PLO master
Just days after Adam Friedman made history by winning his third straight $10,000 Dealer’s Choice title at the World Series of Poker, Tommy Le accomplished a feat of his own. On Tuesday, Le won Event #45: $10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Championship for the second time. His first bracelet in the event came in 2017; he was close to a three-timer, finishing third in 2016.
The field of 344 entries generated a $3,207,800 prize pool, with Le’s share coming out to $746,477. He now has over $2.7 million in career World Series of Poker earnings.
Calling winning a bracelet “the best feeling in the world,” Le said in his post-tournament interview that “I really play because I love the game.”
Speaking about Pot-Limit Omaha specifically, he said, “No-Limit is more solved but PLO is still unknown and you kinda just play based on instincts.”
Lost a huge hand, but survived
Overall, Le had a fairly smooth final day, never once having all his chips at risk. That doesn’t mean there were absolutely no hurdles, though. He lost a huge pot three-handed when all three players put all their chips in the middle after a flop of Qc-7s-4s. Jordan Spurlin had Ac-Jc-Js-9c, Chris Sandrock had Ah-Td-7d-7c, and Le had Qd-8s-4d-3s. Though Sandrock had flopped a set, clubs came on the turn and river to give Spurlin a flush.
After the main and side pots were settled, all three players survived, but Le had lost a sizeable chunk of his stack. He was still in good shape, though, with 7.4 million chips compared to Sandrock’s 10 million and Spurlin’s 3.3 million.
He had a sense of humor and perspective on the hand, saying, “Oh here we go, it’s just more work and making it hard. It would have just been too easy had I won that hand. But I am glad it did happen, though, it gave me the chance to work, to really play. I really enjoy and love being on the felt. I love winning but I also enjoy playing.”
Respect for his opponent
Though Le defeated Spurlin heads-up for the championship, Sandrock was the opponent he wanted to talk about afterward.
“Chris got no fear,” Le explained. “He got this crazy unpredictability that makes the dynamics change quite a bit and I adapted to the game.”
He continued to explain how Sandrock’s play affected his own: “I always adapt to the table and the game. There is times when I pick a line and I go for it. Halfway through I feel something and swerve to the left and next, I am in a huge pot with like ten-high and I don’t really know how I got there but I know I am there.”
Spurlin took a slight lead into heads-up play, but Le immediately grabbed the reins and never looked back. Le said he will play in the $25,000 Pot-Limit Omaha High Roller, confident that he will be satisfied with his play: “Win or lose, I never walk away feeling I made a mistake or with regret, I always leave that on the felt.”
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