On a flop of A♥5♥8♠, all of the chips between Roger Franco and Nan Liu got into the middle, with Franco at risk.
Roger Franco: K♥10♣9♣4♥
Nan Liu: A♠Q♠8♥2♣
Liu was in the lead with is top two pair, but Franco had a lot of outs with his nut flush draw. The turn 6♦ even gave Franco a gutshot straight draw, but the river 3♦ bricked out and he was eliminated from the event.
After an open from Vladyslav Shovkovyi to 20,000, Brad Ruben moved all in for 31,000 and was called by Karim Bevans. Shovkovyi also made the call and the three went to a flop of 6♠9♥8♦, which saw the action go check-check.
On the turn 2♦, Bevans led for 40,000 and Shovkovyi called to see the river 3♣. The action went check-check again and the hands were tabled.
Vladyslav Shovkovyi opened to 18,000 and was called by Karim Bevans, but then Ethan Bennett three-bet to 84,000. Shovkovyi got out of the way but then Bevans four-bet to 285,000, which Bennett called after some tanking.
The flop came out 3♠9♠2♥ and Bevans immediately moved all in for nearly 300,000. After some head shaking and a brief hand funeral, Bennett laid it down and the pot was awarded to Bevans.
"I had a monster hand," Bevans admitted as he showed [asaj10s9h] for aces with the nut flush draw as his stack grew to over 900,000.
After a preflop betting war, Jason Bullock and Andrew Ige got all of their chips into the middle, with Ige covering.
Jason Bullock: A♠K♠K♥Q♥
Andrew Ige: A♣A♦9♦4♠
"Well that's not a good flop," Bullock sighed as Ige picked up the nut flush draw to go with his aces, but the turn 5♠ gave him some outs with his own flush draw.
Unfortunately for Bullock, the river bricked with the 3♥ and he was eliminated while Ige collected the pot.
Three opening flights and 212 entries have all come down to this Tuesday as 26 players return to Champions Club Texas to fight for the title in the $1,100 PLO Championship.
Along with the trophy, the winner takes home the bulk of the $204,580 prize pool in the form of a $50,730 payday.
Each of the returning players has locked up a min-cash of $1,520 but that five-figure score is what everyone will have their eye on when they take their seats at 3 p.m. CT.
PLO Championship Payouts
Place
Prize
1
$50,730
2
$34,800
3
$20,970
4
$12,980
5
$9,850
6
$8,160
7
$6,960
8
$5,950
9
$4,970
10 -12
$4,300
13-15
$3,680
16-18
$3,070
19-21
$2,450
22-24
$1,890
25-26
$1,520
Vladyslav Shovkovyi comes into the day with a monstrous chip lead after bagging 1,194,000 to top Day 1c.
While a win here would pale in comparison to his best score of $299,715 in a 2023 WPT Deepstack win, it would be his largest PLO score. As a matter of fact, according to The Hendon Mob, this is his very FIRST PLO cash ever!
Almost half a million chips behind him is Day 1a chip leader Ethan Bennett who returns with 700,000 and rounding out the top three is Nan Liu with 672,000.
Also in the mix is last year's champ, Jason Daly, who bagged up 213,000 and will definitely be looking for a title defense.
Jason Daly
PLO Day 2 Top Ten Stacks
Rank
Player
Chip Count
Big Blinds
1
Vladyslav Shovkovyi
1,194,000
239
2
Ethan Bennett
700,000
140
3
Nan Liu
672,000
134
4
Carl Masters
562,000
112
5
Karim Bevans
554,000
111
6
Joshua Barney
464,000
93
7
Jake White
439,000
88
8
He Feng
417,000
83
9
Kris Burchfield
322,000
64
10
Dejuante Alexander
310,000
62
**Big Blinds are calculated for Level 14 at 5,000 BB**
Play will resume at 3 p.m. local time with just 0:03 remaining in Level 13. Blinds will be 2,000 / 4,000 with a 2,000 big blind ante and will immediately jump to 3,000 / 5,000 with a 2,000 big blind ante. The levels will also increase to 40 minutes in length once it hits Level 14.
Once the field is trimmed to the final nine players, following a quick photoshoot, the final table will resume under the lights of the Champions Club live stream.
PokerNews' coverage will be live throughout the day, but will follow the final table livestream delay to avoid spoilers. Stay with us for all the action until a champion is crowned here in Houston!
