A new challenger has appeared on the European poker circuit, and they are kicking off things with a bang. Diamond Poker Series' first-ever festival, the PLO Grand Slam, starts today at Arena Casino in Tirana, Albania. The festival features a week of mid- and high-stakes Omaha action, with buy-ins ranging from €1,100 to €25,500. Over €3,000,000 in prize pools is guaranteed across all tournaments, so huge prizes are in store for those crowned champions.
First up is the €5,200 PLO Opener, which gets cards in the air today at 5 p.m. local time. The tournament has a guarantee of €1,000,000, with two starting days and unlimited reentries providing plenty of opportunities for players to build a stack. PokerNews will also cover the €10,300 PLO Championship later on in the series, which boasts the same seven-figure guarantee. The full schedule can be found here.
Live Reporting Schedule
| Date | Starting Time (CET) | Event |
|---|
| Mon 4 Nov | 5 p.m. | €5,200 PLO Opener Day 1a |
| Tue 5 Nov | 3 p.m. | €5,200 PLO Opener Day 1b |
| Wed 6 Nov | 1 p.m. | €5,200 PLO Opener Day 2 (Final) |
| Thu 7 Nov | 3 p.m. | €10,300 PLO Championship Day 1 |
| Fri 8 Nov | 3 p.m. | €10,300 PLO Championship Day 2 |
| Sat 9 Nov | 3 p.m. | €10,300 PLO Championship Day 3 (Final) |
The €5,200 PLO Opener sits players down with a starting stack of 200,000. The first level has blinds of 500/1,000 with a big blind ante of 1,000. Day 1a will play through 11 levels of 45 minutes before the survivors bag and tag for Day 2. A 15-minute break will be had after every three levels, with a 45-minute dinner break after Level 6, around 9:45 p.m.
Unlimited options for reentry are available, and doing so can be done until the start of Day 2, which begins in Level 12: 10,000/15,000 with a 15,000 big blind ante. However, players are incentivized to end Day 1a with a big stack as the top two stacks at the end of the night will receive a ticket to the €10,300 PLO Championship. These tickets are not deducted from the prize pool but are coming straight out of the organizers' pockets, with no strings attached.
€5,200 PLO Opener Day 1a Structure
| Level | Duration (min) | Small Blind | Big Blind | Big Blind Ante |
|---|
| 1 | 45 | 500 | 1,000 | 1,000 |
| 2 | 45 | 1,000 | 1,500 | 1,500 |
| 3 | 45 | 1,000 | 2,000 | 2,000 |
| Break | 15 | | | |
| 4 | 45 | 1,000 | 2,500 | 2,500 |
| 5 | 45 | 1,500 | 3,000 | 3,000 |
| 6 | 45 | 2,000 | 4,000 | 4,000 |
| Break | 45 | | | |
| 7 | 45 | 2,000 | 5,000 | 5,000 |
| 8 | 45 | 3,000 | 6,000 | 6,000 |
| 9 | 45 | 4,000 | 8,000 | 8,000 |
| Break | 15 | | | |
| 10 | 45 | 5,000 | 10,000 | 10,000 |
| 11 | 45 | 6,000 | 12,000 | 12,000 |
Stay tuned to PokerNews as the live reporting team will be on the tournament floor all week to catch the Pot-Limit Omaha action during the first-ever PLO Grand Slam.
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