Motivation from Berkey Diss? Jonathan Little Wins PokerGO Cup Title; Negreanu Rejoices
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Matt Berkey came after his poker coaching competitor Jonathan Little earlier this week, and perhaps that served as a bit of motivation for the latter, who conquered the 2024 PokerGO Cup finale and overall series crown on Saturday. Daniel Negreanu, who came to Little's defense, was quite thrilled with the outcome, to say the least.
Little, the founder of PokerCoaching.com, won Event #8: $25,200 No-Limit Hold'em for $453,750, his second victory of the series. Despite cashing in 50% of the events and winning two of them, he didn't coast to the series title. That's because David Peters was nearly as impressive during the second PokerGO Tour series of the new year.
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Little Proves His Talents in High Stakes Poker Series
Earlier this week, Berkey, who founded the Solve for Why poker training brand, made some critical comments directed at Little's poker strategy. Less than two days later, Little went on to win PokerGO Cup Event #3: $10,100 No-Limit Hold'em for $229,500. And for good measure, to prove that it was no fluke, he earned his second win of the series on Saturday.
In that series finale, against a field of 55 players at the PokerGO Studio in Las Vegas, Little faced some stiff competition in the way of some of the top high-stakes pros in the world, including Peters, who didn't cash, and Stephen Chidwick, the eighth place finisher ($55,000).
Event #8 Final Table Results
| PLACE | PLAYER | PRIZE (IN USD) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jonathan Little | $453,700 |
| 2 | Justin Zaki | $288,750 |
| 3 | Justin Saliba | $192,500 |
| 4 | John Riordan | $137,500 |
| 5 | Seth Davies | $110,000 |
| 6 | Shanell Stokes | $82,500 |
When the final table began, Little had a little stack and it was only about one-third the size of chip leader John Riordan. After Justin Zaki won a race to send Shanell Stokes home in sixth place ($82,500), the eventual champion was stuck with the shortest stack.
Little soon found a double when he flopped middle pair against Zaki's straight draw, which didn't come through. He then caught Seth Davies bluffing to scoop a big pot, putting him in a better spot than he was earlier in the day.
Little would eventually clip Davies in fifth place ($110,000), but still trailed Zaki by a significant amount. That all changed when the respected poker coach called off most of his stack with a pair of aces against the small pair and missed flush draw Zaki held.
At that point, Little had taken over full control of the final table. He took out Riordan in fourth place ($137,500) with AxQx against AxJx, before Zaki eliminated Justin Saliba in third place ($192,500), setting up a heads-up match that was close in chips.
Little's lead at the start of heads-up play was slim, but he'd quickly extend it and never relinquished the lead. On the final hand, Zaki called an all in with K?7? and was hoping to outdraw A?3?, but the board ran out 7?9?A?J?J?, putting an end to the tournament. The runner-up took home $288,750 as a consolation prize.
Jonathan Little Also Wins PokerGO Cup Series Title
As if winning $453,700 and his second title of the series, Little was also crowned the overall series victor. In the final event, he earned 272 points, bringing his point total up to 549. That put him 92 points ahead of Peters, the runner-up. Zaki (405 points) finished in third place, David Coleman (347 points) took fourth, while Davies (277 points) settled for fifth place.
Peters and Little were the biggest stars during the 2024 PokerGO Cup. Had Little failed to win his heads-up match on Sunday, Zaki would have overtaken Peters and Little for the series crown.
Little finished with four cashes in eight events, totaling $730,000 in earnings, while Peters's two cashes, both wins, resulted in $456,525 worth of cashes.
The banner series puts Little over $8.8 million in live tournament cashes, according to The Hendon Mob. As for Berkey, who is often critical of his competitor's poker strategy tweets, he's at $4.7 million lifetime, headlined by his career-best $1.1 million fifth place finish in the 2016 $300,000 buy-in Super High Roller Bowl.
Little's top cash, coincidentally, was for almost exactly the same amount, but in a $10,000 buy-in World Poker Tour (WPT) event in 2008. He won a separate WPT event in 2007 for just over $1 million.
Poker X Takes Sides in Berkey/Little Rivalry
PokerGO Cup Series Complete Results
| EVENT | TOURNAMENT | ENTRIES | PRIZE POOL | WINNER | PRIZE (IN USD) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $5,100 No-Limit Hold'em | 111 | $555,000 | David Peters | $141,525 |
| 2 | $10,100 No-Limit Hold'em | 89 | $690,000 | Dylan Weisman | $240,300 |
| 3 | $10,100 No-Limit Hold'em | 85 | $850,000 | Jonathan Little | $229,500 |
| 4 | $10,100 No-Limit Hold'em | 81 | $810,000 | Cary Katz | $226,800 |
| 5 | $10,100 No-Limit Hold'em | 83 | $830,000 | Justin Zaki | $232,400 |
| 6 | $15,100 No-Limit Hold'em | 63 | $945,000 | David Coleman | $302,400 |
| 7 | $15,100 No-Limit Hold'em | 70 | $1,050,000 | David Peters | $315,000 |
| 8 | $25,200 No-Limit Hold'em | 55 | $1,375,000 | Jonathan Little | $453,750 |
