Ren Lin Crowned Inaugural PGT Texas Poker Open Main Event Champion

The first-ever PokerGO Tour Texas Poker Open $3,300 buy-in no-limit hold’em main event drew a field of 735 entries to the Champions Club Texas in Houston, TX. The sizable turnout saw the tournament’s $2 million guarantee easily surpassed, with $2,205,000 in total prize money ultimately paid out among the top 86 finishers. The largest chunk went to champion Ren Lin, who secured belt buckle trophy and $400,000 for the win.

This was the seventh-largest score of Lin’s career, and his 30th cash for six figures or more. He now has more than $11.6 million in lifetime tournament earnings.

Lin has now made six final tables in 2024, with this being his first outright victory. This latest deep run saw him earn 1,368 Card Player Player of the Year points. With 3,011 total points and nearly $1.6 million in to-date POY earnings, he is now ranked eighth in the POY rankings presented by Global Poker. He’ll be looking to improve on a career-best fifth-place showing in the 2023 POY race.

Lin also earned 400 PGT points for this win, enough to move him inside the top 25 in the season-long PGT points race.

This event ran from April 24-29, with eight starting flights preceding two days of combined-field action. Among those that ran deep were Andrew Lichtenberger (33rd), Brad Ruben (32nd), Victoria Livshitz (28th), David Coleman (27th), Jeremy Becker (21st), Isaac Kempton (16th), Shaun Deeb (15th), Jeremy Ausmus (11th), and DJ Alexander (10th).

Lin was in second chip position when the final table of nine was set, but he sat with roughly half as many chips as big stack Yunkyu Song. 2013 World Series of Poker main event champion Ryan Riess was the shortest stack when the final table began. Riess managed to outlast Miguel Use (9th – $40,000), and got all-in with pocket kings leading A-4 for Song. The board brought four clubs, though, giving Song the nut flush and the knockout. Riess earned $52,000 as the eighth-place finisher.

Lin scored his first knockout when his A-10 bested the K-Q of bracelet winner Tyler Brown (7th – $66,000). PokerGO commentator and bracelet winner Brent Hanks soon joined Brown on the rail, with his flush and gutshot straight draws failing to improve against the top pair of Jonathan Tamayo. Hanks earned $83,000 as the sixth-place finisher to grow his lifetime earnings to nearly $2 million.

Daniel Holmes (5th – $103,000) was the next to fall, with his K-J suited failing to overcome the A-Q suited of a surging Lin. A cooler saw Lin take a sizable chip lead during four-handed action, with his flopped top two pair improving to jacks full on the river to best the fives full of Song, who had flopped bottom set. Song ultimately bowed out in 4th place, earning $133,000 for his efforts.

Tamayo’s run concluded in third place when his K-10 ran into the A-J of Daniel Moran. An ace-high runout saw Tamayo head to the cashier to collect $180,000.

Lin entered heads-up play with 23,475,000 to Moran’s 20,625,000. A preflop cooler resulted in a brief battle, as all of the chips went in on the first hand of the clash. Lin raised on the button with JJ and Moran three-bet with 1010. Lin’s four-bet was met with a five-bet shove from Moran. Lin called and the board ran out AJ535 to give Lin jacks full and the title. Moran earned $275,000 as the runner-up.

Here is a look at the payouts and rankings points awarded at the final table:

Photo credits: PokerGO / Antonio Abrego.