Lou Garza Wins 2023 WSOP Event #50: $10,000 PLO Championship

Lou Garza topped Saturday's final table in Event #50: $10,000 PLO Championship at the 2023 World Series of Poker to win his first WSOP gold bracelet and $1,309,232. Graza was the last man standing from the record-setting field of 731 entries.

“It’s a dream come true 100 percent,” Garza said.

Coming into the final day, Garza was last in chips with five players remaining. He fought his way back to the top of the leaderboard and eventually found himself heads up with Arthur Morris. When it was all said and done, Garza came out the victor.

“He’s good, he’s tough,” Garza said of Morris. “Everyone at this point is going to be tough and know what they’re doing.”

Following the in, Garza dropped to one knee in front of his girlfriend, held her hand, and proposed. In what might've been an even bigger win than the money and the gold bracelet he just won, Garza was hit with the word he wanted to hear - "Yes!"

“I knew that she was the one and I was waiting for the right time whenever it came up,” Garza said. “Don’t think any other time would be right besides now because I don’t think I would even be right here without her.”

2023 WSOP Event #50 Final Table Results

Late on Day 3 with seven players remaining, Lou Garza was comfortably second in chips when he attempted to bluff Travis Pearson in an enormous pot. Pearson was sitting there with a full house, made the call, and scored a big double up that knocked Garza down the leaderboard. After that, Peng Shan doubled through Garza to make Garza the shortest stack. Although Garza was able to get some chips back when he busted Kosei Ichinose in seventh place, he slipped back to the bottom of the leaderboard and was the shortest stack heading into Day 4 after Sam Soverel busted in sixth place.

Garza picked up a couple of doubles against Stanislav Halatenko that moved him into second place. He closed the gap even further when he knocked out Travis Pearson in fourth place. From there, Garza, Halatenko, and Arthur Morris took turns landing blows to one another, and all three spent time as the chip leader. Eventually, Morris landed a big double through Halatenko that left Halatenko short. Garza then busted Morris to get things down to heads-up play.

Morris had a small lead to start heads-up play, but Garza struck first and moved to the front. Garza started to extend from there, but Morris pulled a big bluff to get some chips back. Garza got right back to work and opened up his lead once again before eventually sealing the deal.

On a queen-four-two flop with two spades, Garza and Morris got the money in. Garza had ace-four-three-three with two spades and Morris had ace-queen-nine-nine. The turn was an eight and the river was a four. With the four on the river, Garza made trip fours to win it all.

Garza Moves To Fifth On PGT Leaderboard

With the victory, Lou Garza vaulted into fifth place on the PGT leaderboard where he now sits with 1,200 points. Chris Brewer cashed in an ARIA High Roller event, taking third place, and that gave him enough points to overtake Isaac Haxton for the top spot on the leaderboard.

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