Artur Martirosyan emerged triumphant from a battle of the high-stakes crushers last night, taking down the PGT Last Chance 5 event for $197,500.
It was his second win of the week and that's enough to secure his seat in next week’s PGT Championship $1,000,000 freeroll, with one Last Chance event to spare. He's in the top 40 as things stand and will win one of the two Dream Seats if he's not still there after the final event.
The Russian pro came out on top of 79 entries in event #5, with 12 spots paid from the $790,000 prizepool.
Brewer busts on the bubble
Chris Brewer was the unfortunate money bubble victim, his pocket deuces no match for Alex Foxen’s queens. Brewer has also qualified for the $1 million freeroll, but will remain second on the overall leaderboard. It means Isaac Haxton will finish top of the season-long leaderboard, and will claim the $50k bonus on top of his seat to the PGT Championship.
The final table of seven was a stacked affair, Foxen joined by the likes of Stephen Chidwick, Sam Soverel and two of this week’s winners looking to double-up on the trophies – event 2 victor, Martirosyan, and event 4 winner, Dylan DeStefano.
DeStefano barely had time to celebrate his first-ever tournament victory before finding himself facing more of the world’s best, but hopes of back-to-back wins were dashed when he ran into Soverel’s made hand.
Alex Foxen fell next, in a similar fashion, when he got his short stack in but was unable to hit his flush draw against Chidwick’s high-card ace. It meant fourth place and $79,000 for Foxen.
Stephen Chidwick soon found himself short and had to chance his luck with 6-5 against Martirosyan, who turned over 10-9. A bricked board resulted in third and $102,700 for England’s leading money winner.
Martirosyan cracks the top 40
Heads-up was over almost as soon as it started. It took just one hand for Martirosyan to claim his second trophy of the week. You can watch it play out below.
There's just one event to go in the Last Chance series, and a lot still to play for. You check out the full PGT leaderboard, and we’ll bring you all the best of the action from event #6 tomorrow.
PGT Last Chance 5 results
| Place | Player | Points | Prize |
| 1 | Artur Martirosyan | 198 | $197,500 |
| 2 | Sam Soverel | 134 | $134,300 |
| 3 | Stephen Chidwick | 103 | $102,700 |
| 4 | Alex Foxen | 79 | $79,000 |
| 5 | Dylan DeStefano | 63 | $63,200 |
| 6 | Chino Rheem | 47 | $47,400 |
| 7 | Dylan Linde | 40 | $39,500 |
