Poker Masters: Jonathan Little Wins Event No. 4

Two-time World Poker Tour champion and Card Player columnist Jonathan Little added another trophy to his collection on Saturday, Sept. 14. Little beat out a field of 81 entries in event no. 4 at the 2024 Poker Masters, a $10,100 buy-in no-limit hold’em tournament.

Little earned $226,800 as the champion of this event, growing his career haul to nearly $9.3 million. This was his 18th recorded cash of six-figures or more. Little’s two largest paydays remain his victories in the 2007 WPT Mirage Poker Showdown for $1,091,295 and the 2008 WPT World Poker Finals for $1,120,310. This latest win currently ranks as his ninth-largest tournament score.

In addition to the money and the title, Little also earned plenty of rankings points for this win. The 480 Card Player Player of the Year points he secured moved him inside the top 200 in the 2024 POY race presented by Global Poker. Little climbed to 37th place in the season-long PokerGO Tour standings after adding 227 points with this victory. This was his third PGT title of the year, having taken down two events at the PokerGO Cup on his way to securing the series championship at that festival.

This event played out over two days at the PokerGO Studio inside ARIA Resort & Casino in Las Vegas. The prize pool grew to $810,000 thanks to the 81 entries made by the conclusion of registration, with the top 12 making the money. Plenty of big names ran deep, including bracelet winner and WPT champion Alex Foxen (11th), two-time bracelet winner John Riordan (10th), high-stakes regular Brock Wilson (9th), and 13th-ranked POY contender Ren Lin (8th). Lin fell just short of making his third consecutive day 2 of the series.

The final day began with seven players remaining and Little atop the leaderboard. Little scored each and every knockout on the way to hoisting the trophy. He started by besting Clemen Deng’s (7th – $32,400) A-J suited with A-K. He then eliminated two-time Super High Roller Bowl champion Isaac Haxton (6th – $40,500), holding with A-J against A-10 suited. This payday pushed Haxton’s career earnings past the $51.1 million mark.

Wayne Nowak’s run ended in fifth place when his A-2 ran into Little’s A-Q on an ace-high flop. Little improved and aces and queens by the river to send Nowak to the rail with $56,700.

Two-time bracelet winner Sam Soverel got his last chips in ahead, with AK leading the J10 of Little. Things just kept get better for Little from there, though. He flopped a pair, turned a straight, and rivered a flush. Soverel, on the other hand, ended up with just ace high. He settled for $76,950 as the fourth-place finisher.

Three-time bracelet winner Jim Collopy improved on his sixth-place finish in event no. 3 by surviving to the top three in this tournament. In his last hand he called all-in with pocket deuces from the big blind and was racing against the K-3 that Little shoved with from the small blind. Little flopped two pair and held from there to knock Collopy out in third place ($105,300).

Little entered heads-up play with 8,625,000 to Harvey Castro’s 1,500,000. The final hand of the event saw Little open shoved from the button with AJ. Castro called all-in with 109 for around 11 big blinds. The board ran out 5443K and Castro was eliminated in second place. Castro earned $145,800 as the runner-up, the second-largest score of his career behind the $275,660 he locked up as the 2023 WSOP Circuit Choctaw main event champion.

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

Photo credits: PokerGO / Antonio Abrego.

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