Who Won Biggest in the PokerGO Tour Bounty Blitz Series?

The six PGT Bounty Blitz events, taking place in five different formats, have all been in No Limit hold’em, and say stars of the felt such as Jeremy Becker, Landon Tice and Chino Rheem all bag outright victories at ARIA on the Sin City Strip.

Early Win for Becker

Back in 2024, the WSOP crossbook bet between Landon Tice and Jeremy Becker had the poker world captivated. On the one hand, Landon Tice was led by GTO players and on the other side of the fence, Jeremy Becker was coached by Daniel Negreanu as he bid to put live tell-spotting to good use across the felt. Last week, ‘JBex’ kicked off proceedings with a victory in the opening event, taking home $55,000 when he topped the leaderboard in the first of six events costing $5,300 to play – or $5,100 if you began the event in your seat.

Starting the final six as the short stack, Becker’s stunning comeback win came against all the odds with the more experienced Josh Arieh (6^th for $9,600) and Darren Rabinowitz (5^th for $11,700) dropping out of the running early. When Andrew ‘Chewy’ Lichtenberger left in fourth for $14,500, the podium was confirmed, before Becker knocked out John Andress in third for $19,300. Heads-up, Becker turned a straight against Qin Zhao’s two pair and won not only the $45,600 top prize, but $8,000 in bounties too.

Becker came sixth in the second event, entering play as the short stack once again, but this time failing to improve on that position by the time the action was over. It was the Spanish player Sergio Aido who won Event #2, taking home $47,500 after toppling Chris ‘Big Huni’ Hunichen in heads-up play. In fact, Becker was unlucky, seeing his pocket aces lose to Aido’s pocket kings in the early action.

Others to make the final table but miss out on the really big money included Chino Rheem (5^th for $12,300) and Sean Winter (4^th for $15,100), before Hunichen’s ousting of Michael Berk in third place for $20,100 brought about heads-up play. Aido made a brilliant call after Hunichen bluffed to switch the lead before he flopped the top pair of a jack. So too did Aido, and after the money went into the middle, the Spaniard’s kicker was bigger, seeing him drag the pot and take the title.

Tice Takes a Title

In Event #3 of the PGT Bounty Blitz series, Landon Tice won the $47,500 top prize and also collected $32,000 in bounty prizes as he slayed the opposition. Worth more than Jeremy Becker’s win, Tice’s victory came at the expense of Dan Shak heads-up, with appearances from Cherish Andrews and John Andress at the final table felt too.

Andrews was the unfortunate player of the final six, running ace-king into the pocket aces of Shak pre-flop and losing her stack as a result. Shak, who didn’t start with the biggest stack, doubled up through Tice and after Sam Laskowitz busted in third place for $21,400 (and no bounties), turned around the chip deficit he faced heads-up.

Shak lost the lead before shoved with king-high but Tice correctly called with ace-queen and rode the board out to take the title and his latest PokerGO Tour win, the first one in 2025. With his sixth cash on the PGT taking him up to 81^st place on the season leaderboard, Tice remains 41 places short of a guaranteed seat in the season-ending $1m Freeroll Championship.

Chino on the Chase

Chino Rheem’s victory in Event #4 was arguably the most important of the final three events to take place, with Event #5 won by Jason Hickey for $50,000 and $47,000 in bounties, with Sam Laskowitz taking home over $£50,000 in total prize in Event #6. Event #4, however, saw a totally dominant performance from Chino Rheem, whose prowess extended to a final table lead at the start of the final day, which he converted into yet another PGT win.

On the money bubble, Christian Roberts just missed out on profit in the event, leaving a final table led by Rheem. Other big names had serious stacks, however, as Alex Condon (6^th for $10,600), Chris ‘Big Huni’ Hunichen (5^th for $13,800) and Andrew Kelsall (3^rd for $23,400) all missed out on the final duel.

Heads-up, Rheem was taking on Jeremy Becker, but ‘JBex’ failed to bag his second title of the series, dominated to defeat in the final hand by Rheem’s king-queen when he himself held jack-queen. A king on both the flop and turn meant the hand was over before the river fell and the two men shook hands as Chino Rheem denied Jeremy Becker a second PGT Bounty Blitz title.