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Pot-Limit Omaha specialist Ka Kwan Lau is $2,294,756 richer after winner Event #57: $25,000 Pot-Limit Omaha High Roller at the 2023 World Series of Poker. The victory came over a huge 449-entry field and gave Lau his first career WSOP gold bracelet.
Lau defeated Sergio Martinez Gonzalez in heads-up play, sealing the deal this time after he has come close to winning this event on two prior occasions. In 2021, Lau placed second to Shaun Deeb in this event for a $773,708 score. In 2019, he took ninth for $150,438. This win at the 2023 WSOP gave Lau his largest-ever career live tournament score, according to TheHendonMob.com, and just about doubled his career live tournaments winnings.
Place | Player | Country | Prize |
1st | Ka Kwan Lau | Hong Kong | $2,294,756 |
2nd | Sergio Martinez Gonzalez | Spain | $1,418,270 |
3rd | Andjelko Andrejevic | United States | $989,464 |
4th | Roger Teska | United States | $701,522 |
5th | Mads Amot | Norway | $505,588 |
6th | Quan Zhou | China | $370,498 |
7th | Firas Sadou | United States | $276,141 |
8th | Jeremy Ausmus | United States | $209,392 |
Ka Kwan Lau entered the final day of play in the driver’s seat with five players remaining. He had more than 40% of the chips in play at the time and was able to ride that stack to the winner’s circle.
Lau eliminated Mads Amot to start the bust outs, with Amot taking fifth place for $505,588. Lau then watched as Sergio Martinez Gonzalez knocked out Roger Teska in fourth place. Teska earned $701,522 for his finish.
Lau maintained the chip lead for much of three-handed play, but then Gonzalez knocked out Andjelko Andrejevic to move into an ever-so-slight lead entering heads-up play. Andrejevic was left to settle with a $989,464 third-place score before Gonzalez took a chip lead of less than one million in chips up against Lau.
Gonzalez began to stretch the lead straight away, eventually climbing up over 50,000,000 in chips, which left Lau with fewer than 14,000,000 in chips. Lau would be able to find a double up back into the lead, but when he did double he was only ahead by about one big blind. After doubling up, Lau opened up a lead of his own. He won a big pot with a set of tens and then won another big pot shortly thereafter in a flush-over-flush situation. Those hands helped push Lau’s stack over 50,000,000 in chips.
After Lau built his stack to more than 50,000,000 in chips, the two found two premium holdings and got the money in. Gonzalez had ace-ace-seven-four and Lau had the ace-king-queen-ten double-suited. The ten-nine-five-nine-jack board gave Lau a winning king-high straight to crack Gonzalez's aces and give Lau his first WSOP gold bracelet.
Rank | Player | Country | Winnings | Points |
1 | Isaac Haxton | United States | $2,923,553 | 1,512 |
2 | Chris Brewer | United States | $6,149,588 | 1,454 |
3 | Cary Katz | United States | $2,864,154 | 1,380 |
4 | Sam Soverel | United States | $1,512,635 | 1,324 |
5 | Jeremy Ausmus | United States | $1,984,597 | 1,278 |
6 | Lou Garza | United States | $1,309,232 | 1,200 |
7 | Chance Kornuth | United States | $2,949,220 | 1,198 |
8 | Sean Winter | United States | $1,538,021 | 1,151 |
9 | Ren Lin | China | $1,631,468 | 1,084 |
10 | Ben Lamb | United States | $1,126,104 | 1,078 |
With an 11th-place finish in Event #57: $25,000 PLO High Roller at the 2023 WSOP, Isaac Haxton reclaimed the top spot on the PGT leaderboard. That knocked Chris Brewer back into second place.
For the win, Ka Kwan Lau picked up 800 points and moved into 13th place on the leaderboard. Although still outside the top 10, Lau is now well within the top 40 of the leaderboard. At the end of the 2023 PGT season, the top 40 players as ranked by the PGT leaderboard will earn eligibility to compete in the season-ending PGT Championship $1,000,000 freeroll.
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