Sam Soverel Wins Opening Event of PGT PLO Series

The PokerGO PLO Series celebrated all that is great about the four-card game in Las Vegas and the weekend showed that big name players are drawn to Pot Limit Omaha as much as thos getting into the game. Same Soverel won yet another PGT event in his career as he beat the Austrian player Jonas Kronwitter heads-up for the title while players such as United States legend Sean Winter and Argentinian pro Ariel Mantel battled to deep runs too.

Opening Event Draws Strong Crowd

The PokerGO PLO Series has eight events with buy-ins gradually increasing from $5,300 up to $26,000 over the course of just over a week in Las Vegas. With every single final table streamed on PokerGO for subscribers, the action is going to be red hot throughout the series. There are a number of satellites running to events during the schedule too, and plenty of qualifiers made the opening event for a fraction of the entry fee.

A total field of 91 players created a prize pool of $455,000 and meant 13 players would reach the money with a top prize of $122,850 and 184 PGT points up for grabs. John Riordan was the bubble boy, going out when his eights in the hole when Brazil’s most successful tournament player of all-time, Joao Simao, saw his pocket tens survive with the lead.

Those among the first to cash in the PokerGO Studio at ARIA Resort & Casino were Josh Arieh, who came 12^th for $11,375 and Mike Zulker, who cashed in 10^th place for $13,650. Simao himself was the final table bubble player after he crashed out in eighth place for $18,200, missing out on a final table after a month littered with them on the Triton tour in Jeju, South Korea, where he cashed for more than $10 million.

Mantel Among Middle Ranks

With seven players left, the chip leader was Soverel and he held over a third of the chips in play on 3.7 million, with Kronwitter the only one to have over half of the American’s stack on 2.6m. Michael Wang was short stacked and soon busted to the leader, cashing for a score of $18,200 too as one of the most dangerous and experienced players at the felt departed.

Sean Winter was the next player to go, busted by Soverel for a score of $22,750. All-in for four big blinds with A-Q-J-5 in three different suits, he lost to Soverel’s A-K-Q-J after four cards came to complete the eventual winner’s king-high straight. Soon, the field was reduced to just four players, as the Argentinian Ariel Mantel bowed out.

All-in with a flopped pair of sixes, Mantel fell to John Dapkus’ pair of queens in his hand, which held despite the Argentina player having a straight draw to go with his flopped top pair. The result earned Mantel $31,850 as he got off to a great start in the series but didn’t threaten the deciding moments of action at the business end of the tournament.

Soverel Books the Win

With four players left, three hailed from the home country, but one American was about to depart. James Chen left in fourth for $40,950, narrowly missing out on the podium places when he went from a comfortable second in chips to the rail. Once again, Dapkus was the delivery system, his pairs of fives and aces meeting with a five on the flop to reach the podium places.

Three-handed play lasted some time before Dapkus himself made way. Losing his stack to Soverel, Dapkus was out-kicked as he went home with $56,875 and Soverel went on to the final duel with Kronwitter. Soverel had a slim lead, but soon it was enough. On a flop of T-7-3 with two hearts, all the chips went in. Soverel had the made hand with aces, but Kronwitter was drawing to virtually everything with a flush draw, straight draw and a pair of threes.

The turn made the Austrian’s straight draw open-ended but that was as far as it got as a brick of an offsuit seven on the river condemned him to a runner-up finish worth  $79,625, with Soverel claiming the top prize of $122,850.