Tommy Le Wins Event #54: $10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Championship for $938,732
Tommy Le triumphed over a final table which included two-time bracelet winners Scott Clements and Jason DeWitt among the 428 total entries in Event #54: $10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Championship at the 2017 World Series of Poker, bringing home $938,732 and his first bracelet.
| Place | Winner | Country | Prize (USD) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tommy Le | United States | $938,732 |
| 2 | Chris Lee | United States | $580,177 |
| 3 | Hani Mio | United States | $397,836 |
| 4 | Scott Clements | United States | $277,768 |
| 5 | Jason DeWitt | United States | $197,533 |
| 6 | Eoghan O'Dea | Ireland | $143,128 |
| 7 | Murat Tulek | Germany | $105,705 |
| 8 | Miltiadis Kyriakides | Cyprus | $79,599 |
Prior to this victory, Le had reached the final table five times in pot-limit Omaha events at the WSOP but only made it to heads-up play once, when he finished second in the $25,000 PLO High Roller to Jens Kyllönen. Le also finished third in this event last year and fifth in the $1,500 PLO just a week beforehand.
“It is time to finally win one of these,” Le said upon arriving on the feature table set before the start. “It would be sad to go zero for six.”
Once all was done and dusted, the entrepreneur from California was delighted. “I don’t play poker for a living, but at the same time I am not bad at it," he said. "You could say I am a tough fish. I am strong fish."
Asked how the final table went, Le added the following: “I think I had the worst seat at the table. Last night was pretty smooth. I was cruising all the way and had a pretty good grip on the table. But today was a whole lot different. I think everybody came fresh with a game plan, and they did the homework on me. Scott [Clements] had a game plan, and he made it really really difficult for me to play. He took me out of my element. I came back from dinner and re-strategized, I had to come in with a different game plan, and it worked out.”
Day 4 play started at 1:00 p.m. local time on Saturday, and the first elimination of the day was Miltiadis Kyriakides, who finished in eighth place when Scott Clements turned a set of sevens to crack his aces. Next to go was Twitch streamer Murat Tulek, who fell in seventh when Hani Mio turned the nut flush against his flopped top two pair. Former November Niner Eoghan O'Dea was eliminated in sixth when he got his stack in preflop with aces against Mio's kings, and Mio spiked a king on the flop.
Jason DeWitt departed in fifth place when he flopped top pair and the nut flush draw against eventual champion Le's set of threes and didn't catch up on the turn or river. The fourth-place finisher was Scott Clements, who fell when his pair of aces ran into Mio's turned flush. But Mio's deep run in this tournament came to an end next when his fives and threes came up short against Le's aces and threes, eliminating him in third place.
With Mio's departure, the rail grew a little more subdued. Each of the remaining contenders had a relatively small but dedicated core crew cheering for them from the stands, and among Le's supporters was PLO bracelet winner JC Tran. Le started with better than a 2:1 chip advantage and extended his lead by 1,200,000 on the first hand of what turned out to be a fairly short heads-up match. After only about half an hour, it all came to an end when Chris Lee got his chips in on the flop with bottom two pair against Tommy Le's top and bottom pair, and the board runout changed nothing.
Now that this event has concluded, there's only one remaining pot-limit Omaha tournament to be played at this year's WSOP, the $25,000 Pot-Limit Omaha High Roller, which begins on July 5. Be sure to check back here to follow the updates for that event and the remainder of the 2017 World Series of Poker from the PokerNews Live Reporting team.