John Racener bounced back from near elimination to win $151,200 in the tournament
John Racener is the newest champion at the 2024 PokerGO Tour Mixed Games festival after the 2010 World Series of Poker Main Event runner-up took the $10,200 buy-in triple stud event to earn $151,200.
He outlasted 42 other players at the tournament, which featured a combination of seven-card stud, razz and stud eight-or-better. With the win, Racener surpasses $11.7 million in career live tournament earnings.
Racener earned 300 Card Player Player of the Year points and 151 PGT points to move up to 32nd place on that leaderboard. He’s also sixth in the series-long points race.
The top six players finished in the money, with Dzmitry Urbanovic (6th for $25,200) the first to go home near the end of Day 1 play. Racener was third in chips heading Day 2, with six-time bracelet winner John Hennigan in the lead.
Scott Lake was the first player eliminated on Day 2 (5th for $33,600), followed by five-time bracelet winner Adam Friedman (4th for $46,200). Hoffman moved into the chip lead during three-handed play, with Hennigan becoming the short stack and ultimately finishing in third place ($63,000). His third cash of the series puts him in the lead in the series-long points race with 207.
Heads-up play began with the two players nearly equal in chips. Hoffman took a big lead, but Racener stormed back, doubling up his opponent twice and later winning a big stud eight-or-better pot to take the chip lead.
Hoffman went all-in after the deal on the final hand of stud, with Racener’s trip fours good enough to earn him the title. As runner-up, Hoffman took home his biggest career tournament cash of $100,800.
