Andrew Lichtenberger Wins Poker Masters Title On His Birthday36-Year-Old Poker Pro Tops 85-Entry Field To Earn $204,000 |
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Andrew Lichtenberger celebrated his 36th birthday in style on Wednesday, Sept. 20. The veteran poker pro emerged victorious from a field of 85 entries to capture the title in event no. 5 of the 2023 Poker Masters to capture his 16th recorded live tournament title.
Lichtenberger earned $204,000 as the champion of the $10,000 buy-in no-limit hold’em event that ran inside the PokerGO Studio at ARIA Resort & Casino in Las Vegas. The score increased the World Series of Poker bracelet winner’s career tournament earnings to more than $15.9 million.
A truly magnificent moment and experience much thanks and love to everyone supporting as well as, and especially, the @PokerGO staff for being so warm and kind on my 36th revolution around the sun https://t.co/e70Ajn5FhW
— Andrew Lichtenberger (@luckychewy) September 21, 2023
This was Lichtenberger’s fifth final table and first title of 2023. With 1,122 Card Player Player of the Year points, he is now among the top 500 contenders in the 2023 POY race sponsored by Global Poker.
He also secured 204 PokerGO Tour points for the victory. This was his third cash of the Poker Masters series, having also placed seventh in event no. 3 and 13th in event no. 4. With 266 PGT points and $265,700 in earnings accrued thus far, he now sits in third place in the race for this year’s Poker Masters Purple Jacket. He trails only Vladas Tamasauskas (506 points) and Ren Lin (299 points).
The top 13 finishers made the money in this event, earning a share of the $850,000 prize pool. Just six contenders moved on to day 2, with two-time bracelet winner Daniel Lazrus in the lead and Lichtenberger in fourth chip position to start.
2021 WSOP main event champion Koray Aldemir (6th – $51,000) was the first to fall, with his K-J unable to win a preflop showdown against the 8-7 suited of Lazrus. Brock Wilson recorded his third cash and second final-table showing of the festival in this event. His run ended in fifth when his A-7 suited ran into the A-K of Lazrus and the pocket tens of bracelet winner Brian Kim. The pocket pair held up and Wilson was sent packing with $68,000.
Lichtenberger soon overtook the lead, winning a big pot against Kim with the same top pair of tens with a higher kicker. Kim scored the next knockout, making eights full of kings on the river and getting all of the chips in against the kings and nines of Niko Koop (4th – $85,000).
The next big all-in confrontation saw Lichtenberger shove from the small blind with pocket threes. Lazrus called all-in from the big blind with pocket sixes. Lichtenberger flopped a set and held from there to eliminate Lazrus in third place ($102,000).
Heads-up play began with Lichtenberger holding 7,625,000 to Kim’s 3,000,000. It didn’t take long for all of the chips to get in the middle. A few hands into the match, Lichtenberger open-shoved from the button for just shy of 21 big blinds effective with A
6
. Kim called with AQ from the big blind and the board ran out 74
36A. Lichtenberger’s aces up earned him the pot and the title, while Kim earned $144,500 as the runner-up finisher.
This was Kim’s 11th final table of the year, with nearly $2.7 million in POY earnings and 3,976 points accrued along the way. As a result, he has climbed into 22nd place on the POY leaderboard.
Here is a look at the payouts and rankings points awarded at the final table:
| Place | Player | Earnings | POY Points | PGT Points |
| 1 | Andrew Lichtenberger | $204,000 | 480 | 204 |
| 2 | Brian Kim | $144,500 | 400 | 145 |
| 3 | Daniel Lazrus | $102,000 | 320 | 102 |
| 4 | Niko Koop | $85,000 | 240 | 85 |
| 5 | Brock Wilson | $68,000 | 200 | 68 |
| 6 | Koray Aldemir | $51,000 | 160 | 51 |
| 7 | Matt Bond | $42,500 | 120 | 43 |
| 8 | Shannon Shorr | $34,000 | 80 | 34 |
Photo credits: PokerGO / Antonio Abrego.
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