Punnat Punsri Wins Final 2023 PokerGO Cup $26,000 High Roller

The penultimate event of the 2023 PokerGO Cup high-stakes tournament festival featured a $26,000 buy-in. Thailand’s Punnat Punsri emerged victorious from a field of 31 entries that turned out to the PokerGO Studio at ARIA Resort & Casino, earning $310,000 for the win.

This was the third-largest live tournament cash ever for the rising high-roller star. Punsri came into 2021 with just shy of $80,000 in recorded scores. Now, less than a full month into 2023, he has more than $4.8 million in cashes to his name. The largest chunk of that came when he earned $2.6 million as the champion of a $100,000 buy-in event at the 2022 Triton Mediterranean Poker Party.

Punsri made one previous final table at this year’s PokerGO Cup, finishing as the runner-up in event no. 2 for $149,400. With $459,400 in total earnings for the series across those two cashes, he now sits in third place in the player of the series points race. He likewise climbed into third place in the overall PokerGO Tour standings thanks to his strong start to 2023.

This victory also saw Punsri earn 336 Card Player Player of the Year points, enough to move him into 15th place on the 2023 POY leaderboard presented by Global Poker.

Only the top five finishers made the money in this two-day event. Day 1 came to a close when Sean Winter’s pocket tens were cracked by the pocket eights of Daniel Colpoys, who spiked a set on the river.

The final day began with four-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner David Peters in the lead and six-time bracelet winner Daniel Negreanu hot on his heels. Punsri entered the day as the shortest stack, but it was ultimately 2019 Poker Masters Purple Jacket winner Sam Soverel who was the first to fall. Soverel’s A-K was outrun by the A-Q of Negreanu, who paired his queen on the turn and held from there. Soverel took home $54,250 as the fifth-place finisher.

Four-handed play lasted nearly two hours. Early on, Punsri won a big flip with pocket jacks against the K-Q of Peters to double up, taking a big chink out of Peters to see him fall to the bottom of the leaderboard. Peters’ run ended when he shoved Q-6 suited from the small blind for 12 big blinds and received a call from Punsri, who held K-Q. Peters flopped a flush draw and turned a straight draw, but a blank on the end sent Peters home with $85,250 for his fourth-place showing. He now has more than $44.7 million in career tournament earnings, good for fifth on poker’s all-time money list.

The next player to hit the rail was one of the four ahead of Peters on that vaunted tournament earnings leaderboard. Negreanu got all-in from the button with AQ leading the A10 of Punsri, who three-bet shoved from the big blind. Negreanu, who had opened for just more than a min-raise, called all-in for just shy of 27 big blinds. The board came down 108842 and Negreanu was eliminated in third place ($124,000). He remains in third place on the money list as well, with $49.4 million in recorded tournament scores.

Heads-up between Punsri and Colpoys was a quick affair. Punsri began with just shy of a 2:1 chip lead. He extended that advantage by winning a big pot with a full house, leaving Colpoys with just 15 big blinds. In the final hand, Colpoys limped from the button with 108 for 40,000 total and Punsri checked from the big blind with J9. The flop came down J82 and Punsri check-called a min-bet of 40,000 with his top pair. The 2 turn saw both players check. The 4 completed the board and Punsri checked a third time. Colpoys bet 80,000 from his stack of 530,000 with his eighths and deuces. Punsri check-raised all-in. Colpoys mulled it over before making the call, only to be shown a better two pair. Colpoys earned $201,500 as the runner-up finisher, the fourth-largest score of his career.

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

Here are the current top ten contenders in the PokerGO Cup points race:

Photo credits: PokerGO / Antonio Abrego.

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