Mixed games master does it again
Poker Hall of Famer Eli Elezra won Event #3: $10,300 Triple Stud Mix of the PokerGO Tour Mixed Game Series, beating a small but deep field of 60 en route to a $155,000 payday.
It should come as no surprise that Elezra won a mixed game tournament (the rotation was Seven-Card Stud High, Seven-Card Stud Hi-Lo, and Razz), as he has been one of the best in the world at non-Hold’em events for years. Of his five World Series of Poker bracelets, three are in Stud variants: 2007 WSOP $3,000 Seven-Card Stud Hi-Lo, 2015 WSOP $1,500 Seven-Card Stud, and 2019 WSOP $1,500 Seven-Card Stud.
“I’ve always liked the version of any stud games and it’s really come to prove that I can do it,” Elezra told PokerGO afterward. “I just love it.”
Elezra had a solid lead going into the six-handed final table Tuesday, holding 2,570,000. His closest competitor was Yehuda Buchalter with 1,755,000. It was a pretty close chip race overall, though, as Dan Zack was the only player under a million, with 550,000.
Buchalter, though, was the first to be eliminated at the final table. It was Philip Sternheimer who did the deed, but Sternheimer himself was the next to go, at the hands of Yuval Bronshtein. Bronshtein followed that up later with a knockout of John Monnette in fourth place.
Somehow, after going into the final table with half the chips of the next-smallest stack, Dan Zack made it all the way to third place, another victim of Bronshtein, who certainly earned his spot heads-up against Elezra.
Bronshtein had the lead heads-up, but after Elezra doubled and regained the lead, the two settled on a deal, with Bronshtein getting $145,000, Elezra getting $135,000, and $20,000 staying on the table to give the two something to play for aside from the title and series leaderboard points.
Elezra stayed in front and – obviously – eventually won the tournament.
Big fan
This is the first time the PokerGO Tour has run a tournament series consisting entirely of mixed games and Eli Elezra loves it.
“Not only are we going to break every number, I believe that the next year and the year after that are going to be even better,” Elezra in his post-victory interview. “I’m the biggest ambassador for mixed-game events, and when you came to me three or four months ago and asked, ‘What do you think about this?’ I couldn’t agree with you more, and we’ve proved it to everybody. We’re breaking every number, and not only that, some people have said, ‘Let’s do it in September.’ They want to do it twice a year. I think it’s going to be a big success.”
After this event, John Monnette is currently atop the PGT Mixed Games Series Leaderboard with 210 points, just a single point ahead of Shaun Deeb. Elezra is in third with 180 points and Albert Daher is in fourth with 150. Though this was the third event, it is only the second that has been completed. Event #2 is currently heads-up; Monnette and Daher have already been credited 150 points each for reaching that stage of the tournament.
Image credit: PokerGO.com