On Monday, John Racener became the latest high-powered pro to capture his first-ever PokerGO Tour title, winning Event #5 of the PGT's ongoing Mixed Games series, $10,200 Triple Stud. Racener collected #151,200 to go along with his debut PGT win in a format that offered rotating rounds of seven-card stud's three most popular variants -- stud (high hand only), razz, and stud eight-or-better.
Racener was the third player in the five PGT Mixed Games events completed to date to stave off elimination during the final table, then surge back to claim the victory. Here, Racener's near-exit occurred late in three-handed play against Max Hoffman and Event #2 winner John Hennigan. Racener had little more than one big bet remaining during a stud-high hand, but at that point won three straight hands to turn the tide.
Hennigan eventually busted in third, but with his third deep run in five events, he reclaimed a narrow lead in the Mixed Games series' leaderboard race ahead of Mori Eskandani and Dan Zack, Hoffman finished as the Event #5 runner-up after also falling to Racener's closing rush. Hennigan closed Day 1 action with the lead but came up just short in his effort to become this series' first repeat winner.
Racener nears $11.7 million in recorded tournament cashes
This PGT title marks Racener's third major win, joining his WSOP bracelet triumph in a 2017 Dealer's Choice event and a 2007 win in a WSOP Circuit main event at Harrah's Atlantic City. Racener is likely most known, however, not for a poker win, but for his runner-up finish in the 2010 WSOP Main Event.
Racener's $5.5 million payday in that 2010 tourney still accounts for nearly half of his lifetime live-event winnings of nearly $11.7 million.
This PGT Mixed Games $10.2K triple-stud event drew 42 entries and built a $420,000 prize pool, paying the top six finishers. Dzmitry Urbanovich bubbled the five-player, Day 2 finale but still collected a min-cash, while Adam Friedman and Scott Lake made Day 2 and finished fourth and fifth, respectively.
Event #5: $10,200 Triple Draw Payouts
| Place | Name | Country | PGT Points | Prize |
| 1 | John Racener | United States | 151 | $151,200 |
| 2 | Max Hoffman | United States | 101 | $100,800 |
| 3 | John Hennigan | United States | 63 | $63,000 |
| 4 | Adam Friedman | United States | 46 | $46,200 |
| 5 | Scott Lake | United States | 34 | $33,600 |
| 6 | Dzmitry Urbanovich | Belarus | 25 | $25,200 |
