Omar Eljach and Wing Po Liu are now heads up for the gold bracelet and €230,000 first-place prize.
Liu enters battle with a thee-to-two chip advantage over Eljach, who will be competing for his second World Series of Poker bracelet of this year’s series and third bracelet overall.
Omar Eljach limped in from the button and Wing Po Liu checked from the big blind.
Both players checked the Q♥4♥3♥ flop leading to the 4♠ on the turn. Liu checked, Eljach bet 600,000 and Liu made the call.
The river was the Q♦ and Liu lead out with a bet of 1,000,000. Eljach to 4,350,000 and after about two minutes of consideration Liu flicked in the call.
Eljach tabled Q♠8♦6♣4♣ for queens full of fours to win the first major pot of heads up play.
Wing Po Liu raised to 750,000 on the button and Omar Eljach defended his big blind.
Eljach check-called a 550,000 bet from Liu on the 8♦K♥10♠ flop and then both players checked on the 3♠ turn.
The 5♦ completed the board and Eljach bet a hefty 2,850,000. Liu paused for some time and then announced a raise, which was enough to put Eljach all in for his last 4,200,000.
Eljach looked flustered and tanked for a bit before sending his hand into the muck — awarding the massive pot to Liu who is now the solid chip leader.
Wing Po Liu opened to 750,000 from the button and Omar Eljach made a pot-sized raise to 2,250,000 from the big blind. Liu moved all in with a covering stack and Eljach called to put himself at risk.
Omar Eljach: K♦K♠8♥2♠
Wing Po Liu: Q♦Q♥10♣3♥
Eljach was in excellent shape to double up with the bigger pocket pair but that all changed when the flop came 3♠3♣10♦ giving Liu a full house. Eljach couldn't catch a king on the 5♠J♠ turn and river and was eliminated in second place while Liu took down the final hand of the tournament.
Wing Po Liu has won Event #6: €5,000 Pot Limit Omaha for €230,000, last defeating Omar Eljach in heads up play to deny his opponent a third WSOP gold bracelet.
Stay tuned for a full recap of the day's events including the winner's reaction that will follow shortly.
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 skill 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
Place
Player
Country
Prize
1
Wing Po Liu
Hong Kong
€230,000
2
Omar Eljach
Sweden
€141,800
3
Kasparas Klezys
Lithuania
€97,600
4
Anson Tsang
Hong Kong
€68,850
5
Marco Di Persio
Italy
€49,800
6
Gergo Nagy
Hungary
€36,900
7
Wooram Cho
South Korea
€28,100
8
Tong Li
China
€22,000
Final Table
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 Dvoressran 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) alll 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 Lidoubled 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.
Omar Eljach and Wing Po Liu
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 winningEvent #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.
That wraps up PokerNews' coverage of Event #6: €5,000 Pot Limit Omaha. Be sure to check out our live-reporting hub for continuing coverage of the 2023 World Series of Poker Europe right here at King's Resort in Rozvadov.
