A stunning final event victory gave Jonathan Little the PokerGO Cup Championship as well as his second event win of the eight in this year’s series. Little, who sold his action to multiple events of the 2024 PokerGO Cup on PokerStake, stunned Justin Zaki as the final two battled it out not only for the final top prize of $453,750 but the ultimate title of PokerGO Cup champion.

Schulman and Little Battle on the Bubble

With 55 entries at $25,200 each creating a massive prizepool of $1,375,000, only the final eight places were paid. That situation led to huge drama on the bubble as Jonathan Little was very short indeed – stack-wise, that is. Nick Schulman was the other player who needed to double to survive and with Schulman holding and his opponent John Riordan holding , all the chips went in. According to Schulman, over came Little and on a flop of Little allegedly said “OK…”

The turn was a and Schulman quipped: “Was the queen OK too John? Was that OK too?” Cue some laughter and a river of a putting the remaining eight into the money as Schulman left… to post this video on X, formerly known as Twitter.

I got into it with J Little on the bubble last night lol pic.twitter.com/TVNOiqnGwG

— Nick Schulman (@NickSchulman) February 3, 2024

It didn’t take long for the first player who did make a profit to be eliminated. Stephen Chidwick cashed for $55,000 when his hand was beaten by Riordan’s rivered second pair of nines, the British player sliding his cards into the muck and leaving the PokerGO Studio in eighth place.

At that point, Little was still the short stack with just 275,000 chips, a long way back from the chip leader Justin Zaki, who knew that if he could end the event with the win then he’d be proclaimed the 2024 PokerGO Cup champion too. Little won a coinflip shortly afterwards with ace-jack through Riordan to put himself back on the map.

Davies Delivered as Little Rises to the Top

With seven players remaining, Jim Collopy was the next to lose his stack. All-in with , he was called by Jonathan Little with and the latter held through the board, chipping up in the process. That pot was crucial for Little who ended the day only on 750,000, some way behind Riordan at the top of the chipcounts with 2.5m chips but it was a vital foothold for the eventual winner.

Down to six on the last day, Shaneil Stokes was the first player to bust. He cashed for $82,500 when all-in pre-flop with and unable to hold for his tournament life. Seth Davies had called it off with and a favorable board of saw Stokes take his leave.

Despite winning that hand, Davies was fairly short himself, losing in fifth place for $110,000 a short time later. On a board of , Davies called off his stack with but was wrong to do so, Little having put him to the test with and ultimately scored another important knockout to move into the second position on the leaderboard.

Zaki Can’t Hold On

Down to four players, Little’s stack of 1.9 million chip was still some way behind Justin Zaki’s 4.2 million as both men attempted to win the overall Championship by virtue of taking the Event #8 title. Only an outright win for either man would prevent David Peters being crowned the champ.

Over an extended period of play without a bust-out, it was Little who took control, rivering an ace in one crucial hand. Soon, the previously dominant Riordan was on the rail with $137,500, his unable to usurp Zaki’s to make it even more likely that a heads-up battle would be for both the event title and the championship too.

Justin Saliba’s exit in third for $192,500 confirmed it. Saliba had moved all-in with but was crushed by Zaki’s which held with comparative ease and set up a monumental heads-up battle for both the final title and the $25,000 Championship Bonus and infamous PokerGO Cup.

Little led the way with 4.88 million to Zaki’s 3.37 million and Little extended his lead a little before shoving with . Zaki made the call for his tournament life with and the flop of wasn’t a kind one. After the turn, Zaki was drawing to just five outs of a king or seven to the river and when a fell, Jonathan Little was pronounced the 2024 PokerGO Cup champion, winning $453,750 in this final event, Zaki claiming the $288,750 runner-up prize.

He reviewed some of his favorite hands from the event right here.

After eight stunning events, a final victory for Jonathan Little added to his earlier win in Event #3 – his first title on the PokerGO Tour – gave him the 2024 PokerGO Cup and made many PokerStake investors very rich indeed! With strong performances across the entire series and cashes in four events form eight, Little deservedly won the $25,000 Championship Bonus to go with the $730,000 in tournament winnings.