The second annual PokerGO Tour Texas Poker Open spanned from April 16-29 at Champions Club Texas in Houston, with 20 events and nearly $2.5 million in total guaranteed prize money. Events ranged from $150 to $5,100, with the marquee event of the festival being the $2 million guaranteed $3,300 main event.
A total of 699 entries were made in the tournament running across eight starting flights, surpassing the guarantee to create a final prize pool of nearly $2.1 million.
Houston poker regular Ravee Sundara emerged victorious in the end, earning $283,143 and the iconic TPO belt buckle trophy. This was the largest live tournament result yet for the man many around town known as ‘Sonny.’ He now has more than $564,000 in recorded scores to his name.
In addition to the unique hardware and the money, Sundara also secured 1,260 Card Player Player of the Year points as the champion.
This second annual running of the TPO featured eight starting flights and two more days of combined field action. The top 88 finishers earned a share of the multi-million-dollar prize pool.
Plenty of notables ran deep, including reigning World Series of Poker main event champion Jonathan Tamayo (85th), 2022 Wynn Millions main event champion Tony Sinishtaj (22nd), 2023 WPT World Championship winner Daniel Sepiol (15th), 2019 WPT ARIA Summer Championship winner Matthew Wantman (13th), and a trio of bracelet winners in Joey Weissman (12th), Brian Green (11th), and Michael Liang (10th).
The final table began with Kaleb Harwell out in front and Sundara in seventh chip position. Two of the more accomplished players still in contention bowed out early, with bracelet winner Justin Liberto and four-time WPT final tablist Viet Vo unable to get much going after the field combined onto a single table.
Will Benson got the last of his stack in with pocket kings leading the A-K suite of Aaron Gao, but the board brought three spades to give Gao the nut flush and the knockout. Benson earned $60,000 as the seventh-place finisher.
2021 Wynn Millions main event champion Andrew Moreno’s last stand pitted his open-ended straight draw against the top two pair of Harwell. The chips went in on the turn, and a blank river saw Moreno head to the rail with $80,000 for his efforts. The score pushed his career earnings past the $5.3 million mark.
Phu Vo got all-in on the river in his final hand after hitting an ace high straight. Unfortunately for him, Sundara had flopped trip tens and rivered a full house. Sundara made the quick call to score the knockout, narrowing the field to four. Vo pocketed $100,000 for fifth place.
Jason Bullock was the next to be eliminated, with his A-8 unable to hold up against the Q-10 suited of Gao. The flop brought a ten to give Gao middle pair, and he held from there to send Bullock packing in fourth place for $125,000.
The final three were fairly close in chips at that point. They decided to hash out a deal to redistribute the remaining prize money a bit based on ICM considerations. They left the title and $60,000 to play for, with each locking up about a quarter of a million dollars.
Kaleb Harwell slid to the bottom of the leaderboard early, but surged out in front when he made a set of tens against the kings and tens of Sundara. Sundara then doubled up through Gao, cracking pocket aces with K-10.
Gao was knocked out in third when he shoved a weak queen from the small blind and Harwell woke up with pocket tens in the big blind. Harwell flopped top set and improved to tens full by the river. Gao took home the $247,328 he bargained for in the deal, which was by far his largest tournament score yet.
The final two players then negotiated a new deal to further chop up the remaining $60,000. They also agreed to run a best-of-three series of pot-limit Omaha flips to determine the champion.
Sundara won the first two to lock up the title, while Harwell finished second with $264,529 in prize money. This was the second six-figure cash that he’s made in a poker tournament, having placed third in the WSOP Circuit Choctaw main event in 2023 for $113,339.
Ray Qartomy Crushes High Roller Side Events
The largest buy-ins offered at the TPO series were a collection of four $5,000 buy-in no-limit hold’em high rollers. The tournaments collectively paid out $515,000 in total prize money, with Houston local Ray Qartomy emerging as the star of the show.
Qartomy made the final table in three of the four events, with two outright wins and one third-place showing. All told, he cashed for $106,900, including a 72nd-place finish in the $3,300 main event. As a result, Qartomy now has more than $5.3 million in career tournament earnings to his name.
This spree began when Qartomy bested a modest field of 15 entries in the first high roller to earn $40,500 and a TPO belt buckle trophy. Ed Sebesta was the runner-up, banking $22,500, while David Chen placed third for $12,000.
Chen and Qartomy swapped roles the following day in high roller no. 2. Chen emerged victorious from a field of 24 entries to earn $54,000 and the title, which was his second in a PGT event. Ernest Bush finished second for $33,600, while Qartomy was awarded $19,200 as the third-place finisher.
The win grew Chen’s career earnings to nearly $900,000. His largest score remains the $217,500 he took home as the champion of a $10,000 event at the 2024 Poker Masters.
The third high roller was the largest of the festival, with 39 entries making for a $195,000 prize pool. Elliot Smith came away with the title and the $58,680 top prize after cutting a heads-up deal with Terry Morales, who settled for $58,320. Smith now has more than $2.7 million in recorded tournament scores.
The fourth and final high roller saw Qartomy win his second title of the series. He bested 25 entries for $41,700 after a heads-up deal with bracelet winner Brian Green, who earned more with $49,550. Green also finished 11th in the main event, earning $33,000 for that deep run through a field of 699 entries. His career tournament haul now sits at $4.1 million.
Smith finished third for $20,000, while Chen added another $13,750 for fourth.