Wieland Leads a Dozen from Day 1c in Winter Poker Open PLO Championship
After a wild Day 1c, the field is now set for Day 2 of the $1,100 PLO Championship at the Champions Club Winter Poker Open in Houston, Texas.
The event’s largest opening flight field of 95 entries brought 12 more survivors through into the money and onto Tuesday’s final day of play.
They were led by Carson Wieland, who made a late surge to rocket up the counts to bag 805,000 chips, good enough for second overall to start Day 2 behind only Thai Ha’s 940,000.
Monday’s second biggest stack belonged to Sung Keem with 551,000, which is good enough for third overall on Day 2.
Day 1c End of Night Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Chip Count |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Carson Wieland | 805,000 |
| 2 | Sung Keem | 551,000 |
| 3 | Jin Lee | 471,000 |
| 4 | Lawrence Chang | 292,000 |
| 5 | Liam McDonough | 276,000 |
| 6 | George Abi-Zeid | 261,000 |
| 7 | Kevin Kaylor | 257,000 |
| 8 | Ray Henson | 254,000 |
| 9 | Kyle Arora | 205,000 |
| 10 | David Shaw | 172,000 |
| 11 | Joseph Dulaney | 170,000 |
| 12 | Roger Franco | 83,000 |
Day 1c Deets
As mentioned, the 95 entries on Monday made for by far the largest opening flight of the event which ended up totaling 199 entries. This created a $192,035 total prizepool, easily blowing past the $150,000 guarantee.
The winner will receive $45,795 for their efforts.
The battle for the chip lead and a big bag to take into Day 2 didn’t have a firm contender until midway through the day as Kyle Arora took control for a couple of hours as the first player to cross half a million chips. Arora would slide back down late in the day though, making way for Keem to take the lead.
It appeared that Keem would be scoring his second end-of-day chip lead in as many days (Keem bagged the lead of Day 1d of the $400 Mystery Bounty event), but the combination of a large loss to Jin Lee in the day’s final level along with a series of wins for Wieland left Keem in the runner-up position, but still very healthy for a potential run to the title.
Following the day’s final break after Level 12, 22 players remained and just two of them fell over the next two levels, which led to a feeling that it could be a long night to get to that final dozen survivors.
That fear went unfounded though as a couple of spurts of rapid eliminations including three in the final five minutes of the night wrapped things quickly to the delight of the advancing players.
The Plan for Day 2
From the trio of opening flights, 26 returning players will now vie for the championship on Tuesday with all of them having locked up $2,290, but that $45,795 first prize is just a few more hours of poker away.
PLO Championship Day 2 Payouts
| Place | Prize |
|---|---|
| 1 | $45,975 |
| 2 | $30,910 |
| 3 | $17,680 |
| 4 | $11,970 |
| 5 | $9,250 |
| 6 | $7,860 |
| 7 | $6,600 |
| 8 | $5,850 |
| 9 | $4,800 |
| 10-12 | $4,160 |
| 13-15 | $3,550 |
| 16-18 | $2,950 |
| 19-21 | $2,630 |
| 22-26 | $2,290 |
Play will resume at 5 p.m. local time with 17:38 remaining in Level 14. Blinds will be 3,000 / 5,000 with a 2,000 big blind ante.
Once the field is down to the final nine players, they will relocate to the bright lights of the Champions Club livestream table to continue to a winner.
PokerNews will be there from start to finish until a champion is crowned, so stay with us for the dramatic conclusion of what’s been a thrilling PLO Championship here at Champions Club Texas.