Eric Blair Wins A Second Poker Tournament Title At 2025 PokerGO Cup

Eric Blair has been across the reside event poker scene for almost twenty years, with 325 profession cashes totaling greater than $3.4 million accrued alongside the way in which. More than 17 years after recording his first money, the longtime grinder has managed to string collectively his two largest scores ever within the span of some days on the 2025 PokerGO Cup.

Blair first took down occasion no. 4, a $10,000 buy-in event, for a brand new private better of $254,800. That file was quick lived, although, as Blair got here out on high of a discipline of 87 entries in occasion no. 6, which was the primary of two $15,000 buy-in occasions at this competition. This second victory, which got here simply three days after his first, included a good bigger high prize of $352,350.

These two wins have propelled Blair up the rankings in each the Card Player Player of the Year and the PokerGO Tour standings. The 576 POY factors that accompanied the second trophy introduced Blair’s POY level complete to 1,380, which is at present good for thirteenth place within the 2025 POY standings introduced by Global Poker. Blair additionally grew his PGT level complete to 691, adequate to put him second on that high-stakes-centric leaderboard.

The sturdy turnout to the PokerGO Studio for this occasion resulted in a prize pool of $1,305,000, with the highest 13 finishers making the cash. Notables like Alex Foxen (twelfth), Ren Lin (eleventh), Cary Katz (tenth), and Matthew Wantman (seventh) ran deep however fell in need of shifting on to day 2.

The closing day started with six gamers remaining and Christian Roberts out in entrance. Six-time bracelet winner Nick Schulman took successful early on when his pocket aces have been outrun by the pocket eights of two-time bracelet winner Keith Lehr. Both gamers ended up hitting units, however Lehr made a flush on the river to earn the double up, leaving Schulman because the quick stack.

.@NickSchulman‘s aces get smacked early in at this time’s closing desk.

Watch the motion on PokerGO. https://t.co/rDEob36s0E pic.twitter.com/VZy0AfCSHZ

— PokerGO (@PokerGO) February 18, 2025

Schulman managed to win a preflop race to double up quickly after to get himself some respiratory room, however was finally the primary to be eradicated. His A-Okay was unable to greatest the pocket fours of Michael Berk in a preflop race state of affairs, with the eighth-high runout enhancing neither participant. Schulman earned $65,250 because the sixth-place finisher. He is now approaching $22.6 million in profession cashes after this newest deep run.

Matthew McEwan took a stand with Okay5, three-bet shoving round 11 large blinds excessive of Berk’s small-blind elevate. Berk shortly referred to as with AQ, flopped aces up, and held from there. McEwan walked away with $91,350. This was the fourth-largest payday but for the San Francisco resident.

Roberts started the day because the chip chief, however had slipped to the underside of the counts because the day wore on. He received the final of his stack in with A8 after a flop of Okay108, having dedicated most of his chips preflop. Keith Lehr put him in danger with A7 for the nut flush draw. The 6 flip stored Roberts forward, however the 6 on the tip stuffed Lehr’s flush to earn him the knockout. Roberts settled for $117,450 because the fourth-place finisher. Like McEwan, this was the fourth largest rating on Roberts’ résumé.

The subsequent large conflict featured a few pocket pairs. Blair raised to 275,000 on the button with QQ and Berk three-bet shoved for 3,175,000 with 66. Blair snap referred to as and held via a king-high runout to ship Berk to the rail in third place ($163,125). This payday elevated his profession haul to just about $1.8 million.

Heads-up play started with Blair holding 8,750,000 to the two,125,000 of Lehr. The closing hand arrived pretty shortly. Lehr raised to 300,000 on the button with AOkay and Blair defended his large blind with Q3. The flop got here down 553 and Blair checked-shoved over Lehr’s 250,000 continuation guess. Lair made the decision for 1,825,000 and the flip introduced the Q. Lehr was in want of an ace, king, or queen on the river. Instead, the 7 rolled off to see him eradicated in second place ($228,375). His profession earnings grew to $5.4 million due to this runner-up efficiency.

Eric “Big Vegas” Blair (Blizair1</a>) captures his second title of the 2025 PokerGO Cup! He's now ever so close to <a href="https://twitter.com/JoeyWeissman?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">JoeyWeissman atop the collection leaderboard.

Miss the ultimate desk? Watch the replay on PokerGO. https://t.co/rDEob36ZQc pic.twitter.com/YNygdBRAYF

— PokerGO (@PokerGO) February 18, 2025

Here is a have a look at the payouts and rankings factors awarded on the closing desk:

Photo credit score: PokerGO / Alicia Skillman.