Justin Bonomo. Michael Addamo. Daniel Negreanu. If you were to buy in to a local Las Vegas poker tournament and see any of these MTT endbosses at your starting table, you’d have every right to feel intimidated.
But if you show up to the Wynn or Venetian this spring and see Giorgii Skhulukhiia sitting across from you…well, you may as well be playing for second place.
That’s because Skhulukhiia has been riding a red-hot pre-WSOP Sin City heat wave that has him routinely posing for winner’s photos in tournaments up and down the strip. It’s a recent string of victories within the past six weeks has been nothing short of incredible by any standard.
In March alone, Skhulukhiia, the country of Georgia’s All-Time Money List leader, locked down four victories for more than $241,000. His first victory took place in the $3,000 buy-in NLHE at the Wynn Millions Poker Series for a $124,300 score. Two weeks later he was taking home a Venetian Deepstack Trophy in the $1,100 NLHE Ultimate Stack for another $80,554.
The list of results goes on: three days after his victory in the $1,100 at the Venetian he was showing off his now trademark poker face after besting the 308 entry field of the $600 Venetian DeepStack Showdown for $31,097.
But if you thought you were safe and could avoid Skhulukhiia by dropping down in stakes. Bad news, he crushes there too. The very next day, Skhulukhiia fired in the Wynn daily $200 and chased down the 93 entries to add to his win totals and collect $5,083 in, what for him is, pocket change.
Fine. Skhulukhiia can have No Limit Hold’em, you’ll play another game. Sorry, he’s a proven live crusher in other games too. In fact, just this week, he grabbed yet another trophy at the Wynn, taking down the $1,100 single-day PLO event for $26,448.
It may seem like Skhulukhiia has come out of nowhere to take over the local tournament scene, but one look at his past results shows that he’s simply decided to “take his talents” to Las Vegas and dunk on the regs. He has nearly $2.7 million in live tournament earnings that includes a major title at the 2021 partypoker MILLIONS in Cypris for $683,285 and, more recently, a final table appearance at the 2022 WPT Prime Championship where he finished in sixth for $153,000.
And just how good has this heater been?