The 2022 PokerGo Tour was only two days old before Thailand's Punnat Punsri etched his name in the history books with back-to-back victories at the Venetian Deepstack Poker Series in Las Vegas. Punsri won two $10K buy-in High Rollers at the Venetian and the first two events of the new season of the PGT. In the Event #1 on Wednesday, Punsri knocked out Erik Seidel heads-up and outlasted of 36 runners to win $118,037 and. In Event #2 on Thursday, Punsri was the last player standing out of 37 entrants and he banked $133,200.
The new year has been kind to Punnat Punsri. The pro from Thailand notched a pair of wins in the first week of January, so no one is loving 2022 more than Punsri. The second season of the PokerGo Tour kicked off with a bang this week in Sin City at after consecutive wins at the Venetian Casino by Punsri, including an impressive heads-up battle against the legendary Erik Seidel on Wednesday.
The Venetian Casino hosted the first series of the second installment of the PokerGo Tour. The 2022 PGT began with a four High Roller events during the Venetian Deepstack Poker Series. The first two events were $10,000 buy-in each, before the buy-ins bumped up to $15K on Friday and $25K on Saturday. These are single-day, multi-entry tournaments that catered to pros. It was a small, yet stacked field with dangerous sharks at every table in the tournament. If you made one poor move, they'd bite your head off. Lucky for Punnat Punsri, he was a veritable shark tamer this week. He fired away at two $10K events and banked over a quarter of million bucks in profit. Not too shabby, eh?
Event #1 at the Venetian was a $10,000 buy-in, which attracted 34 runners. The prize pool totaled $340K with the top five finishers earning a cut of the prize pool. Of course, everyone who cashed also earned valuable PGT leaderboard points.
The final table of five for Event #1 included... Punnat Punsri, Jake Schindler, Barry Hutter, Erik Seidel, and Alex Foxen. Schindler bowed out first and min-cashed for $23,800. Alex Foxen was the next player out in fourth place, before Barry Hutter exited in third place. That set up a heads-up joust between Erik Seidel and Punsri after they agreed to a money deal.
Alas, when the dust settled, Punsri emerged the victor after knocking out Seidel in second place. Seidel earned a runner-up finish wort $106K. Punsri locked up $118,037 for first place. More importantly, he earned 118 PGT leaderboard points and seized the top spot.
Event #2 at the Venetian was also another $10,000 buy-in event. Only the top six places paid out of the $370K prize pool. The final six included Punsri and Barry Hutter again, along with John Flynt, Masashi Oya, Chris Brewer, and Andrew 'LuckyChewy' Lichtenberger.
Hutter finished in third place in the first event, but busted in sixth place with a min-cash. He secured two cashes in the first two events. Flynt was the next player to hit the bricks in fifth place, followed by Lucky Chewy in fourth place. Japan's Mas Oya busted in third place, which set up the heads-up battle between Chris Brewer and Punsri.
Brewer could not deny Punsri consecutive wins at the Venetian. Brewer settled on $88,800 for a runner-up finish, while Punsri earned $133,200 for the victory. He also padded his lead with 133 additional PGT leaderboard points.
After two PGT events at the Venetian, Punsri is the official leader at the PokerGo Tour with 241 total points, while Erik Seidel is second with 106.
2022 PokerGo Tour - Venetian Event #2
Buy-in: $10,000
Entrants: 37
Prize Pool: $370,000
Payouts: 6
Final Table Results:
1. Punnat Punsri (Thailand) $133,200
2. Chris Brewer (USA) $88,800
3. Masashi Oya (Japan) $59,200
4. Andrew Lichtenberger (USA) $40,700
5. John Flynt (USA) $29,600
6. Barry Hutter (USA) $18,500
