Jim Collopy Wins Iconic Poker Masters Purple Jacket After Thrilling Finale

A stunning comeback from Ben Tollerene when short-stacked three-handed saw the American – one of all seven at the final table – return from a deficit to beat both Taylor von Kriegenbergh and Andrew ‘Chewy’ Lichtenberger as he won a $510,000 top prize. It was too late for him to take the Purple Jacket, however, which was locked up by another player with one day to spare.

Jim Collopy Fits Purple Jacket

It was a player with no outright wins who won this year’s Poker Masters, the first time that has happened. Cashing four times in eight events was Jim Collopy, whose results amounted to $521,600 in winnings, more than any other player. Collopy’s victory came with a day to spare but it was by no means a cakewalk as his victory came late on the penultimate day courtesy of a blessed series of eliminations.

The final event, Event #8, began with 68 entries paying the $25,000 buy-in. Just 10 players would be paid from the field as a prizepool of $1.7 million was divided between those good enough – or lucky enough – so survive to the top 10. Poker legends such as Justin Bonomo, Dylan Weisman, Dan Smith, Jonathan Little, Kristen Foxen, Alex Foxen, Isaac Haxton and Erik Seidel all busted outside the money places.

When Dylan Linde busted in 14^th place, he could no longer take the purple jacket and Event #7 winner Brock Wilson fell to the same fate once he left in 12^th. John Riordan bubbled in 11^th place and with eight left, the 2024 Poker Masters title, along with the purple jacket, a $25,000 PGT Passport and a $10,000 PokerStars NAPT Gold Pass all went to Jim Collopy when Justin Zaki departed for a score of 51,000 when his ace-king with the ace of diamonds lost a coinflip to Aram Zobian’s pocket sevens.

The flop of T-7-4 with two diamonds was a dramatic one. The queen of diamonds on the turn gave Zaki straight and flush outs but he missed them all on the river and as the last player who could have taken the Poker Masters title, his exit meant Collopy was the 2024 Poker Masters champion.

Zobian Slayed by the Deck

With the final seven led to the flet by Andrew ‘Chewy’ Lichtenberger on 3.26 million chips, Aram Zobian was closest to him on $2.84m. With just a couple of big blinds, Victoria Livschitz was much lower and as short stack, she can feel slightly aggrieved at the manner of her exit in seventh place for $68,000. All-in with king-queen, she was called by von Kriegenbergh with ace-queen and queen-high board ended Livschitz’s hopes of a priceless double as her hand didn’t feature two live cards but a dominated queen.

Filipp Khavin busted in sixth place when he won $93,500 after shipping it with pocket fours. Losing to Sam Soverel’s king-queen, this time a brutally final board of Q-7-2-5-K played out and Khavin was on the outside looking in. Soon, so too was Aram Zobian, who after an extended period without elimination went from second in chips to fifth after he was all-in with pocket tens only to lose to von Kriegenbergh’s pocket nines.

Losing that hand left Zobian short himself but he found pocket aces, shoved and got a caller to give himself the best chance of surviving. Called by von Kriegenbergh’s pocket kings, it was therefore insult added to injury when von Kriegenbergh hit a king on the flop to make top set and send Zobian – presumably with his head spinning – out of the competition for a result worth just $127,500.

Tollerene the Comeback Kid  

Four remained and Soverel was super-short. All-in with ten-eight of diamonds, the popular PokerGO success story had two live cards against Andrew Lichtenberger’s ace-jack but it didn’t help him, as a king-high board without help for Soverel sent the American home with a score of $170,000 – some improvement on his $25,000 buy-in but no podium place.

Out in third was Lichtenberger himself as a long period of flux ended with his exit for $229,500. Once again, pocket aces were cursed as a flop of K-T-9 saw ‘Chewy’ get all of his chips into the middle with aces to be called by Tollerene with pocket queens and a bigger stack. Tollerene’s luck was in as a queen popped up on the turn and no ace on the river meant play was heads-up.

The final duel was a rollercoaster one with both Tollerene and von Kriegenbergh holding the lead at separate points. Eventually, however, Tollerene won a flip to take a 3:1 chip lead and in the next all-in hand, Tollerene’s ace-six was good enough to hold against von Kriegenbergh king-jack as a board of Q-8-3-5-T sent the final title of the eight Poker Masters 2024 events to Tollerene for $510,000, as von Kriegenbergh cashed for $331,500 as runner-up.