Ninth Times a Charm for Lawrence Chang; Wins Inaugural Texas PLO Roundup Main Event For $300,000

Lawrence Chang defeated Andrew Ige heads-up to win the Texas PLO Roundup $3,300 Main Event at Champions Club in Houston, Texas, for $300,000 in prize money and 300 PGT points.

This is Chang's first PGT title of the season and his biggest career score, more than doubling his total live tournament earnings to over $488,000, according to The Hendon Mob, and although it took some players 18 and 22 entries, Chang was in for nine but parlayed that into the top prize. 

The 474-entrant field generated a prize pool worth $1,422,000, smashing the $1,000,000 guarantee and creating the largest prize pool for a Pot-Limit Omaha tournament in Texas history. The 55 players who advanced to Day 2 all were in the money with a min-cash worth $5,500 and a final table appearance worth at least $43,000. Players looking to take home the belt buckle trophy and the six-figure first-place prize included PGT regulars Philip Shing, Matthew Wantman, Jim Collopy, Alex Livingston, Josh Arieh, Isaac Kempton, Michael Wang, Adam Hendrix, Martin Zamani, Ronald Keijzer, Ky Nguyen, Ren Lin, Sean Troha, Anthony Hu, and Arthur Morris.

LaDarren Banks entered the final table six of seven in chips and had a good shot at doubling up early on by getting it in good with a flush draw against Sterling Savill’s overcards and inside straight draw, but Savill was able to spike his straight out on the turn and hold to leave Banks as the table short stack. Banks would be eliminated a couple of hands later when he committed most of his stack preflop and Ige three-bet enough to put him all-in. Banks called it off with queen-ten-nine-seven against Ige’s king-queen-jack-five. Banks was able to flop a nine, but couldn’t fade a jack on the river to head out the door in seventh place. 

Sean Rafael was perhaps the most dangerous player at the final table, as he brought with him quite a bit of high-stakes PLO experience. He started the day in the middle of the pack and would remain there early on, but was able to climb to second position after making a flush against Ige. Unfortunately, that’s where Rafael would peak, as a short while later his attempted bluff against Senovio Ramirez’s top set dropped him back to third, and then Savill doubled through him right after to move him near the bottom of the counts. Ramirez would eliminate Rafael a short while later when the two players collided in a three-bet pot that saw Rafael with an overpair and flush draw against the pair and open-ended straight draw of Ramirez. Ramirez would find his outs and end Rafael’s day in sixth. 

Kyle Arora also started the day as a middling stack but was able to take over the chip lead early on by winning a big pot against Chang with two pair. However, that position was short-lived as a few hands later Arora was on the losing end of a full house over full house hand against Ige, making Ige the new chip leader. Arora would bleed more chips after potting from the small blind over two limps and then having to check-fold the flop, and things came to a head when Ige raised to 400,000 ace-jack-eight-three and Arora moved all-in for 600,000 with eight-six-six-four. The board ran out in favor of Ige and Arora was out the door in fifth place.

Sterling Savill would hang near the bottom of the chip counts most of the day and peaked at just over 3,000,00 after doubling through Rafael. He would remain near the three million chip mark until a hand came up that saw him re-pot an early position raise from Ige in the big blind, and then call off his remaining stack with ace-king-queen-jack of diamonds when Ige moved all-in with ace-seven-five-four double suited. Savill would flop top two pair, but Ige's bottom pair turned into trips on the turn and then a flush on the river to eliminate Savill. This finish essentially ties Savill's biggest career cash. 

Ramirez collected the tournament's first six-figure payout by finishing third when his ace-ace-ten-nine was cracked by Ige's queen-jack-ten-eight double suited in a four-bet pot. Ramirez started the day third in chips and never really floundered from there, at one point even taking over the chip lead. He was able to sit back and watch Ige eliminate Arora and Savill to ladder up, but that caused him to fall back to third in chips behind Chang, to which he was unable to recover. Ramirez took home $120,000 for the effort, his third biggest cash. 

Ige started heads-up with nearly a two-to-one chip lead over Chang, and the two would volley the lead back and forth in what proved to be a very swingy match. Chang held a slight lead over Ige when the following hand came up: Chang raised to 1,000,000 on the button and Ige called in the big blind. The ten-nine-three flop checked through and Ige bet 1,600,000 on the turn seven. Chang raised the pot and Ige moved all in with ace-jack-nine-eight, getting called by Chang's eight-six-five-four. Both players had a flush draw, but it was Chang's that would come in on the river to eliminate Ige as runner-up. 

At the season's end, the top 40 eligible players on the PGT leaderboard will qualify for the PGT Championship. The 2024 PGT Championship will be a $1,000,000 freeroll with a $500,000 first-place. Along with the top 40 eligible players, limited PGT Championship "Dream Seat” winners will be awarded through special events and promotions. Information on the Dream Seat promotions can be found here.

Texas PLO Roundup $3,300 Main Event Final Table Results 

With this win, Chang moves into 157th place on the PGT leaderboard with 315 PGT points. Ige now sits at 221 with 221 points, and Ramirez moves into 350th with 120 points. Jordan Griff's cash in 27th place also secures him a seat in the upcoming PGT $1,000,000 Championship freeroll on January 10, 2025.

PGT Leaderboard Top 10 

These are the leaderboard standings as of Monday, November 10, 2025. The complete and current PGT leaderboard is at pgt.com/leaderboard.

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