Spain’s Lautaro Guerra has won the EPT Prague $100,000 PLO Super High Roller for $2,126,770, picking up his maiden WSOP bracelet.
Guerra has almost doubled his live tournament career earnings which now stand at almost $5 million.
This stellar event marked only the sixth time in history where we got to witness the finest PLO players in the world ponying up a six-figure sum to play in such an event.
There were 88 entries in total, creating a prize pool of $8,800,000 for the top 17 finishers to fight over.
Speaking to the awaiting media after his win on the unscheduled third day, Guerra said:
“During the whole tournament, I had that feeling like I was going to win it, even before coming here.
“I think this is the way to approach a tournament; you have to visualize yourself winning, and you achieve it.
“Cannot be a better feeling than this; to take this down was what I came for. This is the dream of any poker player when we start to play. We are looking to have a bracelet, and it feels really good to have it from a 100k.”
Action Recap
As the remaining 26 players arrived for Day 2, another 26 entries joined them.
Daniel Negreanu was the first player of note to mount a challenge when he found a third queen to knock out Stephen Chidwick whose aces weren’t up to the job.
But then the Canadian’s momentum came to a sudden halt when he lost most of his chips against Pascal LeFrancois after his flush draw failed to materialise.
Stephen Chidwick was now waiting in the wing to get his revenge after re-entering which he duly did to send Negreanu packing to the rail.
There was a slew of top names all busting one after another before the bubble burst. Bryn Kenney, Chance Kornuth, Shaun Deeb, and Josh Arieh all failed to cash.
When the final eight sat down in their new seats, Veselin Karakitukov held the lead with almost double the chips of second place.
Ben Tollerene collected the first double-up of this stage after his kings were good enough against Jared Bleznick. LeFrancois followed suit with a rivered set of tens to put a small dent in Karakitukov’s stack.
Online MTT legend Sorel Mizzi was the first to lose all his chips at the final table, running into aces and giving Guerra a sniff of the momentum he needed to march towards victory.
Two players left together a few hands later. Patrik Antonius and Pascal LeFrancois were both called off together by Karakitukov whose two pair became a full house on the river, leaving five players remaining.
Minutes later, Karakitukov repeated his success, flopping a flush to knock Jason Koon out in fifth place with a $644,070.
Tollerene now found himself in some danger. Up against Guerra, both players had aces but the Spaniard rivered a flush to scoop the pot.
But then the script flipped when the American doubled up through Karakitukovby flopping top set and taking over the chip lead.
A couple of hands later, Tollerene took the rest of the Bulgarian’s chip to kick off three-handed play with a massive lead.
Bleznick found himself a favourite to enter heads-up play when he got two pair all-in against Guerra. Sadly for the American the turn gave Guerra the nut flush.
Tollerene then knocked out Bleznick with a rivered straight to set the stage for an epic heads-up duel.
With a 36,000,000 to 17,000,000 advantage in Tolerene’s favour, Guerra could have been forgiven for thinking this was an uphill task.
Amazingly, as the players sat down, expecting at least half a chance of a long battle, it was all over in just three hands.
After a nothing first hand, Guerra then got all his chips in with aces to double up and gain the chip lead. The next hand, he was champion with his first WSOP bracelet.
WSOP Paradise Event #3: $100,000 PLO Super High Roller Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize (USD) |
| 1 | Lautaro Guerra | Spain | $2,126,770 |
| 2 | Ben Tollerene | United States | $1,577,660 |
| 3 | Jared Bleznick | United States | $1,170,360 |
| 4 | Veselin Karakitukov | Bulgaria | $868,220 |
| 5 | Jason Koon | United States | $644,070 |
| 6 | Pascal LeFrancois | Canada | $477,800 |
| 7 | Patrik Antonius | Finland | $354,440 |
| 8 | Sorel Mizzi | Canada | $277,230 |
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