Jason Daly's First Live PLO Tournament Win Pushes Him Close to $1M in Earnings
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It turned into a war of attrition, ending at nearly 4 a.m. local time, but Jason Daly outlasted Tuesday’s final 26 players from a total field of 199 to claim victory in the Champions Club Winter Poker Open $1,100 PLO Championship.
Daly completed his night with a heads-up win over runner-up Carson Wieland, when his flopped top pair held up against Wieland’s wrap.
For the win, Daly claimed $41,635 and the champions’ trophy, while Wieland took home $35,070 for his second-place finish.
The duo agreed to flatten the top of the $192,035 prizepool once they got heads-up, leaving $5,000 and the trophy to play for.
With the win, Daly’s impressive resume of career tournament earnings now sits just a hair under the $1,000,000 mark.
PLO Championship Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Hometown | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jason Daly | Friendswood, TX | $41,635 |
| 2 | Carson Wieland | Montgomery, TX | $35,070 |
| 3 | Ray Henson | Houston, TX | $17,680 |
| 4 | Thai Ha | Houston, TX | $11,970 |
| 5 | Danylo Turov | Houston, TX | $9,250 |
| 6 | George Abi-Zeid | Miller Place, NY | $7,860 |
| 7 | Sung Keem | Houston, TX | $6,600 |
| 8 | Kevin Kaylor | Houston, TX | $5,850 |
| 9 | Jason Fitzpatrick | Houston, TX | $4,800 |
Champion’s Reaction
The 5:00 p.m. local start time of Day 2, with 26 players left to get down to a winner, promised a likely late night for whoever was to be the eventual champion. Daly said that even though the field he battled was tough, the camaraderie he felt with many of the players made the late night an enjoyable one.
“It was a good time. A lot of good guys, a lot of guys I know. Ray (Henson) is a great player and a nice guy, it was just fun, that made it not bad.”
While the $41,635 first prize isn’t the largest of Daly’s tremendously accomplished career, he said that this is still a very special title for him.
“I love it. It’s the first PLO tournament I’ve won, that’s my favorite game, it’s the one I play at home all the time, I don’t get to play it often, so yah, it felt good.”
Ha Builds Big for the Final Table
Daly and every other player on Tuesday’s road to the final table went through Thai Ha, who took his start-of-day chip lead and consistently added to it with several notable pots along the way.
Early in the day, he eliminated David Shaw with a backdoor straight to trim the field to 18, then in one of the largest pots of the day to that point, he and Steven McKuin built a seven-figure pot that saw Ha eliminate the Day 1a chip leader with a baby flush.
Ha used his stack to continually apply pressure to his opponents, leading to him having nearly a two-to-one chip lead on his closest opponents as they began the final table.
One of those was Daly, who was still confident entering the final table despite having half the chips of Ha at the start of the final table.
“I felt like I was the best player at the final table, to be honest. I had good reads on everybody, I felt like I was making the right plays. I’ve played with them all enough to know kind of where they were and I felt really good. I felt like I was in the zone today.”
Final Table Action
Once down to nine, it took about half an hour of play before the first elimination as Jason Fitzpatrick fell at the hands of Daly, who had begun his ascent to take over chip lead.
After Kevin Kaylor was ousted in eighth place, Ha won his first significant pot of the final table by eliminating Sung Keem in seventh.
It was then Daly’s turn again to score an elimination, busting George Abi-Zeid in a dramatic blind versus blind clash that made Daly the first player to top the three million chip mark.
At that point, Daly wouldn’t stay on top for long as he dropped a pair of pots to Wieland that brought him into the mix for the chip lead along with Ha. Henson and Danylo Turov were the notable short stacks during five-handed play.
Of that duo,it would be Turov who was the next one out as he fell to Wieland in a pot that gave Wieland the chip lead for the first time in the tournament.
Ha's run at the title fell short in fourth place after Wieland picked off a river bluff to drop the Monster Stack champion under a million chips for the first time since the start of the day. Ha was eliminated shortly after by Henson.
Three-handed, Henson, who had battled throughout the final table finally got himself into true contention, closing the gap on his two opponents by doubling through Wieland.
Henson’s hope was short-lived however, as Daly doubled through him soon after, then spiked a gutshot on the river to eliminate him.
That left Daly and Wieland to duel for the trophy and the first-place money.
After Daly took a sizeable lead on the first hand of heads-up play by slow playing trips that turned into a rivered full house, Wieland battled back to even the stacks again briefly.
Daly would persevere though, retaking a healthy lead which led to the final hand as his pair faded Wieland’s draws to take home the title.
This concludes PokerNews’ coverage of the PLO Championship here at Champions Club Texas. Stay with us, though, for our continuing coverage of the Winter Poker Open with the $1,000,000 guaranteed Main Event starting on Monday, February 12th.
