Chad Eveslage Binks $500,000 For Winning the PGT Championship Freeroll

How It Started

The freeroll event field included the top 40 players on the PGT leaderboard and 14 Dream Seat qualifiers. After 47 eliminations took place on Day 1, a group of seven returned for the final day of action. Alex Foxen, who came into the freeroll with the biggest stack, departed in 13th, and he couldn’t notch his second title of the year, having already won the $10K PGT Last Chance for $232,400 just a few days prior. In what was possibly the toughest field ever assembled in a freeroll, Ben Tollerene (53rd), Nick Petrangelo (51st), Ike Haxton (47th), Patrick Leonard (46th), Jesse Lonis (38th), Jason Koon (35th), and Michael Mizrachi (29th) are just a few of the notable names that fell short in this star studed line up. At the top of the UK’s All-Time Money List, Stephen Chidwick was the last elimination of the night before play broke for Day 2.

Day 2 – Final Table Play

Michael Wang came into Day 2 with the chip lead, and the $500,000 first-place prize would’ve been the American professional’s fourth-largest cash. Between them, the final seven have won 25 PGT titles, with Negreanu winning 11 of them, which currently stands as the record for the most PGT wins.

Eric Blair, who has accumulated just over $4,000,000 in live tournament earnings according to thehendonmob.com, was the shortest stack returning, and all seven players were on the money bubble. Eventually, Blair lost a flip to Aaron Krupin to bust in seventh place and send the final six players into the money. Blair had A Q and Kupin had 9 9 . A win in this tournament would have resulted in a new career best for Blair, but unfortunately for him, the Poker Gods denied the American that opportunity. His two biggest scores have both come at the PGT in Las Vegas, having won the $15,100 No Limit Hold’em and the $10,100 No Limit Hold’em just days apart last February for $352,350 and $254,800.

John Riordan was next to depart and was on the wrong side of a cooler at the hands of Eveslage. Both players flopped trip fives, but Riordan’s five kicker was no good against the king kicker of Eveslage. Riordan added $40,000 to his total earnings of $6,505,124. Lichtenberger then went on to claim his first scalp, as he sent Kupin to the rail with ten-nine suited. “LuckyChewy” made two pair to beat Kupin’s ace-eight off suit. Kupin called a jam from Lichtenberger, who put Kupin at risk in a small v big blind confrontation.

Then There Were Three

Wang had climbed up the counts by this stage in the tournament, and he had a slight lead over Eveslage. Wang made a straight with ace-four offsuit versus Lichtenberger, who rivered top two pair with ace-seven offsuit on a paired board. Unfortunately for him, it was the Gin card for Wang, and he claimed a sizeable pot against a formidable opponent to put himself back in contention for the title.

Lichtenberger and Negreanu occupied the bottom two spots of the chip counts, and it was the latter who was next to depart, as he ran into the jacks of Eveslage. Negreanu called a three-bet preflop in the cutoff versus the small blind, and he found himself putting the last of his chips in on the flop of 5 3 4 with A 6 . The Hall of Famer had plenty of outs, but couldn’t hit an ace or make a straight on the 10 3 turn and river.

“LuckyChewy” then brought himself back into contention as he doubled with ace-queen offsuit versus the king-ten offsuit of Wang. Lichtenberger binked an ace on the turn to secure the double up, but was still bottom of the pack. He then gave some to Eveslage, as he made an incorrect hero-call with queen-high to lose to two pair of jacks and sixes, with the board being paired. Lichtenberger then doubled again, this time through Eveslage, as his ace-eight suited cracked Eveslage’s jacks as “LuckyChewy” flopped an ace and turned two pair to leave Eveslage drawing slim but still atop the counts. Eventually, it was Wang who would miss out on the heads-up duel with either Lichtenberger or Eveslage. Eveslage had kings in a three-bet pot, Wang had ten-nine suited, and flopped two pair on 9 10 8 . The 2 changed nothing but the 8 counterfeit Wang’s two pair to give Eveslage kings and eights to take the tournament into heads-up play.

Heads-Up

The heads-up battle was brief and resulted in a preflop all-in. Despite Lichtenberger’s solid efforts throughout the two-day event, he fell short of the $500,000 top prize, but banked $200,000 for his second-place finish. Lichtenberger was all in and well covered, and his 6 8 was drawing dead on the turn of the 2 Q 4 J 3 as Eveslage turned a set with J J to confirm the victory and a bumper payday in an extremely competitive field. Eveslage said to the media after his victory: “It feels great. I don’t feel super confident in my No-Limit game, and battling against all these guys (and winning), it feels great. Ten out of ten. It feels awesome.” This poker writer assumes this victory will fill the Mixed Game Specialist with a considerable amount of confidence heading into future High Stakes No Limit Hold’em tournaments in the future. Below are the payouts.

PGT Championship Payouts

Place	Player	Country	Prize
1	Chad Eveslage		$500,000
2	Andrew Lichtenberger		$200,000
3	Michael Wang		$120,000
4	Daniel Negreanu		$80,000
5	Aaron Kupin		$60,000
6	John Riordan		$40,000

What’s Next?

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That’s all for now, folks. Until next time.