Allen Shen beat Negreanu and became the PGT PLO champion
On March 13, Canadian player Allen Shen beat Negreanu and became the PGT PLO champion. For the victory, the poker player received 91,290 USD, and his account was also replenished by 36,000 USD thanks to 18 knockouts. The buy-in of the tournament was 5,000 USD, and a total of 179 entries were made. Recall that PGT is holding a championship in Aria, Las Vegas, entirely dedicated to Omaha.
For Shen, the prize money became the largest in his career. Earlier in the series, he earned 20,000 USD for 13th place in the starting event and also received 14,049 USD for winning one of the WSOP Circuit Online events. In addition to the title and money, the Canadian received 624 POY points and 91 PGT points.
Runner-up Negreanu, also a Canadian, received 69,810 USD and 70 PGT points. This is the player’s eighth cash in PokerGO Tour tournaments. With 396 points and earnings of more than half a million, he now ranks 4th in the PokerGO Tour ranking. If this continues, Negreanu will take part in the PGT freeroll with a prize pool of 1 million, which will be held in December. He also scored 520 POY points and entered the top 50 of the CardPlayer rating. The Canadian became the best player according to CardPlayer in 2003 and 2014.
In the heads-up, Negreanu played against Shen
Shen received most of the knockout bonuses on the first day of the tournament. Of the 18 bounties, he earned 16 at the very beginning. The player took a lot of risks, but the risk was justified.
“I really took risks on the first few levels and just lost chips, hunting for rewards,” Shen said.
Shen’s approach worked, and by the end of the day, he already had 9,495,000 chips. Negreanu’s pursuer had a stack of 5,460,000. The final table began with Ky Nguyen knocking out Nathan Zimnik (6th place — 26,850 USD). Next, Nguyen himself was eliminated when his top set turned out to be weaker than Negreanu’s straight. Nguyen received 32,220 USD for 5th place. Negreanu continued to accumulate chips, having also dealt with Isaac Kempton. Negreanu’s pocket queens were stronger than Kempton’s pocket jacks, thanks to which the former won a big pot.
- Allen Shen — 91,290 USD
- Daniel Negreanu — 69,810 USD
- Joseph Cheong — 53,700 USD
- Isaac Kempton — 37,590 USD
- Ky Nguyen — 32 220 USD
- Nathan Zimnik — 26,850 USD
Negreanu then went all-in with a straight against the street draw of the bracelet’s owner, Joseph Cheong. Taking 3rd place, Cheong received 53,700 USD. In the heads-up, Negreanu played against Shen. The stacks of the rivals were about the same. The advantage changed hands until Shen, with a set of aces, beat Negreanu holding two pairs. After that, Negreanu doubled once and went all-in again, but his set could not match Shen’s flush.