Matthew Wantman Bounces Back From 3 Big Blinds To Win Latest PokerGO Tour Pot-Limit Omaha Series II Title

Matthew Wantman was on the flawed aspect of a 13:1 chip disparity with the title of occasion no. 3 of the 2024 PokerGO Tour Pot-Limit Omaha Series II hanging within the stability. Roughly three hours into the ultimate day, after chopping the pot in back-to-back all-in confrontations, Wantman had simply shy of three massive blinds in his stack with 1,400,000, whereas his opponent Jonas Kronwitter sat with 17,975,000.

Incredibly, Wantman was posing for winner’s photographs only a quarter of an hour later.

The World Poker Tour champion reeled off three consecutive double ups to search out himself holding a 2:1 chip lead of his personal, and from there was capable of shut out the win, incomes $178,250 and the trophy. Wantman’s profession earnings grew to $7,201,420 within the course of.

Wantman additionally secured loads of rankings factors with this title run, which was his second of the yr. The 576 Card Player Player of the Year factors introduced his complete to 3,052, which is sweet for 54th place within the 2024 POY standings introduced by Global Poker. He has made 11 POY-qualified remaining tables thus far, accruing $893,000 in POY earnings alongside the way in which.

This victory was additionally good for 178 PokerGO Tour factors. With 650 complete, Wantman climbed to sixty fourth on that high-stakes-centric leaderboard. He additionally moved into the outright lead into the PGT PLO Series II factors race, with 198 complete factors due to this win and a ninth-place end in occasion no. 2.

This occasion featured a $5,100 buy-in. With 155 entries, the prize pool swelled to $775,000. The high 23 finishers made the cash, with occasion no. 2 champion Dylan Weisman (twentieth), two-time bracelet winner Bryce Yockey (nineteenth), two-time bracelet winner Alex Livingston (18th), seven-time bracelet winner Daniel Negreanu (seventeenth), two-time bracelet winner Dylan Linde (14th), Sean Winter (thirteenth), and bracelet winner Ronald Keijzer (tenth) all working deep.

The second and remaining day started with seven gamers returning to the PokerGO Studio inside ARIA Resort & Casino Las Vegas, with Wantman within the lead and bracelet winner Eelis Parssinen sizzling on his heels.

Parssinen misplaced a giant one early after getting all-in with aces and sixes up in opposition to nut flush draw and aces and sevens of Kronwitter. A river clean noticed Kronwitter overtake the lead, whereas Parssinen was left with simply a few massive blinds. He went on to complete seventh, incomes $31,000. The Finnish poker professional now has greater than $7 million in profession event cashes.

Eran Carmi bought all-in with pocket kings and ace-high diamonds in opposition to the double-suited pocket kings of Wantman, who flopped a king-high coronary heart flush and held from there. Carmi secured $38,750 because the sixth-place finisher.

2022 World Series of Poker predominant occasion third-place finisher Michael Duek bought the final of his stack in with high set of nines in opposition to the highest pair and open-ended straight draw of Wantman. The flip gave Wantman tens and nines, including a few outs to increased full homes to go together with his straight outs. The river introduced one of many two remaining tens, giving Wantman tens full to finest Duek’s nines full. Duek earned $46,500 for his fifth-place exhibiting. He now has almost $6.4 million in profession cashes.

Like Duek, Joe Serock additionally made a run to the WSOP predominant occasion remaining desk. Serock completed eighth within the massive dance earlier this yr for a career-best rating of $1,250,000. In this occasion, he bought all-in with an overpair after seeing a jack-high flop, solely to search out himself up in opposition to high set for Kronwitter. Serock was unable to spike the two-outter on the top and was despatched to the rail in fourth place ($58,125). The rating grew his lifetime haul to over $6.8 million.

The subsequent massive conflict noticed Kronwitter open to 1,400,000 on the button when the blinds sat at 200,000-400,000 with a giant blind ante of 400,000. Zachary Schwartz three-bet shoved with AOkay44. Kronwitter known as with A952 and the board ran out J9395 to see Kronwitter flop the nut flush and wind up with nines filled with fives. Schwartz walked away with $77,500 because the third-place finisher simply sooner or later after inserting seventh in occasion no. 2 for $19,080.

Heads-up play started with Kronwitter holding 13,775,000 to Wantman’s 5,600,000. Wantman battled his means into the lead briefly, however misplaced a giant pot with flush-under-flush to surrender most of his progress. It occurred once more not lengthy after that, with Wantman’s turned nut straight enhancing to a ten-high flush, solely to have Kronwitter reveal a king-high flush. That blow is what landed Wantman within the hazard zone.

As beforehand talked about, the ultimate two chopped a pair of all-ins forward of Wantman’s remaining surge to victory. His first double up noticed JJ22 finest Kronwitter’s J963. The following hand, Wantman bought all-in after the flop with high pair and a gutshot in opposition to backside pair and the identical gutshot. Wantman wound up successful with kings and queens.

Wantman took the lead due to the third all-in. Kronwitter shoved after the QJ54 flip with A1086. Wantman held high pair and an open-ended straight draw with OkayQ76. He made the decision and the river introduced the 5 to see Wantman chip as much as 12,700,000. Kronwitter slid to six,675,000 after the hand.

The remaining hand of the event started with Wantman elevating to 1,800,000 on the button with A763 with the blinds at 300,000-600,000 with a giant blind ante of 600,000. Kronwitter known as holding Okay1075 and the flop got here down AJ9. Kronwitter went into the tank earlier than transferring all-in for 3,775,000 together with his double gutshot and backdoor diamond outs. Wantman known as with high pair. The 2 flip and 5 river stored Wantman forward, incomes him the pot and the title. Kronwitter was awarded $112,375 because the runner-up.

Here is a have a look at the payouts and rankings factors awarded on the remaining desk:

Photo credit: PokerGO / Antonio Abrego.