Wing Po Liu Denies WSOPE Main Event Champ Omar Eljach His Third Bracelet in $5K PLO

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Nov 07, 2023 3 min read

The sixth gold bracelet of the 2023 World Series of Poker Europe has been awarded to Wing Po Liu here at King's Resort in Rozvadov. Liu overcame a 202-player field and defeated Omar Eljach heads-up to claim their first gold bracelet along with the €230,000 first-place prize in Event #6: €5,000 Pot Limit Omaha.

Liu has had a couple of close calls as far as tournament wins go, including a third-place finish earlier this year in a WSOP $3,000 No-Limit Hold'em Six-Handed event in Vegas. Liu's victory today marks a career-best cash, along with his first-ever tournament win.

Winner's Reaction

Humble in victory, Liu explained that playing Pot-Limit Omaha tournaments is still relatively new to him, with most of his past results coming from Hold'em events.

"I still cannot believe I won because I rarely play PLO tournaments," Liu said. "I wanted to try some new games because No-Limit Hold'em can be boring. Some days just fold fold fold fold."

As far as winning the tournament, Liu explained that some of his skills in No-Limit tournaments can be applied to PLO tournaments as well.

"I don't really study PLO, but some [strategy] is similar to No-Limit tournaments, like ICM pressure or something like that. I'm mostly just learning while I'm playing... it's actually so ridiculous because my first professional win was a PLO tournament."

Event #6: €5,000 Pot Limit Omaha Final Table Results

Day 2 Action

Day 2 began with 52 hopefuls, all looking to claim the lion’s share of the €911,52 prize pool. Eliminations came swiftly, with many notables busting out within the first few levels. Among the less fortunate were Jerry Odeen, Roland Israelashvili, Jan-Peter Jachtmann, and Felipe Ramos — all of whom were eliminated before making the money.

The money bubble burst after Daniel Dvoress ran trips into a full house, at which point the rest of the field was assured a min-cash of €7,875.

It didn't take long for the remaining field to work its way down to a final table, with Ren Lin (31st - €7,875), Dario Alioto (29th - €7 875), Michael Rodrigues (19th - €9,850), Renji Mao (15th - €10,900), and Michael Rocco (13th - €12,425) all bowing out short of the finale.

Despite coming into the final table with a significant chip lead, the tone was set for what ended up being a rough day for Gergo Nagy after Tong Li doubled through him immediately after play began. After Oleksii Kovalchuk, Li, and Wooram Cho exited in ninth, eighth, and seventh place respectively, Liu began his ascent at the final table after cracking Nagy's pocket aces in a massive pot.

From that point on, Nagy failed to gain any momentum back and was eliminated in sixth place after getting all-in preflop and falling to Kasparas Klezys' aces.

Liu continued his rise after eliminating Marco Di Persio in a two-hand combo that left Liu vying for the chip lead.

Anson Tsang was able to hang on and double up multiple times throughout the final table before finally hitting the rail in fourth place thanks to Eljach, who spiked an ace on the turn after getting Tsang all in on the flop.

Liu claimed one more victim in Klezys, who was sent out in third place after Liu flopped two pair against him — setting up what would be a brief heads-up battle between him and Eljach.

Eljach, who has been on an absolute tear this series after getting fourth place in Event #3: €1,350 Mini Main Event and flat-out winning Event #2: €550 Pot Limit Omaha 8-Max, entered heads-up play at a chip disadvantage but quickly assumed the lead after getting paid off with a full house.

Liu wouldn't be denied, however, as just a few short hands later, he put a big move on Eljach to win a massive pot. Liu finished the job after getting all in with queens and cracking Eljach's kings to make his first tournament victory official.

• Tags WSOPE23 Anson Tsang Daniel Dvoress Dario Alioto Felipe Ramos Gergo Nagy Jan-Peter Jachtmann Jerry Odeen Kasparas Klezys Marco Di Persio Michael Rocco Michael Rodrigues Oleksii Kovalchuk Omar Eljach Ren Lin Renji Mao Roland Israelashvili Wing Po Liu Wooram
• Related Players Michael RoccoDario AliotoFelipe RamosOleksii KovalchukJan-Peter JachtmannDaniel Dvoress