David O'Brien Wins 2021 Spring Series PLO Championship
After almost 11 hours of play, Event #11: 2021 Spring Series PLO Championship has come to an end after 96 players became three.
With three players remaining at the end, chip leader David O'Brien, negotiated with his two remaining adversaries to agree to a three-way even chop while he got what he truly wanted, the belt buckle and money clip commemorating his victory.
"I am not leaving here without that." said O'Brien defiantly as he discussed the deal with his opponents, Pom Jun and Lawrence Lazar who agreed to the chop, meaning each walked away with $9,874 in winnings.
O'Brien was declared the official winner of the shiny new belt buckle and money clip to make for quite the story.
"I had never played tournaments ever before until Easter I was driving by here and saw Champions Poker Club and thought I would check it out", he explained.
O'Brien has been a popular character over the last few days at the Lone Star Poker Series, regaling people about his life stories while enjoying a good game of poker. He admits that he is not well versed in tournament strategy yet but that he is learning where he made mistakes and is improving each day. He will look to enter even more events as the series goes on, including the Main Event, which he has won several raffle seats.
Final Table Results
Place | Player | Prize Money |
1 | David O'Brien | $9,874* |
2 | Pom Jun | $9,873* |
3 | Lawrence Lazar | $9,873* |
4 | William Mattison | $4,406 |
5 | Paul Espinoza | $3,550 |
6 | Loi Nguyen | $2,815 |
7 | Joe Castaneda | $2,203 |
8 | Jason Fitzpatrick | $1,714 |
9 | Brandon Guzman | $1,346 |
*Indicates three-way deal.
Action of the Day
The tournament attracted 96 entries and generated a prizepool of $48,960. Action was fierce all day as chips flew from stack to stack as PLO action often is.
Play would go down to the final table with some memorable hands along the way. It was at the final table where O'Brien would begin his ascent to the top of the chip counts. He won a critical three-way hand against fifth place finisher Paul Espinoza and Lazar that catapulted him into a commanding chip position when his nut flush bested the second nut flush.
From there he maintained his lead, with only Jun coming within touching distance. William Mattison was eliminated in fourth place to bring the field down to three, where the deal was then agreed upon.
PokerNews will resume coverage of the Lone Star Poker Series tomorrow at 2 p.m. local time for the Ultimate Monster NLH and Pot Limit Big O.