Bryce Yockey Wins First PGT Title in Event #5: $10,100 Pot-Limit Omaha

Bryce Yockey started the day with a slight chip lead and, despite suffering some bumps and bruises along the way, defeated Kyle Merron heads-up to capture the title and $239,400 first-place prize in Event #5: $10,100 Pot-Limit Omaha. 

Merron and Yockey came into the day separated by just 65,000 in chips and would stay neck and neck throughout the final table, but Merron would draw first blood when he eliminated Alex Foxen in seventh place. 

Merron would turn a queen-high straight against Foxen's pocket kings as the Chip Leader Coaching pro headed to the payout desk to collect his $57,000 prize. 

Yockey would take his first bump a few hands later when he doubled the short stack at the time, John Riordan. Both players flopped top pair, and after neither could improve further on the turn or river, Riordan had Yockey outkicked for the double. 

Ben Yu would be left on the short stack after the Riordan double and would eventually get his remaining chips into the middle with ace-king-seven-three double suited against Jeremy Ausmus ace-jack-nine-nine with nut hearts. Neither player improved as the board ran out queen-high, and Ausmus' nines sent Yu to the rail in sixth place for $68,400. 

Yokey would then score his first elimination of the final table when his flopped pair of fives bested the flopped king-high flush draw of Artem Maksimov. Maksimov had a plethora of outs to improve and stay alive, but when the turn and river bricked, he headed to the payout desk in fifth place for $79,800. 

After scoring the early double, Riordan's road finally ended when his pocket tens fell to Merron's pocket kings. Riordan flopped a wheel draw, but when Merron turned, a set of kings he was left drawing slim. The river bricked, and Riordan's day was done in fourth place for $102,600. 

Three-handed play was a back-and-forth battle as Ausmus, Yockey, and Merron all traded the chip lead at one point or another, but it would be Ausmus who was the first tumble when his pocket aces were cracked by Merron's turned straight. 

Ausmus was left with just over ten big blinds after the hand and, after scoring a double through Yockey, seemed poised to make another run, but his luck would run dry as he fell in third place for $125,400 when Yockey's queen-high flush bested his eight-high flush. 

Heads-up was all Yockey as the mixed games specialist put on a clinic as the match was over in roughly 25 minutes. 

The tournament's final hand started as a limped pot, but after Merron flopped a set and Yockey turned broadway, all the money made its way into the middle as Merron needed a board pair to stay alive. 

The river bricked, and Merron had to settle for second place to the tune of $171,000 as Yockey called his friends into the room for the winners' photo. 

Event #5: $10,100 Pot-Limit Omaha Final Table Payouts 

How the Rest of the Tournament Played Out

Event #5: $10,100 Pot-Limit Omaha of the PGT PLO Series II continued the trend of high turnout as 114 entrants created a prize pool of $1,140,000, with the top 17 finishing in the money. 

2020 Poker Master's online Event #12 $10,3000 Pot-Limit Omaha 6-Max Champion Laszlo Bujtas was the unfortunate bubble boy in Event #5 when his flopped broadway draw went unimproved against Richard Teska's flopped two pair as Hungarian just missed out on his first cash of the series. 

Joseph Cheong (12th), LaDarren Banks (10th), and Lou Garza (8th) all picked up their first cashes of the series, while Benjamin Juhasz (17th), Joao Simao (15th), Joni Jouhkimainen (14th), and Dustin Goldklang (13th) all picked up their second cash of the series. 

Maxx Coleman (10th) and Teska (9th) both picked up their third cashes of the series, and Ronald Keijzer (16th) picked up his fourth cash to sit at an even 100 PGT points and sits in 17th place on the overall leaderboard,162 points behind Stephen Hubbard who remains in the lead after his win in Event #3. 

Yockey vaults to second place on the overall leaderboard thanks to the win and his 19th-place finish in Event #2 but trails Hubbard by 12 points. The only other addition to the top ten on the leaderboard is second-place finisher Merron, who moves into 9th as the race for the $25,000 in added prize money hits the series' halfway point. 

PGT PLO Series II continues with Event #6: $10,100 Pot-Limit Omaha Dealer's choice on October 24th before taking a two-day hiatus as the StormX Invitational takes center stage inside the PokerGo studio October 25th and 26th. 

Following the break in the action, four more events remain on the schedule, with the series picking up on October 27th for Event #7: $10,100 Pot-Limit Omaha, followed by Event #8: $10,100 Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-Lo on the 28th, $25,200 Pot-Limit Omaha Championship on the 29th and concludes with Event #10: $2,100 5-Card Pot-Limit Omaha on the 30th.

PGT PLO Series II Leaderboard Top Ten

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