PGT PLO Series II: Negreanu exits early as Weisman dominates Event #2

The PokerGO Tour 2024 PLO Series II continued Wednesday with action in Event #2: $5,100 Pot-Limit Omaha Progressive Bounty following yesterday's conclusion to Event #1: $5,100 Pot-Limit Omaha. In the kickoff event, Lautaro Guerra triumphed over the field to claim the $178,250 top prize after outlasting a tough final table that included Jonathan Little and then overcoming a 3:1 chip deficit to defeat mixed games master Josh Arieh heads up. 

Event #2 drew a field of 159 entrants, beating out the prior tournament's total by just four entries, to generate a prize pool of $795,000 – 40% of which was set aside for the bounty prize pool – with 23 places paid and $88,245 plus bounties for the eventual winner. Day 1 play ended late last night as Samuli Sipila, the 2024 PGT PLO Series I Champion, became the unlucky bubble boy before the remaining players fought down to the final table. 

When the final bounty had been hunted and all the chips had fallen, Dylan Weisman stood triumphant over the field to claim his fourth PGT title of the year. Weisman put on a PLO clinic throughout the event and, with the help of a fortuitous deck, managed to collect every single bounty in play at the final table to bring his total earnings for the win to $195,245 in prize money and bounties. 

Weisman leads, Negreanu headlines

Weisman began Day 2 proceedings with the chip lead, on a stack of nearly 100BBs after cruising through Day 1 as a big stack throughout and picking up several bounties along the way. Weisman started the final table in the hunt for his fourth PGT title of the 2024 season and sixth overall. The United Kingdom's Richard Gryko sat second in the chip counts, with just over 50BBs, and a $19,000 bounty on his head. Bruno Furth rounded out the top half of the counts with a little more than 40BBs and a $16,000 bounty for his elimination. 

Daniel Negreanu headlined the final table of Event #2 of the PGT 2024 PLO Series II.

Despite starting the day with a just-below-average stack of 39BBs, Daniel Negreanu was the headline draw for the final table and held the potential to move into second place on the overall PGT leaderboard with a victory. Negreanu's bounty, only $12,000, was the smallest at the table. John Riordan came in on a stack of just 14.5BBs, but it was Sean Winter on the shortest stack, starting the day with only 5BBs. 

Headliner exits early, Riordan follows

After Winter scored two doubles to remove himself from the danger zone, Negreanu ran into a brutal spot against Weisman in a blind versus blind confrontation. After limping with from the small blind with , Negreanu called a raise from Weisman in the big blind and the two players went to the flop. Weisman continued for a small size, having flopped middle set and a gutshot straight draw with his . Negreanu made the call and improved to two pair on the turn. 

Unfortunately for the Canadian, he was still drawing thin against Weisman's set and after a pot-sized bet from his opponent, Negreanu moved all-in. Weisman called quickly and Negreanu saw the bad news. With only eight cards to keep his tournament life intact, Negreanu took to his feet for the added stand-up equity. The river failed to improve his hand, however, and Negreanu exited in sixth place while Weisman collected his $12,000 bounty. 

Riordan sent the rest of his short stack into the middle with after Weisman raised with and looked to be all set for a full double on the flop. In PLO, however, no hand is ever a sure thing as the turn offered Weisman a plethora of outs to the winner. The river was one such out, improving Weisman's hand to a straight to eliminate Riordan in fifth place. 

Exposed hand keeps Furth in it...temporarily 

With even more chips in his arsenal, Weisman continued to leverage his big stack to pick up pots uncontested. Furth, meanwhile, found himself in a peculiar spot shortly after Negreanu's exit. In a hand against Gryko, he defended his big blind with and smashed the flop, making top and bottom pair. Gryko, however, smashed the flop even harder as he held , good for top set. After his opponent bet the flop, Furth put in a pot-sized raise for the majority of his stack.

Bruno Furth found himself in a strange spot after Richard Gryko exposed his hand with action still to come.

Thinking Furth was all-in, Gryko slammed down a stack of chips to call and flipped over his hand. The tournament staff conferred with the players and ruled Gryko's action as a call, sending the two to the turn. After his opponent checked, Gryko bet enough to put him all in and Furth went into a long tank. Eventually, he decided to fold his hand and live to fight for another pot. 

Furth then managed to work his stack back up over the million chip mark to give himself some breathing room. Despite that, he met his end in a three-way pot that saw both he and Winter all-in and at risk against Weisman. Winter kicked off the action with a limp from the button off of a stack of less than 2BBs, holding , before Weisman raised from the small blind with . Furth looked down at and made the call, which left Winter to momentarily ponder whether or not to put his final big blind in the middle. Finally, he put the chips in and the three players saw the flop, with action still to come between Weisman and Furth. 

With his overpair to the board, Weisman bet enough to put his remaining opponent all-in and, with Winter's bounty still in play plus the pot odds, Furth made the call. Winter held the lion's share of the equity three ways and had seemingly endless outs to make the best hand. The turn improved Weisman to top set, leaving Furth drawing dead, but Winter still had a path to survival. The was the guiding light at the end of the path, bringing home Winter's flush and awarding him more than a triple up. Weisman, meanwhile, scooped in the side pot and Furth's $16,000 bounty. 

Weisman KOs Winter in bounty pursuit

In typical fashion, Winter had managed to ladder up considerably despite starting the final table with the shortest stack. More than familiar with the art of short stack survival, the Floridian had dipped and dodged his way to the final three, but his patented Winter magic ran dry in a hand against Weisman. 

Sean Winter navigated his way to three pay jumps despite starting the final table with the least chips.

After opening the button with , Weisman called Winter's pot-sized raise, clearly in pursuit of the bounty in play, and the two players headed to the flop. Winter's remained best, but Weisman was far from dead and the on the turn improved his hand to two pair. Now, Winter needed to get lucky, but the river wasn't the card he wanted to see and his run ended in a third-place finish. 

Weisman began heads up exactly as he started the final table: with a commanding chip lead. Gryko – a highly experienced PLO player – wasn't going quietly. After scoring a full double-up by hitting runner-runner outs to improve to a better full house, Gryko continued to battle against Weisman's overwhelming chip advantage. 

In the end, Gryko fell short of an all-time comeback when he ran into Weisman's top set on a flop. The Englishman held for an overpair to the board, but Weisman's connected with the flop in a major way to leave Gryko drawing to just two outs. After raising preflop and continuing his aggression on the flop, Gryko called it off when Weisman moved all-in over the top. The on the turn offered no additional help and the river kept Weisman's hand best. With that, Weisman took Gryko's bounty and the PGT 2024 PLO Series II trophy. 

PGT 2024 PLO Series II final table results

^{Images Courtesy of Antonio Abrego/PokerGO}