Matthew Wantman Comes Back From Three Big Blinds to Capture Event #3 Title

At one point during heads-up play, Matthew Wantman dropped to less than three big blinds, but after surviving with a pair of chops after being dominated pre-flopped, battled all the way back to defeat Jonas Kronwitter to capture the title and the $178,250 first place prize in Event #3: $5,100 Pot-Limit Omaha of the 2024 PGT PLO Series II, presented by PLO Mastermind.

The win marks Wantman's second PGT trophy of the season after taking home a title during the U.S. Poker Open in April. Wantman now has ten total cashes on the 2024 season and moves into 64th place on the overall leaderboard and still has work to do if he wants to make his way into the top 40 by season's end. 

Heads-up play began with Wantman facing a three-to-one chip disadvantage. However, with the blinds in nosebleed territory, he briefly took the chip lead before a pair of rivered flushes sent nearly ninety percent of the chips in play Kronwitter's way. 

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With the blinds at 250,000/500,000, Wantman sat with just 1,400,000 and had to survive a pair of all-ins when he was dominated before getting his first double when his pocket jacks faded Kronwitter's flush and straight draws. 

Wantman doubled again to just over six million chips when his top pair of kings held the next hand against Kronwitter's bottom pair of nines. 

Moments later, Wantman again found himself all in on the turn with top pair and an open ender, which was well ahead of Kronwitter's gutshot straight draw. The board paired on the river, Wantman held, and a once three-to-one chip disadvantage turned into a two-to-one lead.

The tournament was over a few hands later when Wantman flopped top pair with an ace and needed to fade the double gut shot straight draw of Kronwitter. 

The turn and river bricked, and after being within inches from his first PGT title, Kronwitter was out the door in second place for $112,375, having to settle for the fifth five-figure cash of his career.

Thanks to a pair of eliminations, Kronwitter took the massive chip lead into heads-up play. First, he eliminated Zachary Schwartz in third place for $77,500 when he flopped the nut flush. Kronwitter also eliminated Joe Serock in fourth place when his flopped set of jacks sent the 2024 WSOP Final Tableist's pocket queens to the rail in fourth place for $58,125. 

Wantman, who started the day as the chip leader, also got into the elimination business early when he scored a pair of eliminations, starting by flopping the king-high flush against Eran Carmi to send the Israeli Pro home in sixth place for $38,750. Wantman would then go runner-runner full house to send Michael Duek's flopped set down in flames and to the payout desk in fifth place for $46,500.

Duek, who started the day as the short stack, was able to find a pair of ladders after watching Eelis Parssinen send the majority of his stack to Kronwitter on the day's first hand before he finished off the Finnish Pro in seventh place for $31,000. 

Event #3: $5,100 Pot-Limit Omaha Final Table Payouts 

Wantman Takes Over Top Spot on PGT PLO Series II Leaderboard

With his second cash of the series, Wantman moves into first place on the overall series leaderboard, 20 points ahead of Event #1 winner Lautaro Guerra. Event #2 winner Dylan Weisman also picked up his second cash of the series with a 20th-place finish but dropped to third place with 162 total points. 

The final $5,100 but-in of the series attracted 155 entrants matching the Event #1 prize pool of $775,000, with 23 finishers making the money. Maksim Pisarenko was the unfortunate bubble in Event #3 when his short stack could not overcome the flopped two pair of Duek. 

Josh Arieh (22nd), Sean Winter (13th), and Zachary Schwartz (3rd) also picked up their second cashes of the series to sit in the top ten with five events to play. Duek (5th), Daniel Negreanu (17th), Parssinen (7th), Dylan Linde (14th), Samuel Sternfield (12th), David Coleman (21st), and Bryce Jockey (19th) also picked up their second cash but currently sit outside the top ten. 

PGT PLO Series II continues with Event #4: $10,100 Pot-Limit Omaha. The action is already underway, and you can catch all the action here before tuning into the final table on October 18th at 1:00 p.m. PST from inside the Triangle Studio. 

PGT PLO Series II Leaderboard 

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