From a Quarter of a Big Blind to $192K: Poker Masters Produces Two Wild Winners

There are comebacks, and then there's finding yourself with 20,000 chips when the big blind is 80,000.

Justin Vaysman ran into that exact same problem at a Poker Masters final table this Monday, where he somehow ended the afternoon holding the trophy. Twenty-four hours later, Jeremy Ausmus took a less improbable but still historically significant route to another title, beating a loaded $15,700 field for the 10th PokerGO Tour win of his career.

Between them, the two tournaments awarded more than half a million dollars to their champions and pushed the Purple Jacket race into its final three event stretch. Naturally, we had to take a closer look.

Event #6 began its final day with seven players  within striking distance of one another, since only 15 big blinds separated chip leader Sean Winter from the shortest stack. That balance didn't last all that long for Vaysman.

Winter whittled him down to 20,000 during the 40,000/80,000 level, leaving Vaysman with one-quarter of a big blind and virtually no room to choose his next spot. Instead of disappearing, Vaysman doubled, doubled again and eventually found the hand that pulled him back into the tournament.

Four-handed, Vaysman's ace-nine was up against Winter's king-three and Brandon Wilson's ace-king in a three-way all-in. An ace-nine victory gave Vaysman the pot, Wilson was left severely short and suddenly the player who had been almost out was back among the serious stacks.

Victoria Livschitz exited in third, setting up heads-up play between Winter and Vaysman. Winter began with the advantage, although it gradually disappeared as Vaysman chipped away.

The turning point came when Vaysman called three streets with king-six on an ace-king-nine-queen-two board and caught Winter bluffing. The title wasn't far behind: Vaysman flopped top two pair with ten-nine, Winter pushed his draws on the turn and a ten on the river gave Vaysman a full house.

His first PGT trophy came with $192,000 and 192 series points.

Tuesday's winner arrived with a little more experience when it comes to closing out PokerGO Tour tournaments.

Jeremy Ausmus began the five-player finale third in chips, behind Aram Oganyan and Adrian Mateos, but the rest of the table gradually disappeared at his hands.

First came Cherish Andrews, whose ace-queen failed to improve against Ausmus' pocket nines. Mateos, already leading the Purple Jacket race after winning Event #5, slipped down the counts before Ausmus eliminated him in fourth. Then Joe McKeehen ran pocket nines into pocket kings and left in third.

Oganyan made heads-up competitive enough to take the lead at one point, but the largest pot between the two settled things quickly. Ausmus rivered a straight with seven-five while Oganyan held trip fours; Oganyan shoved the river, Ausmus called and suddenly owned almost all the chips in play.

Queen-seven against jack-five ended it a few hands later.

The $278,400 win was Ausmus' 10th PGT title, placing him among the small group of players to reach double figures on the tour. It also took him to three cashes in the first seven Poker Masters events and fifth place in the Purple Jacket race.