2024 PGT PLO: Seth Davies claims $25K PLO Championship, Samuli Sipila wins Player of the Series

Davies eliminated the PGT PLO festival's Player of the Series, Finland's Samuli Sipila, during heads-up play, to close out his perhaps-unexpected win in Event #9 of the PLO-only gathering. The largest payday of the series' ten events moved Davies' recorded live-event winnings over the $25 million mark, placing him 31st on the Hendon Mob's all-time money list.

Sipila came within one place of becoming a three-time winner in the series, following his triumphs in Event #4 and Event #7. Sipila wrapped up the series' leaderboard title by making it into Day 2 action in the Event #9 championship, where he had locked up enough PGT leaderboard points to reclaim the series leaderboard's top spot from another top Finnish pro, Eelis Parssinen, who also won two of the series' events.

Davies began final day as chipleader

For a player with little live PLO experience, Davies showed dominant form in taking down the championship-event title. He finished Day 1 action with the lead, after the field had played just inside the event's 11-player money bubble. Davies' 3,440,000 stack entering Day 2 was over a million chips more than his closest foe, Sipila. Meanwhile, Sipila had locked up the Player of the Series honor when Tomas Ribeiro busted in 12th spot, the stone bubble in the event, late on Day 1.

After the bubble burst, Davies secured the overnight lead by sending Lou Garza to the rail for an 11th-place payout. Day 2 began with two tables still in action, and the delayed live-stream finale began when the field had been trimmed down to seven players, who combined into an unofficial final table.

Davies and Sipila reached heads-up play nearly even in chips after Bruno Firth busted in third. The day's original leaders then entered perhaps the longest heads-up duel of the series before Davies closed out the victory. Sipila was narrowly ahead when the two collided in the event's biggest hand, with an all-in Davies seeing his double-suited pocket aces hold up against Sipila's double-suited pocket kings to collect nearly 85% of the chips in play.

Sipila managed one double-up but was still well behind when he ended up all in with top pair and a draw to a flush. Davies, though, held an overpair to the board, and that held up for the win.

Event #9 drew 72 entries to generate a $1.8 million prize pool, paid out to the top 11 finishers. The official final-table finishers were as follows:

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PGT PLO Series Event #9: $25,200 Pot-Limit Omaha Championship Results

Calderaro wins series finale

Antonio Abrego

Action in the 2024 PGT PLO series concluded with a fast-paced, single-day event that coincided with Day 2 action in the $25K championship. Event #10, $5,100 Pot-Limit Omaha Dealer's Choice, pulled in 21 players. Well-known Floroda pro James Calderaro claimed the Event #10 triumph and its $56,700 first-place payout.

Calderaro entered heads-up play against Event #1 winner Allan Le with a narrow lead, but saw Le go on a rush that nearly carried Le to a second series win, which would've matched Sipila and Parssinen. Then Calderaro found his own heater and climbed back into the lead. After a bit of back-and-forth action, Calderaro busted Le in a hand of pot-limit Omaha hi/lo, which until the last hand had been one of Le's favorite variants in this PLO dealer's choice format.

The last hand found almost all of Le's chips in before the flop with Qs-Jh-6h-5s, while Calderaro started ahead with Kh-Ks-Td-2d. The flop came 7c-Th-7h, giving Le a heart-flush draw, and he pushed in his last chips, with Calderaro calling. A 3c turn gave Le outs to a low as well, but a 6c river instead gave Le a single pair, which Calderaro's kings already topped.

Event #1 10 drew 21 entrants and paid out a $105,000 prize pool to the top three finishers. The event had no impact on the PLO festival's Player of the Series race, where Sipila had already locked up the top spot.

Event #10: $5,100 Pot-Limit Omaha Dealer's Choice Payouts

Images and data courtesy PokerGO