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Chino Rheem Takes Home 5th Career PGT Title
On the day the short stacks refused to die, Ky Nguyen finally emerged victorious to take down Event #1: $5,100 Pot-Limit Omaha and the $180,400 first-place prize to kick off the PGT PLO Series 2025.
Two hours into the stream, four consecutive double from short stacks left 2024 PGT Player of the Year Jeremy Ausmus on the short stack, and he got the last of his money into the middle with a pair and a flush draw against the middle set of James Chen.
Ausmus turned trips of his own, but Chen turned a full house, and when the river failed to come up quads, Ausmus was the first casualty of the stream in sixth place for $41,000.
Three more doubles would come through following Ausmus’ elimination as Ky “SuitedSuperman” Nguyen would build a sizable chip lead, solidifying himself at the top of the counts when he sent Bryce Yockey to the rail in fifth place for $49,200.
However, in a day that proved no lead was safe, Nguyen would hand Matthew McEwan a double to move them virtually even in the counts before James Chen and John Riordan would swap stacks with another double at the final table.
With the blinds at 150,000/300,000, no one had more than thirty big blinds on the table, leaving the door open for anyone to walk away with the trophy as the four-handed play continued to heat up.
Nguyen would jump back out in front when he rivered the wheel, sending Riordan and his turned two pair home in fourth place for $61,500, leaving the players three-handed, with Nguyen holding over fifty percent of the chips in play.
With the blinds jumping to 200,000/400,000, things escalated quickly. Chen went all in from the button for 900,000, and Nguyen three-bet to just over three million from the small blind. McEwan moved all in for just north of six million from the big blind, and when Nguyen called, over fourteen million chips of the just over twenty million chips in play were in the middle.
McEwan had the best of it with pocket kings, but when the flop fell ten-nine-eight rainbow, Nguyen flopped the nut straight with queen-jack, leaving both his opponents drawing nearly dead. The turn fell an ace, and Nguyen sent Chen home in third place for $82,000 and McEwan home in second place for $118,900 in the blink of an eye.
Event #1: $5,100 Pot-Limit Omaha Final Table Payouts
| Place | Name | Country | PGT Points | Prize Pool |
| 1st | Ky Nguyen | United States | 180 | $180,400 |
| 2nd | Matthew McEwan | United States | 119 | $118,900 |
| 3rd | James Chen (US) | United States | 82 | $82,000 |
| 4th | John Riordan | United States | 62 | $61,500 |
| 5th | Bryce Yockey | United States | 49 | $49,200 |
| 6th | Jeremy Ausmus | United States | 41 | $41,000 |
Event #1 Nearly Sets Another Record
Event #1 of the PGT PLO Series 2025 drew 164 entrants into the PokerGO Studio, making it the fourth largest $5,100 buy-in Pot-Limit Omaha event in PGT history. This continues the year of record-breaking field sizes inside the Studio, but was still 46 entrants shy of Event #1: $5k PLO during the PGT PLO Series 2023, which saw 200 entries into the field.
Still the 164 entrants created a prize pool of $820,000 with the top 25 players finding a cash and kicking off their quest for the player of the series.
Predictably, all final table participants are at the top of the leaderboard, with Thai Ho (7th), Steve Zolotwo (8th), Adam Hendrix (9th), and Artem Maksimov (10th) rounding out the top ten through the first event.
Defending PGT PLO Player of the Series Matthew Wantman finished in 20th place picking up eight points as his quest to go back-to-back got on the board with a cash, while PGT regulars Ronald Keijzer (13th), Sean Winter (16th), Arthur Morris (17th), Daniel Negreanu (18th), and Samuel Sternfield (19th) all added to their season total with a cash in Event #1.
While a plethora of new commers picked up a cash inside the Studio for the first time this season as Jason Suh (11th), Brian Breck (12th), Kamel Mokhammad (14th), Jeffrey Lehouiller (15th), Austin Apicella (21st), Stephanie Chung (22nd), Richard Gryko (23rd), Stefan Christopher (24th) and Luis Velador (25th) round out the payouts from Event #1.
PGT PLO Series 2024 Leaderboard
| Rank | Player | Points | Wins | Top 3 | FT | Cashes | Winnings |
| 1 | Ky Nguyen | 180 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | $180,400 |
| 2 | Matthew McEwan | 119 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | $118,900 |
| 3 | James Chen (US) | 82 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | $82,000 |
| 4 | John Riordan | 62 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | $61,500 |
| 5 | Bryce Yockey | 49 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | $49,200 |
| 6 | Jeremy Ausmus | 41 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | $41,000 |
| 7 | Thai Ho | 33 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | $32,800 |
| 8 | Steve Zolotow | 33 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | $32,800 |
| 9 | Adam Hendrix | 25 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | $24,600 |
| 10 | Artem Maksimov | 25 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | $24,600 |
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