Final Poker Masters Event Claimed by Ben Tollerene as Collopy Takes Purple Jacket

The eighth and final Poker Masters event of the series was won in style by Ben Tollerene as he came back from being the short stack three-handed to triumph against Andrew Lichtenberger and Taylor von Kriegenbergh. Earlier, players such as Victoria Livschitz and Aram Zobian had missed out as a final day full of misfortune for many players when at risk produced drama to the last card.

Collopy is King

Heading into the final event, the buy-in was ramped up a notch to $25,000 five times the buy-in of the opening event eight days ago. This time, there were 68 entries, with just 10 places paid as a prizepool of $1.7 million was battled for under the lights in Las Vegas. As well as seven figures of payouts on offer, the 2024 Poker Masters overall title was on the line, with a $25,000 PGT Passport, a $10,000 PokerStars NAPT Gold Pass and the infamous Purple Jacket on offer.

By the time the money bubble burst, only two players remained in with a chance of becoming that overall winner. Huge names peppered the field as poker legends such as Justin Bonomo, Jim Collopy, Dylan Weisman, Dan Smith, Jonathan Little, Kristen Foxen, Alex Foxen, Isaac Haxton, Jeremy Becker, Seth Davies, David Coleman and Erik Seidel all busted.

After Dylan Linde’s exit in 14^th, three more players needed to bust to put the final 10 into profit and Brandon Wittmeyer was next to lose his seat in unlucky 13^th position. Event #7 winner Brock Wilson’s departure in 12^th place meant he was ruled out of the equation for a purple jacket fitting, as was John Riordan in 11^th place when he bubbled the event, his shot down by Lichtenberger’s .

Jeremy Ausmus was the first player to win money, as he shoved with when short stacked and also ran into pocket queens. This time it was Taylor von Kriegenbergh who had ‘the ladies’ and they held with ease across a jack-high board to send Ausmus home with $51,000. That meant only the current overall leader Jim Collopy or Justin Zaki could win the purple jacket, but after Michael Brinkenhoff lost out in 9^th place for $51,000, Zaki’s lost when all-in against PokerStake player Aram Zobian’s .

A flop of gave Zobian a set on the flop but a turn gave Zaki a world of outs to survive. He bricked them all on the river which gave Zobian a full house and confirmed Jim Collopy as the 2024 Poker Masters champion.

Final Table Led by Chewy

As the final seven bagged up for the night, Andrew ‘Chewy’ Lichtenberger had the chip lead with 3.26 million chips, with Aram Zobian closest to him on $2.84m. Heading into the action with a micro stack was Victoria Livschitz and she was almost immediately all-in with . The unfortunate Livschitz didn’t even have two live cards, with von Kriegenbergh calling from the big blind with , and a queen-high board ended Livschitz’s attempt at a miraculous comeback in seventh place for $68,000.

Next to leave was Filipp Khavin. He moved all-in with and was called by the ininital aggressor in the hand Sam Soverel with . A flop of immediately put Soverel in the lead and the at-risk Khavin missed fours or draws on the turn and river to leave with $93,500.

With five players all vying for victory, it was Aram Zobian who busted next. First, he was desperately unlucky to double up von Kriegenbergh when the latter’s pocket nines hit a two-outer to survive when all-in pre-flop with pocket tens. That agonising pot escaping Zobian meant he was short and his miserable end to the event was complete when Zobian’s lost to von Kriegenbergh’s . A king arrived in the window as a board of slayed Zobian’s hopes in horrifically unlucky fashion.

Tollerene Times it Right

With four players left, Lichtenberger still had a formidable lead and Sam Soverel was very short stacked indeed. All-in with , Soverel lost his last to Lichtenberger when the latter’s held through the king-high board. Soverel departed for $170,000 in fourth place as Lichtenberger and von Kriegenbergh both had over four million chips, with Ben Tollerene struggling on just 1.3m.

Over the course of the next level, Tollerene won a series of small pots to chip away at both his opponents advantages over him. As a result, the trio of Americans were separated by just over a million chips at one point and the battle drew from long-range to close quarters. All three men had their moments both in the lead or of being threatened and eventually, it was the overnight leader Lichtenberger who lost out in third for $229,500. It was in extremely unfortunate circumstances as, just like Zobian, Chewy lost with which he committed on a flop of against Tollerene’s . Tollerene was drawing to two queens or running hearts but hit immediately on the . Chewy had just two outs to chase on the river but no ace came as a completed the board.

Heads-up, Tollerene’s fortune had given him the lead with 6.41m to von Kriegenbergh’s 3.79m chips. Both men held the lead at different moment as von Kriegenbergh recovered from that early deficit but Tollerene won a flip after falling behind to take a 3:1 chip lead. In the next all-in hand, von Kriegenbergh called off his stack with but he was behind Tollerene’s and a board of ended the final event of the 2024 Poker Masters, with Tollerene taking the title and $510,000, as von Kriegenbergh cashed for $331,500 in second place.