Daniel Colpoys Wins PokerGO Cup Kickoff Event For $200,200

Daniel Colpoys is off to a strong start in 2022. The poker pro has live poker tournament results from as far back as 2009, but his two largest career scores have both come in recent weeks. Colpoys finished fourth in the Lucky Hearts Poker Open $25,500 buy-in high roller in the final week of January for a career-best $202,145. Less than a fortnight later he managed to secure another huge six-figure payday, taking down the PokerGO Cup $10,000 buy-in no-limit hold’em kickoff event for his first live tournament title since 2014. Colpoys defeated a field of 77 total entries in the event, earning $200,200 for the win.

The score increased Colpoys’ career live earnings to more than $1.5 million. In addition to the title and the money, he was also awarded plenty of rankings points. The 420 Card Player Player of the Year points he earned as the champion, when combined with the 378 he took home for his recent deep run in Florida, were enough to move him into 22nd place in the overall POY standings. He also earned 200 PokerGO Tour points, bringing his total to 321 in that race. He now sits in 6th place on that leaderboard.

This event played out over the course of two days, taking place at the PokerGO Studio at ARIA Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, NV. Colpoys eliminated Shannon Shorr in seventh place ($38,500) late on day 1 to bring play to a close, moving into a virtual tie for second place in the chip counts with four-time World Poker Tour main event champion Darren Elias.

World Series of Poker bracelet winner Andrew Lichtenberger sat at the top of the leaderboard when cards got back in the air. Colpoys closed the gap on the top spot considerably when his pocket jacks won a preflop race against the A-Q suited of Michael Lang (6th – $46,200).

Two-time WSOP bracelet winner Scott Ball was left as the clear short stack when five-handed play began. He three-bet all-in over the top of Elias’ cutoff raise with K-10. Elias called with a dominating A-10 and held to narrow the field to four. Ball took home $61,600 for his first live cash since taking down the $1,111 ‘Little One For One Drop’ at the series last fall.

The final four battled for more than an hour before the next elimination took place. Matthew Wantman got all-in with Q10 facing the AK of Colpoys. The board brought three clubs to give Colpoys a flush by the turn, which left an unimproved Wantman drawing dead. The WPT champion was awarded $77,000 as the fourth-place finisher.

Lichtenberger had more than three times as many chips as the next-largest stack, which belonged to Colpoys, when three-handed action began. Things evened out a bit as play continued. Elias was ultimately the next to fall. He slid down to less than 14 big blinds in time for his final hand. He shoved with K8 from the small blind and Colpoys called with K10 from the big blind. Both players flopped a pair of kings, but Colpy’s ten kicker ended up playing ti secure him the pot. Elias earned $100,100 as the third-place finisher. The score increased his career live tournament earnings to more than $9.6 million.

With that Colpoys entered heads-up play with 5.7 million to Lichtenberger’s 3.925 million. The two battled it out for more than 45 minutes. By the time the final hand was dealt, Colpoys had surpassed 7 million. Lichtenberger limped in from the button for 150,000 total with A4. Colpoys made it 475,000 to go with 99 and Lichtenberger called. The flop came down Q53 and Colpoys bet 225,000. Lichtenberger called with his ace-high, gutshot straight draw, and backdoor flush possibilities.

The A turn gave Lichtenberger a pair of aces and the lead. Colpoys check-called a 450,000 bet from Lichtenberger and the river brought the 9. Colpoys checked with his rivered set and Lichtenberger moved all-in. Colpoys made the quick call to lock up the pot and the title. Lichtenberger earned $146,300 as the runner-up finisher.

Here is a look at the payouts and rankings points awarded at the final table:

Photo credits: PokerGO / Antonio Abrego.

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