Veteran high-stakes player Dan Shak has become the latest first-time winner on the PokerGO Tour by taking down Event #8 in the PGT's ongoing Mixed Games series, $10,200 Big Bet Mix. Shak earned $133,200 after starting Thursday's Day 2 at the PokerGO Studio in Las Vegas as the shortest stack among the event's five surviving players.
Shak climbed passt Jerry Wong, Walter Chambers, Jeremy Ausmus, and Daniel Negreanu to the title, all of whom started Day 2 with larger stacks. Negreanu led the survivors into a live-streamed Day 2 for the second straight day, but finished third here, behind Shak and Ausmus, who collected the runner-up prize money of $88,000.
Following Negreanu's third-place exit, Ausmus began the heads-up duel for the title with a narrow lead in this big-bet event, which featured rotating rounds of seven poker variants: no-limit hold'em, PLO, no-limit five-card draw, PLO-8, pot-limit 2-7 triple draw, Big O, and no-limit 2-7 single draw. Event #8's 37 paid entries created a $370,000 prize pool and paid the top six finishers.
Shak overtakes Ausmus for victory
After John Racener busted in sixth place to end Wednesday's Day 1 action for a $22,200 min-cash, the five survivors returned on Thursday afternoon to decide the top spots. Wong busted in fifth and Chambers exited in fourth in the day's early action. Ausmus was the early mover, taking the lead while grabbing several pots from Negreanu in head-to-head clashes, including the hand that sent Negreanu to the rail in third.
Meanwhile, Shak survived several all-in moments in the day's early levels and climbed to a solid second place by the time Negreanu busted. The battle stayed that way until a huge no-limit 2-7 single draw hand where both players were all in before the draw, with Ausmus having a slight lead. Ausmus had been dealt a pat-10, while Shak drew one to an 8-7-5-3 and caught a nine to win the event's biggest pot.
The end came soon after in a hand of PLO-8. Both players flopped two pair, queens and sevens, and the last of Ausmus's chips went in. It looked like a chop was in order until the river, when Shak spiked a nine to improve to a better two pair, queens and nines, and seal the win.
Shak, a veteran of high-stakes events, moved his lifetime live-event tourney winnings to just shy of $13.4 million. He also became the sixth successive first-time PGT winner during this series, and the seventh first-timer in eight completed events to date.
Event #8's results caused a logjam at the top of the PGT Mixed Games series leaderboard. Through Thursday, the top four players are separated by just 11 points. Max Hoffman leads by just two points over Wong, with John Hennigan and Negreanu right behind. All four players have cashed four times in eight events. Wong and Negreanu would've passed Hoffman had either player finished just one spot higher in Event #8.
Event #8: $10,200 Big Bet Mix Final Table Results
| Place | Name | Country | PGT Points | Prize |
| 1st | Dan Shak | United States | 133 | $133,200 |
| 2nd | Jeremy Ausmus | United States | 89 | $88,800 |
| 3rd | Daniel Negreanu | Canada | 56 | $55,500 |
| 4th | Walter Chambers | United States | 41 | $40,700 |
| 5th | Jerry Wong | United States | 30 | $29,600 |
Featured image/data courtesy PokerGO
