On Thursday, the PokerGO Tour kicked off action in the world's highest buy-in Pot-Limit Omaha tournament. The best of the best four-card crushers across the globe convened at the PokerGO Studio, each armed with at least one bullet to fire in the 2024 Super High Roller Bowl: $100,000 PLO. For the buy-in, players received a 300,000 chip stack and were allowed one rebuy, if needed.
Daniel Negreanu needed it. He got his last chips in with 
on a 
flop. John Riordan had 
and the board ran out 
and 
to eliminate Negreanu for the first time.
His second bullet only lasted an hour.
Daniel Negreanu: 
Jason Koon: 
Four players limped to the 
flop, where the field was thinned to two with a Koon bet. Koon bet the 
turn and Negreanu called before moving all-in on the 
river. Koon had the easiest of calls with the nut flush.
Record field for 2024 Super High Roller Bowl?
By close of play, there were 15 players left from 38 entries, which matched exactly the total field from last year, when Jared Bleznick scooped his then career-best score of $1,292,000, beating Isaac Haxton in the first ever PLO Super High Roller Bowl. Registration is open until the start of Day 2 at 1pm PT, so the field could yet grow.
And, despite having to fire twice, Bleznick ended with the second biggest stack last night, giving him the potential to remain the only winner in the event's history by notching back-to-back victories.
Artem Maksimov took the biggest stack into Day 2, with 1,775,000 to Bleznick's 1,367,000.
Maksimov won a massive three-bet pot to vault up the chip counts and continued to build from there. In a hand against Jesse Lonis, Maksimov made top set on a 
flop with 
. Lonis held 
for top two pair and a flush draw. The two players put all the chips in the middle on the 
turn and Maksimov's hand remained best on the 
river.
Bleznick amassed his stack, thanks in part to a huge cooler in his favor, which saw him make quads against Samuli Sipila's top full house. The two players clashed on a board of 
and, on the river, Sipila moved all-in with 
and Bleznick snap-called with 
to rake in a massive pot and send Sipila out.
Other Day 1 departures included Lonis, Dylan Weisman, Seth Davies, Koon, and Nick Schulman. After busting late in the night, both Koon and Schulman headed home, reserving their single rebuy for the start of play on Day 2.
At one point in the stream, PokerGO commentator Brent Hanks dropped somewhat of a bombshell hint during a conversation about Negreanu's recent X/Twitter post on the different "crews" in poker. When the topic of mixed games players came up, Hanks said, "And to further add another wrinkle for the mixed game group: imagine buying in for $100,000 to play a mixed games event. Unheard of. Won't happen. Or will it? Maybe in 2025 we're going to have a $100K mixed event."
It was a hell of a tease from a trusted source.
Action restarts on Friday at 1pm PT, where players will battle to the final table which will play out on Saturday. You can watch the action on PokerGO starting at 3.30pm PT.
Super High Roller Bowl PLO stacks
| Place | Player | Chips |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Artem Maksimov | 1,745,000 |
| 2 | Jared Bleznick | 1,367,000 |
| 3 | Josh Arieh | 1,231,000 |
| 4 | Ben Tollerene | 1,128,000 |
| 5 | Jonas Kronwitter | 800,000 |
| 6 | Jeremy Ausmus | 778,000 |
| 7 | Sam Soverel | 752,000 |
| 8 | Joni Jouhkimainen | 706,000 |
| 9 | Sean Winter | 517,000 |
| 10 | Isaac Haxton | 468,000 |
| 11 | Ronald Keijzer | 428,000 |
| 12 | Martin Dam | 374,000 |
| 13 | John Riordan | 324,000 |
| 14 | Eelis Parssinen | 321,000 |
| 15 | Chase Steely | 286,000 |
