PGT PLO Series Starts with Wins for Lautaro Guerra and Dylan Weisman

The opening two events of the 2024 PokerGO Tour PLO Series are in the books and two major winners have already claimed trophies and hundreds of thousands of dollars. Event #1 was won by Lautaro Guerra, while Event #2 was taken down by Dylan Weisman as both events, which cost $5,000 to play, saw big fields and plenty of drama along the way.

Opening Event Fills Up the Field

With a whopping 155 entrants, the opening event of the series, a straight Pot Limit Omaha event, paid 23 places from its prizepool of $775,000 at the PokerGO Studio at ARIA. With a top prize of $178,250 on offer, there were some big names who missed out on the money. The last to leave without profit was Santtu Leinonen from Finland. All-in with , he fell to Guerra as the eventual winner made two pair to finish ahead of the Finnish player’s top pair.

Others to cash included Nick Schulman (20^th for $7,750), Antony Zinno (18^th for $11,625), Dylan Linde (12^th for $19,375) and PokerStake player David Coleman, who busted in ninth for $23,250 just before the final table of six. Once there, it was Jonthan Little who busted first, his drawing hand unable to overtake Chris Costa’s flopped top pair with top kicker.

Canadian player Johnson Phanyaseng lost out in fifth for $46,500 before Costa himself busted in fourth place. All-in with , he lost to Josh Arieh’s as the six-time WSOP bracelet winner turned a straight and built up the biggest chip-stack, holding 11.55 million chips to Sean Troha’s 4,475,000 and Lautaro Guerra’s 3,375,000.

Guerra Gets the Gold

With three players left, the longest period of play without an elimination played out, and after an early double through Arieh, Guerra was the biggest mover. Taking a big lead when he made top set to trump Arieh’s straight and flush draw, both of which missed, the Spanish player had the lead instead.

Sean Troha left in third place for $77,500 when his ran into the aces in the hole belonging to Guerra. That hand gave Guerra a 3:1 chip lead heads-up and he wasted no time making it count. On a board showing , Arieh moved all-in with but his top pair was no good against Guerra’s hand of which had turned two pair. Arieh still had 18 outs to hit but somehow faded them all as the river came a and the title and $178,250 belonged to Guerra, along with the PGT title. Josh Arieh, so close to another title, had his fifth runner-up finish in his last five heads-ups in ranking tournaments, taking home $112,375. A fine return on the $5,000 buy-in, but a frustrating last battle yet again.

Arieh hasn’t won a ranking event since he made it six WSOP titles in July of 2023, and he’ll be looking to win a PLO title later this week. For Lautaro Guerra, it was an eighth ranking title, all of which have come in his favorite poker variant, Pot Limit Omaha.

Event #2 Goes Even Bigger

With 159 combatants in Event #2, the $5,000-entry PLO Progressive Bounty event, 23 more players made the money in another field full of stars. Once again, a Finnish player was the man to bubble, as Samuli Sipila, a big winner on the PokerGO Tour before in his career, busted in 24^th place. Sipila moved in on the turn with pocket tens but his opponent, Richard Gryko, had turned a set and rivered a full house to more than complete Sipila’s event.

Players such as the 2024 WSOP Main Event runner-up Jordan Griff (15^th for $7,155), PokerGO favorite Jeremy Ausmus (14^th for $9,540), Bryce Yockey (11^th for $11,925) and Matthew Wantman (9^th for $14,310) all missed out on the really big payments. Jim Collopy was out in eighth for $19,080 when his top pair and top kicker on the flop missed out to Gryko’s flush as he went runner-runner from the flop to secure another big pot at a dangerous player’s expense.

All-in with seven left was Zachary Schwartz, who missed the final table by a river card as he lost with a set of tens on the flop. Dyland Weisman profited from the fifth community card when the on the river gave him a straight to reduce the field to six with him in the lead on 7,635,000 chips.

Weisman the Wisest

With Richard Gryko Weisman’s closest challenger on just 4.2 million, the diminutive Weisman, so long a beast in mixed game events, went on a rampage. After initially doubling up Sean Winter, Weisman was unstoppable, busting Daniel Negreanu in sixth for $23,850 when Kid Poker’s top two pair on the turn lost to Weisman’s set of fives on the flop.

Out in fifth was John Riordan, who cashed for $28,260, with the fourth placed Bruno Furth making $35,775 after the two men lost to Weisman and Winter respectively. When play was three-handed, Sean Winter was shortest, and despite doubling, that proved pivotal in that he exited next. The PokerGO high roller regular moved all-in on a flop of with aces in the hole but Weisman called with a pair of tens and turned a second pair, which was enough to take out Winter for $47,70 after he drew a blank on the river.

Heads-up, Dylan Weisman had a monster lead with 16.2 million chips to the 3,675,000 of Richard Gryko. On a flop of , Weisman moved all-in with and Gryko called him with . The set of Weisman stayed ahead through the turn and river as he claimed victory.

“I’m back at one of my favorite places in the world,” Weisman posted on X after the event.  “I won another tournament; this year it’s been unreal. It’s one of my favorite games because you’re incentivized to play as aggressively as possible.”

It was the latest win in a career that is seemingly on an epic uptick in the past few years for Dylan Weisman, especially in major mixed game tournaments.