Anthony Hu Wins PokerGO Cup $15,000 Buy-In Event

Anthony Hu has taken the lead in the 2023 PokerGO Cup player of the series points race thanks to an outright win in the $15,700 buy-in no-limit hold’em high roller. This was his third in-the-money finish through the first five events of the series, with a seventh-place showing in the kickoff tournament and a runner-up finish in event no. 4. Hu has accumulated $454,200 in earnings across those three cashes, the most of any player so far. With 454 points, the Las Vegas resident is now the player to beat heading into the final three high-stakes events on the schedule. He also sits atop the overall PokerGO Tour leaderboard as a result of his strong start in this year-opening series.

Hu overcame a field of 56 entries to secure his first PokerGo Cup title. He was awarded $268,800 for the win, the largest payday of his live tournament career. Hu now has more than $1.6 million in lifetime cashes.

This victory also saw Hu take home 360 Card Player Player of the Year points. This was his third POY-qualified score of the year. It was enough to see him move into 10th place in the standings, which are presented by Global Poker.

This event played out over the course of two days at the PokerGO Studio located at ARIA Resort & Casino. The money bubble burst late on day 1 when Leonard Maue was eliminated by none other than Hu. He then proceeded to bust Masashi Oya (8th – $33,600) and event no. 3 winner Ed Sebesta (7th – $42,000) to take a healthy chip lead heading into day 2.

Five-time bracelet winner and reigning PokerGO Cup champion Jeremy Ausmus (6th – $50,400) was the first to fall on day 2, with his pocket queens losing a classic preflop race against the A-K of Hu. This was Ausmus’ second cash in a row, having placed seventh in the final $10,000 buy-in high roller of this series for $39,000 just a day earlier.

Bracelet winner and 2022 WSOP main event 22nd-place finisher Brian Kim slid down the leaderboard to the bottom of the chip counts during five-handed action. He ultimately got the last of his very short stack in with middle pair after defending his big blind with J-7. Hu had raised with J-8 preflop, which picked up a double gutshot on the flop. The rest of chips went in before the turn. A blank on fourth street kept Kim ahead, but the river saw Hu hit a jack-high straight to win the pot and narrow the field to four. Kim cashed for $67,200 as the fifth-place finisher.

Aram Zobian’s run in this event ended in fourth place when he rivered trip sevens against the turn nine-high straight of Hu in a battle of the blinds. Zobian, the sixth-place finisher in the 2018 World Series of Poker main event, won event no. 2 of this series a handful of days before making this final table, earning $207,500 for that win. He added another $84,000 to his career totals while also moving into 2nd place in the PokerGO Cup player of the series thanks to his win and this deep run.

Dylan Destefano soon followed Zobian to the rail when his K-Q small blind shove was quickly called by the A-K of Hu. Destefano failed to come from behind and was sent packing with $117,600, his second-largest live tournament score.

With that, Hu took more than a 3.5:1 chip advantage into heads-up play with living legend of the game Erik Seidel. Hu held 5,525,000 to the nine-time bracelet winner and Poker Hall of Famer’s 1,480,000 to start. Seidel was able to close the gap considerably in the early going, but was still trailing when the key hand of the match arose.

Hu raised on the button with 77 and Seidel three-bet from the big blind with 1010. Hu called and the flop came down 743. Seidel made a continuation bet with his overpair and Hu flat-called with top set. The A saw both players check. The 6 completed the board and Seidel went for a value bet of roughly half of his remaining stack. Hu raised all-in and Seidel, after plenty of consideration, made the call. Hu revealed his set and Seidel mucked his pocket tens, finishing second for $176,400. The score increased his career earnings to more than $43.5 million, good for sixth on poker’s all-time money list.

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

Winner photo credit: PokerGO / Antonio Abrego.

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