the two players agreed to a deal based around ICM. Foxen took the lower amount of $317,040 with Kisacikoglu claiming $345,460 and 207 PGT points, 17 more than Foxen. After the deal, Foxen took it down with queen-jack triumphing over jack-six for the trophy.

After six events, the top 10 of the PokerGO Cup is fairly tight, with the two biggest-scoring events to come. Daniel Negreanu and David Peters are both involved at the final table of Event #7, which can only be viewed LIVE At www.pokergo.com.