Isaac Haxton and Ben Tollerene Chop $25,000 Pot-Limit Omaha High Roller

A bit after the aforementioned hand where Isaac Haxton flopped a boat and took the chip lead, he and Ben Tollerene paused the tournament and agreed to chop up the money based on independent chip model (ICM).

Haxton had 105,900 and Tollerene 94,100. As such, the adjusted payouts would be $49,867 for Haxton and $48,133 for Tollerene. Haxton officially won the event.

The original payouts were set to be $63,700 and $34,300.

Originally, the $25K PLO High Roller was set for a 12:30 p.m. start. However, with the Main Event still running and a number of high rollers still playing that, it looked questionable whether the event would even get off the ground. A handful of players mingled about the tournament area as the clock ticked past 12:30, waiting to see if more would show up.

In the end, the tournament director decided to postpone things until 4 p.m. to see if there had been any development. When that time came, four players took seats with 50,000 apiece and got to it: Haxton, Tollerene, Sean Winter, and Lauri Varonen.

Winter served as something of an early punching bag, as other players made huge hands against him a couple of times. He got coolered by Haxton when the latter flopped kings full and Winter turned nines full. Haxton went for a check-raise on the river and got paid. Winter then ran into a boat made by Lauri Varonen and was busto shortly after Level 4 (200/500) began.

A key pot developed between Haxton and Varonen that saw Varonen flop top two and turn a flush draw, while Haxton held top set. They got it in with Haxton holding, which proved to be a major turning point as the Finnish player never got back above the starting stack. Eventually, Varonen got it in good with three pairs — though only top two played — against the bottom two and a straight draw of Tollerene. The American got there, and he took a slightly lead into heads-up play.

That didn't last long, as the two played just a few hands that saw Haxton take the lead before the deal was reached.