Funkhouser, Rheem, and Prociak Win Early PGT Mixed Games TitlesA Look At The Results From The First Three Events of the Nine-Tournament Festival |
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The PGT Mixed Games series first debuted in February. Thanks to impressive turnouts throughout the festival, PokerGO Tour organizers quickly began planning the PGT Mixed Games II for this fall. The nine-event series runs from Oct. 5-14, with a variety of formats on offer and buy-ins ranging from $5,000 up to $25,000.
The first three tournaments are already in the books, and if they are any indication, the second iteration is set to follow the first in being a smashing success.
PGT Mixed Games #1 – $10,200 H.O.R.S.E.
The kickoff event was the $10,200 buy-in H.O.R.S.E. tournament. A total of 72 entries were made by the time that registration concluded, building a prize pool of $720,000 that was ultimately paid out among the top 11 finishers.
It took two days of play inside the PokerGO Studio at ARIA Resort & Casino in Las Vegas to decide a champion. In the end, it was David Funkhouser who emerged victorious with the first trophy of the festival. The Long Beach, California resident earned $187,200 for the win. This was the second-largest tournament score of his career, trailing only the $200,356 he took home as the runner-up in the 2022 World Series of Poker $10,000 stud eight-or-better championship.
Funkhouser now has nearly $694,000 in career tournament scores to his name, with 45 recorded cashes and two titles. His previous title came more than 11 years earlier in a $500 buy-in H.O.R.S.E. tournament at the 2012 Wynn Classic.
Plenty of big names ran deep in this event only to fall late on day 1, including four-time bracelet winner Ben Yu (11th), two-time bracelet winner and Card Player contributor Stever Zolotow (10th), and bracelet winner Andrew Kelsall (8th).
The final table was stacked with accomplished tournament players like World Poker Tour champion and bracelet winner Dylan Linde (7th), bracelet winner Dylan Weisman (6th), three-time WPT champion and four-time bracelet winner Anthony Zinno (5th), three-time WPT champion and PokerStars Caribbean Adventure main event winner Chino Rheem (4th), and five-time bracelet winner Eli Elezra (3rd).
Funkhouser then overcame three-time bracelet winner Paul Volpe heads-up to secure the title, dragging the final pot with top pair in a round of hold’em to secure the title. Volpe earned $136,800 as the runner-up, growing his career earnings to nearly $9.6 million.
| Place | Player | Earnings | POY Points | PGT Points |
| 1 | David Funkhouser | $187,200 | 420 | 187 |
| 2 | Paul Volpe | $136,800 | 350 | 137 |
| 3 | Eli Elezra | $93,600 | 280 | 94 |
| 4 | Chino Rheem | $72,000 | 210 | 72 |
| 5 | Anthony Zinno | $57,600 | 175 | 58 |
| 6 | Dylan Weisman | $43,200 | 140 | 43 |
| 7 | Dylan Linde | $36,000 | 105 | 36 |
PGT Mixed Games #2 – $10,200 Big Bet Mix
Rheem backed up his fourth-place showing in event no. 1 with an outright victory in the second tournament on the schedule: the $10,200 buy-in big bet mix. Rheem bested a field of 57 entries to earn $171,000.
This was the 43-year-old poker player’s 10th final table of the year, with seven coming in the past three weeks. The first five came during the recent Poker Masters festival at the same venue, including a win in a $10,100 no-limit hold’em event for $218,400. All told his recent spree at the PokerGO Studio has seen him add $845,650 in scores to his career earnings, bringing his lifetime total to nearly $13.7 million.
“I’m obviously trying to play much better, and I’m running really good here. I love playing in the studio. Things are going really well, I love playing with all these guys, you feel like a family here,” Rheem told PokerGO reporters. “In my entire career, this is the sickest heater that I’ve been on in 20 years of playing poker. I’m just riding it trying to stay humble, stay present, appreciate everything, and stay grateful.”
Rheem has accumulated 2,525 Card Player Player of the Year points so far in 2023, enough to climb to 90th place in the overall standings presented by Global Poker.
His two cashes in the early going of this festival have seen him move into the lead in the series-long points race. He is also among the top 40 in the year-long PGT rankings.
Arthur Morris (9th), four-time bracelet winner Nick Schulman (8th), and Dan Shak all made the money but were eliminated late on day 1. Two-time Card Player POY award winner Stephen Chidwick held the chip lead among the final six, but ultimately finished third for $79,800. This was his 23rd final-table finish of the year, with five titles won and more than $8.1 million in to-date POY earnings. He remains in second place on the POY leaderboard with 8,459 points, trailing only Bin Weng and his 9,198 points.
Other big names from the final table include five-time bracelet winner Adam Friedman (6th), Ben Yu (5th), six-time bracelet winner John Hennigan (4th), and eventual runner-up Andres Korn, who won a no-limit hold’em bracelet back in 2017.
| Place | Player | Earnings | POY Points | PGT Points |
| 1 | Chino Rheem | $171,000 | 300 | 171 |
| 2 | Andres Korn | $114,000 | 250 | 114 |
| 3 | Stephen Chidwick | $79,800 | 200 | 80 |
| 4 | John Hennigan | $57,000 | 150 | 57 |
| 5 | Ben Yu | $45,600 | 125 | 46 |
| 6 | Adam Friedman | $34,200 | 100 | 34 |
| 7 | Dan Shak | $28,500 | 75 | 29 |
PGT Mixed Games #3 – $5,100 Ten Game Mix
While the buy-in went down, the amount of games in the mix went up for the third tournament of the series. The $5,100 ten-game mix drew 72 entries, creating a prize pool of $360,000 to be spread out among 11 in-the-money finishers. The largest share was awarded to David Prociak, who earned $93,600 for the win.
This victory fell just outside of Prociak’s top five largest tournament paydays. The bracelet winner now has more than $2.1 million in career earnings to his name.
Day 1 took place on Saturday, Oct. 7. Nine players were knocked out inside of the money that night, including bracelet winner Jerry Wong (11th), three-time bracelet winner and WPT champion David ‘ODB’ Baker (10th), two-time bracelet winner Maxx Coleman (9th), Eli Elezra (8th), bracelet winner Alex Livingston (6th), six-time bracelet winner Jeremy Ausmus (5th), and four-time bracelet winner Bradley Ruben (3rd).
Only Prociak and high-stakes regular Philip Sternheimer returned for day 2 action on Monday, Oct. 9. It took roughly 90 minutes for a winner to be decided. Sternheimer began with more than a 2:1 chip lead. Prociak won a big confrontation with trip fives in limit hold’em to help close the gap, then dragged a sizable badugi pot with 7
6
2
A
to overtake the lead.
The final hand saw Sternheimer get all-in after the flop in pot-limit Omaha with aces and kings up against a set of sixes for Prociak. The set held up through the river to end Sternheimer’s run in second place ($64,800).
| Place | Player | Earnings | POY Points | PGT Points |
| 1 | David Prociak | $93,600 | 336 | 94 |
| 2 | Philip Sternheimer | $64,800 | 280 | 65 |
| 3 | Bradley Ruben | $46,800 | 224 | 47 |
| 4 | Seth Perlman | $36,000 | 168 | 36 |
| 5 | Jeremy Ausmus | $28,800 | 140 | 29 |
| 6 | Alexander Livingston | $21,600 | 112 | 22 |
| 7 | Hal Rotholz | $18,000 | 84 | 18 |
Photo credits: PokerGO / Antonio Abrego.
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