Sean Perry went wire-to-wire with the chip lead at the final table of Event #8 ($50,000 NLHE) to take down the 2022 PokerGO Cup finale, his second win in the series, for $640,000. At the same time, Jeremy Ausmus, who started the day as the short stack, advanced to finish in third-place for $256,000 and earned enough points to lock down this year’s PokerGO Cup overall championship and the $50,000 leaderboard prize.
“It’s tough, I mean it’s very grueling too,” Ausmus said after winning the PokerGO Cup championship. “A lot of the best players in the world are here. It’s only eight events but, I went deep in a lot of them obviously, but I was playing ten to fourteen hours a day for the last six, seven days. I was worn out, tired…I didn’t know it could be so grueling.”
“When I played this before I bricked everything and I was getting good sleep…home by dinner,” he said right before hoisting the trophy.
There were plenty of storylines to keep an eye on during the last day of the series as every player at the final table had a chance to elevate up the series leaderboard for a shot at the Cup. Four of the five players, including Perry, Ausmus, Daniel Negreanu, and Brock Wilson had already won a prior event while Nick Schulman was at his third final table of the series. The dynamics of the overall series leader could be seen throughout the final table as the day wore on, giving an added touch of strategy to the table dynamics.
Negreanu was going to need everything to go right for him to repeat at the PokerGO Cup overall champion. He needed Ausmus to bow out in fifth and he needed to win it all. However, in some respects, everything went wrong for ‘Kid Poker’ at this final table. He stared the day third in chips, but after an early confrontation with Wilson in which he lost a healthy pot holding 
against Wilson’s 
on a 
board, Negreanu slipped to the short stack.
With the blinds at 15,000/30,000 (30,000 ante) Negreanu picked up 
and with just 550,000 chips remaining, he opened from under the gun to 250,000. Wilson, on the button, once again had 
and three-bet to 450,000. When it folded to Negreanu, he decided to just call the three-bet and leave himself with a little less than three big blinds behind. The flop came 
and Negreanu took a moment, talked it out, and put in the rest of his stack. Wilson quickly called and Negreanu was looking for help to survive. A path opened when the 
hit the turn, giving Negreanu backdoor spades outs. But the 
river spelled the end for Negreanu’s run, eliminating him in fifth place for $112,000.
With four players left, Ausmus was on the short stack. However, he found a double through the chip leading Sean Perry to climb back over 35 big blinds. Schulman slipped to the short stack and help a little over fifteen big blinds at 20,000/40,000 (40,000 bb ante). When it folded to Ausmus in the big blind, he looked at the 
and open-ripped on Schulman’s big blind. Schulman snapped Ausmus off with the and put himself at risk with the dominating hand. The flop came 
, keeping Schulman out front and leaving Ausmus looking for a favorable turn card. The 
was exactly that, adding both flush and straight outs for Ausmus. And when the 
completed the board, Schulman was out in fourth place for $176,000. Additionally, with Ausmus advancing to the top three, Perry’s shot at the overall series title evaporated leaving just Ausmus and Wilson to battle for the Cup.
Perry applied maximum pressure with three left, building his chip stack to more than 4.5 million. Both Ausmus and Wilson slipped below 1 million as the blinds climbed to 25,000/50,000 (50,000 bb ante). After Wilson folded his button, Perry open-shipped his 
on Ausmus in the big blind. Ausmus looked down at 
and went deep in the tank. After roughly a minute, Ausmus made the call looking for a double. The flop came 
, putting Perry in a position to eliminate Ausmus who needed some help on the turn. The made it so Ausmus needed an ace and an ace only to remain in play. However, the hit the river and Ausmus was eliminated in third place for $256,000 and now had to sweat to see if he would win the Cup.
After the elimination, Perry held a 7:1 chip lead over Wilson, who needed to come back and win in order to win the series leaderboard. However, Perry was not going to be denied his second 2022 PokerGO Cup victory. It took just a few hands for the pair to get it all in the middle. Perry made it 125,000 to go with his 
and Wilson shipped all-in for 810,000 holding the . Perry made the call, flipping for the win. The board ran out 
, giving Perry his second win of the series. Wilson, who was staked by more than 100 backers in the PocketFives Staking marketplace, ended up with a $416K score. Perry walked away with a $640,000 payday.
With the elimination of Wilson in second place, Ausmus, who was sweating the action, was named the 2022 PokerGO Cup champion with a victory, a runner-up finish, and two third-place finishes over the eight events.
PokerGO Cup Event #8 Final Table Results
- Sean Perry – $640,000
- Brock Wilson – $416,000
- Jeremy Ausmus – $256,000
- Nick Schulman – $176,000
- Daniel Negreanu – $112,000
PokerGO Cup Leaderboard Top 5
- Jeremy Ausmus – 658 points
- Sean Perry – 616 points
- Brock Wilson – 570 points
- Cary Katz – 346 points
- Ali Imsirovic – 300 points