After a dominant final table performance it was Artur Martirosyan who won the 2nd of the PGT Last Chance tournaments, collecting $211,200 in prize money and adding 211 points to his tally on the PGT leaderboard.
Those points have pushed the player from Russia into 46th spot on said leaderboard, closer to the top 40 and a seat in the end-of-season PGT Championship $1 million freeroll on January 9.
Martirosyan, clad in shades and a striking Gucci baseball cap adorned with roaring tigers, had to outmaneuver a group of high caliber players on the final table. These included Stephen Chidwick, Kristen Foxen and the previous night’s unlucky runner-up Daniel Smiljkovic.
Wire-to-wire performance at the final table
With 88 runners down to a final seven, Martirosyan held the chip lead heading into the final table. It was a lead that would increase significantly just four hands in as Smiljkovic, with a decent-sized stack of his own, attempted to run a bluff on the chip leader.
Martirosyan: K❤️Q♣
Smiljkovic: A♠J♦️️
With blinds at 15k/30k/30k, Smiljkovic min-raised from UTG+1, Martirosyan 3-bet to 270k from the small blind and then called Smiljkovic’s 500k 4-bet.
Out of position, Martirosyan check-called on all three streets with top pair…
Q♠8♦️️7♦️️3♣4♠
…to send the previous night’s runner-up to the rail with $44k and 44 points for the leaderboard.
He would shortly do the same to Kristen Foxen, his A♣J♣ holding up to beat Foxen’s K♠Q♣ and send her out in 6th, collecting $52,800 and 53 leaderboard points.
Victoria Livschitz was next to go in 5th, cashing for $70,400 as Latvia’s Vitalijs Zavorotnijs turned a set to reduce the field to four.
Chidwick misstep sets up Martirosyan for the win
Four-handed it was Martirosyan and Stephen Chidwick who held most of the chips, so the short-stacked Michael Jozoff and Zavorotnijs will have enjoyed seeing the two clash in the blinds.
Chidwick, in the big blind (with blinds at 40k/80k/80k), came over the top of Martirosyan’s small blind open to 350k, shoving for 2.57m. Martirosyan snap-called with a stronger ace.
Chidwick: A♣7♦️️
Martirosyan: A♦️️Q♣
The 4♠T♦️️A♠K♠5♠ board brought no help for Chidwick and the Englishman was eliminated, taking $88k and 88 points for 4th place.
With 1st knocking out 2nd, Martirosyan found himself with a stack of over 8m chips, compared to just 1.9m for Jozoff and 1m for Zavorotnijs.
That proved to be the eventual finishing order, Martirosyan quickly dispatching both players to claim the $211,200 first prize and those all-important leaderboard points.
PGT Last Chance #2 results
| Place | Player | Points | Prize |
| 1 | Artur Martirosyan | 211 | $211,200 |
| 2 | Michael Jozoff | 145 | $145,200 |
| 3 | Vitalijs Zavorotnijs | 110 | $110,000 |
| 4 | Stephen Chidwick | 88 | $88,000 |
| 5 | Victoria Livschitz | 70 | $70,400 |
| 6 | Kristen Foxen | 53 | $52,800 |
| 7 | Daniel Smiljkovic | 44 | $44,000 |
Last Chance #3 takes place tomorrow, with more chances to grab leaderboard points ahead of the PGT Championship freeroll, January 9. Leaderboard updates can be found here. Final table action from all the events will be streamed on the PokerGO YouTube channel, and we’ll bring you all the news and results at PokerOrg.
