Nick Schulman Wins First PokerGO Tour Event Held In 2025

Nick Schulman ended 2024 on a high note, taking down the $5,000 turbo bounty event at the World Series of Poker Paradise for his sixth career bracelet.

The 40-year-old poker pro also started his 2025 off with a bang by emerging victorious in the first PokerGO Tour event held in the new year.

Schulman overcame a field of 111 total entries in the kickoff event of the PGT Last Chance series. He earned $283,050 as the last player standing in the $10,100 buy-in no-limit hold’em tournament. He now has nearly $22.1 million in career earnings after this triumph inside the PokerGO Studio at ARIA Resort & Casino Las Vegas.

This victory came with 600 Card Player Player of the Year points, which gives Schulman the early lead in the 2025 POY standings presented by Global Poker.

Schulman also earned 283 PGT points, enough to move him to ninth in that high-stakes-centric points race, which means that he has all but assured himself a spot in the forthcoming PGT Championship which will run next week.

The final day began with seven remaining and Schulman in the lead. The first knockout arose from a classic preflop race, with bracelet winner Aram Zobian (7th – $44,400) holding pocket fives against the K-Q suited of two-time bracelet winner Joao Simao, which ended up making king-high straight to narrow the field to six contenders.

The next big clash saw Schulman attempt to use a key straight blocker to bluff Simao. Unfortunately for Schulman, Simao had made the straight himself on the end and quickly called Shulman’s shove to double into a sizable lead.

Risky Business! Nick Schulman Goes For It on the River! pic.twitter.com/WeqKxMKGW1

— PokerGO (@PokerGO) January 3, 2025

Schulman was left short after that, but managed to bounce back quickly with a double up through Matthew McEwan. He then won a flip with pocket sixes against the K-Q of Nguyen Le (6th – $55,500) to move back into second chip position.

In keeping with the theme thus far, it was another race that resulted in McEwan’s knockout. His pocket threes were counterfeited by a double-paired board, which sent the pot to Bryce Yockey and his A-K. McEwan earned $72,150 for his fifth-place showing.

Despite scoring that elimination, Yockey was ultimately the next to fall. He got all-in with A-10 on a ten high flop, but found out that top pair, top kicker was no good. Simao had been dealt pocket kings, which remained best through the turn and river to give him a healthy lead going into three-handed action. Yockey earned $99,900 as the fourth-place finisher. The two-time bracelet winner now has more than $6.1 million in career earnings to his name.

Victoria Livschitz got her last chips in with A3 leading the K5 of Simao, but a K544K runout gave Simao kings full and the knockout. Livschitz cashed for $127,650. This score saw her surpass $2.2 million in recorded live earnings.

Heads-up play began with Simao holding 9,800,000 to the 4,075,000 of Schulman. The gap had expanded slightly in the early going before Schulman found a double up with A-K holding against K-9 to nearly even the playing field.

As the stack depth decreased, the swings increased. Simao retook the lead and held it for a while, but it was Schulman who was out in front with better than a 3:1 advantage when the final hand arose. Simao shoved from the button for nine big blinds with J2 and Schulman called with J7 out of the big blind. The board came down K6657 and Schulman made sevens and sixes to win the pot and the title.

Simao earned $177,600 as the runner-up. He is approaching $8 million in career earnings thanks to this latest deep run, which marked his 182nd recorded cash.

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

Photo credits: PokerGO.

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