€5,200 PLO Opener
Day 2 Started
2025 PLO Grand Slam
€5,200 PLO Opener
Day: 2
Event Info
Final Results
Event Info
Level Info
Players Info - Day 2
2025 PLO Grand Slam
Buy-in
€5,200
Prize Pool
€1,057,500
Entries
225
Level
26
Blinds
150,000 / 300,000
Ante
300,000
Entries
68
Players Left
1
Just over two months ago, at 4:30 in the morning, Aaron Pahlawani won one of the first-ever Diamond Poker Series trophies by shipping the €5,200 Opener at the PLO Grand Slam for €176,100. Today, he is among the 42 players to return to Arena Casino Tirana for the final day of the very same tournament.
While Pahlawani's stack of 526,000 puts him near the bottom quarter of the leaderboard, he still has almost 44 big blinds to play with when Day 2 kicks off today at 2 p.m. local time. Pahlawani's heads up opponent from last November, Pavel Izotov made it through as well, playing a stack of 665,000 as he aims to claim the title this time around.
However, they have their work cut out for them as both stacks dwarf in comparison to Youness Barakat, who captured the chip lead with a monstrous stack of 3,389,000. Interestingly, Barakat took home the bronze medal during the previous edition, looking to improve on that placement this time around. Closely following Barakat in the counts is Diamond Poker Series newcomer Nino Pansier with 3,281,000, while Day 1b chipleader Fabian Riebau-Schmithals sits in third with 2,976,000.
Other big stacks include PLO wizards Gergo Nagy (1,872,000) and Ronald Keijzer (1,569,000), while high-stakes hold'em regular Tom Vogelsang showed his four-card abilities by bagging 1,714,000.
Day 2 Top Ten Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Youness Barakat | Italy | 3,389,000 | 282 |
| 2 | Nino Pansier | Netherlands | 3,281,000 | 273 |
| 3 | Fabian Riebau-Schmithals | Germany | 2,976,000 | 248 |
| 4 | Harry Casagrande | Austria | 2,435,000 | 203 |
| 5 | Sean Rafael | United States | 2,257,000 | 188 |
| 6 | Gergo Nagy | Hungary | 1,872,000 | 156 |
| 7 | Tom Vogelsang | Netherlands | 1,714,000 | 143 |
| 8 | Ronald Keijzer | Netherlands | 1,569,000 | 131 |
| 9 | Leonid Yanovski | Israel | 1,546,000 | 129 |
| 10 | Bernard Larabi | Hungary | 1,175,000 | 98 |
Other notable names who have a guaranteed seat at the start of the day include bracelet winners Tomas Ribeiro (1,024,000), Elie Nakache (909,000), Robert Cowen (814,000), Dario Alioto (618,000), and Nikolaos Lampropoulos (579,000). Diamond Poker Series Ambassador Max Kruse brings 293,000 to the table today, slightly more than the starting stack of 200,000.
With the starting flights getting 199 entries in total, the €1,000,000 guaranteed prize pool has barely not been met yet. However, with late registration remaining open throughout the first level of play today, the expectation is that the guarantee will be surpassed quite easily.
The first level of Day 2 will be 6,000/12,000 with a 12,000 big blind ante, with a break after to allow people to fire one final bullet. Afterward, the field will play as many 45-minute levels as it takes to play down to a winner. A break will be had after every three levels, with a dinner break scheduled around 6:30 p.m. Judging by last time, a marathon session might be in the cards for those lucky enough to run deep.
PokerNews will be live on the floor until the very end, so stay tuned to find out if Pahlawani can successfully defend his title or if a new PLO Grand Slam champion will be crowned.
Level: 12
Blinds: 6,000/12,000
Ante: 12,000
Level 12
: Blinds 6,000/12,000, 12,000 ante
The 42 returning players have found their seats and the cards are in the air for Day 2 of the €5,200 PLO Opener.
Level 12
: Blinds 6,000/12,000, 12,000 ante
In a pot of 84,000, Ismael Bojang got his stack of 178,000 in on a flop of 4♥K♥8♣ against Youness Barakat, the start-of-day chipleader.
Ismael Bojang: A♥K♣10♦5♦ 
Youness Barakat: K♠8♠6♦3♦
Bojank needed to hit a better two pair than Barakat to stay alive, and he did just so when the 2♣A♣ runout gave him an ace on the river.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
3,175,000
214,000
|
214,000 |
|
||
|
440,000
215,000
|
215,000 |
|
||
Level 12
: Blinds 6,000/12,000, 12,000 ante
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
200,000
200,000
|
200,000 |
|
||
|
200,000
200,000
|
200,000 |
|
200,000
200,000
|
200,000 |
|
200,000
200,000
|
200,000 |
|
200,000 | |
|
200,000
200,000
|
200,000 |
|
200,000
200,000
|
200,000 |
Level 12
: Blinds 6,000/12,000, 12,000 ante
"Alakazam" raised to 42,000 under the gun and was called by both Harry Casagrande in the hijack and Gergo Nagy on the button. Christos Argyriadis then made it 223,000 to go in small blind, after which "Alakazam" went all in for 483,000.
Casagrande quickly got out of the way and Nagy followed suit after some thinking time. Argyriadis, however, stuck in a call as the two players headed to showdown.
"Alakazam": A♠K♥Q♠4♥
Christos Argyriadis: A♥A♦8♠6♣
"Alakazam" did not hit the 7♥8♣3♥7♣4♦ board enough, leaving Argyriadis' aces to scoop up the pot and knock "Alakazam" out.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
2,350,000
85,000
|
85,000 |
|
1,811,000
831,000
|
831,000 |
|
1,800,000
72,000
|
72,000 |
|
|
Busted |
Level 12
: Blinds 6,000/12,000, 12,000 ante
Tomas Ribeiro and Akin Tuna had created a pot of 400,000 when the K♣J♦Q♦A♦7♦ river was dealt. Ribeiro checked to Tuna, who fired a bet of 125,000.
Ribeiro spent some time in the tank before reluctantly tossing in a call. Tuna tabled 10♥8♦5♦4♥ for a flush, taking down the pot as Ribeiro nodded and tossed his cards into the muck.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
1,085,000
315,000
|
315,000 |
|
|
||
|
1,010,000
288,000
|
288,000 |
Level 12
: Blinds 6,000/12,000, 12,000 ante
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
|
200,000
200,000
|
200,000 |
|
200,000
200,000
|
200,000 |
|
||
|
200,000
200,000
|
200,000 |
|
Busted | |
Level 12
: Blinds 6,000/12,000, 12,000 ante
In a pot worth 104,000, "Lion King" checked from the big blind to Leonid Yanovski in the cutoff. He then put in a bet of 80,000 on the 10♣6♠K♣ flop, after which Eran Carmi jammed all in on the button for 368,000.
"Lion King" spent some time in the tank before rejamming for 771,000. Yanovski asked for counts of both stacks before deciding to call and create a huge three-way pot.
Eran Carmi: A♣10♠10♥8♠
"Lion King": 6♥6♣5♣3♣
Leonid Yanovski: Q♣J♣10♦9♦
Carmi was ahead with top set, and when Yanovski bricked his wrap on the 7♦K♥ runout, he was awarded the main pot. "Lion King" also made a full house with and raked in the side pot, leaving Yanovski's big stack halved.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
1,208,000
733,000
|
733,000 |
|
840,000
706,000
|
706,000 |
|
|
803,000
35,000
|
35,000 |
