Lone Star Poker Series Champions Social

Event #11: $600 2021 Spring Series PLO Championship
Day: 1
Event Info

Lone Star Poker Series Champions Social

Event Info
Buy-in
$600
Prize Pool
$48,960
Entries
96
Players Left
3
Average Chip Stack
1,280,000
Total Chips
3,840,000

David O'Brien Wins 2021 Spring Series PLO Championship

David O'Brien
David O'Brien

After almost 11 hours of play, Event #11: 2021 Spring Series PLO Championship has come to an end after 96 players became three.

With three players remaining at the end, chip leader David O'Brien, negotiated with his two remaining adversaries to agree to a three-way even chop while he got what he truly wanted, the belt buckle and money clip commemorating his victory.

"I am not leaving here without that." said O'Brien defiantly as he discussed the deal with his opponents, Pom Jun and Lawrence Lazar who agreed to the chop, meaning each walked away with $9,874 in winnings.

O'Brien was declared the official winner of the shiny new belt buckle and money clip to make for quite the story.

"I had never played tournaments ever before until Easter I was driving by here and saw Champions Poker Club and thought I would check it out", he explained.

O'Brien has been a popular character over the last few days at the Lone Star Poker Series, regaling people about his life stories while enjoying a good game of poker. He admits that he is not well versed in tournament strategy yet but that he is learning where he made mistakes and is improving each day. He will look to enter even more events as the series goes on, including the Main Event, which he has won several raffle seats.

Final Table Results

PlacePlayerPrize Money
1David O'Brien$9,874*
2Pom Jun$9,873*
3Lawrence Lazar$9,873*
4William Mattison$4,406
5Paul Espinoza$3,550
6Loi Nguyen$2,815
7Joe Castaneda$2,203
8Jason Fitzpatrick$1,714
9Brandon Guzman$1,346

*Indicates three-way deal.

Action of the Day

The tournament attracted 96 entries and generated a prizepool of $48,960. Action was fierce all day as chips flew from stack to stack as PLO action often is.

Play would go down to the final table with some memorable hands along the way. It was at the final table where O'Brien would begin his ascent to the top of the chip counts. He won a critical three-way hand against fifth place finisher Paul Espinoza and Lazar that catapulted him into a commanding chip position when his nut flush bested the second nut flush.

From there he maintained his lead, with only Jun coming within touching distance. William Mattison was eliminated in fourth place to bring the field down to three, where the deal was then agreed upon.

PokerNews will resume coverage of the Lone Star Poker Series tomorrow at 2 p.m. local time for the Ultimate Monster NLH and Pot Limit Big O.

Tags: David O'Brien

Joe Castaneda Eliminated in 7th Place ($2,203)

Joe Castaneda
Joe Castaneda

Level 17 (10,000/15,000/15,000)

Joe Castaneda was depleted to a single chip after a previous hand where he folded rather than putting the rest in the middle. He was all in preflop.

Paul Espinoza and Loi Nguyen would play out the resulting hand, exchanging bet and calls on the turn and river as the board was fully fleshed out to read {a-Clubs}{j-Diamonds}{j-Spades}{4-Clubs}{5-Hearts}.

Espinoza and Nguyen chopped it up, after both had identical jacks full of aces full boats and Castaneda was eliminated in 7th place.

Player Chips Progress
Loi Nguyen us
Loi Nguyen
560,000 300,000
Paul Espinoza us
Paul Espinoza
540,000 135,000
Joe Castaneda us
Joe Castaneda
Busted

Tags: Loi NguyenPaul Espinoza

Brandon Guzman Eliminated in 9th Place ($1,346)

Brandon Guzman
Brandon Guzman

Level 15 (5,000/10,000/10,000)

The flop read {j-Hearts}{4-Clubs}{3-Clubs}. Lawrence Lazar made a large bet of about 275,000, Brandon Guzman raised all in and Lazar called.

Lazar held the {a-Spades}{a-Hearts}{7-Diamonds}{2-Hearts} with a chance to knock out Guzman who had the {a-Diamonds}{j-Diamonds}{10-Clubs}{5-Spades}.

The turn was the {10-Diamonds} and the river came the {4-Hearts} to pair the board and eliminate Guzman as the first final table victim.

Player Chips Progress
Lawrence Lazar us
Lawrence Lazar
1,350,000 460,000
Brandon Guzman us
Brandon Guzman
Busted

PLO Championship Final Table

Final Table
Final Table

Final Table

SeatPlayerChip Count
1Joe Castaneda105,000
2Loi Nguyen260,000
3David O'Brien290,000
4Paul Espinoza405,000
5Jason Fitzpatrick245,000
6Lawrence Lazar890,000
7Pom Cha540,000
8Brandon Guzman420,000
9William Mattison475,000
Player Chips Progress
Lawrence Lazar us
Lawrence Lazar
890,000 -60,000
Pom Jun us
Pom Jun
540,000 220,000
William Mattison us
William Mattison
475,000 415,000
Brandon Guzman us
Brandon Guzman
420,000 60,000
Paul Espinoza us
Paul Espinoza
405,000 -45,000
David O'Brien us
David O'Brien
290,000 20,000
Loi Nguyen us
Loi Nguyen
260,000 45,000
Jason Fitzpatrick us
Jason Fitzpatrick
245,000 -100,000
Joe Castaneda us
Joe Castaneda
105,000 50,000

Espinoza Rivers Boat to Sink Three Players

Paul Espinoza
Paul Espinoza

Level 8 (600/1,200/1,200)

There was a flurry of action at the table as the board was showing {8-Spades}{q-Clubs}{10-Diamonds}. Four players were all in as the dealer was counting the chips and setting aside side pots.

Paul Espinoza had the largest stack and held a set of queens with the {q-Spades}{q-Diamonds}{6-Spades}{6-Clubs}, while one of his opponents had the {a-Diamonds}{k-Clubs}{j-Clubs}{9-Spades} for the queen high straight. Another player also had a queen high straight, and the fourth all in player held the {a-Clubs}{j-Hearts}{9-Clubs}{4-Spades}.

Alan Middleton and Steve Lykins were two of the three players at risk.

The turn was the {3-Diamonds} to change little but the river came the {10-Clubs} to pair the board and give Espinoza the full boat, besting the straights and knocking out all three of his opponents in one fell swoop to grow his stack even larger

Player Chips Progress
Paul Espizona
Paul Espizona
405,000 405,000
Steve Lykins us
Steve Lykins
Busted
Alan Middleton us
Alan Middleton
Busted

Tags: Paul Espinoza