PokerGO Tour Season 2 Wraps First Venetian Events
The poker tour dedicated to high-stakes players wasted no time in getting its second season underway. Season 2 of the Poker GO Tour (officially the PokerGO Tour Presented by Guaranteed Rate) kicked off on January 5 at the Venetian on the Las Vegas Strip. There were four events on the schedule with buy-ins of $10K to $50K, just enough to bring the big money to the tables and start 2022 with a bang.
Only a few weeks ago, the PokerGO Tour wrapped its first official season with Rok Gostisa winning the championship event at the Bellagio. At the same time, they announced that Ali Imsirovic officially won the first season of the PGT Presented by Guaranteed Rate, taking home a Player of the Year trophy and $200K in cash.
With that, PokerGO launched Season 2 in Las Vegas with four high rollers. And already, the POY leaderboard has a unique name leading the way.
Four Events, Three Winners
The first four events on the extensive PokerGo Tour Presented by Guaranteed Rate brought in a few dozen players. And when those four tournaments ran their courses, three players became the initial PGT Season 2 winners.
So early in the season, one player already set himself apart by winning two tournaments. And those events were the first two in the four-event series.
| Event 1 | $10K buy-in | NLHE Venetian High Roller |
| Total entries: | 34 | |
| Total prize pool: | $340,000.00 | |
| Players paid: | 5 | |
| Final table results: | 1st place: | Punnat Punsri (Thailand) $118,037 |
| 2nd place: | Erik Seidel (USA) $106,363 | |
| 3rd place: | Barry Hutter (USA) $54,400 | |
| 4th place: | Alex Foxen (USA) $37,400 | |
| 5th place: | Jake Schindler (USA) $23,800 |
| Event 2 | $10K buy-in | NLHE Venetian High Roller |
| Total entries: | 37 | |
| Total prize pool: | $370,000.00 | |
| Players paid: | 6 | |
| Final table results: | 1st place: | Punnat Punsri (Thailand) $133,200 |
| 2nd place: | Chris Brewer (USA) $88,800 | |
| 3rd place: | Masashi Oya (Japan) $59,200 | |
| 4th place: | Andrew Lichtenberger (USA) $40,700 | |
| 5th place: | John Flynt (USA) $29,600 | |
| 6th place: | Barry Hutter (USA) $18,500 |
| Event 3 | $15K buy-in | NLHE Venetian High Roller |
| Total entries: | 26 | |
| Total prize pool: | $390,000.00 | |
| Players paid: | 4 | |
| Final table results: | 1st place: | Alex Foxen (USA) $153,615 |
| 2nd place: | Michael Wang (USA) $134,985 | |
| 3rd place: | Steven Grady (USA) $62,400 | |
| 4th place: | Erik Seidel (USA) $39,000 |
| Event 4 | $25K buy-in | NLHE Venetian High Roller |
| Total entries: | 20 | |
| Total prize pool: | $500,000.00 | |
| Players paid: | 3 | |
| Final table results: | 1st place: | Ali Imsirovic (Bosnia and Herzegovina) $270,000 |
| 2nd place: | Masashi Oya (Japan) $150,000 | |
| 3rd place: | Steven Grady (USA) $80,000 |
Punnat Punsri does it again! He's now won the first two events of the 2022 @PokerGO Tour season.https://t.co/NyyHT9cH4B
— PokerGO Tour (@PokerGOTour) January 7, 2022
Punsri is New POY
Punnat Punsri is not a well-known name in poker. The Thai-born player shows a tournament cash in 2014 and a win on the Grosvenor UK Poker Tour in 2017 – the only two Hendon Mob entries prior to 2019. Suddenly, then, in March 2019, Punsri played the Manila Megastack, final tabling one event and winning another. He then won the 2019 Asian Poker Tour Seoul Main Event. He went on to have other successes on the APT. In 2021, he cashed in four events at the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas and made three final tables at the WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic at Bellagio in December, specifically three of the high-stakes events on the PokerGO Tour.
This month, he won the very first two events on the PGT.
To date, Punsri has won $584,145.
In addition, he is the first player to hold the top spot on the 2022 Player of the Year leaderboard. His 251 points puts him ahead of Alex Foxen and his 191 points, and last year’s POY Ali Imsirovic and his current 162 points. Masashi Oya and Erik Seidel round out the top five.
Obviously, it is very early in the year. Many people still haven’t even taken down their holiday decorations yet. But Punsri is starting from a very good spot in 2022.
Stairway to Millions Ready to Begin
The next series of tournaments on the PGT 2022 is the Stairway to Millions, which gives players the opportunity to start competing with a $1K buy-in and work their way up to the $100K buy-in finale. It will all play out at Aria in Las Vegas. That schedule is as follows:
-Event 1 (Jan 12-13): $1K NLHE ($100K GTD)
-Event 2 (Jan 13-14): $2K NLHE ($100K GTD)
-Event 3 (Jan 14-15): $4K NLHE ($100K GTD)
-Event 4 (Jan 15-16): $8K NLHE ($200K GTD)
-Event 5 (Jan 16-17): $15K NLHE ($300K GTD)
-Event 6 (Jan 17-18): $25K NLHE ($500K GTD)
-Event 7 (Jan 18-19): $50K NLHE ($500K GTD)
-Event 8 (Jan 19-20): $100K NLHE ($1.2M GTD)
There are several unique features of this series. First, players who cash in any of the first seven events will be automatically registered for the next event. Players can cash out but will do so minus the next event’s buy-in amount. Note that there each player is allowed two reentries per event.
Second, tables will play eight-handed (nine-handed if absolutely necessary) until registration closes, at which point play reduces to seven-handed. The exception is the unofficial final tables, which will always begin nine-handed.
Late registration ends before Level 7 begins. Each tournament in the Stairway to Millions will play the first day down to 2am or the final six players, whichever comes first. Each day’s play begins at noon PT.
Stairway to Millions starts Wed @ARIAPoker with the $1,100 NLH@PokerGOnews pic.twitter.com/TodYIQPW8m
— Paul Campbell (@TDPaulCampbell) January 10, 2022
After this series, there will be a Seminole High Roller event at the Seminole Hard Rock in Hollywood, Florida, followed by an eight-event PokerGO Cup series at the Aria in Las Vegas.
