The first two events of the 2022 PokerGO Cup are in the books, and it is an example of someone who has taken a long time to reach the pinnacle and someone who seems poised to threaten for the overall supremacy of the “high roller” elite. One overarching theme, however, is the smaller fields than you would normally see for a $10,000 (the current rate) buy-in tournament.
Daniel Colpoys Earns First Win in Nearly Eight Years
On Thursday, Daniel Colpoys came to the final table at the PokerGO Studios in Las Vegas with little attention on him. Although he was stacked with 1.71 million in chips, Colpoys was not even a thought as the first two players, chip leader Andrew Lichtenberger (3.85 million) and Darren Elias (1.74 million), had run roughshod over the field to get to their positions. Colpoys would be the one making moves at the final table, however.
In fact, it was Colpoys who did the most damage at the final table. He would be responsible for taking out Michael Lang, Matthew Wantman, and Elias in sixth, fourth and third places, respectively, as he charged to the lead for heads up play against Lichtenberger (only Elias’ elimination of Scott Ball kept Colpoys from a clean sweep). Although Colpoys held 5.7 million in chips for the fight against Lichtenberger’s 3.925 million, the tournament was far from over.
Both veteran players would probe their opponent, looking for an opening, without much movement in the chip stacks. Colpoys was able to add to his lead against Lichtenberger during this time, however, working his way to a seven million chip stack and keeping Lichtenberger on the ropes. This slow grind enabled Colpoys to eventually capture the title.
On the final hand, Colpoys saw Lichtenberger limp in and raised the action to 475K, which Lichtenberger called. A Q-5-3 flop saw Colpoys put out a continuation bet that Lichtenberger called and the twosome saw an Ace on the turn. Colpoys slowed the action down now, checking his option and then calling a bet from Lichtenberger. The nine on the river did not seem to help anybody, but it lit the wick for the fireworks.
Colpoys checked his option again and Lichtenberger took the opportunity to make an all-in bet. Colpoys nearly leapt from his seat in making the call, tabling a pocket pair of nines for the rivered set. As it turned out, Colpoys needed that nine on the river as Lichtenberger turned up an A-4 for the turned pair of Aces that got caught.
1. Daniel Colpoys, $200,200
2. Andrew Lichtenberger, $146,300
3. Darren Elias, $100,100
4. Matthew Wantman, $77,000
5. Scott Ball, $61,600
6. Michael Lang, $46,200
The victory for Colpoys was his first win since March 2014, when he won the Mid-States Poker Tour Main Event in Black Hawk, CO. The payout from the tournament is almost his largest ever also, with only his finish in fourth place at the 2022 WPT Lucky Hearts Poker Open $25,000 High Roller event earning him more money ($202,145).
Sean Perry Back atop High Roller Mountain
After disappearing last year in many of the battles for “high roller” supremacy, Sean Perry seems to be back in the right groove after winning Event #2, another $10,000 No Limit Hold’em tournament, on the 2022 PokerGO Cup schedule.
Perry, who finished 2021 as the #3 player on the PokerGO Tour, admitted that during the final table of Event #2 there was more gambling going on rather than actual smart poker play. Perry wrote it off to him and fellow final tablist Bryn Kenney “giving action,” but it saw them playing hands that would not normally be considered optimum. “We were playing the nine-four off game,” Perry stated. “In a $100,000 event, I bluffed it all off to Nick Petrangelo with nine-four off, so that’s why we were doing it, and it was a good time.”
That “game” resulted in Perry getting the necessary chips to win the tournament. Perry played the 9-4 against Scott Ball’s Big Slick, then watched as he flopped a nine and rivered a four. Some might call that a disrespectful play, but in this case it worked. Perry would continue on after knocking off Ball in fourth to end Kenney’s tournament in third and eliminate Cary Katz in second to take the victory in the 80-entry tournament (a slight improvement over Event #1’s 77 entries, but not what is normally expected for a $10K event).
1. Sean Perry, $200,000
2. Cary Katz, $144,000
3. Bryn Kenney, $96,000
4. Scott Ball, $80,000
5. Darren Elias, $64,000
6. Dan Shak, $48,000
(Photo courtesy of PokerGO.com)
