Final Event of PGT Last Chance Won for $290,000 by Shannon Shorr

Winning a top prize of $290,000 Shannon Shorr managed to triumph in Event #6 of the PGT Last Chance series. The race for the final few places in the 40-player PokerGO Tour Championship, a $1m freeroll to close out the season, prepares to take place at ARIA.

Bumper Field for Final Hurrah

The last event of six in Las Vegas this week, the PokerGO Tour’s Last Chance series was exactly that – the final chance for players to earn PGT Points and qualify for the final PGT Championship. With 116 entrants, 17 places were paid and that led to a sweaty bubble period of play, ending only when Sam Laskowitz was eliminated by Ren Lin, Laskowitz unlucky to see his ace-king eclipsed by the Chinese player’s king-queen when a queen landed on the flop.

After results for Stephen Song (17^th for $17,400), Chino Rheem (14^th for $23,200), Matthew McEwan (9^th for $34,800) and the 2024 WSOP Main Event winner Jonathan Tamayo in 8^th place for $46,400, the final seven was formed. Tamayo lost with pocket fives to Sean Winter’s pocket kings, but it wasn’t Winter who led before the final, with Shorr holding 4.5 million chips, Boris Angelov’s stack of 3.2m closes to the chip leader.

Going into the final day, there were a number of permutations, as Donnie Peters from PokerGO explained, but many of them relied on Dylan Linde going far in the event. That didn’t happen because he was the first player to leave the final, busting for $46,400 too when his pocket eights were unable to survive against Winter’s pocket jacks after the money went in on a flop of 9-3-3. An ace on the turn and another three on the river did nothing to change matters and Linde lost out.

Winter Comes after JBex Busts

It wasn’t long before Jeremy Becker – or ‘JBex’ to his friends and backers – crashed out in sixth place for $58,000. Becker was all-in with queen-nine of clubs but was dominated by his caller Angelov, holding king-queen of diamonds. A flop of A-A-6 was followed by a three on the turn and another ace on the river, meaning Becker’s hand was beaten, an agonising defeat as Becker finished just 11 PGT Points shy of Byron Kaverman in the last Dream Seat berth.

Next to go was Stephen Chidwick, who entered in the middle of the pack then ran his pocket sevens into the ace-five of Boris Angelov and ace-four of Ren Lin, the board coming A-K-J-J-9 to reduce the field to four and send the British tournament crusher home with $75,400. At that stage, Lin (6.8m) and Angelov (4.6m) were in front, as Sean Winter crashed to the bottom of the chipcounts.

Short-stacked and in desperate need of a double-up, Winter was soon frozen out as he went for broke with jack-nine. Needing to catch a card to overtake Ren Lin’s queen-three, no luck came on the flop of A-Q-2 and when another queen landed on the turn, Winter was drawing dead, and up out of his seat to shake hands and head to collect his $98,600 prize for coming fourth.

A Shorr Thing

With three players left, stacks were fairly even, so while Ren Lin was the chip leader, he was not invincible. So that proved to his cost when the Chinese player fell from 6.8 million at the top of the chipcounts to 3.1m at the bottom. All-in with queen-jack, he ran into Shannon Shorr’s ace-four and a board of T-8-4-5-3 paired the American’s hand and prevented Lin from going any further, as he busted in third place for $127,600.

With that pot, Shorr grabbed over 70% of the chips in play and soon he had them all. Shorr shoved, Angelov called off his stack with pocket tens and Shorr would need help as his jack-eight of spades headed to a flop hoping to hit. An ace was followed by a jack and a deuce as Shorr took the lead. An eight on the turn gave him two pair. Only a two-outer ten would save Angelov and a four landed on the river to send the Bulgarian home with a runner-up score of $179,800.

Shannon Shorr won $290,000 for taking the title and after winning Event #2 for $297,500, the only double event winner of the series marches into the season ending PGT Championship in stunning form. Shorr, now past the 14 million mark on The Hendon Mob, will be tough to stop and he looks to add a third title to a New Year kick-off straight out of his wildest dreams.