It is one of the crown jewels of the PokerGO Tour schedule. For the tenth time, Poker Masters has hit the stage at the PokerGO Studios in Las Vegas, and they are kicking it off with a bang. Event #1 of the schedule is a $1 million guaranteed, $5,000 buy-in tournament, and as expected, the players have flooded the PokerGO tournament floor to vie for the title.
Sizeable Day 1A Field
Normally a $5,000 tournament will draw some healthy competition, but adding a guaranteed prize pool makes it even more popular. PokerGO was so confident in the opener to the 2025 Poker Masters that a $1 million guarantee was put on the tournament. Add in the factor of two rebuys for each flight and two starting flights, and cracking the $1 million mark should be no problem for Event #1 on the 2025 Poker Master schedule.
For Day 1A on Friday, 109 entries were received for the tournament, surpassing the halfway mark that would put the tournament on track to exceed the $1 million guarantee. Each of those players started with 125,000 in chips, and late entry was allowed until Level 9 of the tournament. While there was reduced vig for the early risers, reentries and late arrivals to the tournament had to pay full juice. Finally, the players would know if they got a piece of the pie by the end of the evening, as the final sixteen players were guaranteed a payday from the tournament.
Several notables would make their way from the comfort of their beds for the noon start of Event #1 of the 2025 Poker Masters. There for the opening bell were Poker Hall of Famer Erik Seidel, Adam Hendrix, Jeremy Ausmus, Shannon Shorr, recent PGT Bounty Blitz terror Jeremy Becker, Cherish Andrews (who, along with Victoria Livschitz, carried the banner for the ladies on Day 1A), David ‘Chino’ Rheem, Nick Schulman, and Josh Arieh were all in their seats for a day of poker excitement.
The unofficial first bust out of the 2025 Poker Masters would come via the hands of John Riordan. After Riordan raised from the button, a short-stacked Donald Hill popped his final 25K in chips to the center, and Riordan obliged him with a call. To be serious, Riordan was calling anything; his pocket Aces ruled over Hill’s K-J off suit and, although the board would bring a Jack, it was not enough to save Hill as he became the first knockout of the tournament.
Plenty of Action for High Stakes
The eliminations would continue throughout the day of action in the PokerGO Studios, with some players taking advantage of their rebuys and others keeping the powder dry for Day 1B on Saturday. Donnie Peters, who had gained entry through one of the satellite events held before the start of the 2025 Poker Masters, was one of those eliminations, running his pocket tens into the Big Slick of Bradley Gafford; after an uneventful flop, Gafford would turn a King and river another to trounce the tens of Peters.
Peters had plenty of company to join him on the rail. Stephen Song, Brock Wilson, Ausmus, Gafford, and Arieh were among the players who would not make it to the end of Day 1A. But Baker would flourish in the Poker Masters setting, even though he came to the party late.
Baker, who dubbed himself ‘ODB’ for “original David Baker” to differentiate himself from David ‘Bakes’ Baker, came into the game about seven hours after the first cards flew. He would immediately set about adding to that 125,000-starting stack, nearly doubling his stack within his first hour of play. A clash with Eric Baldwin would give additional fuel to Baker’s charge.
After a K-5-3-8 flop and turn, there was roughly 150K in the center as Baker checked his option. Baldwin made his stand with his remaining 145K in chips, and Baker called for less as the cards went to their backs:
Baker (small blind): K-10
Baldwin (big blind): K-Q
With Baker at risk, Baldwin was in prime position to knock out a difficult opponent…that is, until a 10♣ came on the river to give Baker two pair. Doubling his stack to 430K and reducing Baldwin to rubble (“Nasty” was all Baldwin could say afterward), Baker would continue to charge up the leaderboard, ending Day 1A in the chip lead of the sixteen players remaining.
1. David ‘ODB’ Baker (USA), 1.815 million
2. Aram Zobian (USA), 1.53 million
3. Michael Berk (USA), 1.205 million
4. Doug Lee (Canada), 1.16 million
5. Chris Hunichen (USA), 1.1 million
6. Andrew Lichtenberger (USA), 1.015 million
7. Peter Mugar (USA), 825,000
8. Jim Collopy (USA), 810,000
9. Andrew Ostapchenko (USA), 745,000
10. Michael Rossitto (Italy), 720,000
Day 1B will begin at noon Pacific Daylight Time (3 PM EDT) in the PokerGO Studios, with the same format – 125,000 starting stack, two rebuy max, and the play stops at the final sixteen. Expect to see a flood of players on Saturday, as the $1 million guaranteed prize pool should be utterly crushed halfway through the afternoon. On Sunday, the two Day One flights will come together to battle it out for the first championship of the 2025 Poker Masters.
(Photo courtesy of PokerGO.com)
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