A star-studded field returns to the Amazon Room at the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino today for the extra fourth day of Event #49: $10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha 8-Handed Championship. From a field of 476, Five bracelet winners and a November Niner have made the final six in this prestigious event.
Each player is guaranteed $157,097 for sixth place right now, with a top prize of $1,018,336 up for grabs for the one who can outlast his five opponents.
After a dramatic last few hours on Day 3, Brandon Shack-Harris shot towards the top of the leaderboard and bagged up 7,730,000 to end the day as the chip leader. Shack-Harris already has 30 WSOP results, two bracelets, and more than $2.8 million in WSOP cashes to his name. Can he add bracelet number three and another million to his résumé?
There are 27 minutes remaining in Level 30 at blinds of 80,000/160,000 with play being live streamed on a 30-minute delay on PokerCentral's Twitch channel. PokerNews will provide all the action as it happens as of 2 p.m. local time.
Loren Klein made it 500,000 to go from the cutoff and Scott Bohlman three-bet the pot from the button. Action folded back to Klein and he checked for Bohlman's stack size, who counted it out for 2,050,000 in total. Klein gave it some thought and put together calling chips for the pot size, which was 1,860,000 in total. That almost prompted Bohlman to turn over his cards, Klein stopped him when a queen had flashed already.
"I'd be really mad when a queen comes," Klein joked and then he and Bohlman rooted for a queen.
On the flop, Klein moved all in and Bohlman called it off.
Scott Bohlman:
Loren Klein:
"Wow, I have a live king. Come on, let's have a five on the turn, I helped you out before," Klein added and Bohlman indeed asked for a five after with a grin on the face.
The appeared on the turn and Klein said "wow, that's almost a five, spades is even better."
After the river, Klein indeed got there with a straight and Bohlman was eliminated in 6th place for $157,097.
Action folded to Loren Klein in the small blind and he raised to 900,000. Big blind Ryan Hughes, who had 1,550,000 to start the hand, moved all in. Klein called instantly.
Ryan Hughes:
Loren Klein:
"Jack ball!" one railbird shouted. The flop hit right after.
The on the turn opened up some good river cards for Hughes but the on the river wasn't one of the cards he was looking for.
Hughes finished in fifth place for $261,391. The remaining four players are now guaranteed $303,491.
Jerry Wong raised to 1,000,000 first to act with 1,200,000 behind and Brandon Shack-Harris in the big blind, who had won the previous hand to narrowly pull ahead of Wong, checked his stack and elected to call.
The flop came and Shack-Harris checked, Wong moved all in and was snap-called.
Jerry Wong:
Brandon Shack-Harris:
Shack-Harris had flopped the straight and Wong needed running hearts to avoid the elimination. It was all over after the turn, making the river a formality, and Wong was eliminated in 4th place for $303,491.
Brandon Shack-Harris was first to act and opened the action with a raise to 800,000. Small blind Loren Klein folded instantly but big blind Rep Porter had bigger plans. He three-bet to 2.6 million and Shack-Harris, after giving it some thought, shoved for 3,880,000 total. Porter called.
Brandon Shack-Harris:
Rep Porter:
The rail asked for the in the window but instead got the , followed by the and .
Shack-Harris had paired up but needed more help. The on the turn was one of the worst cards in the deck for him. The rail asked for an "eight-ball" but didn't get it; on the river.
Shack-Harris eliminated in third place for $433,259. Loren Klein and Rep Porter are now guaranteed $629,378, playing for the first-place prize of $1,018,336.
Loren Klein opened the button with a raise to 1,000,000. Big blind Rep Porter three-bet to 3 million with 4,275,0000 behind. Klein potted and Porter called all in for 7,275,000 total.
Rep Porter:
Loren Klein:
"I even have his suit," Klein said to one of his supporters on the rail.
The dealer didn't make a big show out of dealing the board as was presented rapidly.
Porter and Klein shook hands before the former made his way to the payout desk. Klein sat down for the winner photo and said "The hat got me here, I can't take it off now," after someone on the rail commented on it.
"There are a lot of haters, I can't wait. Watch my twitter feed, it was non-stop today!"
One railbird said; "They don't realize you're being ironic."
"Am I?" Klein replied, "This might get me a Whitehouse invitation."
"My annual bracelet," Klein said on his way to the payout desk after the photos were taken.
The 2018 World Series of Poker has crowned yet another champion and it was a familiar face that lifted the coveted gold bracelet when the final river card was dealt in Event #49: $10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Championship. It was Loren Klein who defeated three-time WSOP bracelet winner Rep Porter in heads-up to win his third bracelet in as many years and clinch the top prize of $1,018,336.
Klein's first victory came two years ago in Event #45: $1,500 Mixed No-Limit Hold'em/Pot-Limit Omaha and he followed that up with his second WSOP bracelet in 2017, taking down Event #41: $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha. Klein also finished runner-up to Brandon Shack-Harris in this very event back in 2016 when both were in the exact same seats, two and four. Shack-Harris came into the extra day as the chip leader and eventually had to settle for third place, good enough for a payday of $433,259.
While playing, Klein was sporting the "Make America Great Again" hat and also kept it on for the winner shots.
“I can't take it off now, the hat got me here. And there are a lot of haters out there that need this picture, just check out my Twitter feed today," Klein added just before holding up the gold bracelet.
"There are a lot of haters, I can't wait. Watch my twitter feed, it was non-stop today!"
One railbird said: "They don't realize you're being ironic."
"Am I?" Klein replied, "This might get me a Whitehouse invitation."
During the winner interview, Klein didn't deny the fact that this spurred further motivation to win it.
"All the haters really helped me to bring this one home. It felt amazing, and I can't wait to talk to all of them when I see them in the Rio hallways, I might even wear the bracelet for a bit. People have been talking shit about the MAGA hat for days and wishing me bad things all day today, it is fantastic."
When asked about what the accomplishment of winning a bracelet for consecutive years means to him, Klein had the following to say.
"Not a ton, the variance in getting a bracelet is pretty wild. I was the same player I was three years ago before I had any bracelet, so it doesn't mean a whole lot. But it is certainly a good time."
All three of Klein's bracelets came in Pot-Limit Omaha, cementing his foothold in this game type. Whether or not that makes him the best PLO player in the world remains to be seen, though.
"Perhaps, but you never know the way tournaments go. There are a lot of guys that make good runs all the time, so I am probably right there with them."
Among those is eventual third-place finisher Brandon Shack-Harris, who Klein considered a very tough opponent. Early on Klein won a big pot off Shack-Harris to take over the lead, where he remained for most of the remaining final table.
"That took him [Shak-Harris] out of a pretty commanding position and it was an important pot for sure, and I was pretty selective about which one I was gonna do because I knew the first pot I was gonna play with him would be a big deal and change the dynamics. Got lucky and flopped it."
Klein's other two bracelets came in $1,500 events, and the Championship event only changed one particular thing: "Seven figures!" Klein doesn't have any immediate plans with the big payday for now, and another PLO bracelet is on the agenda for the upcoming year to make it four in a row.
With a total of 476 entries, the event created a prize pool of $4,474,400 and the top 72 spots were paid. Five out of the six hopefuls on the final day were former bracelet winners and Jerry Wong, who eventually finished in 4th place for $303,491, is a former WSOP Main Event finalist.
Final Result
Position
Player
Country
Prize
1
Loren Klein
United States
$1,018,336
2
Rep Porter
United States
$629,378
3
Brandon Shack-Harris
United States
$433,259
4
Jerry Wong
United States
$303,491
5
Ryan Hughes
United States
$216,391
6
Scott Bohlman
United States
$157,097
7
Mike Leah
Canada
$116,166
8
Alexey Makarov
Russia
$87,522
Action of the final day
Brandon Shack-Harris was leading the final six on the Twitch live stream table in the Brasilia room and quickly pulled further ahead before Loren Klein took over the control at the top of the counts. While several players got short and even ended up all-in and at risk, it took more than two full hours before the field of hopefuls was reduced further.
Scott Bohlman had almost all of his chips in before the flop and called Klein's shove on an eight-trey-trey flop. Bohlman had an eight, while Klein needed a live king or running outs and hit the latter to make a straight, leaving Bohlman to depart in sixth place.
Next to fall was Ryan Hughes, and once again it was Klein responsible for the bustout. The chips went in preflop and Hughes showed aces, Klein only had jacks but spiked the two-outer on the flop.
Jerry Wong, the sole remaining finalist of the last six without a bracelet, almost took over the lead four-handed before becoming short. Eventually, Wong had half of his stack in before the flop and jammed a six-high flop only to see Shack-Harris snap-call with the flopped straight.
Three-handed play started with Rep Porter and Klein in a commanding lead, while Shack-Harris fell back further. The two-time bracelet winner fought back and got it in with an ace-queen high. Porter snap-called with aces and ended up making the better two pair on a paired board to eliminate Shack-Harris in third place.
Klein started heads-up with a comfortable lead, though Porter got within four big blinds. Facing a 1-2 chip disadvantage only a few hands later, Porter got all of his chips in preflop with kings and Klein looked him up with aces. Klein covered Porter's only live suit and the latter couldn't pull off the upset.
That brings an end to the PokerNews live reporting for this event, but make sure to check back regularly for the continued updates of the 2018 World Series of Poker.