Bengt Sonnert is the WPT #02 Omaha Championship Champion
Many pot-limit Omaha players claim Sweden’s Bengt Sonnert is one of the best PLO players in the world, especially those who have shared a table with him. Sonnert added weight to those claims by taking down the $2,100 Omaha Championship event at partypoker on August 23.
The tournament attracted 161 entrants, who created a guarantee-busting $322,000 prize pool. Only 24 of those starters made it through to Day 2, each of them guaranteed to walk away with at least $4,911. It was Sonnert’s day, however, and he was worthy of the title and the tournament’s $71,239 top prize.
WPT #02 Omaha Championship Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bengt Sonnert | Sweden | $71,239 |
| 2 | Patrick Hyllegaard | Denmark | $49,032 |
| 3 | Anton Suarez | Sweden | $34,556 |
| 4 | Veselin Karakitukov | Bulgaria | $23,639 |
| 5 | Jesper Nordkvist Brodin | Sweden | $17,204 |
| 6 | Kristoffer Jakobsson | Sweden | $13,454 |
| 7 | Shuxrat Salixov | Uzbekistan | $10,920 |
Twenty-four players sat down on Day 2 of the WPT #02 Omaha Championship, and what a final 24 they were. Such luminaries as Yuri Dzivielevski (24th - $4,911), Andras Nemeth (21st – $4,911), Niklas Astedt (17th - $5,156), Ola Amundsgaard (14th - $6,118), Joao Simao (9th – $9,084), and Ka Kwan Lau (8th - $9,084), fell short of the seven-handed final table.
Each of the seven finalists guaranteed themselves a five-figure score, but they all wanted the victory, which came with $71,239 and adoration from their fans.
Shuxrat Salixov was the first finalist to bow out, and Kristoffer Jakobsson joined him on the sidelines shortly after. Jakobsson was one of four Swedish stars at this final table.
Jakobsson’s fellow Swede Jesper Norkvist Brodin fell in fifth place. He committed his stack preflop with a pair of aces in the hole against Veselin Karakitukov’s queens, but Karakitukov flopped trip tens to send Nordkvist Brodin home earlier than he would have liked.
Karakitukov was the next player heading for the showers despite boosting his stack with the previous elimination. A preflop raising war against Sonnert left Karakitukov with a quarter-pot-sized bet left in his stack. Those chips went into the middle with a pair of aces on an all-heart six-high flop. Sonnert did not have the flush, but he had flopped a straight.
Former MILLIONS UK Main Event champion Anton Suarez was the next player left wondering what could have been. Suarez raised all-in with top pair top kicker on a jack-high flop after Sonnert had led out. Sonnert called with a pair of queens and a club flush draw, and improved to a flush on the river.
That hand gave Sonnert a huge advantage going into heads-up against Patrick Hyllegaard; he held 12,752,700 chips to the Dane’s 3,347,300 stack. Hyllegaard showed signs of making a comeback, but Sonnert stopped any hopes of a comeback in its tracks.
The final hand saw all the chips go in on a king-high flop. Hyllegaard flopped two pair, kings and fives, but Sonnert held the nut flush draw and an open-ended straight draw, so made the call. The turn was a brick, but the nine of hearts river gifted Sonnert a flush, the title, and $71,239 in prize money.