Artur Martirosian Slays Last Chance Events as PGT Championship Dream Seats Revealed

The PokerGO Tour Last Chance series was designed for players from around the world to seal their spot in the season-ending PGT Championship $1,000,000 Freeroll. It worked. But what it also did was offer the opportunity for some of poker’s finest to steal the spotlight and conquer multiple events, taking advantage of players under the ICM pressure of needing a certain number of points to qualify. Russian player Artur Martirosian assumed the role of slayer as he bagged two titles across a thrilling week of poker in Las Vegas.

Martirosian the Monster

The 2024 PGT Last Chance series offered PGT Points, a lucrative leaderboard top 40 and put millions on the line. Add into that potent mix two ‘Dream Seats’ that were up for grabs to the two players who topped the series leaderboard, and the blue touch paper was well and truly lit. Across a fun week of action at ARIA Hotel & Resort in the stunning PokerGO Studio in Las Vegas, players jostled for position until the final event.

Russian player Martirosian was simply unstoppable. After Daniel Negreanu’s win in the first event of the series, Martirosian, a regular in live high stakes tournaments as well as crushing online in the $10,000-entry weekly GG MILLION$ series on GGPoker, earned $211,200 in Event #2 of the Last Chance series, as 13 players cashed. With stars such as Chino Rheem (9^th for $35,200), Kristen Foxen (6^th for $52,800) and Stephen Chidwick (4^th for $88,000) fell short, Martirosian got the better of Michael Jozoff heads-up to claim the title.

Wins for Sam Laskowitz and Dylan DeStefano in Events #3 and #4 respectively set up Martirosian to win again in the fifth event of the series. A total of 79 entrants saw just a dozen players make money, and by the time the final table was formed, Martirosian looked formidable. When Chino Rheem – again cashing – lost his stack in sixth place, Martirosian was second in chips. Soon, he would lead and with three players remaining, had bullied his way to having over 80% of the chips in play, eventually beating Sam Soverel heads-up for the title.

Schulman Grabs Final Event, Dream Seats Revealed

In the sixth and final event of the series, a late ICM deal was struck between Chino Rheem and Nick Schulman. A higher prize was paid out to Rheem, who last year spoke with us about his gambling addiction and current life of redemption but it was Schulman who won the event-ending (and series-ending) ‘flip’ for the trophy. Earlier in the final table action, Sam Laskowitz had busted in fifth place for $63,200 and Laskowitz had earned enough points, along with DeStefano, to qualify for the PGT Championship $1 million Freeroll.

Those two Dream Seats were won by the players in second and third on the overall Last Chance leaderboard after six events. That is because the winner of that leaderboard, Martirosian, had already climbed into the top 40, thereby qualifying without the need of a Dream Seat. The same was true for fourth-placed Rheem, as well as fifth-placed Schulman.

Some very big names missed out on the final 40 players, with legends such as Andrew ‘Chewy’ Lichtenberger, Adam Hendrix, Ben Lamb and Jim Collopy finishing between 41^st and 44^th place, just missing out on their chances of winning in the $1 million freeroll. Others such as Justin Bonomo (50ht), Dan Smith (49^th), Dylan Weisman (53^rd) and Alex Livingston (52^nd) all missed out too.

Who Is Playing the PGT Championship Freeroll?

We’ve already mentioned Rheem, Martirosian, DeStefano and Laskowitz but who else made the cut and will be playing in this week’s PGT $1 million Championship Freeroll in Las Vegas? Players from 40^th to 31^st on the leaderboard include Jason Koon, Toby Lewis, Josh Aroieh and Masashi Oya.

Between 11^th and 30^th, players such as WPT legend Darren Elias, Spanish WSOP legend Adrian Mateos, American PokerGO regular Sean Winter, 17-time WSOP bracelet winner Phi Hellmuth and are all involved. Isaac Kempton qualified in 20^th place, with Daniel Negreanu, Chance Kornuth, Cary Katz and 10-time bracelet winner Erik Seidel also all making the cut.

With more chips for higher-placed players, the top 10 on the PGT leaderboard will be the most powerful players when play commences on Tuesday. Those include Jeremy Ausmus, Nick Schulman, Sam Soverel, Ren Lin and Alex Foxen. The most powerful four include the current world champion Daniel Weinman, British poker hero Stephen Chidwick, two-time 2023 WSOP bracelet winner Chris Brewer and the top dog going into the action, Isaac Haxton.