Summary
- The 2023 PokerGO Cup runs until January 20 at Aria in Las Vegas
- Among the early winners are Sean Winter and Justin
- Saliba is having a great run at the tournament tables this year
The 2023 PokerGO Cup is now underway, with the first events playing out in Las Vegas last week. Multiple winners have already been crowned, collecting points early in the series which will count toward the PokerGO Tour Player of the Year leaderboard.
The Winners So Far
The 2023 PokerGO Cup kicked off on January 11 at the Aria Resort & Casino in Vegas. It features eight numbered events and runs until Jan 20.
Among those that already received trophies were familiar names, such as Sean Winter who won the 2022 US Poker Open. The Florida native took down Event #1: $10,000 No-Limit Hold’em for $216,000 after defeating Alex Foxen heads-up.
Aram Zobian dominated Event #2: $10,000 No-Limit Hold’em to take home $207,500 in top prize, outclassing Thai player Punnat Punsri heads-up. Ed Sebesta won Event #3: $10,000 No-Limit Hold’em for $216,000, with Nick Schulman as his heads-up opponent.
Both Zobian and Sebesta are well-known in the Vegas poker circuit and have had great runs at the 2023 PokerGO Cup so far. Following their early victories, the pair also reached the final table of Event #5: $15,000 No-Limit Hold’em, finishing 4th ($84,000) and 7th ($42,000) respectively.
Great Start to the Year for Justin Saliba
Another notable winner in the ongoing series is Justin Saliba of PokerCoaching.com. The American poker pro emerged victorious in Event #4: $10,000 No-Limit Hold’em for $195,000, and he did it in epic fashion.
Saliba entered the final table as the short stack and had to win a crucial hand against poker legend Erik Seidel to continue playing. On the flop of As3d8d, Saliba was fighting for his spot with queen-jack against Seidel’s pocket queens. Just as everyone thought Seidel would win the hand, the runout was Kd10d, giving Saliba a Broadway straight to survive the hand. The bad beat left Seidel in 6th place which came with a $46,800 payout.
During heads-up play against Anthony Hu, Saliba made another unlikely straight on the Qc3d runout to defeat his opponent and walk away with his first PokerGO trophy.
Saliba’s latest victory comes less than two weeks after he finished 5th in the $5,300 No-Limit Hold’em – The Return at Borgata where he won $304,629.
Another popular pro who has had deep runs at the ongoing series is Kristen Foxen who final-tabled Events #2 and #3 for over $150K in total winnings.
