Jesse Lonis claimed the second PokerGO Tour title of his career on Wednesday by taking down Event #2 of the PGT's 2024 US Poker Open series, $10,100 No-Limit Hold'em. Lonis topped a 99-entry field in dominating fashion to earn $252,450 after eliminating all six of his Day 2 foes.
Lonis begin the live-streamed finale with the lead after a nearly-as-dominating Day 1, coming into Wednesday's finale with a 3,295,000 chip stack that was more than 500,000 chips ahead of his closest competitor, Kristina Holst. Lonis picked up where he left off, sending off each of the other players in order, beginning with Sean Winter and ending with Aram Zobian, who earned $163,350 as the runner-up.
Holst held on for a third-place finish worth $113,850. In a rarity for the high buy-in PGT events, Event #2 featured an all-US finale.
Lonis moves to top of series' leaderboard chase
The victory was worth 252 PGT leaderboard points and moved Lonis into the lead for the US Poker Open's Player of the Series honor. Lonis and Zobian both passed Event #1 winner Erik Seidel. Lonis is poised to pad his margin as well, as following his quick run to the Event #2 win, he jumped into the ongoing Event #3 and stayed hot, finishing the night fourth in chips, well-positioned entering today's Event #3 finale.
The win continues Lonis's march into the world of poker's live-event elite, which has taken place over the past couple of years. Wednesday's payday was just the seventh-largest for Lonis since the start of 2023. In the past 16 months, he's won most of the $8.06 million he's garnered to date in career-live tourney winnings.
Fifteen players made the money in Event #2, $10.1K NLH. The 99 total paid entrants produced a $990,000 prize pool. The Day 2 finishers in the event were as follows:
- Jesse Lonis (United States) - $252,450
- Aram Zobian (United States) - $163,350
- Kristina Holst (United States) - $113,850
- Rodger Johnson (United States) - $89,100
- Joey Weissman (United States) - $64,350
- Victoria Livschitz (United States) - $49,500
- Sean Winter (United States) - $39,600
Featured image source courtesy PokerGO (Antonio Abrego)
