Adam Friedman Dominates Late Stages, Wins PokerGO Tour Mixed Games Title

When it comes to mixed game tournaments, few have a track record as impressive as Adam Friedman’s. The veteran poker pro added to that already lengthy résumé on Thursday afternoon when he bested a 148-entry field in the second event of the PokerGO Tour Mixed Games series, a $5,100 8-game tournament. Friedman overcame a final table that featured fellow top pros Nick Schulman and Toby Lewis, and finished the job by defeating Tal Avivi heads-up.

He earned $170,200 and a trophy for his efforts. The victory brought the Ohio native’s career tournament earnings to nearly $5 million and added another mixed game title to an already impressive list of poker accomplishments.

Additionally, Friedman picks up 576 points towards the CardPlayer Player of the Year race, presented by Global Poker.

The 42-year-old already has five World Series of Poker bracelets, all coming in non-hold’em events. That includes back-to-back-to-back victories in the prestigious $10,000 dealers choice event from 2018-21, with the event not having been held in 2020 due to the pandemic.

At the outset of the tournament’s final day, Friedman’s shot at winning didn’t look all that great. He came into the seven-handed final table as the short stack, starting with roughly three big bets in limit games and 14 big blinds in the big bet formats.

Friedman held steady during the first two levels, while Avivi and Schulman dominated the action and other players hit the rail.

Anthony Arvidson was the first to go when his small two pair in seven card stud hi-lo was no match against Samuel Sternfield’s kings-up.

Sternfield sent Lewis to the rail in that same stud hi-lo rotation when the short-stacked British pro was all in on third street and only had king-high by the river. On the other hand, Sternfield made a full house to win the pot and eliminate Lewis in sixth.

Friedman chipped up to the middle of the pack without any significant showdowns, and then moved to the top of the counts by eliminating Fu Wong in fifth.

There was a three-way 2-7 triple draw hand between Friedman, Wong and Sternfield. The trio put in multiple bets after the first draw and one bet after the second. Heading into the third and final draw, Friedman and Wong both drew one while Sternfield stood pat.

Then, Friedman bet and Wong called off his final bet before Sternfield folded. Friedman showed 7-6-5-3-2 and bested Wong’s 8-6-4-3-2.

Wong’s elimination left Sternfield as the short stack and gave Friedman the chip lead.

Sternfield doubled up once through Schulman, but ultimately gave the rest of his chips to Friedman in a seven card stud hand where the two got all the chips in on third street. Sternfield started with split kings and Friedman had split sevens.
But Sternfield never improved and Friedman rivered two pair. Sternfield earned $55,500 for his fourth-place finish.

By the end of the level, Friedman held about 75% in play and it was smooth sailing from there. Friedman busted a short-stacked Schulman in stud with buried tens to take a better than 4-to-1 chip lead against Avivi.

Heads-up only lasted a couple hands before Friedman finished the job. Avivi netted $107,200 for his runner-up finish.

Final table results:

Photo credit: PokerGO.