The poker pro played at 16 final tables last year and has already captured his first twin of 2024
Artur Martirosian reached 16 final tables in 2023 with two tournament wins and finished just behind the top ten players in the Card Player’ Player of the Year’ standings presented by Global Poker. He also took home over $8.3 million in POY earnings. He’s building on that success, winning the PokerGo Tour Last Chance series just a few days into the new year.
Martirosian beat 88 players in the $10,500 buy-in No-Limit Hold ’em event to take the $211,200 first-place prize. The two-time bracelet winner increased his lifetime earnings to almost $15.5 million.
Martirosian earned 480 POY points and 211 PokerGo Tour points last year as the season-ending PGT Championship $1,000,000 freeroll approaches on January 9. He’s 46th on the overall PGT leaderboard and first in PGT Last Chance series points. He’ll need to either crack the PGT top 40 or earn a Dream Seat by finishing in the top two in points in this series to advance to the PGT Championship.
Martirosian took a big pot early at the final table, calling runner-up Daniel Smiljkovic’s shove on the river with top pair to extend his chip lead entering six-handed play. Smiljkovic has two deep runs in the series, cashing a total of $194,150.
Kristen Foxen was the next to fall to Martirosian, earning $52,800 for sixth place, just behind Victoria Livschitz, who would take a $70,400 payday for her fifth-place finish. Two-time POY award winner Stephen Chidwick’s run ended in fourth place for $88,000, taking his career total to $54.9 million in earnings.
Vitalijs Zavorotnijs finished third for $110,000 as Martirosian took his lead into heads-up play against Michael Jozoff ($145,200) before hitting trips on the final hand to earn the title.
