Spencer Champlin Wins 2024 Poker Masters Kickoff

The first champion of the 2024 Poker Masters has been decided. Spencer Champlin overcame a field of 131 entries in the $5,100 buy-in no-limit hold’em kickoff event to secure the title and the top prize of $160,475.

This was the Scarborough, Maine native’s first PokerGO Tour title, and his second-largest recorded tournament score. The two-time World Series of Poker Circuit ring winner now has nearly $3.2 million in lifetime earnings accrued across 387 in-the-money finishes.

Champlin now has seven final-table finishes in 2024, with this being his first title of the year. This win earned him 528 Card Player Player of the Year points and 160 PokerGO Tour points. He now sits in 87th place in the 2024 POY race standings presented by Global Poker, and is within reach of the top 200 in the PGT rankings.

This event ran for two days inside the PokerGO Studio at ARIA Resort & Casino in Las Vegas. The strong turnout built a prize pool of $655,000 that was paid out among the top 19 finishers. Plenty of big names cashed, including current POY race second-ranked contender David Coleman (17th), 2013 WSOP main event champion Ryan Riess (16th), bracelet winner Alex Foxen (15th), bracelet winner Chris Hunichen (11th), Eshaan ‘Brown Balla’ Bhalla (9th), two-time Super High Roller Bowl winner Isaac Haxton (8th), and World Poker Tour champion Matthew Wantman (7th).

Only contenders six moved on to the live-streamed final table, with 2024 WSOP Circuit Commerce Casino main event champion Jessica Vierling coming into day 2 atop the chip counts.

The first knockout came right after cards got in the air. Champlin shoved with Q3 from the small blind after it folded around to him. Bracelet winner Nicholas Seward called all-in from the big blind for 14 big blinds total with AK. Seward remained ahead through the turn, but a queen on the river saw him eliminated in sixth place ($32,750). This increased Sweards’s lifetime tournament haul to nearly $1.6 million. The largest chunk of that total ($516,135) came from his win in this year’s $3,000 six-max event at the WSOP.

Bracelet winner Zachary Grech lost a big chunk of his stack semi-bluffing with a straight draw into the flopped two pair of Vierling. He was left with fewer than three big blinds after bet-folding the river. He picked up pocket queens shortly after that to give himself some breathing room, but was soon all-in and at risk with 86 trailing the A5 of bracelet winner and WPT champion Dylan Linde. Linde made aces and fours to secure the pot, while Grech settled for $39,300 as the fifth-place finisher. The 2023 WSOP Online $400 turbo event champion now has over $862,000 in recorded earnings.

A preflop cooler spelled the end of Dan Shak’s run in this event. He had the best of it to start, with pocket tens leading the pocket nines of Vierling. A nine on the turn gave Vierling a set and the lead, but also improved Shak to an open-ended straight draw. The board paired on the end, though, giving Vierling nines full of queens and the pot. Shak was sent to the rail with $52,400 for his efforts. His tournament resume now features nearly $15 million in career cashes.

Linde was left as the shortest stack after his A-Q was outrun by the A-4 of Champlin in a preflop all-in confrontation. Not long after that he got all-in with Q-6 suited from the small blind, only to run into K-Q for Champlin. Linde was drawing dead by the turn and finished in third place. The $72,050 payout for this result increased his career earnings to nearly $10.3 million.

Heads-up play began with Vierling holding roughly a 2:1 lead over Champlin. She pulled even further ahead after winning a big pot with pocket aces against the top pair of queens held by Champlin. She almost closed out the title with K-Q leading Champlin’s Q-J in a preflop all-in, but Champlin paired his jack on the turn and held from there to double out of the danger zone. He then doubled again with A7 holding against the K7 of Vierling to close the gap even more.

From there on it was a back-and-forth affair. Champlin took the lead with an eight-high straight besting Vierling’s seven-high straight, only to have Vierling jump back out in front with a set of fours besting Champlin’s second pair.

The two ultimately battled for roughly an hour before the final hand of the tournament was dealt. Champlin held roughly a 5:3 lead and AQ on the button. He opened with a min-raise to 500,000 on the button and Vierling, who had 24.3 big blinds to start, three-bet shoved from the big blind with AJ.

Champlin quickly called and the board ran out 953AQ to give him aces up and the title. Vierling, who earned her seat in this event in a $560 satellite, walked away with $98,250 as the runner-up. This deep run grew her lifetime earnings to more than $1.2 million.

Here is a look at the payouts and rankings points awarded at the final table:

Photo credits: PokerGO / Miguel Cortes.