October 15-16
Vitalijs Zavorotnijs' record when playing heads-up for a tournament win.
- 1ST
Vitalijs Zavorotnijs$224,000 - 2NDClemen Deng$144,000
- 3RDNick Palma$104,000
- 4TH
Jamie Dwan$76,000 - 5THAndrew Lichtenberger$56,000
- 6THErik Seidel$40,000
- 7THSam Laskowitz$32,000
The PokerGO Tour (PGT) Poker Masters continued Friday with final table action in Event #4: $10K No-Limit Hold'em. Thursday's Day 1 play saw the field of 80 entries whittled down to a final table of five players – led by Latvia's Vitalijs Zavorotnijs.
Clemen Deng followed in second, just a few chips head of the UK's Jamie Dwan. The short stacks, Nick Palma and Andrew Lichtenberger had their work cut out for them.
While Lichtenberger was the first player sent to the rail on Friday, Palma managed to spin his short stack into a third-place finish – his second podium finish of the series following a win in Event #2.
Zavorotnijs went on to walk away with the title and the lion's share of the $800,000 prize pool, but Palma's second three-figure point pickup has vaulted him to the top of the leaderboard in the race for the highly-coveted Poker Masters Purple Jacket. The 104 points he added to his series tally in Event #4 were more than enough to usurp Myles Mullaly's spot atop the leaderboard.
With six events still to play out, however, Palma will likely need further points to secure the overall series win.
If you want to check out the full replay of the Event #4 final table, scroll down and click the play button – or, read on for a recap of the major action.
Zavorotnijs takes the win
Despite scoring an early double up at the final table, just a couple hands later Lichtenberger was forced to settle for a fifth-place finish when he moved all-in over the top of a button raise from Deng. Lichtenberger's 
needed a lot of help against Deng's 
, but the 
runout provided him none.
Dwan followed soon after, losing the majority of his stack in a blind versus blind confrontation with Palma. After moving all-in from the small blind with , Dwan found himself up against Palma's 
and the 
runout favored the latter. The next hand, Deng took the last of his chips thanks to a fortunate river card and Dwan's run came to an end in fourth place.
Vitalijs Zavorotnijs was on the right side of a brutal heads-up cooler during his battle against Clemen Deng. When three-handed play began, Deng had a monster chip lead over his two opponents, but Palma, the shortest of the three, managed to hang around for a while. Then, after moving all-in with over a button raise from Deng and a call from Zavorotnijs in the small blind, Palma found himself flipping for his tournament life against the Latvian's 
.
The 
runout left Palma drawing slim on the flop and stone dead on the turn – but his third-place finish comes with the slight consolation prize of leading the race for the Purple Jacket. As soon as his run came to an end, Palma hopped into the Event #5 field and went right back to work.
Deng took a narrow lead into heads-up play, but he and Zavorotnijs traded small pots back and forth for a while, with the advantage changing hands more than once.
It all came to an end in dramatic fashion as the final hand of the clash saw both players make full houses – but Zavorotnijs had the best of it.
Images courtesy of Antonio Abrego/PokerGO
