The Celebrity Poker Tour is one of PokerGO’s greatest hits. This week, the third CPT Game Night saw legends of the stage and screen meet at the purple felt, with just the two players who made heads-up winning money. With 20-minute levels, 100,000 starting stacks and just one rebuy or add-on permitted before the end of level 9, it took over four hours to find a winner as the American social media personality and bare-knuckle boxer Bryce Hall triumphed.
A Line-Up of Superstars
While the luminaries who arrived to play Game Night III on the Celebrity Poker Tour weren’t the best poker players on the planet, popularity away from the felt was not a problem. Twitch streamer JC Caylen, the aforementioned Bryce Hall, Steiny, part of the Nelk Boys and Full Send crews, H3 Show host Ethan Klein, YouTube superstar Tana Mongeau, her partner Makoa, and podcast host Zach Justice were joined later at the felt by American contortionist Sofie Dossi and Israeli-American fashion designer and businesswoman Hila Klein.
If anyone won a hand with seven-deuce, then each player still in the tournament had to pay them a big blind bounty. That meant the action was fast from the first hand, and Caylen took a big chunk out of the stacks of several others in a four-bet pot that went five ways to the flop. Caylen hit a flush draw and that came in on the turn. What was even better for the Twitch streamer was that Bryce Hall held ace-deuce and turned a straight. Eventually, a chunky raise from Hall on the turn led to an all-in from Caylen and he scooped he force Hall into an early rebuy.
Hall didn’t get off to a great start with his second stack, losing around 30% of it to Justice when the latter’s pocket tens beat his pocket sevens, Hall tossing his pocket pair away on the A-K-Q flop to save some precious funds. In a big hand where a flop of K-T-4 with two hearts prompted a 50,000 bet from Ethan Klein, Caylen was stunned. Looking down at king-jack offsuit with no hearts, the chip leader eventually put the call in. Steiny shoved for 99,000 with queen-three of hearts and Klein – who had pocket aces! – made the further call but Caylen folded it away. Steiny slammed the felt after a three on the turn, asking for one of 14 outs, but he missed them all, screaming “Noooo!” to the amusement of his opponents.
The Rise and Fall of Ethan Klein
Klein as a big chip leader after that hand with over 300,000 chips and a few hands later, he’d used his stack to amass an incredible 428,000 chips, with his closest challenger Justice on just 212,000. On a board showing J-8-5-6-3 with four clubs, Klein and Mongeau were embroiled in a big pot, with Mongeau holding pocket sixes for a turned set and Klein only king-eight with no clubs. Two checks followed and Mongeau was delighted to scoop the pot, with Klein possibly regretting his inability to pound the river to represent the flush.
By the middle of the game, the stacks were very even, and Klein, who had seen his lead evaporate in a series of smallball pots, committed his chips with seven-eight of clubs on a flop of J-8-4 with two clubs. He was up against Justice when the chips went in, with the latter holding queen-jack for top pair. Klein was a 42% shot to survive with the gutshot to add to his flush draw but a nine on the turn didn’t help and the eight river ended the hand with Klein on the rail.
Klein’s departure saw his seat filled by America’s Got Talent contortionist Sofie Dossi arrive in a square glass case. Extracting herself from the self-imposed cage, Dossi looked around the table at stunned faces as she pranced onto her chair. Soon, she was giving away chips, losing big with ace-king against Steiny’s jack-six as the board came J-J-5-5-Q. By the conclusion of the hand, he’d taken Dossi down to 51,000 from her 100,000 starting stack.
Dossi wasn’t the next player to leave, however, as Tana Mongeau proved that reality bites, as she busted with pocket nines to Steiny’s ace-eight on a board of A-Q-2-3, with a miracle river of a nine not coming, an eight instead landing to give Steiny two pair and send Mongeau – the favorite before the show – to the rail.
Late Drama as Hall Provides Heroics
As the final stages of the event began, Hila Klein took her seat, and it was a race to the final two players and the money. On a flop of A-Q-4, Steiny had flopped top two pair, and he managed to get it in against Makoa’s king-jack. All the chips wrnt in from Makoa on the ten turn that gace gim a Broadway straight but a queen on the river gave ‘Steinburger’ a full house and Makoa had lost in a sick manner.
At that stage, Hall was a short stack but he doubled back into contention and so too did Dossi, all-in with jacks against Steiny’s ace-king on a board that offered Dossi only 7 outs on the river. She made a straight with an eight and the beginning of Steiny’s decline was upon us. Dossi continued her resurgence as her pocket tens took out Justice who shoved the river when he only paired a four on board.
Despite winning for some time, Dossi’s luck ran out, as she dropped down the pecking order and departed when ace-queen lost to Hila Klein’s pocket fours. Missing 10 outs twice on turn and river, the effervescent Dossi was pure entertainment throughout. It was time for the money bubble and it would be the former chip leader Steiny who left in third, outside the money. His ace-five lost to Hall’s pocket fives and play was heads-up, with Klein holding a 3:1 chip lead.
Klein lost her lead when her king-ten failed to hold against Hall’s ten-nine on a flop of K-8-7, Hall turning the straight and while both players then took the lead and lost it on multiple occasions, but Klein fell to a 10:1 underdog. She began a comeback but Hall’s seven-six won out, making two-pair against Klein’s ace-jack when a board of T-9-7-6-2 ended the vent and gave Bryce Hall the title.
Watch all the action on CPT Game Night III right here as Bryce Hall won his first-ever poker tournament and took the $10,000 top prize, leaving Hila Klein to collect the runner-up prize of $5,000 at the ARIA PokerGO Studio in Las Vegas.