Drew Gonzalez Wins the $175 Moneymaker Tour Event for a $30,000 Platinum Pass
Drew Gonzalez is heading to Barcelona for the 2020 PokerStars Players Championship. The Thirst Lounge streamer took down the $175 Moneymaker Tour Event at Run It Up Reno IX, taking home a $30,000 Platinum Pass package.
Gonzalez came away with the win after a dramatic back-and-forth heads-up battle against Max Young, who went home with the second-place prize of $10,260 at the Peppermill Resort in Reno, Nevada.
The Thirst Lounge, which has several streamers in action at Run It Up Reno IX, now has one of its own to call champion and a Platinum Pass winner on top of that. With the win, Gonzalez earns the first Platinum Pass awarded in the U.S. for the 2020 PSPC.
“It’s so, so sick. It’s unreal. You wake up in the morning and it’s like oh, I’m going to go play this Moneymaker tournament and see what happens,” Gonzalez said.
| Place | Winner | Country | Prize (USD) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Drew Gonzalez | United States | $30,000* |
| 2 | Max Young | United States | $10,260 |
| 3 | Nayef Salem | United States | $6,500 |
| 4 | Andrew Karkenny | United States | $4,550 |
| 5 | Tim Duckworth | Australia | $3,440 |
| 6 | Shawn Daniels | United States | $2,764 |
| 7 | Jovanny Jayme | United States | $2,300 |
| 8 | Eoin Starr | Ireland | $1,930 |
| 9 | Jinnifer Rister | United States | $1,630 |
*Gonzalez wins a $30,000 Platinum Pass package to the 2020 PokerStars Players Championship
With the $30,000 Platinum Pass added to the prize pool, the total prize money paid out in the Moneymaker Tour event totaled $92,274. The tournament drew 428 total entries, and the $10,260 awarded to Young is the amount that would normally be the first-place prize in this payout structure.
Gonzalez will now head to Barcelona in August 2020 for the $25,000 PokerStars Players Championship, and it’ll be his first time visiting Barcelona.
“I hate flying; but new experiences, to be able to go out there and represent Thirst Lounge, and people that kind of have a story like me. I’m kind of a relatively unknown poker player, so this is sick,” Gonzalez said.
“I’m freerolling, I’m going into this like this is just sick. It’s an experience. No pressure, I didn’t put up 25k. In a sense, I’m just free to have fun, and no matter what happens I’ve already won in Barcelona.”
Young, with the second-place finish, is now at nearly $1.4 million in career tournament earnings. Nayef Salem finished third ($6,500) and Andrew Karkenny took fourth for $6,500. Veteran poker reporter Tim Duckworth took fifth in the tournament for $3,440.
Chris Moneymaker kicked off the festivities with a pregame speech, and the field was off to play through a rapid-fire structure of 20-minute levels, with 10,000 starting chips.
Some of the names coming out for the Moneymaker Tour Event included Run It Up ambassadors Ricky “ratedGTO” Guan and Arlie Shaban. Also in the field were Moneymaker, Matt Stout, Chad Holloway, Ian Steinman, Dan O’Brien, and Joe Stapleton.
With the fast structure, the tournament played like a turbo event, and the field was trimmed down to the final 16 after about six hours of play. Players making it into the money included Jesse Sylvia, Shaban, Louise Francoeur, Jon Turner, Guan and Jimmy Cappucci, who finished in 17th place, fresh off of a win in Tuesday’s $235 Black Chip Bounty Event.
Next up at Run It Up Reno IX is the $1,100 Thursday Thrilla, the highest buy-in event of the series. That event will run Thursday and Friday, and the $600 Main Event begins Friday and runs through Monday, October 21.