The halfway point of the inaugural PokerGO Tour Pot-Limit Omaha (PLO) Series has been reached, with five out of nine scheduled tournaments now concluded. The latest PokerGO Tour PLO event to wrap up was the second of two $10,000 buy-ins, which saw a total of 112 entries competing for a prize pool of $1,120,000. The two-day competition held at the PokerGO Studio inside the ARIA Resort & Casino in Las Vegas culminated in Spain’s Lautaro Guerra Cabrerizo clinching the top prize of $220,400 and the coveted title.
This marked the second-largest tournament win ever for Guerra Cabrerizo, who previously earned €234,328 as the champion of a €2,350 buy-in PLO event at the King’s Resort in Rozvadov back in 2019.
On the second day of the event, seven players began their journey towards victory, with Finnish bracelet winner Joni Jouhkimainen leading the way. Guerra Cabrerizo started the day tied for the shortest stack at the table but managed to secure an early double-up, which helped him stay in the game. Soon, Jesse Chinni was eliminated in seventh place for $56,000, leaving Guerra Cabrerizo and four other players battling it out for the top prize.
Four-time bracelet winner Josh Arieh fought hard to stay in contention after being outflopped by 2019 World Series of Poker main event sixth-place finisher Zhen Cai. Arieh managed to triple and quadruple up before eventually succumbing to Guerra Cabrerizo’s pocket sevens and bowing out in fifth place for $89,600.
Cliff Josephy, a two-time bracelet winner, was the next to fall, finishing in fourth place for $100,800. Josephy committed the majority of his stack preflop, but Guerra Cabrerizo’s pair and flush draw proved too strong.
Cai’s run came to an end when he was unable to beat Jouhkimainen’s nines with his own set, leading to his elimination in third place for $123,200.
Guerra Cabrerizo entered heads-up play with a more than 2:1 chip lead over Jouhkimainen, but the latter managed to double up and level the stacks. However, a set-over-set scenario saw Guerra Cabrerizo surge back in front. Eventually, the final two players agreed to a deal that saw Guerra Cabrerizo secure $200,400, while Jouhkimainen locked up $194,000, with $20,000 and the title remaining to play for.
Not long after the deal was struck, the pair went all-in, with Guerra Cabrerizo holding middle pair, overcards, and a gutshot, while Jouhkimainen had the same pair with a lower kicker and an open-ended straight draw. The turn and river did not help Jouhkimainen, and he was eliminated in second place for $194,000. With this victory, Guerra Cabrerizo earned 235 PGT points and moved up to third place in the player of the series race, as well as 30th place in the season-long PGT points race.