Chino Rheem Wins Seventh Career PGT Title in Event #5: $10,100 No-Limit Hold'em

Chino Rheem came into the final table of Event #5: $10,100 No-Limit Hold'em of the 2025 Poker Masters with the chip lead and, despite losing that lead mid-way through the day, stormed back to capture his seventh career PGT title, the Purple Jacket Trophy, the $280,000 first-place prize, and 280 PGT points. 

Rheem may have started the day as the chip leader, but he was relegated to a spectator role early. On the second hand of play, with John Riordan sitting on a sub-ten big blind stack, a three-way all-in developed between Anatoly Nikitin, Aram Zobian, and Andrew Lichtenberger. 

Nikitin started the action with a min-raise on the button, Zobian three-bet roughly 80% of his approximately 1,00,000 into the middle from the small blind, Lichtenberger moved all in for 1,200,000 from the big blind, Nikitin called, and Zobian tossed the rest of his stack into the middle. Zobian tabled ace-king, Lichtenberger tabled pocket kings, and Nikitin had them both crushed when he tabled pocket aces. 

The board ran out four hearts, giving Nikitin the nut flush to send Zobian home in seventh place for $44,800 plus 45 PGT points and Lichtenberger home in sixth place for $56,200 plus 56 PGT points as Riordan scored a pair of pay jumps right off the bat without having to find a double. 

After securing the unlikely pay jumps, Riordan would eventually find himself forced all in from the small blind with queen-ten and looked in great shape to double against Nikitin's seven-six after he flopped top pair. However, the deck proved unkind to Riordan as it went running sevens, giving Nikitin a full house to send him to the rail in fifth place for $72,500 plus 73 PGT points. 

Even with the trio of eliminations for Nikitin, Rheem still held the chip lead heading into four-handed play, but that's when things got spicy. Stephen Song, who needed a third-place or better finish to overtake Mitchell Halverson for the overall lead in the race for the 2025 Purple Jacket, scored three consecutive doubles, twice through Rheem and once through Nikitin, leaving the trio bunched at the top of the counts and trading the chip lead back and forth. 

Song would drop to the short stack when his jack-ten could not run down Daniyal Gheba's ace-queen in a blind vs blind battle, and Rheem would take advantage a few hands later when his pocket fives sent Song's pocket threes home in fourth place for $100,500 plus 101 PGT points to retake the chip lead for good. 

The elimination gave Rheem a nearly five-to-one chip lead over both Nikitin and Gheba, and he made quick work of the pair as the deck smashed him in the face to close it out. First in a blind vs blind confrontation, Nikitin found himself all in for roughly two million with ace-king and the Russian was well ahead of Rheem's ace-ten, only to see a ten in the window on the flop. The turn gave Nikitin the nut flush draw, but when the river failed to come up a diamond or a king, his first career PGT final table came to an end in third place for $129,000 plus 129 PGT points. 

With his second consecutive elimination, Rheem took a nearly twelve-to-one chip lead into the heads-up match, and two hands in, Gheba found himself all in for roughly 1,000,000 with six-four of hearts, which, much to Rheem's surprise, trailed this seven-five of diamonds. The flop was a good one for Rheem as he paired his seven, leaving Gheba dead on the turn when none of his backdoor draws materialized, and Gheba hit the showers in second place for $185,000 plus 185 PGT points. 

Event #5: $10,100 No-Limit Hold'em Final Table Payouts

Mitchell Halverson Remains in Pole Position for 2025 Purple Jacket

With five events in the books, we are officially at the halfway point of the 2025 Poker Masters, and thanks to his pair of runner-up finishes in the first two events Mitchell Halverson remains atop the leaderboard with 330 points with five events to play. 

Halverson failed to pick up his fourth cash of the series in Event #5. However, Stephen Song did pick up his fourth cash and now sits in second place with 302 points after falling one spot short of overtaking Halverson for the lead in the race for the Purple Jacket. Chino Rheem, who picked up his second cash of the series with the win in Event #5, now sits in third with 290 points. 

Rounding out the top five are a pair of event winners, as Daren Elias sits in fourth with 280 points after topping Event #4, and David Coleman sits in fifth with 270 points after taking home the title in the $1,000,000 Showcase opening event. 

Elsewhere on the 2025 PGT Season Leaderboard, Rheem picked up his fourth title of the season and now sits in fifth place with 1,691 PGT points, jumping Adam Hendrix, sixth with 1,610 PGT points, and Daniel Negreanu, seventh with 1,597 PGT points, in the process. 

The rest of the top ten remains unchanged, but there was movement at the bottom of the top 40 as Matthew Wantman picked up 22 PGT points with a 13th-place finish to move into 40th place on the leaderboard with 902 PGT points, knocking Dennis Weiss and his 897 PGT points to 41st place. Just behind Weiss is John Riordan, who moved to 42nd on the leaderboard two points behind Weiss, thanks to the fifth-place finish in Event #5. 

2025 Poker Master Leaderboard

2025 PGT Season Leadboard - Top 10

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