There are just two events to go in the 2024 PokerGO Tour Mixed Games Series. After eight events, the leader of the pack in the latest event was Dan Shak… but does he lead the overall Top 10? Event #8 was a stunner as Daniel Negreanu once again made the final five with every chance of victory, only to fall late as Dan Shak took the title – and his first win on the PokerGO Tour.

Race-ing to Defeat

There were 37 entrants in the $10,200-entry Big Bet Mix event and that meant seven players only would be paid, enough to form a final table that also hosted the money bubble. As it turned out, it was the Event #7 winner Philip Sternheimer who was the bubble boy in this event. The British-based player lost in Pot Limit Omaha to Jeremy Ausmus, which in turn helped the American’s chances hugely.

As six players went into the money places but hoped to go much further, John Racener was the short stack. In a hand of Big O, he was called by multiple players but managed to quadruple up when his queens and sevens held sway against Daniel Negreanu. Racener still needed a lot of improvement to play his way back into contention but the hand dragged him closer to Walter Chambers.

Chambers himself played back at Racener in Big O next and came out on the right side of fortune. Racener flopped the nut flush but Chambers, who had top two pair and a low draw, made aces full of queens and kept the low to scoop victory and send Racener out in sixth place for $22,200.

Wong Gets it Wrong

With five remaining, Day 1 play ended and at that stage, Negreanu was in charge, holding 1.8 million, a shade over Ausmus’ stack of 1.6m in second place on the leaderboard. Jerry Wong began short in chips and soon found himself on the rail. All-in in a No Limit 5-Card Draw High round, Wong’s was no good against Ausmus’ , so Wong drew to a second pair or a set.

While Ausmus could happily draw just a single card, it didn’t matter when it came without assistance to his hand. Wong swapped all three that weren’t the pair in his hand but got no help and was busted in fifth place for $29,600. At that stage, Ausmus was king with 3.1 million chips, Negreanu (1.2m), Shak (675k) and Walter Chambers (350k) all straggling in his wake.

Chambers it was who couldn’t spin up his short stack. All-in in the same game variant as with Wong’s last stand, Chambers held only a pair of tens, and when Ausmus, who held pocket sixes to hit another for a set of sixes, it was the ‘Devils’ Hand’ of 6-6-6 that sent Chambers spinning from the carousel, lost to a fourth-place finish worth $40,700.

Kid Poker Caught Cold as Shak Attack Prevails

Three-handed, Shak was the short stack but having won $13.5 million in his poker career, sitting in 85^th place on the all-time money list in The Hendon Mob, Shak is no fool and while he was the hunted at that moment, he soon turned hunter. Doubling through Ausmus in a hand of 2-7 Pot Limit Triple Draw, Shak then watched on as Ausmus took out Negreanu in third place for $55,500.

Kid Poker lost in No Limit Hold’em as he called off the remainder of his stack pre-flop with when Ausmus shoved pre-flop with . It was the correct call from the Canadian but he met only with misfortune post-flop. The flop of didn’t help at all, hitting Ausmus’ nine and the turn and river couldn’t save the Poker Hall of Famer.

Heads-up, Ausmus had a slight lead but Shak almost immediately doubled through his opponent in 2-7 No Limit Single Draw and then got the chips in with two pair on a flop of in a hand of Pot Limit Omaha 8. Ausmus had the same two pair but a nine on the river gave Shak a better two pair and the title, his first on the PokerGO Tour, and  $133,200.

Hoffmann Leading in the Clubhouse

With two events to conclude, Max Hoffman is leading the way, with four cashes from eight events good enough for 264 points despite not winning an event. Jerry Wong (261 points) and John Hennigan (257 points) both have four cashes with an outright win, while Negreanu (253 points) has four cashes with no wins too. It’s incredibly close right the way down to 10^th on the overall leaderboard with a slight favorite being Hoffman, purely because he remains in contention in the $25,000-entry 10-Game Championship. The only players on the top 10 who still have chips in Event #9 of the 10 in the Series are Dan Zack (195 points), Adam Friedman (193 points) John Racener (173 points), Philip Sternheimer (184 points) and Jeremy Ausmus (215 points).